tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195959772012-02-10T16:45:39.418ZJames Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.comBlogger20311100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-66079573904840102192012-02-09T13:38:00.002Z2012-02-09T13:38:19.608Z

This morning was the final part of the budget setting process here at City Hall.  Each of the other parties in the Assembly put forward budget amendments and we supported the Mayor's, as each of the amendments was out-voted the budget was put to the Assembly unamended. At that point the most extraordinary thing happened.  The Lib Dems and the Greens voted against the budget, as you would expect,

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-64800513323980596752012-02-08T18:36:00.000Z2012-02-09T13:29:49.241Z

The more people see of Boris the more they like Boris. Livingstone is the same, the more people see of Livingstone the more they like Boris. I genuinely believe that the more exposure that Livingstone gets during this campaign the less chance he has of winning.  It is getting to the point where he cannot open his mouth without saying something nasty, personal, crass or deceitful.  And Londoners

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-45040939450867621372012-02-08T17:45:00.000Z2012-02-08T17:45:47.939Z

Having dug himself into a hole over his phantom TFL money (details here) Livingstone is doing it again with police funding. His latest "promise" is to recruit an extra 1,700 police officers paid for: “by ensuring that Transport for London pays the full cost of the Safer Transport Command, reduce spending on bureaucracy at the new MOPC, stand up against Tory government cuts and deploy new

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-33626130340423214762012-02-06T19:41:00.001Z2012-02-07T09:31:16.357Z

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-74308189540765048582012-02-02T12:59:00.000Z2012-02-02T12:59:17.633Z

Livingstone is still pushing the falacy that there is a huge pot of money sitting around that can be spent on cutting fares even though the claim has been completely discredited.   Let's ask ourselves the most obvious of questions; if this money really does exist why wouldn't Boris spend it in an election year to win votes? The simple answer is because it doesn't exist! Livingstone keeps

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-70287413914368150692012-02-01T08:15:00.001Z2012-02-01T08:15:47.821Z

Workers at the Olympic Park based on Bathers at Asnieres by Georges Seurat:

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-61178107694796189502012-01-31T21:14:00.000Z2012-01-31T21:16:03.584Z

Ken Livingstone's campaign is being propped up by the transport unions, last month the TSSA agreed to give the Livingstone campaign £25,000.  They are also looking to merge with the RMT to create a transport "super union". "So what?" you might ask. Many of us have suspected that the unions would demand some payback for their financial support it looks Livingstone is planning to give them some.

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-74958492062733036402012-01-29T15:41:00.002Z2012-01-29T15:41:52.796Z

The row over RBS chief, Stephen Hester's bonus is fascinating.  The public are clearly disgusted that the boss of a bank bailed out with our money is getting a huge salary and bonus, especially while many people are feeling seriously squeezed.  Labour, despite being in charge when he was recruited and his contract set, are making the most of this with opportunistic attack on the government's "

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-77264886001905028172012-01-25T22:20:00.000Z2012-01-25T22:29:50.527Z

Here is the full text of the speech the Mayor gave today. I don't usually give a full transcript but I think this is well worth a read. Value for money and freezing the precept Good morning This administration has been dedicated to delivering value for Londoners’ money, and to leading the city to a strong economic recovery.  You must remember that in the last four years we have not only been

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-68716892137387058402012-01-24T17:31:00.000Z2012-01-24T17:31:11.064Z

The "promise" to cut TFL fares by 7% is a key plank of Livingstone's election bid.  I have never believed that he would deliver on this because he has a track record of saying one thing before an election, then doing something completely different afterwards.  But I'm a Conservative and you'd expect me to say that. But Channel 4 News has a well respected and independent FactCheck site which has

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-24708469699255337602012-01-21T00:42:00.000Z2012-01-21T00:51:03.585Z

Londoners are too lazy to work claims Mayor, he went on to say "In seven years I have only been served coffee once by a born and bred Londoner". The year was 2007 and the Mayor in question was Ken Livingstone. Funny how a few years later and no longer in office he has slammed the current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, for saying "I don't want to stigmatise young people because many of them

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-87900671732657696762012-01-17T12:29:00.002Z2012-01-17T12:29:42.608Z

If you have a problem with BT @BTCare is the place to go. Last week, for no fathomable reason, we started to receive someone else’s phone calls on our home land-line, it seems that BT had either metaphorically or literally got their wires crossed. My wife rang up BT to ask them to sort it out. They managed to stop the wayward calls in just a few hours but in doing so also stopped all other

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-83859816250975751362012-01-16T14:39:00.000Z2012-01-16T14:39:00.038Z

Luke Bozier isn't famous, he isn't at the top of the Labour party and he isn't part of Miliband's top team.  He is an entrepreneur, former Tony Blair adviser and author of the Labour Business Report.  Outside political circles, and even inside, he isn't a big name but he is exactly the kind of person that the Labour party need to keep if they are to have any chance of forming a government any

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-3791864373975899852012-01-15T15:42:00.003Z2012-01-15T15:42:49.676Z

I've just caught up with Ed Miliband's interview on the Andrew Marr show where he tried to explain Labour's newly found position. Ed Miliband on Andrew Marr show He said that after the next election, if Labour win, they couldn't guarantee that they would reverse any of the spending cuts that the Coalition have made.  "We will inherit a difficult financial position" says Ed, "which is why  no

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-51796912587049326092012-01-13T16:50:00.000Z2012-01-13T16:50:27.065Z

I'm really pleased to hear that Pauline Pearce, who famously stood up to rioters in Hackney in August is doing more for her community by joining the advisory group for a Hackney free school.  I can't help but think that the passion that she showed in that video will serve the students of the school well.

