“There is some anecdotal evidence that the previous Chief Executive congratulated people who spent up to budget in the year”

For those who don’t see how ridiculous it is to print those words within what should be a respectable official report, I thought I would provide a dictionary definition of ‘anecdotal evidence’:

“An informal form of hearsay obtained from random sources and having no legal basis.”

Additionally:

“We suspect that projects may have benefited also from this desire to use up the budget.”

Suspect? In an official report the panel decide that guessing is appropriate.

Brilliant.

My attention was also drawn to page 26 in which the panel points out that the new administration “could generate substantial savings, particularly if entire
events such as the ‘Rise Festival’ were cancelled”.

Well I suppose that’s one way of avoiding the same problem next year.

Let’s leave aside the assumptions (women are not skilled enough for ‘more demanding’ posts etc) and consider what has actually happened in Boris Johnson’s administration so far?

In every case at the most senior level in the GLA where a post was held by a woman under Ken Livingstone they have been replaced by a man, or the post abolished, under Boris Johnson. This was the case with the statutory Deputy Mayor (Richard Barnes replaced Nicky Gavron), the head of the Fire and Emergency Planning services (LFEPA, Brian Coleman replaced Val Shawcross). the chair of the London Development Agency (LDA, Harvey McGrath replaced Mary Reilly), the Director of Media and Marketing (Guto Harri replaced Joy Johnson), and the Director of Strategic Projects and Performance (held by Murziline Parchment - post abolished) -
http://www.mayorwatch.co.uk/Ken-Livingstone-Boris-Johnsons-Administration-Women-in-London-article_id-1712.html

Going just one level down, four senior posts held by women were abolished - the mayoral advisers on Culture and Events, on Women, on Creative Industries, and on Planning. Only one woman at this level, on Culture, was appointed by Boris Johnson. That is the record of Boris Johnson’s administration - actions speak far louder than any words.

Tim Parker says he’s appointing the ‘best’ candidates. Then women are not appointed or sacked. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that women have less ability and merit than men. Does Parker really not understand what he is saying? This is ludicrously sexist.

Actually, transport at the Olympics is the one thing I’m not worried about - everything’s currently well in hand there.

One consequence of this is that the lion’s share of transport investment is in east London, Crossrail and the Underground, which leaves bugger all over for, say, a vanity bus project. It’s very likely that TfL under Boris will run out of cash at some point (it would have done under Ken, too, but that’s neither here nor there) if Crossrail or Tube Lines start having funding issues (caused by high inflation, possibly) or the recession bites the central government grant.

All of which doesn’t bode well for the highly interesting West London Orbital idea, a kind of underground DLR for west and southwest London, running from Surbiton via Kingston, Richmond, Brentford, Ealing and Wembley to Brent Cross. It manages to link all the main rail routes out of London to the west, plus most of the Tube plus Crossrail and because the idea is to have short, frequent trains the stations are much smaller and thus cheaper than Crossrail. I can’t see either main party backing it, though - Boris obviously won’t do big public transport projects and any future Labour leader wouldn’t see affluent Tory-voting west London as a priority, so it’ll fall through the cracks.

Mind you, it goes through Northfields, so perhaps Phil ‘The Blower’ Taylor might be interested in it?

I don’t. They’re eminently suitable for the 207, which runs on the dead straight, dead wide Uxbridge Road and doesn’t go anywhere near central London - the old double deck 207 used to bunch up horribly due to the time-consuming stops. They’re also more suitable than any alternative for the 507 and 521 as mentioned. On other routes you could make a case for running extra double deckers on overlapping routes, but the big question is how to handle the demand generated by both the introduction of bendies and the congestion charge. Remember that at CC launch the Tube was already full and relief is years away, hence the massive expansion in bus services was part of the deal Livingstone offered London in return for supporting CC.

I’d also like to see some proper figures for safety on them as I’m far from convinced by the figures put about by the Boris campaign, which were fundamentally innumerate. Mind you, I’ve never nearly been sideswiped by one - the only place I tend to mingle with them is up Green Lanes way, where a friend lives, and I’ve never felt unsafe sharing roadspace with them.

My main problem with them is that they’re a kind of cheap tram - I’d rather have real trams now we accept that high-frequency high-capacity vehicles are needed in London - apart from anything else this is good for air quality and CO2 reasons, as well as much better at getting people out of cars voluntarily. However, there’s no way on earth Boris is going to build any trams anywhere - even the sensible Crystal Palace extension of Tramlink is looking shaky now.

Is there a readily available off-the-shelf high-capacity single decker?

* (c) Daily Mail/Telegraph/Express