Ken vs. Boris: It's So On

he wants to make a no strike deal or something according to his pledges

I was wondering about this before the election, as the standard was running scare-posters about possible strikes - could the unions make Boris's life a misery, if they so wanted?

How can you possibly justify a no-strike deal? It's nonsense.

RMT have categorically said they won't sign a no strike deal.

They're just some blokes who drive trains, they're not the friggin' armed forces or whatever

I don't think the idea is hilarious at all. I just think it's horrific, like everything else about him.

Having been uncharacteristically sombre of late under the close watch of his media minders, the newly elected mayor could not resist making a series of quips during his first address to all City Hall staff. He himself, Mr Johnson reassured them, was no more a “crazed Thatcherite neocon” than his rival Ken Livingstone was a “Socialist who would hang the last 4x4 driver off the guts of the last non-dom”.

His door was always open, he said, and staff should address him by his first name “without fear of being fined £5 by Tessa Jowell”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3883064.ece

Boris, in a real dick move, is also going to start charging LPG-powered cars the full congestion charge.

that was already part of ken's plan afaik james

he can't even come up with his own ideas. WHAT A DICK.

Going back to the BNP. Their only councillor in my area is for a small, almost totally white, village. Not working class by any stretch, although perhaps you might call some of them aspirational ex-working class.

Oh yeah, and she was on "Airline", so probably people just liked the celebrity aspect.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/jan/13/transport.environment

Don't LPG cars cause congestion then?

My thoughts exactly, they also aren't that more efficient.

I think Ken's change would have qualified most LPG cars for a 100% discount when the change comes in because of their low emissions, but now Boris is going to scrap that, too.

i have a friend with an lpg car who i'm seeing tomorrow and i'll ask him what's up

At least shows some consistency.

LPG cars and vans were exempted, but the rules were going to be chaged so that the only exemptions would be for cars emitting under 120g/km of CO2 whatever the fuel.

If the charge is there to discourage people from driving into the centre, then it really shouldn't make much difference if you have somewhat lower emissions than somebody else's car.

i don't have a prob w/the congestions charge being a stealth low-emission incentive

you have to put up a severe discouragement for some people, but not all, to drive; who?

even better would be public transport that was the envy of private car drivers but heh like that's going to happen.

the envy of private car drivers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/uk_enl_1198057774/img/1.jpg

Someone needs to photoshop 'LOL BORIS' on the front and 'I HAS A LUNDUN' down the side.

has anyone pointed out that it kind of looks like homer simpson's dream car?

I like the idea of a futuristic routemaster, it would be like something out of 2000AD when Judge Dredd went on a trip to "Brit Cit".

so how do the wheelchair users get on? magic?

"Don't Blame Me - I Voted for Sunn O)))"

you were why R Kelly wasn't at last year's ATP :(

WHY is BONKERS BORIS not FULMINATING over IMMEDIATE MEASURES to be TAKEN to combat rampant GUN CRIME in poverty-riddled CHELSEA SHOOTOUT last night behind popular PAUL'S BOULANGERIE has JUICED JOHNSON even HEARD of Sloane Square?

Going back to the BNP. Their only councillor in my area is for a small, almost totally white, village. Not working class by any stretch, although perhaps you might call some of them aspirational ex-working class.

Yeah it's not like yr average spittle-flecked racist fantasist needs to ever actually encounter any of them immigants to be convinced by the Daily Express that they're absolutely everywhere and now the government wants to close YOUR local Post Office and make it into a special Serbs-only lapdancing club with YOUR tax money

FUCK OFF GILLIGAN FUCK OFF FUCK OFF FUCK OFF FUCK OFF FUCK OFF
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7387113.stm

Yeah that'll work.

Love to know how they plan to enforce this. Tasers for Tizers?

I've seen tons of bus drivers being really insistent on people not taking cans on in the past few months anyway, what's he doing taking credit for that bit?

