|
Monday, 15 February 2010 13:07 |
|
by Mike Barnard - Uprise I’m delighted to be here today to talk in the very building Europe’s largest anti-racism festival – Rise – was conceived. Rise Festival was a landmark event. The annual, free, one-day music festival was a display of London’s cultural diversity.
Every year people young and old from across the social spectrum were brought together for a day that transcended race to educate as much as entertain. The event shined as a beacon in the fight against racism. The Rise festival was part of a series of measures by London government to challenge racism and celebrate diversity, which saw racist attacks in London reduced by two thirds, despite a national increase. Rise Festival helped create a climate where 82 percent of Londoners thought diversity was one of the best things about the capital. |
|
Read more...
|
|
Sunday, 14 February 2010 21:58 |
|
Brian Coleman - Boris Johnson's appointee as head of London's fire authority - today refused to rule out closures of fire stations in the capital. Coleman was on the London Politics Show today (unlike the mayor, who nearly two years into his term has still failed to appear on the programme). Coleman was debating the future of the fire service with the Fire Brigades Union. The mayor's appointee was pressed by BBC London's political editor Tim Donovan to clarify if there were likely to be any fire station closures. He flatly refused to give a guarantee. Coleman has been at the forefront of the cuts and 'outsourcing' agenda as a Barnet Tory councillor, a borough whose plans for public services have been likened to the approach of a budget airline and where local residents have fought proposals to end residential care for the elderly. In the interests of transparency Brian Coleman and Boris Johnson should tell Londoners which stations might close if it is the case that no guarantee can be given - which ones are most under threat? UPDATE: Labour’s Val Shawcross AM, said:
"The Chair of the fire authority ought to be able to reassure Londoners that there is no question-mark over the future of any of our fire stationsand the fact that he has refused to do so is surprising and a cause forreal concern. We need a cast-iron guarantee from Brian Coleman and the mayor that fire stations, including in outer-London, are safe. At the very least Boris Johnson and Brian Coleman must be transparent about which stations may be most vulnerable." |
|
|
Thursday, 11 February 2010 16:34 |
|
by Cllr Jenny Jones AM - Green Party Boris Johnson has just produced two of the statutory strategies as Mayor of London, Climate Change Adaptation and Climate Change Mitigation. It’s good to have them because London needs the Mayor’s help and engagement on the issue, but I’m left with a feeling of disappointment about the Adaptation Strategy. However, it’s the Mitigation Strategy where his policies unravel, and leave me dismayed at his lack of urgency and understanding. But first, as a Green, I’m absolutely delighted when he stands up in front of crowds and says he believes that Climate Change is happening. Even if what he says is, “IF climate change is happening, (and I believe it is,) then we must do what we can, blah blah.” I can live with that, his playing to his Tory supporters, many of whom don’t believe in any anthropogenic cause to current and future climate disasters, but I find it very difficult to live with his cutting back on environmental projects and targets so that he can put £1m extra into the Met’s press budget. |
|
Read more...
|
|
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 15:22 |
|
Labour's drive to make London safer was successful. Boris Johnson's cuts to the capital's police force will reverse all that.
By Ken Livingstone One of the great lies of British politics is the claim of the right to be the strongest opponents of crime. It is the right, not the left, that has taken every opportunity over the last two decades to cut police numbers in London. It's happened again today. Read the full article here on Comment is Free. |
|
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 12:51 |
|
by Martin Hoscik - Mayorwatch Firstly the nature of the role of Mayor means it’s always likely to attract people who - as we’ve seen with both Ken and Boris - are sufficiently robust that negative headlines and opposition press releases alone are unlikely to dissuade them from a course of action on which they’ve already decided.
Secondly the Mayor is ‘all powerful’, the London Assembly which - in theory at least - exists to scrutinise the Mayor has virtually no ability to constrain him or her. Even the mechanism for rejecting the Mayor’s annual budget requires Assembly opponents to muster a two-thirds majority in favour of an alternative proposal rather than requiring the Mayor to build support and consensus for theirs.
When you consider the Mayor’s budget is measured in billions it’s extraordinary that a modern day government should have empowered an individual politician to decide how such large sums of public money should be spent. It’s an area which needs urgent review and I’ll come on to this shortly.
When it comes to making appointments the Mayor generally has a free hand but the departure of several high-profile advisors from Boris Johnson’s administration suggests some meaningful outside scrutiny might be in order here.
Having identified two specific areas of the Assembly’s weakness it’s important not to don’t overstate them, doing so risks aiding the ambitions of those voices who from time to time call for the body to be abolished or reformed in a way which makes it less relevant and more importantly, less accountable, to Londoners. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Page 3 of 6 |
