Boris Watch

As noted in the comments on the post GLA-Sponsored Festivals the Mayor’s Story Of London festival features very few events which are happening especially for the festival and seems to have been thought up as a wizard wheeze to piggyback publicity for Boris Johnson onto the celebrations for the 500th anniversary of the accession of [...]

You may remember the No Strings Attached initiative, launched by Boris Johnson in October last year and run in conjunction with Time Out magazine.
Assembly Member Dee Doocey requested an update from the Mayor at last week’s Mayor’s Question Time and in the written answer supplied Boris Johnson replied that the running of the initiative was [...]

This is quite encouraging…
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has announced £1.4 million to improve the provision of rape crisis centres in London.
This funding over three years has been found through efficiency savings achieved since the Mayor took office and is an important step in delivering the manifesto commitment to tackle violence against women.
Trumpeting it [...]

I’m sure that, like me, you’ve been agog to see the line-up of exciting events promised for the Mayor’s Story Of London Festival . For the past month or so I’ve been collecting leaflets from various museums and other London attractions which have featured events with the Story Of London logo, and every couple of [...]

I haven’t blogged in ages. All the action’s over on Twitter these days [although I think Tom’s the main tweeter through our account, for clarity], as this quick post perhaps shows.
The RMT’s calling yet another strike. Boris has tweeted:
Can’t believe the RMT leadership. Urging a strike in this economic climate is simply monstrous.

(Apparently it took [...]

Richard Barnbrook has released a fabulatory review of his first year as an AM, so let’s cast an eye over his claims and, as seems inevitable, the reality looming behind them…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15vb6VsPS44&feature=channel_page[/youtube]
Barnbrook has, as he asserts, been bullish on knife crime; both real incidents and ones that, for the purpose of self-promotion, he invented. This creative [...]

Prospect carries an interesting article on Blondon’s first birthday…
As the election neared Nicholas Boles, former director of pro-Cameron think-tank Policy Exchange, was parachuted in. Yet Boles’s arrival, which began as an effort to protect the Tory reputation for efficient governance, unintentionally hobbled Johnson’s first year, as City Hall became riddled with factionalism.
Within barely a month [...]

Here’s an interesting report(pdf)…
London has only one rape crisis centre, based in Croydon. It has a six-month waiting list for ‘off-peak’ appointments and a waiting list of up to one year for appointments in the evening. This is unacceptable for women and young girls suffering the significant health and well being consequences of sexual violence.
The [...]

Long time no blog.  Twitter is too easy, work is too time consuming, head is too knackered.  Am going to the Caribbean for a bit.
Before I go, however, I’d like to draw your attention to this excellent resource for data on London’s air quality.  This is timely, as it’s becoming a bit of an issue [...]

So, Brian Coleman became Mayor of Barnet last night, and he’s already latched on to the problem with the Borough: yes, it’s bloggers! We apparently “regard it cool and trendy to undermine democratic institutions“, and have “community criticism rather community service”. Well, as I’m feeling suitably pompous today, let me remind Mayor Coleman that, just [...]