How Boris should start his quality legacy

As he delivered a major speech on tackling London’s housing crisis, Boris Johnson yesterday promised to create a legacy of high quality affordable homes. He could score an early success by upholding the principles of mixed housing developments.

Can I suggest a new TfL design competition?

With the ‘design a new bus for London’ competition now closed it seems timely to suggest a competition to redesign another part of TfL’s kit - the temporary bus stop. When their usual stop is closed why should passengers be further inconvenienced with a bus service straight out of the 1950’s?

Dare I say it, I (mostly) agree with Andrew Gilligan

It’s not fashionable on the world of London blogging to agree with Andrew Gilligan but today’s column has a lot which supporters of democratic accountability should agree with.

The needless spin of Boris Johnson’s City Hall

City Hall claims the Mayor has “fulfilled a manifesto pledge to make London Government accountable and transparent by hosting his first People’s Question Time”. In fact the meeting has nothing to do with Boris’s election promises and would have been held whoever was Mayor.

London should appoint its top cop

Yesterday’s elbowing of Sir Ian Blair out of Scotland Yard was the first sign that Mayor Boris Johnson understands the implied power of his mandate. It’s been a long time coming and it’s very welcome.

Are you taking part in the world’s biggest coffee morning?

Macmillan Cancer Support have released a fun little ‘trailer’ for Friday’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning which the charity hope will help raise £8m to support people affected by cancer.

Royal Mail, Post Offices and attitudes to the public

Not for the first time I’m pretty cross with my local Royal Mail delivery office, expecting a parcel I made sure I would be in for the postman but when today’s delivery finally came I found the postman had brought a ‘you were out card’ instead of my package.

As I live in a flat I waited for the postman to come back down from the floor above and asked for my parcel. Of course, as many of you will have guessed, he didn’t have it.

Have a great Thames Festival

Sadly a prior booking is taking me out of London for most of the weekend so I’ll be missing the Mayor’s Thames Festival which takes place on Saturday and Sunday. If you’re nor familiar with the festival, this annual event is a glorious celebration of our river without which the city probably wouldn’t exist.