I guess maybe some of those conductors for the Routemasters that are gonna cost £8 million can just hang around preventing alcohol consumption on the tube until they're built

So fucked off about that :(

So you'll be able to buy as much beer as you like on the train coming to london (on which they sell beer) but take a can onto the tube and get...what...arrested? Chucked off the train?

Surely the problem is not people drinking but people already drunk? How's is he going to tackle that. This is a typical First Hundred Days headline grabbing initiative which will make no difference whatsoever to antisocial behaviour on the tubes.

Also I thought he was against nannying?

Possibly gonna spend the rest of May enjoying my last three weeks of legal tube drinking by getting hammered on every single journey and bellowing about how everyone who voted for this prick deserves to die

i'm getting a hipflask for my birthday

so that cunt can take cocaine but i can't have a beer on the tube.

Under the GLA Act, the Mayor can appoint two political advisers without any scrutiny or need for advertising their posts. He can appoint a further 10 senior aides as long as their jobs are at least nominally put out for open competition. Under Ken, this formality was observed but everyone knew that his senior "Policy Directors" (Director of Economic Policy, Director or Housing etc) - all of whom were earning £120k-plus salaries - were his loyal confidants.

Given Boris's campaign pledge to end the "cronyism" and "secrecy" at City Hall, and publish on the internet as much information "from Day One" of his mayoralty, it was disappointing to find today that no one seemed to know what salaries the new deputies are on. It is, as Boris, would say, OUR money.

http://waugh.standard.co.uk/2008/05/all-change-at-c.html

it's political correctness gone mad xpost

Maybe we should have another thread - the Ken bit seems a bit redundant (not to mention depressing)?

And so we shall have one:

The Brave New Dawn of Boris the Wondermayor

Ken Livingstone turns radio host on LBC

LONDON - Red Ken is turning shock jock as the former London mayor joins the capital's talk station LBC.

Livingstone will initially stand in for the 1pm-4pm weekday host Jeni Barnett, who will be away on holiday, from June 30 to July 4. He will then take charge of his own regular show, details of which are to yet to be confirmed.

The man who was ousted by Tory Boris Johnson will now have a platform to discuss his successor as well as issues such as transport, housing and crime.

Livingstone promised he would be the "perfect afternoon antidote" to LBC's breakfast host Nick Ferrari, who at one time considered running for mayor.

The hiring will help LBC grab headlines and most likely more listeners at a time when its popularity is already rising. The latest radio audience figures show its share of listening in London was up from 3.5% to 4.5% in one quarter.

Jonathan Richards, programme director at LBC, said: "Love him or hate him, Ken Livingstone is never boring."

Livingstone's move follows Boris Johnson's return to writing his weekly Daily Telegraph column, for which he reportedly earns £250,000 per year.

I'm sure he'll be as big a success on radio as his fellow clapped out 80s Trots Hatton and Galloway.

He's also planning ahead:

http://davehill.typepad.com/london3ms/2008/05/comeback-ken.html

"Only three weeks into his Mayoralty Boris Johnson's letter to Hazel Blears calling for no Mayor to be allowed to serve more than two terms shows he believes his administration is going to fail and he is manoeuvring to try to undemocratically prevent Ken Livingstone running against him in 2012.

This assessment by Boris Johnson is entirely realistic. After only three weeks it is already evident his administration is a going to be a shambles - it has abandoned his flagship pledge to introduce a new Routemaster, it has been forced to abandon as illegal its attempt to employ Sir Simon Milton as the planning adviser, it has moved to scrap half yearly taxi safety testing and, in what will be the first of many steps alienating environmentalists, it has backed an energy guzzling desalination plant for Thames Water rather than keep up the pressure for them to stem to (sic) vast loss of water from its antiquated pipe network.

In these circumstances it should come as no surprise that one of Johnson's first concerns is to try to undemocratically block Ken Livingstone from unseating him in 2012."

Forget it, Ken

He's already made one comeback - why couldn't he make another?

He could but it wouldn't work