Boris Watch

What a busy day - the Prince of Darkness identifies a key management role surplus to requirements (his own), Boris drives a coach-and-four through Cameron’s social policy, then reverses over it for good measure and the Tube strike is called off.  Where to start?  John Band has a conspiracy theory about the tube strike:

BJ: Wot ho, Bozza here.
BC: Hello. I’m Bob Crow, and I’m evil. I’m going to lead the Tube maintenance workers out on strike (a 5% pay rise just isn’t enough, you see) and paralyse the city.
…

The London Assembly are in ‘told you so’ mode:

“The London Assembly raised concerns about Tim Parker’s appointment as Chair of Transport for London (TfL) and how the position would work alongside his other role in the GLA group.¹

“This latest news confirms our concerns were justified.

They also use the word ’shambolic’ and are going to investigate the GLA appointments on the 10th September.

Labour’s Tom Watson suggests that it’s awfully convenient that Boris kicking Cameron has distracted people from the Parker story:

He must have known that he was about to lose the third aide in as many months. He would rather the likes of me be analysing his distancing from David Cameron than assessing the “Boris Johnson team in chaos as another deputy mayor resigns” story.

Iain Dale, seeking to distract everyone, thinks Peter Hendy should go.  Eh?  Matt Wardman (actually Garbo writing at Matt’s site - thanks for the correction in comments) plus myself and anyone with a passing interest in London’s transport system disagrees:

More worryingly is Iain Dale’s suggestion that Peter Hendy should be replaced. The Tories do see him as a Livingstonian character who is far too Labour for his own good. I think that is unfair. Hendy is a transport man through and through. He has come from humble backgrounds as a bus worker all the through to leading the largest transport authority in the world. The man knows his onions and is also well respected in the organisation.

Quite.  Dale would doubtless like to see some political crony rather than a professional in place.

Letters From A Tory thinks Antony Browne is the man to turn to.  Nurse!  The screens!

A lot of work needs to be done, particularly on transport and housing, and while there is little evidence of huge progress at this stage I am happy to sit and wait - for now.  Oh, and try to keep the resignations to a minimum.

Finally Sunny Hundal links the travails of Boris with Gordon Brown.  Naughty, naughty.

No one, including his friends at ConservativeHome, bought Iain Dale’s embarassingly bad attempt yesterday to spin Tim Parker’s resignation as a positive. The view across medialand is that Boris Johnson’s department is in ‘chaos’. No doubt someone at the GLA hoped Iain Dale could set the tone for the media narrative - and failed miserably.

If this state of affair continues, Boris will develop a reputation for incompetence he’ll find very hard to shake off. There’s also little doubt that Boris’s dismissal of Cameron’s “broken society” narrative will annoy the hell out of the latter.

As for the mainstream press, the Telegraph…

Last month he said he was “fascinated by the process of politics. I have always enjoyed policy-making”.

Yet it seems that even the Prince of Darkness recognised that to play a big role in politics, you have to be elected first.

…Times…

There was speculation that, as a top businessman accustomed to running his own show, Mr Parker had become frustrated quickly by the public sector. The Times was also told that he had already clashed with the Tory borough councillors, including former Westminster leader Sir Simon Milton, over his vision for job cuts.

A source said: “There have been disagreements and that was inevitable. Tim Parker wanted a cost-cutting drive and Boris Johnson and Sir Simon were more cautious about the kind of savings that you can get in the private sector. Those are the kind of efficiencies that make elected people uncomfortable.”

and Tony Travers in the Guardian…

All three of the remaining deputies used to be senior council members, reinforcing the sense that they, rather than individuals from the private or even voluntary sectors, are capable of coping with the slings and arrows of government. Parker’s demise is not a good signal for those hoping to tempt non-politicians into senior political roles.

…all send out warning signs.  Travers is the only person I’ve seen so far who fingers the key winners here; the borough boys are pretty much the last men standing, having seen off the pie in the sky CCHQ parachutists.  Watch for the effect of that - they’ll presumably want to spread the pork around their own areas rather than slash and burn at the centre.

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