Category: Ex-Mayor Livingstone

The Mayor was in Paris this weekend on his latest holiday at our expense. He is pictured above presenting the prize to the winner of the thoroughly drug soaked Tour de France. No mention of it in any press release from the Mayor. Not picked up in British papers who were not tipped off by the Mayor’s numerous press staff. Could it be he is embarrassed? Probably.

The Mayor has got a lot of stick for busily visiting foreign countries over the last couple of years but not visiting many London Boroughs. He has also got lots of stick for flying all over the place whilst exhorting us to be green, see previous posting.

Only three weeks ago the Mayor was making a big splash about the Grand Depart (see here). How different it all looked then before the Tour de France turned into a drug-soaked farce? No wonder the Mayor is keeping a low profile in his summer suit.

As usual the Mayor cynically refuses to discuss the cost of his latest bread and circuses extravaganza for London. The Sunday Times reported that:

London has paid £1.5m to stage the opening stage of the Tour de France and spent another £4m on planning, transport and security.

This does not include another of the Mayor’s large advertising campaigns. I wrote to TfL, who were driving this for the Mayor, on 21st June to ask how much the total comms campaign was costing but they have sullenly refused to answer in spite of making the following pledge:

We will do our best to send you a full written response within 15 working days. If we cannot give you a full answer in this time, we will send you an acknowledgement and then a full written response will follow.

Unless you are asking awkward questions that is.

Yesterday the Evening Standard picked up the story I covered on Tuesday about the explosion in highly paid people at TfL, see previous posting. A shortened version of their story is available on-line here.

The Evening Standard’s Ross Lydall has done a good job. He has got to the bottom of the restatement of these figures. In the TfL Annual Report (page 74) it said the figures were restated but did not explain why. Lydall found out the following:

TfL reported in last year’s accounts that 76 employees earned £100,000 or more. But the figures have been “restated” this year to show there were 90 six-figure earners in 2005/06 when employees’ pension contributions are included.

So let’s get this right. Last year’s figures were deceitful because they excluded employees’ pension contributions, NOT employer’s pension contributions. Most people understand their salary as being what they receive before deductions. This was yet another attempt by TfL to tell lies. I don’t know whether this culture of lying comes from the Mayor or TfL but it seems to be a widespread problem.

As predicted back on June 18th (see previous posting) when the Mayor announced a partial bus fare cut he is using the summer to electioneer. The August issue of The Londoner – the Mayor’s £3 million a year “freesheet” – has a totally outrageous front page headline and article followed up by a page 5 opinion piece from the Mayor.

As ever the Mayor is lying outrageously. He says:

I am pleased that the strength of London’s economy, and efficiencies achieved by Transport for London, mean that fares can now be reduced with no cut in this investment programme or financial risk to the transport budget.

This economic strength and operating efficiency creates benefits that should be returned to London.

The stuff about London’s economy is meaningless waffle and irrelevant to bus pricing.

The talk about efficiency is a lie. Back in February, after a two month wait, the Mayor wrote to me and admitted that bus subsidies would increase by £65 million in the current financial year. Click to enlarge his letter below:

How is it possible to reconcile a £65 million increase in subsidy with the notion of “efficiency”? Bus costs are out of control and cannot be used as an explanation of why it is possible to cut fares. The Mayor is a liar.

Another thing that stood out from the TfL numbers I found yesterday was how badly the finances of the Congestion Charge are going. I say stood out. I mean I spotted them because I was looking for them. They were actually buried on page 99. See below, click to enlarge.

TfL have restated them without saying so. In last year’s numbers they included £1.1 million of Capital financing charges and had done for the previous 3 years. This year they have mysteriously disappeared. They have also laid them out differently to make the surplus look bigger. The Mayor talks about a £120 million surplus but he can only make this ludicrous claim by ignoring indirect costs such as advertising (although how indirect can an £8.7 million campaign on the Western extension be?). The Audit Commission makes him bring indirect costs into the picture which bring his headline surplus down from £122 million to £89 million.

Bizzarely the income is down £1.7 million. You may remember that in 2005/6 30% of income came from fines. I can only think that due to the ability to pay next day and people’s changing behaviour this fines income has dropped away. Obviously it is a good thing if fewer people are picking up penalties.

As you might expect from out of control TfL costs are up. Up £16.6 million or 8.5%. The net effect of less income and more cost is that the surplus from this scheme is down a massive £18.3 million.

Few people paying their £8 a day realise that practically none of this cash is serving any good purpose. I have just updated the cummulative cash flow that I did for ConservativeHome to mark the fourth anniversary of the Congestion Charge. Previously I had used estimates for 2006/7. Now I can use TfL’s actual numbers. Income: £930 million. Cumulative surplus after over 4 years of operation: £14 million. See below, click to enlarge.

Last year I wrote that 831 people employed by TfL earned over £50K. I have just seen this year’s Annual Report. TfL have restated last year’s numbers. Last year’s number was 1,029 not 831. This year’s number is 1,411. I know that we have a large and complex public transport infrastructure but having a cadre of 1,411 highly paid managers seems a bit over the top. The rate of increase in their salaries is horrifying.

Last year I toted up the number of £100K plus salaries. It came out at 76. With the restatement it is now 90 for last year. This year the number of TfL managers earning over £100K is 112. Do we really have 112 people worth £100K in TfL? I don’t think so.

Today the Mayor has come over all Daily Mail and come out against “barmy bureaucrats”. Clearly he is trying to out-Boris Boris Johnson.

