Boris Watch

An attempt to enhance the accountability of the new London mayoralty

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Comrade Mirza Does Not Tolerate Failure

July 19th, 2009 1 Comment

I can’t think what City Hall’s pet totalitarian will make of the people who let the Great Leader down so badly on this one, leaving the loyal comrades of Barnet, Golders Green, Hampstead, Hillingdon, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets without their centrally-approved culture quota, as announced in the Mayor’s May 2009 report.  They’ll be ground up [...]

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Festival Marketing : A Thought Occurs

July 12th, 2009 3 Comments

The best advertised, best attended event Boris Johnson has set up since he’s been Mayor was the Last Orders on the Underground tube drinking party, and he set that one up by accident.
Perhaps a lesson there on how to advertise and how to pick events that people actually want to go to?

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GLA- Sponsored Festivals

May 29th, 2009 17 Comments

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 [...]

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We Must Consider The Effects That These Blasted Gizmos Are Having On Our Creative Sector…

October 16th, 2008 1 Comment

Boris’s swift transition from media figure that happened to dabble in politics to politician with a certain prominence in the media has meant that a lot of his more inconvenient views are being scrubbed from the passage of time.
Consider this hearty endorsement of the London Games Festival…
“I’m delighted that the London Games Festival is back [...]

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Boris Decides That Traditionalists Are “Stuck, Stuck, Stuck”

June 6th, 2008 No Comments

Manira Mirza has an article in the Guardian today, in which she announces the relaunching of the Lates Festival. After perplexingly describing Boris as the “cultural night mayor” she proudly proclaims that:
“Lates, which launched last night, is one of the few examples of London’s major cultural institutions coming together under one banner to programme special [...]

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