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-74934530180342849922012-01-11T09:31:00.000Z2012-01-11T09:31:36.330Z

David Cameron has called for the UK film industry to be more bold and take on the might of the Hollywood studios and announced that film funding will be focussed towards achieving that goal. The film industry is incredibly important to London's economy as very few films don't involve a London based company somewhere along the way.  I have long been envious of the amount of exposure that New York

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-62512541692353085882012-01-10T12:05:00.001Z2012-01-10T12:05:43.251Z

The Indi is running a story about a potential "rift" between Clegg and Cameron over Europe and the veto.  This is such a non-story, Clegg's position on Europe is well known.  Cameron's position on Europe has been made clear and is much more in tune with the wishes of the British people. David Cameron is the Prime Minister and his position is both right and popular.  Nick Clegg is not Prime

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-22842784405360108142012-01-10T10:41:00.001Z2012-01-10T10:41:30.132Z

I can completely see the point of a ministerial visit to the 2012 Games venues, I think it's great that the PM and other to members of government used the high-speed Olympic Javelin shuttle from St Pancras to Stratford to celebrate 200 days to games time. But I still can't see the need to have Cabinet meetings all around the country. I used to do a lot of business travelling, lots of meetings

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-50838161884062139982012-01-10T09:12:00.000Z2012-01-15T16:00:47.187Z

Can bankers be loveable? While this film by first time writer/director J.C. Chandor doesn't exactly try to make them lovable it goes a long way to explaining their behaviour and present them as human.  The film is billed as a thriller, but those craving a fast paced adrenalin ride will be disappointed, it is a drama and is the more powerful because of it. Margin Call starts and ends with the

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-59377858403464636192012-01-09T11:59:00.000Z2012-01-09T11:59:41.342Z

The Iranian leadership is turning up the heat at the moment.  First there was the threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil route, which led Philip Hammond to issue a strongly worded warning last week.  Today I read that the Iranian government have issued a death sentence to someone they describe as "an American spy" knowing that the USA won't take it lying down. So we ask ourselves "what

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-66781087620998861782012-01-07T20:17:00.000Z2012-01-07T20:17:08.295Z

I found the survey results here on LabourList.org very interesting.  When asked what the top political event for the Labour party of 2011 was the November strikes cam out top by quite some margin. Source: www.LabourList.org A number of things struck me.  Firstly it wasn't a Labour party event, it was a union event, indeed Ed Miliband  didn't back the strikes. To be fair he didn't really oppose

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-58767525587391337972012-01-07T18:35:00.000Z2012-01-07T18:35:32.254Z

#Kensfares Ken might believe what he says about transport fares but the feedback that I get is that very few other people do. He has too much history of saying one thing before an election and doing something else afterwards to have any credibility on this issue. If we want London to stay at the forefront of world cities we have to have a decent transport system, decades of

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-38433406041278211952012-01-05T15:52:00.000Z2012-01-05T15:52:19.336Z

Cracking video made by Bromley District Scouts. 175 young people and Leaders from Bromley Scouts raised £11,000 by packing shopping bags in Sainsbury’s in Bromley in the week before Christmas. The money raised will be used to support the work of three local charities Demelza House Children’s Hospice, Guys & St Thomas’s HNT Cancer Charity, and Deaf Access, a charity based in South St

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-26030555662020097072012-01-03T21:49:00.002Z2012-01-03T21:49:52.176Z

I find it hard to believe that Stephen Lawrence was murdered almost 20 years ago.  I find it hard to believe that the investigation into his murder was so badly hampered by racism and ineptitude that Stephen's murderers walked free and I now find it hard to believe that they have finally been brought to justice. But justice has now, at last, been done and I hope that despite the appalling delay

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-59630779342337727872011-12-30T19:34:00.000Z2011-12-30T19:52:14.893Z

As modernist architect Louis Sullivan said "Form follows function".  We should look at the functions of the House of Lords and work backwards from there to discover its optimum composition which itself will direct us to the means of filling it. While the Lords can introduce bills, their main function is that of scrutinising and amending proposed legislation coming out of the Commons.  It is

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-87090067400269817082011-12-22T17:37:00.002Z2011-12-24T11:43:27.009Z

