According to last month’s opinion polls, Londoners look set to elect either Ken Livingstone or Boris Johnson in May. In both polls, Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick trailed a distant third. When I suggested that his predicted 7% share of the Mayoral vote may not be a disaster for the party’s Assembly candidates, Paddick posted […]
London heads towards more responsive Stop & Search
After last week’s look at London’s gang culture, the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee spent Thursday afternoon questioning Deputy Mayor for Policing Kit Malthouse and Met Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe. I’m in favour of the concept of elected Police and Crime Commissioners and welcome any move to give the Mayor more control London’s essential […]
TfL plans to ‘reduce perception’ of fare dodging on Boris’s new bus
Boris Johnson’s most credible claim for axing the bendy bus was the high level of fare evasion made possible by their rear door entry policy. Oyster users could evade paying by not swiping their card and, unless a revenue protection officer boarded, no-one was any the wiser. Get caught and you got a fine (though […]
November 9th – keep your diaries free
“If I do not cut the fares on or by October 7th I will resign the office of Mayor immediately and cause a by-election.” So promised Ken Livingstone earlier this week. Would he really? My hunch is we’ll never know. Despite Ken’s current lead in the polls most days I still expect Boris to win […]
Boris’s three year war on waste nets Londoners just £3 per household
After three years of freezing his share of the Council Tax, Boris has finally heeded the calls of Tory and LibDem AMs and announced a cut. All very welcome – City Hall needs money to operate but does it really need as much as it currently spends? When that spending includes wasteful duplication of services […]
