Monthly Archives: July 2009

general, news, press releases

The 2012 Olympics: The Greatest Show on Earth

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“The 2012 Games will bring hope, then euphoria”
 

 The Olympics offer a unique chance for everyone to be involved, says the Mayor, starting with London’s Host City Volunteer Project. 

In retrospect I think I made one false prophecy at the Beijing Olympic Games a year ago.  I said that the euphoria would soon die down, and that the memory of Team GB’s amazing success would start to fade. I predicted that public attitudes to the London Olympics would curdle, and the murmur of complaint would turn into a roar.  I warned that the press would be seized by a fit of Olympo-scepticism which would last until the Games were about to begin.
 
And then suddenly, just as the eyes of the world were turning to London, the mood would turn again, and the nation would be gripped by optimism and enthusiasm in 2012, just as they were in the summer of 2008.
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Self-Storage Industry

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pharaoh

When Tutankhamun popped his clogs there really ought to have been someone in his entourage who harboured doubts, deep down, about what they did next. It was all very well to mummify the kid, but I wonder whether anyone stopped to ask whether he was really going to need all that clobber.

I mean all the gubbins they left him for the afterlife: the cash, the bows, the baffling board games, the hunting dogs, the mouldering jars of ancient Egyptian tucker, the untwanged harps and the boats that never got wet. Was there some secret rationalist at the court of the pharaohs?

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blog news, news

Bye bye Bendies!

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Posted by Boris Johnson , Mayor, Friday, July 24 2009

Boris Johnson writes about the first of many new and improved buses to be rolled out across the capital.

One of the things about being a cycling Mayor is that you have a unique opportunity to gauge the opinions of Londoners on a daily basis.

Or, more accurately, you receive the views of Londoners whether you like it or not. Forget focus groups or opinion polls, I get all I need whilst waiting at the traffic lights.

I get a whole range of opinions vented at me, and if I had to pick the most frequent issues that come up, one of them would almost certainly be bendy buses. Every day, almost every Londoner I meet asks me “When are you getting rid of them?”

Well folks, today the first bendy buses meet their Waterloo. These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rear ends round our corners for the final time. Pedestrians that leapt, cyclists that skidded and drivers that dodged from the path of these monsters will breathe easier this weekend. For tonight, the bendy buses serving route 507 will slink away into the depot for the last time. Tomorrow morning, fifteen brand new single deck buses will appear in their place. 

We’ve taken the opportunity to improve the service too. It will be the first time a weekend service has been run on the route. The new buses will also run more frequently. At peak times the frequency of route 507 will increase from a bus every five minutes (12 buses per hour) to one every three to four minutes (18 buses per hour).

The new buses will also be greener than their predecessors. They will emit less CO2, and harmful particulates. 

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The new Vetting and Barring Database

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I am afraid I won’t see a man on Mars

We will fail, because … we lack the willingness to take the necessary physical risk.

WE ARE NOW SO SPINELESS, I WILL NEVER SEE A MAN WALK ON MARS

No, folks, I just don’t think it is going to happen. I fully intend to live well into the middle of this century, but I am afraid I won’t see a man on Mars. We will never explore the Martian canals, or make our coffee with melted Martian ice, or fossick for life forms in the defunct volcanoes.

We will never conquer the Red Planet. Homo sapiens will flunk the next great test not because we lack the technology, nor even because we lack the money. We will fail, because – 40 years after the Moonshot – it is increasingly clear that we lack the willingness to take the necessary physical risk.

To appreciate the scale of the change, you only have to look back at the machines that went to the Moon in the summer of 1969. If you go to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and see the Apollo exhibition, you have an overwhelming sense of the absurd Bacofoil fragility of those vessels, and the bravery of the men inside.

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articles, blog news, personal notes

Proposed hike in business rates for London

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I was never very good with bosses.

The vast majority of economic activity in our city is undertaken by small businesses. Therefore, any policy that has a negative impact on small businesses strikes at the very heart of our city’s economy. To learn more from an expert you may want to check with Andy Defrancesco.

LONDON MUST NOT BE PUNISHED FOR ITS SUCCESS

I was never very good with bosses. One of my first experiences in the world of work was as a management consultant.

