Month: Jan 2008

PM contradicts the Mayor

Yesterday the Mayor was making a song and dance about police numbers in his budget speech, and the Prime Minister immediately contradicted him.

The Mayor claims 10,000 extra officers in London under his tenure. He is of course counting PCSOs as the equivalent of PCs whereas as even our dissimulating PM will not go that far. The Mayor also does a bit of erroneous rounding.

Yesterday dismal Andrew Dismore, Labour MP for Hendon asked this patsy question of the PM at Prime Minister’s Questions:

Will my right hon. Friend personally congratulate Chief Superintendent Steve Kavanagh, his officers and police community support officers, and especially the safer neighbourhoods teams on their achievement in cutting crime in Barnet by 8.6 per cent. so far this year, on top of 16 per cent. last year, with 24.6 per cent. in total? That is one of the best records in the Met. With 5,600 extra officers and 3,700 PCSOs in London provided by the Mayor, what does my right hon. Friend think the result will be of the cuts in the budget proposed by the Tory candidate for London Mayor?

Note that Andrew Dismore shows his ignorance of basic maths – you multiply percentage in this case not add them.

The PM answered as follows:

In the London area alone, there are 6,000 more police than there were in 1997. As my hon. Friend rightly said, in graphic detail, crime is down in his constituency. The choice in London will be between an administration that wants to employ more police and wants to get crime down, and what the hon. Member for Henley (Mr. Johnson) has said, which is that he wishes to cut spending on the Metropolitan police. That would be disastrous for the police, disastrous for London and bad for the whole country.

This response caused Boris Johnson to lose his rag – quite right too. Read about it here.

So, the PM says 6,000, Dismore says 9,300 and the Mayor says 10,000. The rounding issue is important, if Dismore’s numbers are right, because the Mayor is talking about adding 1,000 officers next year. If he does we will then have 10,300 officer next year but the Mayor is already claiming 10,000 when in reality we have 9,000 extra – if you round like a normal person. It seems that the Mayor’s maths is as bad as Dismore’s.

Ex-Mayor Livingstone

Livingstone doing his job, hooray!

Post author By Phil
Post date 29th Jan 2008
2 Comments on Livingstone doing his job, hooray!

At last the Mayor is doing something that he is paid to do. Demanding more civility on public transport.

We have not seen much on this topic from Livingstone in the past eight years so it is interesting to see the Mayor respond to Boris Johnson’s call for greater civility – he raised this issue at his campaign launch on September 3rd, see previous posting.

Too often politicians are wary of taking on board this kind of issue. They worry that the people they chastise will not vote for them. Maybe the Mayor has calculated that on average the people who mess the place up will either not be registered to vote or will not bother to vote anyway whilst the rest of us far outnumber the idiots. If so he is right.

See the Mayor’s little movie here. The movie does not show teenagers bad mouthing drivers when they challenge them to show their free passes so it is a little fanciful.

Ealing and Northfield Ex-Mayor Livingstone

Ealing Labour group taking Mayoral election for granted

Post author By Phil
Post date 28th Jan 2008
1 Comment on Ealing Labour group taking Mayoral election for granted

It seems that Ealing Labour group are using their precious opportunities to discuss local issues to support the Mayor. Their choice for opposition business at the next council meeting on Tuesday 5th is the Freedom Pass. The papers just plopped down on my mat.

The Labour motion is:

This Council welcomes the Mayor of London’s decision to extend the benefits available to Londoners from the Freedom Pass concessionary fares scheme. This extension will enable many Ealing residents to have greater access and mobility and enhances their quality of life significantly. This Council commends the Mayor of London for his actions that are vital for some of our most vulnerable members of society.

On the other hand if you go to the Mayor’s own re-election website you will see that the offer to increase the hours of the Freedom Pass is manifesto commitment – you have to elect him first, see here:

Ken Livingstone today announced his first manifesto pledge for May’s Mayoral election. If re-elected the Freedom Pass will be valid 24 hours a day on London’s buses, tube, rail network and trams. At present the Freedom Pass only starts at 9am. Londoners entitled to a Freedom Pass therefore cannot use it early in the morning, even for vital trips.

Ooops.

Policing

4th teen murder in Dean Gardens

Post author By Phil
Post date 26th Jan 2008
8 Comments on 4th teen murder in Dean Gardens

Rather horribly it looks like London’s 4th teen murder of the year happened in Dean Gardens, West Ealing, early this morning. Four in the space of a month is frightening indeed, all the more so as this latest incident is so close to home. See BBC coverage here.

