Dave Hill reports that “Boris has withdrawn London’s membership of the global ‘Mayors for Peace’ initiative, founded by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”.
Jenny Jones, London Assembly Member, who used to be London Chair of Mayors for Peace, isn’t impressed:
Mayors for Peace is an organisation working for cities and their residents to be free from the fear of nuclear annihilation. For London to withdraw sends out a signal that peace isn’t an issue the Mayor wishes to engage in. Perhaps we can’t expect anything better from someone who voted for the war on Iraq.
He (or rather whoever makes decisions like this and the Rise one without telling him) certainly knows how to send out some pretty awful signals. London is now officially not anti-racist, only taking an honorary face-saving role in working to prevent climate change and not opposed to nuclear annihilation.
I wonder what we’ll be told we’re not bothered about next. Or perhaps more interestingly, what exactly this Mayoralty is intending to do anything about.
Update (from Ben): ‘Boris’ has happily clarified that this is not an issue that he wishes to take part in:
“Whilst there may be debate about the proliferation of nuclear weapons, membership of Mayors for Peace is not a priority for the new administration, which is committed to focusing on domestic issues of major importance to Londoners, such as safety on our streets, improving public transport and making this city a better place for all Londoners to live in. The Mayor is also committed to value for money for London taxpayers and it is a much better use of his and his team’s time to focus on the important day-to-day issues that need to be addressed, which is what he was elected to do.”
Tags: Mayors for Peace · nuclear weapons · war · withdrawal2 Comments
2 responses so far ↓
Are the nuclear flasks, travelling from Sizewell to Sellafield, still running along the Kentish Town Line? They were last July, when, in the kerfuffle after the 7/7 bombings, the Daily Mirror found the flasks unattended in North West London “just a short walk from a sports stadium, a large hospital and one of the capital’s major roads” [Umm: there could be a clue in there, I suspect].
Sometime back, I seem to recall, CND claimed to have found radio-active contamination there.
Now, somewhere at the back of the garage, there might be a “No Nukes here!” banner. It might get an outing yet.
Alternatively, as the story above has it, this is “what we’ll be told we’re not bothered about next”.
[...] Boris’s withdrawal of London from Mayors for Peace wasn’t very widely reported as far as I’m aware, so he’s certainly watching him more closely than many. If… is generally thematic for four days running so hopefully there are three more Boris strips where this one came from. I’ll keep you posted. [...]