Boris Watch

(Of course, if this “Stop Boris” is as successful as the last one, he’ll romp home with flying colours…)
Just remembered – with only 3½ hours’ voting to go – that Boris has made the shortlist for Channel 4 News’s Political Impact Award. So if you don’t want him to win, you’ll need to go and [...]

John Biggs, deputy leader of the London Assembly’s Labour group, has alleged that last week’s single-issue People’s Question Time on Heathrow expansion was nothing more than “a Tory party propaganda event“.  The Lib Dem’s transport spokesperson, Caroline Pidgeon, also supports these allegations and has written an as-yet unpublished letter to the Evening Standard.
Unusually for a [...]

That’s the north bank of the Thames, not the North Bank at Highbury, of course.
We’ve already seen what the (mostly Labour) southern side of the Thames Estuary thinks of Borisport.  The north side might be expected to be a bit more welcoming, since they’re mostly Tories over that side.  So are they?  Nope.
Rochford and Southend [...]

It’s Sir Paul ‘Safe Option’ Stephenson, who’s been caretaking.  Perhaps the bold days of Kit and Boris tearing up the rule book are behind them?

No sooner does Boris become the fourth most influential man in UK transport than the Standard reports that SWT have surrendered in their fight to keep out of Oyster.  Now, obviously it’s the Standard and obviously nothing’s really changed, but the article, by Pippa Crerar (of course) is a good, measured one (giving equal credit [...]

Boris may be Number One in London’s transport field, but in national terms he’s only made fourth place in the Transit Power 50 most influential people in the British transport industry:
1. Sir Moir Lockhead, First Group
2. Brian Souter, Stagecoach Group
3. Iain Coucher, Network Rail
4. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
5. Keith Ludeman, Go Ahead Group
6. Geoff [...]

Tory Troll has an interesting, if slightly unbelievable (considering how much of a hole it would shoot in his greenwash and carefully cultured bike user/value-for-money image), story about Boris (update – TT says it’s his team, not the Mayor, and is sticking by it – see comments) wanting an official car.  What’s more interesting is [...]

Annoyed with the Standard’s pisspoor imagery, I’ve had my own go at a map of Borisport.  Here you go.  Comments and criticisms welcome.  Yes, I reckon it really is that far out to sea.  About 30% of the distance to Holland, I reckon.
View Larger Map

I wish I could remember who I was talking to about ELLX Phase 2 (executive summary: a fully cross-party-supported extension of the East London Line to Clapham Junction, and a key test of Boris’s competence and ability to make deals which so far he’s failing on) on Saturday, but it was probably Val Shawcross, who [...]

Unsurprisingly the Standard has picked up on Boris’s Magic Stealth Airport, but unusually there’s actually a picture.  Whether this was done by a Standard graphics bod or crayoned by Malthouse in City Hall I have no idea.  I hope it’s the former, since it’s got High Speed 1 in the wrong place, but it does [...]