As part of the crackdown on metal theft in London, Bexley's police have landed a big haul.  A man working in a scrap metal dealers has been arrested after £16,000 worth of cable still carrying sheathing marked "Property of BT" and copper earthing straps stamped "Property of National Grid" were found. We now have to hope that the courts back up our police and give the sentences that are

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-85329538145928903672011-12-16T09:51:00.000Z2011-12-16T09:51:36.236Z

The result from the Feltham and Heston by-election came in overnight and was the least surprising result imaginable. The Labour candidate won, which even though we had hoped and fought for a Conservative win was always the most likely result.  Labour will try to say that this was a crushing blow for the Government or some huge vindication of Ed Miliband, it is quite clearly neither. The

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-66842622058066971162011-12-09T20:26:00.001Z2011-12-09T20:31:58.889Z

In just over three hours time London's last bendy buses will leave service.  I won't miss them. Boris promised to get rid of the red land-behemoths and replace them with clean, green (ecologically speaking, they will be painted red) British built, modern RouteMasters and he has delivered on that promise.

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-45565953173270395792011-12-09T10:14:00.001Z2011-12-09T20:32:21.553Z

Rather than focus on sorting out the Euro crisis the French and German governments sought to use the negotiations to consolidate their grip on the City of London.  The City has been looked upon with envious eyes for decades and proposals were being made which would damage London, the UK and Europe as a whole. Clearly the negotiators believed that the stakes were too high for Cameron to "play

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-54473177731482617852011-12-04T19:49:00.001Z2011-12-04T20:17:49.548Z

This story in the BBC about boadroom pay rather worries me.  While I have a great deal of sympathy with Nick Clegg's frustration at top managers getting big rewards for failure I'm not convinced it is something the government should intervene in directly. The people who should decide who is on the board, and therefore the renumeration committees that set pay, are the shareholders.  Shareholders

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-64343259614565521672011-12-02T09:19:00.001Z2011-12-02T09:38:41.350Z

In the lead up to Wednesday's strike it was claimed that women were going to be hardest hit by the pension changes that the government has to make. Harriet Harman was particularly vocal in her condemnation of the effect on "low paid women" despite the protections put in place specifically focussed on the lowest paid. One claim I overheard in a conversation was that the "Tories are screwing up (

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-36133012360846870012011-11-30T08:57:00.001Z2011-11-30T09:41:41.127Z

George Osborne will probably not go down in history as a great Chancellor, this has little to do with his abilities or commitment (both significant) but a great deal to do with timing. George Osborne delivers Autumn Statement He finds himself in the least favourable circumstances that any post-war chancellor has had to face.  People get plaudits for winning the yacht race not for preventing

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-63949238057423330822011-11-25T08:59:00.001Z2011-11-25T09:06:54.706Z

Back when it was the owners of the means of production that suffered financially during a strike I can understand the unions' logic.  If the boss wasn't looking after the workers, hit him in the pocket until he did. Now that the only unions left are in the public sector the people that they hurt during strikes are other workers trying to make ends meet.  As you can tell, I don't think that there

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-5762720443044105752011-11-22T11:47:00.001Z2011-11-22T12:13:54.549Z

There are lots of simple things that could be done to improve the funding of political parties. But a politics tax isn't one of them. A cap on donations from a person, company or organisation would be a good start, the Conservatives have in the past been too reliant on a small number of donors, and this makes us inward rather than outward looking. The Labour party is now almost totally funded

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-7753337643716927492011-11-14T21:53:00.001Z2011-11-14T22:10:45.040Z

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-69559434915753748902011-11-11T17:17:00.001Z2011-11-11T17:30:00.072Z

Ken Livingstone and his nominee for Deputy Mayor can't even agree as to where the money for his pie in the sky fares commitment would come from. When announcing his fare cut, Ken said: 'Without touching either future investment budgets, reserves, or existing operating budgets we can put the excess money to work for Londoners by holding down their fares.' But his deputy Val Shawcross then blew a

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-63612019552518512182011-11-11T16:28:00.001Z2011-11-11T16:33:10.851Z

Confession time. I watch the X-Factor, there I've said it! The show has been criticised for catapulting people to huge musical fame without the long battle that "proper" bands have to go through. Like that didn't happen before with Motown or Phil Spector's bands. But the expulsion of young (and as far as I could make out talentless) Frankie Cocozza highlights a new issue. Many young people

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-6805153760910163672011-11-11T00:33:00.001Z2011-11-11T00:43:57.379Z

Tom Watson's Mafia question to James Murdoch was designed to get Tom Watson on the news.  It worked.  However the committee's job is to find out what happened at News International during the phone hacking scandal. Watson's questions did nothing to get new or significant information was unnecessarily rude and provocative.  He even managed to create a situation where James Murdoch became the

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-35512082662447981712011-11-09T17:39:00.001Z2011-11-09T17:39:36.243Z

A bit of retro musical entertainment for you.