The BBC says:

A teenager has died in hospital after an attack with a “blunt instrument” in a west London park.

Police found the young man, who is believed to be 19, after they were called to Dean Gardens, West Ealing, in the early hours of the morning.

He was taken to hospital but died 40 minutes later from head injuries. A murder inquiry has been launched.

Ex-Mayor Livingstone

Mayor in Davos

After his “worst week” the Mayor flew off to Davos in Switzerland to hob-nob on the public purse with world leaders. Strangely this fact is not mentioned on the Mayor’s home page. He does not like to highlight his international travel because it does rather undermine his green stance.

The list of public figures published by the World Economic Forum includes his name along with only three other world mayors. I wonder what business Livingstone might be doing with the mayors of Milan, Tehran and Dalian (China). I guess Michael Bloomberg is actually running his city. Still you have got to admire the guy’s chutzpah going off on a massive beano when he is fighting for his political life.

Still at least in Davos the Mayor doesn’t have to read his bad notices back home in the Times, Telegraph and Standard.

Ealing and Northfield

Sharma the lazy

Ealing Southall MP, Virendra Sharma, doesn’t seem to have been putting himself out that much on our behalf since he was elected last July. He has so far managed to have at least FOUR holidays.

Cyprus 30 September-3 October 2007

Went for so-called study visit with Friends of Cyprus delegation. Accommodation costs, use of car and driver provided by the Republic of Cyprus House of Representatives. Return flights to Cyprus paid for out of House of Commons European travel allowance. Registered 17 October 2007. Since when has Sharma had any interest in Cyprus?

India 23-30 October 2007

Went to India, including New Delhi and Mumbai, for international Parliamentarians of Indian Origin event. Return flight to India, accommodation, meals and travel costs met by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. Registered 21 November 2007. Nice for him. Maybe useful for India to be able influence international parliamentarians. What’s in it for Ealing and Southall?

India 16-23 November 2007

Off to India again with London Mayor Ken Livingstone, see previous posting.

Just plain absent 8-9 January 2008

Missed first week back at Parliament and failed to vote for these two days, see previous posting.

I guess his high level of absenteeism explains his low work rate. In his first six months in Parliament he has roused himself to speak only 3 times and has rather feebly asked 3 written questions. Is that really enough work for six months pay?

I acknowledge TheyworkForYou.com as the source for the Parliamentary stats – great job.

Ealing and Northfield

More for less

Post author By Phil
Post date 24th Jan 2008
1 Comment on More for less

Today council leader Jason Stacey has been briefing the Ealing Times about next year’s council tax and his priorities for the borough. He says we will have a below inflation increase. By this I am pretty sure he means a below CPI increase rather than a below RPI increase! CPI, the Government’s target measure for inflation, was 2.1% in December, unchanged from November. RPI inflation fell to 4.0% in December, down from 4.3% in November. See more here.

We already knew that the Mayor’s portion was going up 2.4%, see previous posting. The Mayor compared his, modest by his standards, rise with RPI to make it look good.

Stacey said:

Last year we dealt with the issues of street cleaning and putting more bobbies on the beat, and we will not be pumping more into those areas this year.

I think it’s important we look at the state of the road surfaces which need replacing and put more money into our heritage buildings, some of which are falling down. There are some big figures involved in their maintenance.

We are also abolishing the charge for collecting things like fridges from people’s homes, which currently stands at £15, and will be bringing in a street washing programme.

There is also going to be a £50,000 investment for more litter bins around the borough.

Ex-Mayor Livingstone

Mayor having his worst week

Post author By Phil
Post date 24th Jan 2008
1 Comment on Mayor having his worst week

The Mayor was on the Today programme this morning defending himself from reasonably robust questioning by James Naughtie. Click here to hear it. The Mayor pretty much said that he was justified in spending public money to discredit Trevor Phillips and that it was OK for his staff in politically restricted posts to campaign for him in their own time. As for the LDA scandal, well, shit happens seems to be the line.

The Mayor’s interview was preceded by a hard-hitting investigative piece by Angus Stickler and an interview with Labour MP Kate Hoey, click here.

The Harry’s Place blog also covers the Today piece here.

