Boris Watch

Boris Johnson’s latest Tory Party Rally People’s Question Time took place at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon on 22 July. Regrettably, I found myself unable to attend due to a rather more pressing engagement of watching TV that night.
For those unable to attend, the transcript [PDF] is now available to divert and delight.  Remarkably, Boris [...]

Andrew Gilligan, writing as kennite, ross281, etc., opined that the reason for his hatred of bendy buses was all about the seating capacity:
With only 2,009 seats available in the peak hour, as against 3,960 under the old Routemaster regime,the “new 73” was not better from every angle at all (PX, 2005, as himself)
And because the [...]

Munira Mirza, London’s pet Stalinist ideologically driven obsessive monoculturalist zealot, would appear to be behind this latest attack on perfectly inoffensive (and free to enter) aspects of modern society – it bears all her hallmarks, particularly being complete nonsense – how is refusing to enter a free competition demonstrating a new way of ‘bringing Londoners’ [...]

Boris has finally grasped what we’ve been saying for a while – sticking to a contract expiry timetable for bendy replacement means 100 or so bendies in service in May 2012, likely more than any species of Routemaster and thus highly politically damaging.  Naturally no stone must be left unturned and no pound unspent to [...]

Boris in a strangely missing press release salvaged from the Google Cache (and saved, in case of shenanigans):
Nine bendy buses running the Waterloo to Victoria route are the first to be replaced. The Mayor also announced that the entire fleet of 396 buses will have left the capital by the end of 2011, four years [...]

I’ve not seen anything yet that suggests that Outer London Commission chairman William McKee is anything other than competent, which for a Boris appointee is near-miraculous, but today’s news (h/t Tory Troll) suggests that the OLC isn’t going to go down in history as a great turning point in the history of Outer London:
Plans to [...]

[Start Credits]
[Scene: Inside the Queen Vic.  Boris Johnson is leaning on the bar sipping champagne.  Peggy Mitchell is looking agitated behind the bar]
PEGGY: Bleedin’ hell, Bozza, Phil’s just been arrested for fraud!
BORIS: Cripes!  Blimey!  What was he Deputy Mayor for again?
PEGGY: [looks confused]
BORIS: Better sort this out before those Pyong-Yang style bloggers Boriswatch get hold [...]

Naturally, when Boris’s people embargoed the staggering news that he’s appearing in Eastenders (we weren’t included in an embargo, being Beyond Civilisation in blog terms) we cynical sods wondered if he was burying anything.  So far nothing’s come to light, but there are two things this week that might use a diversion.  First off, the [...]

Oo, lovely, investment in the suburbs, new facilities for cyclists, all the good Boris stuff:
Transport for London (TfL) and the London Borough of Hounslow today unveiled a new foot and cycle bridge that allows pedestrians and cyclists to cross the railway at Bedfont Road in Hounslow in greater safety.
The brand new shared-use bridge, built alongside [...]

When it comes to preserving the old ways from being abused, various people (yes, Andrew and Simon, I’m talking to you) pointed to Boris as the man to stop a nasty rash of ugly tall buildings scarring the London skyline, an accolade he’s been somewhat over-anxious to claim, to the point of, um, not telling [...]