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-78155547938081913072011-11-08T17:04:00.001Z2011-11-09T00:17:44.596Z

I think that the Home Secretary has done a great job since the election and the relative lack of Home Office bad headlines reflects this. But is was never going to last forever.  Theresa May is still doing a good job but there is no doubt that the news about the relaxation of passport controls has been damaging. But let’s look at this for a second. All security measures are a compromise, a

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0City Hall51.5048514 -0.078692551.5023804 -0.083628 51.5073224 -0.073757tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-77381619432511843302011-11-04T09:46:00.000Z2011-11-04T09:46:46.070Z

That nice man Mr Livingstone So says Labour's London Mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone.  The subject of this tirade was Conservative Cllr Peter Graham of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, his sin was to want better housing in his borough.  The detail of the exchange can be read here: Ken Livingstone, seems increasingly bitter and twisted and projects this onto his opinion of others.  This isn't

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-12059630481970708112011-11-01T12:33:00.000Z2011-11-01T12:33:01.673Z

The Greek government is being forced into an austerity package that would turn your hair grey if it was happening to us.  The choice about the nature and timing of their cuts package has been taken away from them and their actions virtually dictated to them by their international creditors.  This is what happens when the markets lose confidence in a government's ability to manage it's economy.

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-88315727891400929732011-10-28T09:34:00.000Z2011-10-28T09:34:30.317Z

There are arguments in both directions about whether David Cameron should have imposed a three line whip on Monday's vote on an In/Out referendum on Europe.  My view is that it was unnecessary once the Lib Dems and Labour said they would vote against but that is not the main issue here. What strikes me is the inevitability of it.  The Government e-Petition site is a great way of opening up

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-19350601447212090392011-10-14T16:27:00.000Z2011-10-14T16:27:41.409Z

I am sad to say that this was looking increasingly inevitable and so it came to be. It seems that Adam Werritty overplayed his friendship with the Secretary of State and in doing so brought about his downfall.  It has the kind of irony that is normally found in poems and plays but in this case has severely damaged the career of a very effective minister. Despite what some of the more cynical

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-89247314013401273832011-10-12T18:28:00.000Z2011-10-12T18:28:28.358Z

I'm pleased to say that, once again, Bexley council is leading the way on recycling with a community recycling incentive scheme, part funded by the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWaRB). Bexley is the top of the pops when it comes to recycling rates (with Bromley not far behind) and it is clear that the council has no intention of resting on their laurels.  Working at a community level makes

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-79886104825638117532011-10-07T08:32:00.001Z2011-10-07T08:35:12.749Z

Unfortunately the coverage of the party conference seems to focus on two points.  Firstly that it was a bit dull, a bit boring and that the hall wasn't full when David Cameron made his set piece speech. Let's start with the accusations of being boring, last year the big message coming out of the conference was that the deficit needs to be closed and the economy sorted out.  This year the message

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-75733494859794564632011-10-05T15:47:00.000Z2011-10-05T15:47:31.582Z

Hopefully you would have seen my tweets from conference and I intend to write up my thoughts soon.  In the meantime here is a video of Boris's speech from yesterday morning.

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-65945591431664786412011-09-29T08:09:00.001Z2011-09-29T08:10:26.301Z

I don't have a track record of saying nice things about the unions but there's a first time for everything. Matt Wrack, the General Secretary of the Fire Brigade Unions, and Kevin Courtney, the National Union of Teachers Deputy General Secretary been game enough to join the London Assembly Conservatives in a debate at our party conference about the relevance of the unions in the 21st century.

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-51037980638439290602011-09-28T11:59:00.001Z2011-09-28T12:00:31.643Z

If you were inspired by David Walliams' swim in the Thames but you want a shorter distance and less chance of a dodgy tummy how about this: Advocacy for All is a charity that I support and they are organising a swimathon at Crook Log swimming pool on Tuesday 11 October between 4 - 9 pm Can you help? If so they need: Swimmers, as many or few lengths as you can do Helpers around the poolside Lane

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-2048560192511741242011-09-27T08:11:00.000Z2011-09-27T08:11:39.884Z

Livingstone has said that he will cut TFL fares by 5% if elected next spring.  That's great for headlines and may even prove to be good campaign politics but it shows that he is focussed solely on winning the election, not of governing. His pitch is that TFL are projected to make an operating surplus, he implies that this money is just sitting around waiting for a home.  The truth is that the

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-20257481104637190042011-09-26T10:25:00.001Z2011-09-26T11:10:16.163Z

So the Red Eds want us to believe that they are credible on economic matters.  Really?!?!?!?!? Ed Balls has come up with a half apology for not regulating financial services well enough, no apology for spending public money that we didn't have or borrowing huge amounts of money when times were good or burying his head in the sand when times were bad. Ed Miliband says that Labour can be taken

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-25274215318667819102011-09-20T18:08:00.016Z2011-09-24T11:16:32.115Z

Earlier today I joined Boris Johnson and Stephen Carr at the launch of the Invest Bromley conference. The conference outlined a plan designed to attracted £1billion of investment in and around Bromley town centre, improving the transport links, boosting the business offer and reinforcing its position as a retail destination. I have long felt that outer London is where the UK's sustainable