For some time certain people have been suggesting that the Evening Standard was a lone voice in raising these issues and was therefore irrelevant. The BBC coverage today pretty much picks up all the Standard’s points so I think we can say they are pretty mainstream – it is just a shame that it has taken the BBC six weeks to get on the case, story written up here. In reality the BBC has picked it up sporadically but today is the first concerted effort on this set of stories.

Yesterday BBC London News was all over the Emodi/Jasper/Walters thing also, video here.

Martin Bright on his New Statesman blog is still going at Ken following up his Dispatches show in Monday, see here.

According to the Standard the Mayor reckons he is having a hard week. No sympathy here mate.

Ex-Mayor Livingstone Mayor Johnson

Eboda is latest Livingstone stooge

Post author By Phil
Post date 23rd Jan 2008
1 Comment on Eboda is latest Livingstone stooge

Michael Eboda, who goes by the title of editor of New Nation (part of the Ethnic Media Group), today became the latest of the Mayor’s stooges to keep up the attacks on Boris Johnson on the Guardian’s Comment is free blog.

Eboda tried to suggest that as there was apparently some unpleasant heckling from the crowd at Monday’s Evening Standard London Influentials Debate that is somehow indicative of a general attitude of Boris Johnson, his supporters and the Tory party. One of the posters suggests that Eboda’s assertion is pretty much totally undermined by the online videos published by the Standard. I listened carefully to clips 6 and 7 on the Evening Standard’s website and you can’t hear even a murmur of the abuse that Eboda alludes to. You can hear Boris muttering “absolutely right” in the background whilst Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is speaking.

There is indeed uproar later, see clip 12, when the tiresome Eboda yet again brought up the whole piccaninnies thing. According to Eboda:

That language is not acceptable in any context.

He probably needs to have a word with Darcus Howe then, see here.

Judge for yourself if you think Eboda can voice independent opinions when he is so dependent on the Mayor’s patronage.

Follow this link to find out how in 2003 the GLA spent £261K on recruitment advertising. The bulk went to the Guardian and the rest to the ethnic press. No advertising in mainstream media outside the Guardian – pretty questionable in itself but the Mayor’s personal feud with the Standard seems to prevent the GLA from using it. Ethnic Media Group was given £38K but generated only 1 shortlisted candidate and no appointments.

Follow this link to find out how when the Mayor spent £793K to advertise giving away 100,000 free Oyster cards he spent £77K with ineffective ethnic press (including New Nation).

Is it such stretch to suggest that Eboda is bought and paid for?

Ex-Mayor Livingstone

DLR lost £80 million last year

Post author By Phil
Post date 21st Jan 2008
3 Comments on DLR lost £80 million last year

In August of last year, shortly after TfL published its annual report, I had a look at TfL’s finances and ConservativeHome were kind enough to publish the results here.

At the time I really could not understand the numbers for the Docklands Light Railway so I did not talk about them. I pointed out that TfL loses 30p every time someone takes a bus and loses 55p every time someone takes a Tube. It now appears that the equivalent number for DLR is £1.28. Aaaagh! Click on the table below to enlarge it.

The picture is similar to the rest of TfL. Although fares have increased rapidly costs have increased even faster ensuring that ever greater amounts of subsidy are required. There are almost 2 billion bus journeys a year in London and a billion Tube journeys so the DLR is relatively small beer weighing in at 60 million journeys. Luckily it is not much bigger as they made a loss of £78.5 million.

As I pointed out in August the buses are losing £617 million a year and the Tube £553 million. What is true of all three modes of transport is that their costs are too high and the Mayor does not collect fares from all of the passengers. Note that the Mayor only has to collect £2.15 per journey to make the thing break even. Even better he might bear down harder on costs and make the thing affordable whilst still covering its costs.

You might ask why am I bringing this up now. Well, I first wrote to the Mayor on 2nd August to get these figures and it has taken the best part of six months to get a proper response. It took almost 3 weeks for the Mayor’s office to forward my letter to TfL. It took almost 2 months to get a rubbish response out of TfL and over 3 months to get a decent response today. The Mayor is also chairman of TfL so it is not as if he is not the right person to write to. I can only assume that he is being difficult.

Whilst I enjoyed this evening’s Dispatches programme and its dissection of the Mayor’s time in office you can see why it was relatively short on numbers – the Mayor goes to some lengths to conceal them.

If you want to read TfL’s original document click here.