Wither our dear bus already?

Less than a month in and already doubts have been cast over the likelihood of London seeing a new Routemaster.

We all remember the Mayor’s pre-election promises to start the process of creating a new bus on ’day one, act one, scene one‘ of his term in power. Boris himself said these plans were not ‘beyond the wit of man’, but now his director of transport policy, Kulveer Ranger, has taken the most tentative of steps to suggest that the double decker is not a certainty.

Ranger is an ex-DJ, former Tory parliamentary candidate, management consultant and Spurs supporter, who has in the past warned of Conservative leader, David Cameron’s “aristocratic tinge”. In his new role as part of Johnson’s City Hall team he added a list of caveats to the introduction of the Routemaster II.

After repeating earlier announcements that a competition would be held to find a new design, he went on to state that the policy would be reconsidered if no bid appeared good enough. In addition he failed to narrow down the cost of the project, which currently stands somewhere between £8 million and over £100 million. Finally, he prevaricated on the question of whether conductors would be present on the new vehicles, despite Boris’ previous promises.

Perhaps it might turn out to be beyond the wit of man - or at least one man - after all.

The Prince of Darkness comes to town

Boris has appointed Tim Parker as the capital’s ‘First Deputy Mayor’ (you may remember that Johnson is collecting quite a number of deputies) on a salary of just £1.

If Parker’s name doesn’t ring a bell, let the general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, Bob Crow, refresh your memory:

“Tim Parker has a reputation as a private-equity asset- stripper and has been dubbed the Prince of Darkness by unions that have encountered his methods in the past.”

Crow’s opposite number at the GMB union, Paul Kenny, added:

“This is a scary moment for London’s commuters.”

And our dear ex mayor, Ken Livingstone, concluded:

“The appointment of Tim Parker as first deputy Mayor shows clearly the path of decline  of London represented by Boris Johnson’s administration.

“Mr Parker’s record as a downsizing cost-cutter is the exact reverse of the management of large-scale investment projects London requires.

“His record of brutality and heartlessness towards workers in his own companies is totally unsuitable for dealing with the  complex communities of London.”

Parker’s time at the AA resulted in around 3,500 job losses.

A crusade against corruption, or simple self interest?

Boris Johnson has written to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to call for a limit to the number of terms a Mayor of London can serve.

In his letter to Hazel Blears, Johnson states that “It’s about time that the Government changed the law to give Londoners a mayoral system which is accountable and open.”

Is the new Mayor fighting ‘cronyism, misconduct and corruption’ or merely planning ahead for the next election? By 2012 the Londoners who cast their votes in support of Boris might have grown tired of him as Olympic costs spiral further under his leadership and election promises go unfulfilled. Meanwhile most of the weariness of Ken Livingston’s two terms may have ebbed away. Perhaps Boris is attempting to insure himself against his most powerful opponent.  

Photo: Bruno Girin

From little acorns

Boris does indeed seem to be keeping to his election night promise to run London as ‘new Boris’, because he yesterday announced the laudable but disappointingly sensible policy of abolishing City Hall’s freesheet, the Londoner. What’s more, some of the £2.9m (according to the Mayor’s team) that used to go into producing the capital’s own version of Pravda will be directed into a new tree-planting programme.

Ten thousand trees, perhaps a drop in London’s ocean of six million but a welcome drop, will be interred in areas which can benefit from them most. So get ready to see more of our lovely, hardy old London Plane near you.

Strangely The Londoner, whose byline is ‘News from the Mayor of London’ hasn’t yet reported the new policy. In fact there has been no Mayor’s Message for a few months now, a development that looks certain to continue.

Gong

Tuesday night and another party for our new Mayor, as Boris attended the radio industry’s annual gong-fest, the Sony Radio Awards.

Johnson joined a few hundred producers, presenters, managers and agents in the (somewhat warm) Great Room of the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane, to hand out the Radio Academy’s Community Award. A little lacklustre, the Mayor did at least find fun in the fact that the winner was Lights out London, by Capital Radio.