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-10507343161840017902011-09-15T13:09:00.002Z2011-09-15T13:09:43.501Z

Yesterday the Mayor announced that he would continue with the fares policy he laid out a number of years ago, to increase fares by inflation plus 2%. No one likes fares going up but Boris is dealing with the legacy of under-investment in the transport system and ensuring the money raised is going into public transport improvements. He is doing exactly what he said he would do. Unsurprisingly

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-83015653474812635452011-09-13T10:35:00.000Z2012-01-10T10:42:45.316Z

The field of candidates for the job of Met Commissioner was incredibly strong and showed that despite its challenges this is the most sought after job in UK policing. I'm very pleased with the choice that the Mayor and Home secretary made, Bernard Hogan-Howe has a strong background in urban policing both in Doncaster with the South Yorkshire police and as head of the Merseyside police.  And I

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-1228252960678701832011-09-06T10:59:00.002Z2011-09-13T10:37:56.313Z

Having two primary school aged children is a great way to remember little traditions from your own childhood.  The "What I did on my Summer holiday" essay is one of them.  So here's mine.  20 Brigade's Flash  The first couple of days of the break was just about getting up late and then going to bed late, bliss.  I also did a bit of preparation for the London Triathlon relay which I did with

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-34484555004017795412011-08-05T13:35:00.000Z2011-08-05T13:35:09.107Z

The Outer London Fund, which Boris and I launched in Bexley a few months ago, has announced the first set of projects that are to be supported. In Bexley the council will receive £270,500 for a series of improvements for Bexleyheath Town Centre and will help to spruce up area including painting and refurbishment to street furniture, bin replacement and recycling facilities, tree grills and

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-18894295243744223462011-08-01T11:54:00.000Z2012-01-10T10:42:45.249Z

Peter Jones, me and Peter Calliafas At this weekend's Virgin Active London Triathlon the London Waste and Recycling Board was well represented. On Saturday three members of the board too part in the team relay, me doing the 1,500m swim, Peter Jones OBE doing the 40km cycle and Peter Calliafas doing the 10km run.  Despite having a combined age of 157 we completed the even in 3hrs 08mins, the

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-71033347645500678402011-07-18T21:13:00.000Z2011-07-18T21:13:45.193Z

It may seem as if I'm the only one in the world who doesn't have an opinion on the resignations of Sir Paul and John Yates, there is a reason for that. I am one of the MPA members who sits on the Professional Standards Cases Sub-Committee.  This may sound like an innocuous little bureaucratic backwater but it is the committee which deals with public complaints about senior Met officers.  As a

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-44500187438726306362011-07-16T13:06:00.000Z2011-07-16T13:06:46.231Z

The BBC are running a headline which states "Army may face cuts to fund TA reservists", clearly as a TA officer I'm pleased that the review of reserves is likely to increase the support for and expectations of the TA.  As a Conservative I'm less pleased to hear that the regular army may face a further financial squeeze. The UK is unusual in that the full time element of its armed forces

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-55916521288911450902011-07-13T17:13:00.000Z2011-07-13T17:13:18.999Z

This morning's session of Mayoral questions was not a great advert for the Assembly.  It was clear that the Labour group was under instructions from Livingstone to parrot his attack on Boris over the News of the World phone hacking scandal. The sum total of Livingstone's attack is that Boris has had meetings and lunches with members of the News International team and that last year he said that

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-12232674938481631442011-07-08T09:18:00.002Z2011-07-08T09:30:37.847Z

The left are jumping with joy that Rupert Murdoch, their bête noire, has been damaged by the News of the World scandal and now want to see the BSkyB deal get spiked too. Murdoch has never been popular with the liberal and left of centre but losing the support of the Sun before the last general election was the last nail in any relationship that might have existed. The Murdoch owned media is

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-57318687877767666702011-07-08T08:52:00.000Z2011-07-08T08:52:07.419Z

I wouldn't be surprised if Murdoch had half an eye on closing the NOTW for a while.  He is an astute businessman and national newspapers are very expensive to produce and distribute. In order to ensure that every petrol-station, supermarket, corner-shop and newsagent in the country has at least a few copies to sell News International need to print almost twice as many copies as they expect to

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-38823345928413718792011-07-07T08:53:00.001Z2011-07-07T23:26:17.986Z

The depth of the phone hacking scandal is far greater than I thought.  It seemed to be about a few celebs and a lot of faux anger from the Labour party who clearly saw it as an opportunity to put David Cameron under pressure because of his employment of Andy Coulson.  It is clearly so much more than that. I still believe Andy when he says that he didn't know about the hacking, more so now we can

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-34789538700013431022011-06-30T22:00:00.000Z2011-06-30T22:00:51.939Z

