London: Mayor & More

Circular Cocktails

Nice idea, but past my bedtime I'm afraid.

At Guardian Politics: On Mayoral Flexibility

Went live yesterday. Still fresh today.

Perhaps it was all a misunderstanding. But political enemies of Boris Johnson will surely claim it as a victory. Last Sunday - with Bank Holiday timing that some thought deeply cynical - the new London mayor terminated Ken Livingstone's famous oil deal with Hugo Chavez. The arrangement was that London buses and trams ran on Venezuelan fuel in return for advice on running public transport.

More On Sir Keith Park

Well, well. I didn't know he'd signed an EDM.

Boris, Press Intrusion & That Holiday

The Blond has complained to the PCC about The London Paper publishing photos taken of his children while during their break in Turkey. I sympathise. And, by the way, I agree with MayorWatch about the holiday.

Concessionary Fares For Income Support Claimants After All?

Following last Sunday's announcement of the end of the Chavez oil deal I asked the mayor's office to confirm that no new system of discounts for income support claimants would be brought in to replace the old one, as seemed to be the case. I was provided with the following statement:

"The Mayor is absolutely committed to ensuring the capital’s transport network is accessible for every Londoner, as well as making it safer and more convenient. And Transport for London will honour the current discount scheme for Londoners on income support for its full duration.

However the Mayor feels deeply uncomfortable about buses in London being funded by the citizens of another country, especially one where many people live in extreme poverty. His first priority is the citizens of London and making sure transport is affordable for everyone. But he has asked officials from Transport for London to consider whether there may be alternative ways of providing this support." [my emphasis]

Oversight or climbdown? Discuss.

Fourth Plinth: Culture Conservatives Not Amused

Following this...this.

Tim Parker Meets GLA Staff

Tim Parker - righteous cost-cutter or ruthless job pillager, depending on your point of view - addressed the GLA's employees yesterday in what was dubbed a "reassurance exercise". It didn't have this effect on one of those present, who tells me that after insisting that everyone should call him "Tim", the mayor's newly-appointed First Deputy pretty much prepared the ground for future sackings. Addressing an audience of public service personnel, he explained that he'd ended his short period working in the civil service because he “couldn’t face 20 years in the same job,” expressed pride in the profits generated by outsourcing when he'd been running the shoemaker Clarks, and said his impact on employee numbers was unlikely to be to increase them. He declined to give reassurances about job security and promised "clarity" about his plans before autumn - a round about way, perhaps, of encouraging people to jump before they're pushed.

Sir Keith Park

From the Standard's Chief Arts Correspondent:

"Boris Johnson has made a U-turn over his support for a statue to military hero Sir Keith Park on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth. Despite backing the campaign to honour the Second World War hero during his election campaign, the new mayor has now said he has to withdraw his support for the scheme."

Read on to discover that "complex planning issues" and "outstanding commitments" to the Fourth Plinth are the reasons given, and that Johnson would like to find a different location for a statue of Sir Keith. In this, he now echoes Ken Livingstone's policy on the issue. And in a leader - which I can't find online - the Standard yesterday applauded Johnson's volte face. What a difference a change of mayor can make to the principles of a "quality" newspaper.

Boris Johnson's Transition Team

The Tory Troll reports:

"Boris Johnson promised a new era of tax-payer value and accountability, but now he is in power, he is refusing to say how much his 'transition team' of consultants and advisors will be paid. Writing in response to a question by Darren Johnson, the new Mayor of London said that while details of his deputies' salaries had been released, 'it is not intended that the fees for these (other) individuals will be made public.'"

Now read on.

Exposed: Boris's Key Adviser's Links With Secret Extreme Group!

I'm out of town at the moment, visiting my mum, hence the recent paucity of posts. My time in the tiny internet shop I presently share with three Warcraft junkies and their loud crunchy sweets is mercifully short. But I've had a quick read of this Evening Standard piece pointing out the misalignment between Mayor Johnson's Tube booze ban and those of the Manifesto Club, which his culture director Munira Mirza was a found member of. Imagine if she had been Ken Livingstone's adviser. Far from being a mere news story this information would have been seized on by a member of the Standard's Get-Ken squad - especially the "lefties" among them - and inflated into a massive, oversold expose of a "key associate" having "links" with a "front organisation" for a "secretive libertarian cult" with roots in the far-Left Revolutionary Communist Party which supported Serb extremists during the Balkan wars and whose, erm, "shadowy leaders" have a 40 year history of assuming false identities and engaging in subversive political activities in an attempt to undermine the British state. In fact, it would all be true, but not really terribly important - which is, ironically, what the Manifesto Club clique is so terrifically anxious to be.