Boris Watch

An attempt to enhance the accountability of the new London mayoralty

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Government vs Boris on air quality

April 14th, 2009 2 Comments

Hélène Mulholland at guardian.co.uk reports that the obvious contradiction between Boris’s policies encouraging more pollution by axing the third phase of the Low Emission Zone (not to mention the removal of the Congestion Charge Western Extension Zone) and the legal obligation for the UK to cut pollution in London or face huge fines from the [...]

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Insert Operation Hummingbird Reference Here…

March 24th, 2009 1 Comment

The knives have been rather abruptly unsheathed at City Hall…
CITY Hall staff today told of a “climate of fear” as up to 120 positions were cut as a result of Boris Johnson’s restructuring plans.
This chimes with the nervous sentiments expressed by Anthony Browne in an article for Canada’s Globe and Mail…
“We worry about how deep [...]

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’Snow good, Boris: participles and particulates

February 2nd, 2009 4 Comments

(I’ve been writing this in dribs and drabs this afternoon and Tom’s beaten me to the thrust of it, with more panache of course, so feel free to skip over this one for his post instead…)
Listeners to this lunchtime’s World at One on BBC Radio 4 were treated to Boris attempting to coin a new [...]

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Planes, Pains And The Third Runway Proposals

September 23rd, 2008 2 Comments

It seems that the prospect of ‘Boris Island’ has only made the Government more determined to gain approval for a third runway at Heathrow.
“Transport sources told The Times that the Government was determined to make the third runway happen, despite widespread opposition from the environmental lobby and the possibility of an independent review delaying the [...]

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Boris ravages green budget

August 8th, 2008 1 Comment

Does Boris really expect Londoner to believe he cares for the environment? You might recall Siân Berry and the Alliance Against Urban 4×4s asked the Mayor what he’d do for greener transport in London. He effectively gave them their answer today by cancelling an order for 60 hydrogen vehicles.
These vehicles were to lead the way [...]

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Value for money? Boris gives Porsche £400,000

July 8th, 2008 18 Comments

In an extraordinary waste of taxpayers’ money, the Guardian reveals this morning that Boris is to pay Porsche £400,000 as he cancels the £25 CO2 Charge his predecessor had planned, which the car company had intended to challenge in the courts.
I knew today was the day when he would be announcing the abandonment of the [...]

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Greener transport letter-writing campaign

July 1st, 2008 2 Comments

At the Liberal Conspiracy event last week, I had a chat with Siân Berry, the Green party’s Stop Boris blog-reading former candidate for Mayor. She asked me to highlight her new campaign, which she’s running with her Alliance Against Urban 4×4s hat on.
I must admit I couldn’t remember what the campaign was about and therefore [...]

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What’s Boris learnt so far? Rubbish!

June 7th, 2008 2 Comments

Tonight’s appearance on BBC London was interesting – perhaps more interesting than I currently have time to do justice to. If any fellow Boris-watchers want to see what they missed, I recommend watching the interview on the BBC web site.
The overwhelming thing that came across to me was that he hasn’t updated his interview technique [...]

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Boris’s turn to be an (honorary) Deputy

June 4th, 2008 2 Comments

We’re all sick, I’m sure, of hearing about Deputy Mayors that Boris has appointed. There are far too many of them, only one of them is actually statutorily entitled to the name, and half of them seem to have legal doubts or some "fog of confusion" hanging over their appointments.
But now it’s Boris’s turn to [...]

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