The unions leaders that called strikes today have not only caused serious disruption but in some cases have put lives at risk. At the Metropolitan Police Authority meeting this morning we heard that front line police officers had to cover call centres because many of the civilian support staff had not come in to work.  I have a serious issue with strikes that put lives at risk. The fact that

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-68904513659013691412011-06-29T15:53:00.000Z2011-06-29T15:53:01.994Z

After the incident on Monday evening I wrote to Southeastern to find out what happened to the train and passengers on the Bexleyheath line train and the subsequent delays to the rush hour services.  I received an apology and this explanation earlier today: First and on behalf of the company, we are very sorry to all those passengers delayed, inconvenienced or held on trains in what were

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-36502025104308299702011-06-28T19:53:00.000Z2011-06-28T19:53:33.411Z

Over on ConservativeHome, Tim Montgomerie highlights three compelling arguments for public sector pension reform from David Cameron's speech to the Local Government Association annual conference. I don't usually do a cut and paste but there really isn't anything I can usefully add: Argument one: We can't afford to go on like this "In the 1970s, when a civil servant say retired at sixty, they

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-66526578749073456282011-06-22T11:35:00.001Z2011-06-22T11:35:57.191Z

Me at this morning's Health and Public Services Committee Rather than wearing a suit to City Hall today I'm in the uniform of a major in the Royal Regiment of Artillery.  Today is Uniform to Work Day, part of the build up to Armed Forces Day on Saturday. I, like many members of the UK's reserve forces accross the country, will be wearing my military uniform to do my usual day job. I got a few

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-61004619405573429502011-06-20T11:10:00.000Z2011-06-20T11:10:30.519Z

Conservativehome has a very illuminating article listing some of the anti-Tory rhetoric spouted by left wing political commentators.  In private conversations that I have with left wingers it is clear that on a one-to-one basis they are not all filled with hate, yet there is a group dynamic that takes over when they get together or when they speak to the media.  They go all angry and hate filled.

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-78690521848670861112011-06-16T08:48:00.000Z2011-06-16T08:48:25.487Z

On the news yesterday the headline about the proposed strikes this Summer was followed by the one about the riots in Greece. The financial markets lost confidence in Greece's ability to manage their own economy and their international credit rating crashed, the cost of insuring themselves against a credit default (known as credit default swaps) has soared and further increased their cost of

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-33625936870745904432011-06-12T20:14:00.002Z2011-06-12T20:21:32.633Z

Nice jumper Mike! If I say anything positive about either candidate it may well be seen as some kind of Machiavellian double bluff to scupper their chances, but there isn't much I can do about that. I have got to know Mike Tuffrey over the last three years and he is a thoroughly decent man and a serious politician.  I disagree with him on a number of issues but we're from different political

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-54067489750354488072011-06-09T12:14:00.000Z2011-06-09T12:14:56.074Z

I've just finished speaking at the launch of Operation School Bike in Charles Darwin School in Bromley. This is a great scheme and one that shows some real joined up thinking by the school, the police and the local community.  The partnership have got hold of bicycles which have been abandoned or recovered by the police, they are refurbished by a local company and loaned to the school's students

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-47014980858369636082011-06-09T08:28:00.000Z2011-06-09T08:28:38.229Z

20 or 30 police officers raiding your flat or Boris Johnson saying that he's come for you? Yesterday morning the Met raided the addresses of a number of suspected criminals across London.  Boris joined the team at one of the raids to see how a police raid operates and was greeted by a suspected drug dealer with the words: 'What the f*** are you doing here?' I work with Boris every day and I

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-5697008989205297282011-06-08T14:42:00.003Z2011-06-10T09:41:15.024Z

At this morning's London Assembly plenary meeting Boris's new Chief of Staff answered questions on his plans and record in local government.  The tone was both professional and friendly. At the end of the session I proposed a motion welcoming him to City Hall and calling on members to disassociate themselves from the comments made by Ken Livingstone last week in Bromley comparing him to Ratko

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-49906474182250480252011-06-07T15:31:00.001Z2011-06-07T15:43:36.359Z

In my disgust at Livingstone's personal attack on Eddie Lister I failed to pull him up on the wider point he was trying to make.  He was in Bromley last week trying to get people excited about the "loss of police numbers" in the borough.  The problem for Livingstone is the numbers just don't add up (for him). In April 2008, just before Boris became Mayor, Bromley had 488.6 Police officers (FTE –

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-53312800686399838002011-06-06T15:43:00.000Z2011-06-06T15:43:35.793Z

It must be terribly frustrating for Ed Balls.  He keeps attacking George Osborne's economic strategy, "too fast, too deep" etc, while the rest of the world keep praising the Chancellor's plans. The latest positive comment is from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which said that the Government's programme of spending cuts to eliminate the UK's structural deficit "remained essential". Ed

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-9757622113432984082011-06-02T09:41:00.001Z2011-06-02T09:59:22.600Z

Having spent most of his political career either ignoring or attacking Bromley residents, Livingstone now realises he needs the borough's votes to win.  On Tuesday he broke the habit of a lifetime and condescended to visit my constituency. Livingstone was on traditional form when he compared Boris's new Chief of Staff to the mass murderer and war criminal Ratko Mladic, what do you expect from a