I have to agree with the Mayor. Whoever heard of a gasholder blowing up? I am sure that they could in theory but the HSE are yet again in danger of bringing the whole health and safety culture into disrepute.

I admire the Mayor for moving so quickly to intrude on Boris Johnson’s home turf of baffled bemusement as to the way the modern state works against its own citizens. I would say welcome on board Ken but it is only when a bit of the state the Mayor doesn’t control infringes on one of his voter groups that the Mayor manages to rouse himself.

Gouging tourists and irregular travellers with huge cash fares on public transport, fine.

Charging drivers £8 to drive in London, fine.

Making council tax payers pay 189% more compared to 2000, fine.

Making business pay unnecessary LEZ charges, fine.

Today the Mayor is complaining about Andrew Gilligan of the Evening Standard again. This is becoming a bit of a theme with Livingstone.

On Monday under the title “Ken’s Freedom to manipulate” Gilligan said:

Warning to all London pensioners: if a man with a nasal south London accent, a nasty temper and a bad record of dodgy press releases turns up at your door claiming your free bus pass is “under attack”, call police at once.

Officers believe this man, who calls himself the Mayor of London, has been preying on the elderly for months, manufacturing a totally fraudulent “threat” to the Freedom Pass in a desperate attempt to get OAPs to hand over their votes.

Having failed to get any serious London media outlet to touch the “story”, largely because it has been flatly denied (five times) by the people who run the Freedom Pass and is untrue, Mr Livingstone has now snared innocent actors in his cynical schemes. Figures trusted by the elderly, such as Richard Wilson, TV’s Victor Meldrew, have been persuaded to endorse a message that the pass may be snatched away.

DI Gilligan of the Derry Street CID offers this advice: when dealing with our beloved Mayor, on any matter, simply repeat out loud Victor Meldrew’s most famous catchphrase: “I don’t believe it!”

Another theme for the Mayor is the Freedom Pass. Although this is entirely paid for by the London Boroughs the Mayor has issued 9 press releases on this subject this year, 6 of which named me. He issued this press release today. Read it for yourself. As so often the Mayor is just lying.

Ignore the first paragraph.

The second paragraph talks of “a succession of attacks”. In fact there has only been one attack, see third and fourth paragraphs. London Councils is lobbying to remove the Mayor as the final arbiter in commercial discussions between London councils who fund the £213 million a year Freedom Pass and their supplier TfL. In fact there has been a succession of attempts by the Mayor to paint himself as the saviour of the Freedom Pass when in fact he makes no contribution to it beyond ensuring that TfL can charge local authorities too much. Apparently the Mayor thinks he can be an honest arbiter when it is his own body, TfL, that is one party to the negotiation.

In the fifth paragraph I am mentioned again. It seems a bit disproportionate to use one blog posting from a minor councillor in Ealing as a plank of 6 mayoral press releases.

In the sixth paragraph he talks about his celebrity supporters. Did he tell Michael Parkinson, Richard Wilson, Harold Pinter, Claire Rayner and co that their Freedom Passes cost their local authorities £205 per annum each and that they need to make sure that they actually use them? I don’t suppose he did.

In the last two paragraphs the Mayor just gets rude.

The Mayor is a liar and a bully. He is lying about London councils’ intent, which is just to be allowed to negotiate with their supplier. Councils pay for Freedom Passes. They just want to get value for money from TfL. Last year Ealing’s Freedom Pass bill went up 9.4% (see page 23 of the Budget Book). No wonder councils want a level playing field when they negotiate with TfL. As Gilligan says he is just trying to scare Freedom Pass users. In his fight with councils the Mayor is quite happy to frighten pensioners, hence he is a bully.

Damian Hockney reckons that I have got it right with my posting about the Fire Authority. Today he writes:

Phil
On the subject of LFEPA, we picked up your comment and you are of course 100% correct. Indeed, I made almost the same coment to the Standard in its first edition today. And the issue of the ‘Londoner’ is a key to understanding where control does (or does not) lie in the authority.

But of course after the “reforms” in the Review of Powers Bill, the Mayor will find it a lot easier to have complete control (“powers of direction” and two extra appointees laughably called independents). I think that both Darren Johnson and Peter Hulme-Cross will refuse to accept the current situation (and their places on the Authority) until this is resolved and until the parties are allowed to nominate who they see fit. But of course the Mayor has just asked the parties to think again (not actually blocked the nominations)…which I guess might allow him to climb down this evening – but in spite of our own legal advice which says that the Mayor is acting outside his authority, there do exist avenues for him to behave like this and while one law says he can’t do something, another set of rules and precedents in the Act appear to say “well it ain’t that simple”.

That 99 Act was a mess…to be made much worse by this Bill going through.
Anyway, thought your comment was spot on.
Damian

Damian Hockney, Leader, One London Party, London Assembly, City Hall, London SE1 2AA

It looks like the Mayor is ramping up for the Mayoral elections next May.

Today he has announced a cut in bus fares for Oyster users from £1 to 90p. It seems a bit strange that he should be announcing this cut in June. Last year he announced rises on 11th September (see previous posting). I guess that the Mayor will use the three months between now and when he traditionally announces inflation busting fare rises to re-announce this cut many times over. No doubt we will hear much more about this cut from September to next May as well.

We will hear less about how the cut will be paid for. Bus costs are soaring so I haven’t got the foggiest how it will be paid for. Bus costs are due to rise by 8.2% this year (see previous posting).

Obviously the Mayor fails to mention that off peak fares went up from 80p to £1 last year and this year they will go back down to 90p so they will still be 12.5% higher after the so-called cut.