Boris Watch

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 [...]

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 [...]

(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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]