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-28959367896955049012011-06-01T08:42:00.000Z2011-06-01T08:42:46.134Z

I like the BBC, a lot.  I'm addicted to Radio4 although as Glen Cullen would say "I'm considerably younger than their core demographic".  However the BBC does have one major flaw.  It tries far too hard to be "fair". I've discussed in the past what a vacuous word "fair" is.  It is so subjective that it makes it's usage in almost all contexts meaningless, despite this the BBC is driven by a

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-68973951575401747282011-05-27T09:57:00.000Z2011-05-27T09:57:22.829Z

One of the first pieces of work I did when I got elected to the London Assembly's Health and Public Services Committee back in 2008 was to look at London's immunisation rates.  The picture was pretty poor. Not only did we have the lowest levels of any part of the UK but the trend was heading in the wrong direction.  The Evening Standard wrote up the research as "Measles timebomb" and splashed

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-9767663719570253252011-05-26T13:03:00.000Z2011-05-26T13:03:50.857Z

The fact that the number of alcohol-related hospital admissions in England has topped one million for the first time, is saddening but not surprising.  The figures released by the NHS Information Centre show that admissions had increased by 12% between 2008-09 and 2009-10. The reason that I'm not surprised is that the investigation that the London Assembly conducted back in 2009 showed some

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-75396020441393153922011-05-23T19:45:00.001Z2011-05-23T19:47:08.951Z

The worst kept secret in modern history is now blown!  I'm not that into football (terrible admission for a politician to make), I'm not that into gossiping about C-list celebs and I have absolutely no interest in the combination of the two. Even with these less than impeccable credentials, I know that Ryan Giggs was the footballer alleged to have taken out a super-injunction preventing

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-89793080750289475332011-05-20T08:49:00.000Z2011-05-20T08:49:05.772Z

Mark Wallace makes a very important point over on his blog about the prison term served by people found guilty of rape. The conviction rate for rape is also very low and it is understandable that Ken Clarke is looking at ways to improve the situation.  Having spoken to police officers who investigate rape, it is clear that the nature of the crime makes building a successful case difficult.  By

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-29399820755480274622011-05-16T14:54:00.000Z2011-05-16T14:54:44.528Z

Mike Tuffrey is looking increasing like the Lib Dem's only credable potential candidate for Mayor of London, I like him well enough but disagree with him on a lot of issues. One issue he and I don't see eye to eye on is his now found passion for localised congestion charging.  What is it with inner London politicians trying to cobble drivers in outer London?  I was bad enough when Livingstone

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-4872969390264795162011-05-14T17:36:00.001Z2011-05-24T15:58:32.836Z

Sometimes a name change is just a name change, sometimes it reflects a change which is genuinley profound. When injury forced me to leave the regular army I decided that the hotel industry would be a good second career for me and I looked at where I could retrain.  At the time Ealing College of Higher Education was regarded as an industry leader, so I decided to study there.  My degree course

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-16976873684531298672011-05-11T09:33:00.000Z2011-05-11T09:33:42.963Z

The Lib Dems have promoted themselves as the party of innovation and reform, I was always sceptical about these claims but must now confess to a change of heart. We all know that the Lib Dems, as the political wing of the Electoral Reform Society, really wanted Proportional Representation and only accepted AV as a fall back position, or " a miserable little compromise". What I didn't realise

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-33670774965412162232011-05-10T07:49:00.001Z2011-05-10T09:44:04.353Z

I wonder if the current posturing from Vince Cable (again) and Ed Davey have more to do with bolstering the support for the Lib Dems amongst left wing voters than helping Londoners. The next set piece election in the diary is London's Mayor and Assembly elections this time next year.  The results from the AV and local elections last week show that it is the Lib Dems rather than the Conservatives

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-757340064510636642011-05-09T13:06:00.000Z2011-05-09T13:06:47.492Z

Maybe I'm being a bit thick!  But I really don't understand how a super-injunction can possible work in the day of mass-user digital publishing. Here's my query.  Let's say I've seen person X doing something very naughty, but not illegal, on a number of occasions.  I decide that I'm going to blog about X's behaviour because that person has been very critical of other people doing the same thing

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-25546215825044925292011-05-06T10:19:00.000Z2011-05-06T10:19:56.122Z

The Lib Dems have had a very bad set of results as Nick Clegg has conceded this morning, the lazy and simplistic analysis is that this poor result is "because of the coalition". There have already been calls for Nick Clegg to demand a "better deal" from David Cameron or to increase the price of Lib Dem support but I cannot see what justification there could be for this.  Numerically the Lib Dems

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-53020972882147396582011-05-04T16:59:00.000Z2011-05-04T16:59:31.198Z