It was a deservedly great night for the BBC World Service, which picked up four golds, for Newshour (The News & Current Affairs Programme Award), World Have Your Say (The Listener Participation Award), Owen Bennett-Jones (The News Journalist of the Year) and the brilliant Bangladesh Boat Project (The Multiplatform Radio Award) which deserves all the plaudits it gets, for a clever use of Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps and more.

Elsewhere at the ceremony, Chris Moyles’s parents were brought on stage to present their son with his Breakfast Show Award. Unfortunately Moyles didn’t have the grace and wit to make the most out of the surprise, but instead fell back on his standard self-indulgent, churlish fare.

More heartening was a wonderful thank-you to the BBC’s departing Director of Audio and Music (that’s radio to us normal people). Jenny Abramski is leaving the Corporation to chair the National Lottery Heritage Fund and her old commercial foe Ralph Bernard presented her with a Special Award and a loving tribute to 39 and a half years of working in radio.

While Simon Mayo picked up an extremely well deserved gold for Speech Broadcaster of the Year, Jon Ronson and Geoff Lloyd were robbed of the glory that should have been theirs in the Feature Award and Music Personality categories.

Finally, the Academy’s special Gold Award went to a familiar voice on Radio 2 and the Light Programme before that, Brian Matthew, who closed the night with a funny but moving speech. 

Sunday service

No substantial Boris news this weekend, more a case of little tapas style platters than a full main course. So here’s a brief tasting menu:

New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s came to London on Friday, he brought with him advice and a crystal apple as a gift symbolising the city with which London often competes. In turn Boris gave Bloomberg a piece of London Underground tat, a shirt emblazoned with the Tube map. If Johnson really wanted to give the impression of having bought a gift as an afterthought on the way to the meeting, why not go the whole hog and plump for some petrol station bought flowers or those shell-shaped Belgian chocolates every newsagent sells? The Herald Tribune summarised Bloomberg’s advice Johnson as these three simple tips:

1. Take the time to build a solid team, even if the press is on your case to speed things up.
2. Do the hard, controversial things early. If you’re lucky, they’ll work out in time to help with re-election.
3. Be yourself. Don’t worry about being flavour-of-the-month.

The New York Mayor also gave a lesson on obfuscation, suggesting that when dealing with journalists “you don’t have to match your answers to their questions. If you don’t give the right answers to their questions, they asked the wrong questions.” This from a politician of the country that’s trying to bring democracy around the globe.

Johnson has angered the art world by supporting a campaign to place a permanent statue of Battle of Britain hero, Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. The space, intended for an equestrian statue that was never created, currently holds specially commissioned sculptures decided by a competition that are replaced every 18 months. This year’s shortlist includes Tracey Emin, Anthony Gormley and Anish Kapoor (pictured).

The LA Times reports that Los Angeles’ top cop Bill Bratton isn’t coming to London, despite recent rumours. Bratton, who has in the past offered advice to Ken Livingston, said: “I have had no conversations with Mr. Johnson, I have not spoken with any members of his administration and I have not been approached to act as an advisor.” That’s a no then.

The new Mayor’s father, Stanley Johnson, is interviewed in The Sunday Times today about his ambitions to succeed Boris as Henley’s constituency MP. Johnson senior gives his son some guidance on how London transport could be improved: “You get on the Underground train and what do you hear? ‘This train terminates at Stanmore’. What complete garbage. Terminate is a transitive verb. You ‘terminate’ someone’s life. I will ‘terminate’ this conversation.” He goes on to boast that when he wrote his novel ‘Tunnel’ the channel tunnel hadn’t even been built, as if the concept had never occurred to anyone else before.

The Sunday Mirror reports that the junior Johnson broke the law as he cycled to work on Friday. Boris was caught jumping 6 red lights, mounting a pavement and failing to stop at zebra crossing.

Finally, the Mayor will today attend The Global Day of Prayer event at Millwall’s The Den, where he is expected to ask churches to help him cut crime.

