To win a seat on the London Assembly minor parties need to pass a threshold of 5%. Last time round the neo-Nazi BNP scraped through with a seat and thus soured the celebrations of Boris's victory. But I doubt they will make it this time round. At the General Election of 2010 they won just […]
The attack message on Boris Johnson from the Ken Livingstone campaign is that Boris is "out of touch" and "lazy" that as a "part time Mayor" with his weekly column for the Daily Telegraph has hasn't had the time to do his main job. A rather different picture emerges from the facts. The Mayor reports […]
Trust is the key issue in the election for Mayor of London. Both the main candidates have a record upon which they can be judged. A pretty good guide to whether they will keep their promises this time is whether they kept them last time. Boris Johnson today launched a Progress Report which shows that […]
Ed Miliband has said there is nothing wrong with Ken Livingstone tax avoidance measures. “Ken Livingstone has paid every pound of tax he is required to by law,” says Mr Miliband. But will the HMRC agree? Mr Livingstone has used revenue from his company Silveta Ltd to employ people for his election campaign. But as […]
Over the past week scarcely a day has gone by without an impassioned attack on Ken Livingstone by a Labour supporter. Nick Cohen in The Observer writes: I will vote for Labour assembly members, then Green, Lib Dem or something equally silly for mayor, and offer no second preference. If Johnson wins by one vote, […]
Boris Johnson published his nine point plan for Greater London on Saturday – a very clear blueprint for getting London through tough times. Desperate to distract from Ken Livingstone’s own record of council tax hikes, cronies, scandal and waste, on Monday his campaign published a ‘rebuttal’ to Boris’s nine point plan. As we have come […]
Boris Johnson is a positive, good humoured individual with great generosity of spirit. That is a key aspect of his popularity. But his campaign team realise that it is also important to be negative. I don't think there is anything wrong with negative campaigning, provided it is honest and relevant. When your opponent happens […]
A story in the Evening Standard today exposes Ken Livingstone as a hypocrite on two counts. Firstly there is Mr Livingstone's attack on "rich bastards" who engage in tax avoidance. Secondly, there is his demand that the Mayor of London should do no other paid work. But what about when Mr Livingstone was Mayor of […]
The Government have written to Counciul leaders urging them to investigate follwoing the example of the Boris Bikes in London and seek sponsors for their own bike hire schemes. The letter, reported (£) in The Times, from Transport Ministers Norman Baker and Mike Penning says: You may wish to consider more sponsorship of cycle infrastructure, […]
A scoop from Andrew Gilligan in the Sunday Telegraph. Ken Livingstone, Labour's candidate for Mayor of London who has the most extravagant rhetoric of class hatred of any politician in the country, has used a loophole to avoid £50,000 of tax. Companies House show he earned £232,000 in 2009 the year following his defeat as […]
When Ken Livingstone ceased to be Mayor of London there were 31,398 police officers in London. As of next month there will be 32,320. So nearly a thousand more. Claims that Boris has cut the number of police are untrue and rely on using misleading dates. That has been some fluctuation but overall there has […]
An important story in the Evening Standard today with clear evidence of voter fraud in Tower Hamlets prompting fears that the election for Mayor of London this May could be stolen. Polls have pointed to a close result. The report says: Dozens of flats in a key borough are holding up to eight people per […]
After his announcement of a 1% cut in the Council Tax precept this year the Mayor of London Boris Johnson has promised bigger cuts each year if he is reelected. The Evening Standard reports on savings identified by his Chief of Staff Sir Edward Lister of £150 million. They would translate into a 10% cut […]
Back in the 1980s council leaders on the "loony left" such as Derek Hatton and Ken Livingstone had high profiles. (By the way whatever happened to Livingstone?) Matthew Parris wonders (£) why the directly elected Lutfur Rahman Mayor of Tower Hamlets doesn't command more media attention. In The Times this morning Parris writes about the […]