A new website has been launched for Boris’s re-election campaign. The response so far has been great, with thousands signing up to receive campaign updates and become involved as volunteers.
See the Blog here
Tag Archives: Mayor of London
Is the Met. Office facing relegation ?
Is it possible that everything we do is dwarfed by the moods of the star that gives life to the world? The Sun is incomparably vaster and more powerful than any work of man.
Well, folks, it’s tea-time on Sunday and for anyone involved in keeping people moving it has been a hell of a weekend. Thousands have had their journeys wrecked, tens of thousands have been delayed getting away for Christmas; and for those Londoners who feel aggrieved by the performance of any part of our transport services, I can only say that we are doing our level best.
Almost the entire Tube system was running yesterday and we would have done even better if it had not been for a suicide on the Northern Line, and the temporary stoppage that these tragedies entail. Of London’s 700 bus services, only 50 were on diversion, mainly in the hillier areas. On Saturday, we managed to keep the West End plentifully supplied with customers, and retailers reported excellent takings on what is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
We have kept the Transport for London road network open throughout all this. We have about 90,000 tons of grit in stock, and the gritters were out all night to deal with this morning’s rush. And yet we have to face the reality of the position across the country.
Snooty Europhiles should eat dirt
The continent is a collection of different languages and labour-market traditions and individual approaches to deficits and inflation. … Angela Merkel is plainly facing significant unrest from a growing constituency who see no reason to pay ever more in their taxes to finance … the periphery of Europe.
I think we deserve an apology. By “we” I mean all the Euro-sceptics, Euro-pragmatists, Euro-realists and Euro-hysterics who were alarmed by some of the optimism that surrounded the birth of the single currency. Do you remember the disdain with which we were treated? We were told that we were boss-eyed Little Englanders. They used to say we were a bunch of xenophobic, garlic-hating defenders of the pint and the yard and the good old bread-filled British banger.
Whenever we protested about any detail of the plan for monetary union, we were told that we were in danger of stopping the great European train, boat, bus, bicycle or whatever it was. We were a blimpish embarrassment to our country, a bunch of idiot children who had to be shooshed while the grown-ups got on with their magnificent plans.
So it gives me a tingling pleasure to report that everywhere you look on the map of Europe we have been proved resoundingly and crushingly right.
The Tube Strike
I address myself directly this morning to the three million people – including many readers – who use the London Underground network; and I have no inhibitions whatever in focusing on these passengers, because the irritation they are experiencing as a result of industrial action is not only disgraceful, but an omen for the entire country as we struggle to come out of recession
If you have been kept waiting, or if your day has been wrecked, or if your colleagues and staff have been unable to make it to the office, then the first and most important thing I should say is how deeply I regret this strike and the inconvenience you are suffering. And if you are wondering why it is happening today, when the Tory party conference is taking place in Birmingham, then I hope the answer is obvious.
This is a nakedly political strike. It has nothing whatever to do with health and safety – nor have the union leaderships raised any such fears in the course of the negotiations.
Quotes of the week …
… ending 25th. September 2010
~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~ · ~
As he accepted the leadership of the British Labour Party at its annual conference Ed Miliband said —
“I get it and I understand the need to change. I need to unify the party and I will.”
~ · ~
Meeting the Pope at Heathrow
No wonder we had a complex. No wonder we had always been divided in our feelings towards continental Europe. We had a deep childhood sense of rejection
There we were on the tarmac at Heathrow as the papal jet prepared to land. The cameras were trained on the night sky. The red carpet was rolled out. The charming Foreign Office people tried for the umpteenth time to remind me where to stand – and all the while my mind was whirring with a single question. It is a problem that goes to the heart of the relationship between church and state. It is a question that will be studied by future generations of students of theology and patristics, because the answer we give – and the answer you give, off the top of your head – is an indication of the balance currently existing between the privileges of spiritual leaders and the egalitarian demands of our temporal world.
Boris Johnson to run for Mayor in 2012
To-day’s announcement by Boris Johnson of his intention to seek a second term as Mayor of London will be welcomed by many Londoners and come as a huge relief to the current leaders of the Conservative Party. A recent discussion of the question “Should Boris return to Parliament ?” prompts a well-wisher to offer —
Some Suggestions
Background
For some time a popular, although little organized, movement has been proposing the adoption of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, as leader of Conservatism in the u.k. Let us first consider the reality of the situation.
Some years ago David Cameron, either off his own bat or at Mr. Johnson’s suggestion, stood for election to leadership of the Conservative Party (c.p.) ; his period as leader of H.M. Opposition was reasonably successful and, as 2009 drew to a close with a general election just six months away, the c.p. looked set to take power, after thirteen years, by a margin that brought to mind the days of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
Mr. Cameron however, although enjoying general popularity, espoused many ideas decisively unpopular not only with swing voters but even with the core supporters of the c.p. : most of all the subjugation of the British parliament to the profligate and unaccountable European Union (e.u.) and — in line with the vast majority of the scientifically illiterate body politic — the supranational anthropogenic-global-warming fraud.
On May 7, when the votes had been counted, the consequences were clear : as the electorate had come to realize just how close these critical policies of the c.p. were to those of not only the Liberal-Democrats but even the retiring Labour administration, the vital marginal support the c.p. had enjoyed at the turn of the year had evaporated.
The beneficiaries ? The U.K. Independence Party ; perhaps the British National Party ; in all likelihood, however, the greatest winner of the lost ballots was the ‘none of the above’ party. I suspect even the Liberal-Democrats benefited from the fact that there was nothing to choose between them and the c.p. in the two most important matters before the British people. (“The Conservatives are no different from the Liberals : might as well let the Liberals have a go. They can’t do any worse, can they ?”)
Labour, despite having presided over the most disastrous phase of British history since the Civil War, managed to turn its own vote out ; despite their strenuous efforts, c.p. workers — under the burden of the product they were having to sell — could not match their opponents’ performance.
Q: Should Boris return to Parliament?
Why does Atatürk Havalimani* have all the money?
* havalimani : airport
|
|
Istanbul’s gleaming and expanding airport is a symbol of a nation going places … |
… Heathrow is not,
|
|
The other night we were filling in time at Istanbul airport, and I was watching an official dart around on one of those new Segway gizmos. Have you seen one? They are extraordinary. It was as though his feet had grown wheels. This way and that he sheepdogged the passengers, twisting and curvetting and generally running rings round them like some Spanish midfielder.
“What a poser !” I exclaimed. “He’s just showing off. He doesn’t need that thing at all.” And then he pushed down the stick and he shot off into the distance like Usain Bolt – and we understood why he was equipped with electric feet.
Continue reading Why does Atatürk Havalimani* have all the money?
Why is literacy declining?
Boris displays his shameless competitive streak as he remembers being beaten by his sister when reading
Lurking in the childhood of anyone ambitious there is always the memory of some humiliation that sets them on the path of self-improvement. Show me a billionaire, and I will show you someone who was beaten up for his lunch money. Many is the megalomaniac who first had to overcome a case of acne or puppy fat or being forced by his mother to wear a flowery tie to a friend’s birthday party. You want to know my moment of childhood shame? Shall I tell you when I decided that I was going to have to sharpen up my act to survive?