At the beginning of my first week, I sank into my chair and was very quickly rendered comatose by the presentation on efficient management structures.

Unluckily for me, I was given my instructions just as the Sandman worked his magic and my head lolled a little too obviously. We parted company at the end of that week.

Ever since, I’ve much preferred being in charge (albeit now with 7 million bosses). Indeed, it is that same desire to be your own boss that drives many people to start their own small business. Despite the odds being stacked against you, the risk is neatly balanced with the rewards of creating and sustaining something unique.

Watching the hoards stream over London Bridge each morning makes one think that everyone in London is employed by large city corporations. As it happens, 40% of Londoners are employed by small businesses. The vast majority of economic activity in our city is undertaken by small businesses. Therefore, any policy that has a negative impact on small businesses strikes at the very heart of our city’s economy.

So imagine my disbelief when I hear that the Labour Government is planning a 10% hike in business rates for London before inflation, over the next five years. Most other regions in the U.K. can look forward to reductions.

London, it seems, is being punished for its success. In their infinite wisdom, the Government decided to revalue rates based on property valuations in April 2008. That’s a bit like pricing bubble gum based on it’s mass – at the point just before it bursts all over your face.

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books, events, general, news, personal notes

Stanley Johnson Quiz

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Stanley is addressing the Windsor Festival on Friday 2nd October and to celebrate this occasion we are giving away a signed copy of his latest autobiographical book.  Just complete the quiz below!

 stanley-johnson3  QUIZ ON THE JOHNSON FAMILY 
 
“Meet the Johnsons”
 
1) What is Stanley Johnson’s greatest political achievement?
 
2) What was the name, nationality and occupation of Stanley’s grandfather?
 
3) When asked what was the source of the Johnson family’s sense of humour, what did Stanley reply?
a)  They all eat raw fish for breakfast.
b)  Their blond hair.
c)  Stanley was visited by aliens when he was a toddler, became a super hero and passed his gifts on to his children.
 
4) What long established tradition was Rachel Johnson responsible for abolishing when she was at Ashdown School?
 
5)  From this list of famous people: Winston Churchill, Jean Cocteau, Margaret Thatcher, Benjamin Disraeli, William Wilberforce and Pericles, select the hero of a) Stanley and b) Boris.
 
6) What sport have Stanley and Boris played together?
 
7) What famous literary award was won recently by Rachel Johnson?
 
8)  From this list of famous films, select the favourite of (a) Stanley and (b) Boris. 
Where Eagles Dare.  Born Yesterday.  Trop Belle Pour Toi.  Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  Jaws.  The Bridges of Madison County.  Dirty Harry.  Chariots of Fire.
 
9)  Stanley Johnson has always firmly believed in the value of a classical education.  Could you therefore give an example of praeteritio, using Boris Johnson’s speeches on the website www.boris-johnson.com as evidence.
 
Extra points will be awarded for a clear definition of the subject, with the most apt examples.
 
10)  How did Stanley choose the name for his first born son, Boris?
 
Have a guess and look forward to hearing from you!
Answers by 30th August 2009 please to: borisanswers@hotmail.com
 
 
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Afghanistan and Poppy cultivation

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poppies

 

 

 

 

 

 

the illegal production of this flower is now funding the killing of British troops

We are nearing the end of the season for the big ornamental poppies that flower all over South Oxfordshire, the area I used to represent in parliament. The petals have fallen to the ground, pink and purple and red. But I expect the seed-pods are still standing tall. If you take a sharp knife to one of those seed-pods, and make a careful diagonal incision, you will see a white latex ooze out. What is that gunk? That is opium, my friend; and the reason there are so many giant poppies all over that part of England is that the seeds have been blown in the wind or carried in the guts of birds. They have come from the farms. We actually grow opium there, and we grow it officially.

At direct government urgings, there are large tracts of land that are given over to the cultivation of the palaver somniferum, for the very good reason that the opium is essential for the NHS. When we die of cancer, or when we are carried off in any other mortal agony, our final miseries are invariably palliated by opiates, in the form of morphine or diamorphine, and indeed our respiration is typically suppressed by these drugs in a vast and unadmitted programme of humane killing.

Given this reality, and given the desperate shortage of analgesic drugs that has occasionally hit the health service, opium has entered the repertoire of UK cash crops.

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