Val Shawcross got rather upset at the London Assembly AGM this morning when she was described as having supported the RMT, perhaps she is sensitive because today we hear about another set of strikes called by the RMT leadership. Ken Livingstone’s running mate gets very tetchy about this issue, heaven forbid anyone should believe that she is in some way the Union’s mouthpiece here at City Hall,

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-57711253019115674482011-05-04T14:33:00.000Z2011-05-04T14:33:29.747Z

I have just finished the London Assembly AGM where once again a Lib Dem/Labour/Green stitch up has excluded Conservatives from all the key positions. None of us on the Tory side lose any sleep over this, it is what we have come to expect but it is a timely warning as we consider how we plan to vote in tomorrow’s AV referendum. The Yes to AV campaign spend a lot of their time (and a lot of ERS

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-75414178035073243352011-04-27T22:57:00.000Z2011-04-27T22:57:56.958Z

Who would lead the Lib Dems after Nick Clegg is deposed is discussed by Nicholas Watt over on the Guardian Blog, it's titled "Vince Cable in renaissance as Lib Dems embark on battle for soul of party" and is well worth a read. Vince Cable has had one of the toughest transitions to government, having tripped up over his comments about BSkyB and News International, his possibly not voting for his

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-71943564960679386912011-04-26T09:48:00.002Z2011-04-26T09:55:20.988Z

Anthony Mayer was Chief Executive of the Greater London Authority (GLA) for eight years and was the Greater London Returning Officer who ran the Mayoral and London Assembly elections.  He knows a thing or two about non-FPTP elections. He has written a letter to The Times explaining why London brought in vote counting machines for the Mayoral elections. He writes: A first-past-the-post election

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-17235515717607363112011-04-25T21:10:00.000Z2011-04-25T21:10:29.887Z

Yesterday I was driven around the sunny roads of Suffolk in a 1925 Sunbeam 3 Litre, similar to this one: I have only just stopped smiling.

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-8385420884273821812011-04-24T08:31:00.000Z2011-04-24T08:31:06.758Z

The Lib Dems are starting to slip into personal attacks in a desperate attempt to salvage their AV campaign.  We have had Chris Huhne sling around the word "liar" against both George Osborne and Sayeeda Wasi, and now Nick Clegg has new accused David Cameron of being part of a "nasty right wing clique" and being party to "lies, misinformation and deceit". Not only are these words very poorly

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-25329787204912406282011-04-22T23:16:00.000Z2011-04-22T23:16:37.691Z

And what did Livingstone ever do for the squirrels? Thanks to Boris' scrapping of the "Londoner" tax payer funded newspaper money has been made available to plant more street trees in London.  Boris said he would plant 10,000 extra trees in his first four year term and working with organisations like Trees for Cities he is set to hit that target. These trees not only look pleasant but act as

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-44752764957511601572011-04-22T17:27:00.000Z2011-04-22T17:27:15.980Z

Gordon Brown hasn't really been taking his job as an MP particularly seriously since he stood down as Prime Minister almost a year ago.  He has been seen in Westminster only rarely and has hardly been in the Commons chamber at all. Last week it came to light that he was sniffing around for a position at the IMF, rather comic considering his abysmal handling of the UK economy.  Now we hear the

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-3139665320311821912011-04-19T16:46:00.000Z2011-04-19T16:46:24.376Z

I've just watched Chris Huhne call Baroness Wasi a liar on Newsnight.  Strong stuff.  He claims that Sayeeda Wasi lied when she said that AV would cost around £250 million per election, that the figure was based on the assumption that counting machines would be needed for AV elections and counting machines aren't used in Australia, where they use AV. Let's just assume for a minute that Chris

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-7076825536572227222011-04-19T15:32:00.000Z2011-04-19T15:32:30.951Z

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-43579290767854434632011-04-18T14:13:00.000Z2011-04-18T14:13:13.607Z

The death of Sir Simon Milton last week was a shock to everyone who knew and worked with him.  It was well known that, having battled against leukaemia, Simon's health wasn't the best.  He was often hit hard by the colds and flus that most of us shake of quite easily, but when I heard on Monday evening that Simon had passed away after a short illness I have to confess to feeling a little numb.

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-13175358147706791652011-04-14T20:52:00.003Z2011-04-14T23:20:16.488Z

I wonder if Vince Cable read David Cameron's speech before he said that he thought it was "unwise" and that the language "risked inflaming extremism". I've read the whole speech and I cannot find any language that would inflame any reasonable person. Cable said that the PM should have talked about "the very positive contribution that a lot of people coming in from outside the EU make to our

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19595977.post-1557796937300564432011-04-08T18:51:00.000Z2011-04-08T18:51:33.457Z

It really takes some doing to be on the wrong side of the argument on almost every important issue but Jenny Jones of the far left Green Party seems to manage.  We've already had the £50 per day London-wide congestion charge idea, demands that Boris support the illegal occupation of Parliament Square and now the claim that squatting is an excellent thing to do. I can only assume that even Jenny,

James Cleverlyhttps://profiles.google.com/114075262624236646410noreply@blogger.com2