Tapas image by Freddy

No more booze on the Tube

“Too many people have the unpleasant experience of sitting opposite someone swigging a can of lager,” said the London Mayor who had celebrated his election win at a Champagne fuelled party on Friday night. The ban will be backed by a new bylaw, but the only penalty for offenders will be ejection from the bus or train.

Passengers travelling out of London to their second homes in the countryside will still be able to enjoy a glass of Sancerre in the First Class carriage though, as national rail trains will be unaffected.

New Tube poster (photo: Annie Mole)

The last word though, should go to RMT transport union chief Bob Crow, who succinctly pointed out a small flaw in Johnson’s plan: “Perhaps the mayor will come out with his underpants on over his trousers like Superman one Saturday to show us how it should be done, and maybe tell a crowd of Liverpool supporters that they can’t drink on the train.”

UPDATE: The Tory supporting, evening Standard run website This is London reports that the Government are considering adopting the alcohol ban on public transport nationwide.

• Elsewhere today, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visits London to give Boris some advice on law and order

Day 5 - A new Routemaster already?

The design director of a bus manufacturer has said a replacement for London’s famous Routemaster bus could be on the road in three years.

Alan Ponsford of Capoco says their new hybrid-powered vehicle would cost £200,000 each (compared to £150,000 for standard double-deckers). The project itself would have a price tag somewhere in the big gap that sits between £5m and £10m. The vehicles would cater for the disabled with a side door and ramp in addition to the open back corner.

Capoco have made their design study available online, as well as more images it also includes:

• Specifications (PDF)
• 3D movie (Quicktime)

Mayors, mayors everywhere

Still no word on the bus, but Boris has today announced no fewer than three more Deputy Mayors.

As we learnt over the weekend Ray Lewis was named Deputy Mayor for Young People, but didn’t qualify to be London’s statutory deputy as he isn’t a member of the assembly. Boris today named two more specialist deputies and a bonefide Deputy who does qualify for the title.

Richard Barnes, the multilingual Conservative assembly member who has spent years living Denmark, Sweden and Norway, gets the official number two job. He is a member of both the Metropolitan Police Authority and the North West London Strategic Health Authority.

Also appointed is Kit Malthouse, another Conservative assembly member, famed for his five year long battle to ban prostitution ads from phone boxes and another crusade to banish filth, when he campaigned for an end to the ‘homes for votes’ scandal involving Tory councillor Shirley Porter.

The appointments continued with Ian Clement, another Deputy Mayor, this time for Government Relations. Clement’s day jobs is at the Royal Mail, where he is a manager.

Finally, a close associate of David Cameron, Sir Simon Milton becomes Senior Adviser, Planning. Milton married his partner Robert Davis, another Tory councillor and former Lord Mayor of Wesminster in a civil ceremony last year.

Oh happy day

A little good news to cheer despondent Londoners today, as radio station Talk Sport has sacked presenter James Whale for breaching broadcasting rules on political impartiality.

Whale, who in recent photographs, has seemed to be modelling himself after Gary Glitter, is known for his outspoken views and had been at the station since its 1995 beginnings as Talk Radio.

Complaints were made to regulator Ofcom, after he urged his audience to vote for Boris, a spokesperson for Talk Sport said of the outburst on March 20th: “there was a clear breach of the rules and that we had no choice but to terminate his contract”.

The presenter’s agent Stuart Hobday said it’s come as a “huge shock” to Whale, though quite how he can be surprised after working for over 30 years in speech radio, an industry governed by political regulations which have barely changed in that time, is a mystery to most onlookers. In fact it is understood that the host not only told listeners to ‘vote Boris’ once, but repeated his views on a subsequent broadcast.

Ofcom has yet to complete it’s investigation, which follows a ruling it made last year that concluded the station was responsible for a serious breach of the same broadcasting code on impartiality in politics when another phone-in host and MP George Galloway criticised a rival for the constituency of Poplar and Limehouse, Jim Fitzpatrick.

Maybe, just maybe, there is justice after all.