Boris Watch

West London ground to a halt today.  The cause was a car accident near the Hammersmith Flyover at 3am that, despite not being fatal or involving more than one car, lead to the entire area being sealed off by the police for forensic investigation and not handed back to TfL, apparently, until 1pm, resulting in [...]

Right, I’ve been on a sabbatical from blogging for a week or so, owing mainly to a lack of anything interesting to say.  This isn’t, obviously, from a lack of anything Boris-related to comment about (clearly), but I’d rather wait until I’ve mulled things over for a bit rather than rushing to the Publish button.  [...]

Boris the turtle – from MayorOfLondon’s TwitPic
Dave Hill’s been doing a lot of excellent coverage on the fallout of the G20 policing: his blog is highly recommended reading.
The key Boris-related theme this week has been the near-total silence of the Mayor on this subject.
From the man who merrily stuck his oar [...]

It’s Sir Paul ‘Safe Option’ Stephenson, who’s been caretaking.  Perhaps the bold days of Kit and Boris tearing up the rule book are behind them?

Last Friday I tracked Boris and his Deputy Mayor For Policing round the Thames Estuary.  Last Saturday I spoke about Boris Watch at Pro London.  Yesterday I poked fun at the PR strategy adopted over the absurd Thames Estuary airport.  Half an hour ago I opened the door to find six grim-faced policemen.
It turns out [...]

Boris has launched an inquiry into allegations of racial discrimination at the MPA.
The announcement comes after the Metropolitan Black Police Association warned that they would be discouraging potential applicants from joining the force. In a statement, a spokesman said that:
“We would be failing our duty as an association if we did not [...]

From The Times
“Sir Ian Blair is expected to announce his resignation as Metropolitan Police Commissioner this afternoon.
Sources told The Times that the pressures of recent months had forced Sir Ian, who became commissioner in February 2005, to consider his position.
He is understood to be standing down before Boris Johnson, the new Tory Mayor of London, [...]

The Tory Troll, fresh from his summer travels, quotes a source as saying that:
“The rumour that the MPA is to be relocated is still circulating. Although how they intend to find desk space for another 100 people in City Hall is beyond me – unless this means 100 redundancies of City hall based staff.”
This rumour [...]

The Evening Standard is tentatively reporting on Boris’s plans for curbing adolescent crime. If it’s correct, then it indicates that the Mayor is attempting to satisfy both the hard and the progressive factions.
Boris will apparently spend £100 million on a variety of education initiatives. These range from school programmes, which we detailed previously, to ‘about [...]

If it isn’t quite the Sword of Damocles suspended over Ian Blair’s head, it’s certainly the kitchen knife of someone very close to him.
In an leaked email, Kit Malthouse, who, in January, authored a critical Times article headlined ‘Sorry, Noone Voted For You‘, wrote that ‘essentially it’s the mayor’s decision to suspend or not‘, while [...]