Blackwall tunnel

I was going to blog about the closure of the Blackwall tunnel at some point today. I have just got around to it.

The initial news was that extensive fire damage meant that the tunnel was expected to be closed until Wednesday. It seems that Boris wasn't too keen on South East London being gridlocked for three days and put considerable pressure on TFL to get the work done more quickly. Top marks Boris.

It also seems that TFL pulled out all the stops to get the work done, and will be in a position to reopen the tunnel at about 7PM this evening. Top marks TFL.

I have been quite a critique of TFL but, credit where credit's due, they have responded well to the needs on thousands of my constituents and got the job done.

Politicising the police

There as been a lot of ill informed comment about Chris Grayling's proposals to have elected heads of policing.

Let's just look at the situation as it currently stands. If crime in your area increased against a national decline or the police were ordered to turn a blind eye to public drug taking, who would you hold to account and how?

Let's look at a specific example. If crime in London was to soar who would lose their job in 2012, Boris Johnson or Sir Paul Stephenson?

The creation of police authorities was a step in the right direction but it is a flawed model. The MPA sets the budget, owns the properties ,d employs the non-uniformed police staff. It is part of the delivery machine. It is also the scrutiny body. I can't see how it can properly scrutinise a process that it is part of.

Operational decisions will still be made by the police but budgets and priorities will be set by someone accountable to the people being policed rather than police authorities.

Goodbye to Des Browne

Regular readers will know that I have never had a particularly high regard for Des Browne in his capacity of Defence Secretary.

I have little doubt that he is a good man, probably filled wit the best of intentions, but hopeless at Defence.

The news that he plans to stand down at the next election triggers little emotion, I have to confess. I wish him well in the future and have written this haiku.

Browne, not a bad man

Geoff Hoon set the bar so low

Yet Browne slid under

Feel free to add your own.

Boris in Welling shops

Earlier this week Boris came to open a new supermarket in Welling, in my constituency.

Here's the video of the even.

My City Hall podcast

My latest podcast has gone live over at Tory Radio, you can listen to it here.

This week I talk about Mayors Question Time where night flights and the Olympic Route Network and the great news about the roll out of Oyster cards.

Oysters on the menu

Boris has delivered on another of his pre-election promises. From the start of next year Oyster cards will be accepted on overground trains and Thames river services.

At last outer London commuters can take advantage of the lower fairs that are available to Oyster users. Livingstone's policy of picking fights with the rail operators made for good headlines but didn't deliver the Oyster improvements that Londoners needed.

Even the hyper critical Chair of the Assembly's Transport Committee (Lib Dem, Caroline Pidgeon) seems impressed. “After repeated delays it is welcome that Oyster pay-as-you-go is finally being extended to all cover all National Rail services in London.” she said.

Total Politics- Theatre Review

A little while ago I promised you the review of Kwame Kwei-Armah new play "Seize the Day". Well here it is. It is in this month's edition of Total Politics (available online) and as the Americans would say "there is a whole bunch of other great stuff in there too".

"Would you like to see Kwame Kwei-Armah's new play Seize the Day?" asked Emily, the nice young lady from Total Politics. "It's about a middle class black guy having a crack at becoming Mayor of London," she said. How could I resist?

The premise was not all that farfetched: long-standing players in the race relations world bemoaning the relative lack of progression made by black politicians. Seeing the London mayoralty as an opportunity to shortcut the system and create an Obama moment, they look to get someone with a bit of spark and an existing public profile, surround him with political insiders, run him as an independent, throw big money at the campaign and hey presto - a black Mayor of London.

So much for the manifesto; what about the delivery? There were times when I worried that the script was being played out by a cast of caricatures. Through much of the first act all but the leads seemed a little exaggerated, not quite grotesques but not quite right either.

All the characters you would expect to see were there but, slightly disappointingly, none that generated surprise. There was Jeremy Charles, reality TV celebrity, charismatic and dynamic, thrust to the fore but torn between his ambition and his conscience. He is being pushed, polished and prepared for greatness by manipulative power players dripping flattery into his ear.

To offset this we have Lavelle, a knife-carrying gang kid, there to provide raw street wisdom; the narrative equivalent of a hooker with the heart of gold. And, ultimately, we had Jeremy's slim white wife and Lavelle's curvy, black, earth-mother to provide a metaphorical and visible spectrum against which we could measure the authenticity of Jeremy's blackness or lack thereof.

The dialogue and acting saved these characters; their words, opinions and even their gestures were well-observed and sharp. Peppered with in-jokes about the cynicism of politics in general and race politics in particular, Kwame clearly did plenty of homework before writing and directing this play and was unafraid of stepping on a few toes.

People in the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the campaigning group Operation Black Vote may see glimpses of themselves in the kingmakers and spin doctors who orbit Jeremy; there are plenty of not-so-tangential references to them. They may not like what they see. Diane Abbott came out of it well, mentioned enough times that she might feel aggrieved not to have got a credit on the cast list.

If the first act was played a little too much for laughs, the second was much more mature and thoughtprovoking, providing some lemon to cut the honeyed first half. This is where the big questions were asked. In order to win in London, would a black candidate need to black up or become colourless? Could they get in with only the ethnic vote or without it? Would the win be for the individual or for all black Londoners?

If I told you whether or not these questions are answered, I would probably spoil the ending. But this play is at least as much about what it means to be comfortable, middle class and black as it is about politics.

Seize the Day was easy to watch and well observed; I didn't leave the theatre disappointed.

And that's how the French repay them!

Some might say that Ireland getting done over by the French in the World Cup qualifier is galactic karma for their U-turn over the Lisbon treaty referendum.

You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment.