Oh the times, they are a'changin

tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis

Livingstone is a disgrace!

I have said it for years - indfeed ever since I fist met the man in 1984: Ken Livingstone cannot be trusted.
Why do voters trust anything this man says?
Today, following a press release from Boris Johnson - Livingstone's Conservcatiove oppoent in the London Mayortal election - the Evening Standard has revealed that Livingstone has deliberately misled the public about potential fare rises.
Last year he apparently stated that rises over the next four years would be in line with inflation.
It has also emerged that just two weeks previously he had made a similar statement at a press conference. However, six days before that press conference Livingstone had already approved a plan by TfL to increase bus fares by 2% above inflation and tube fares by 1% both next year and the year after.
Have a look at the article by visiting:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23480142-details/Mayor+misled+London+over+big+fare+rises/article.do

Commenting on the revelations of Livingstone's secret plan and the fact he lied Boris said: “It is clear this Mayor cannot be trusted. He has become so arrogant and out of touch that he thinks he can deceive Londoners.
“Ken Livingstone has a history of making promises before elections and then changing his position after.
“Londoners deserve better than this. They have the choice between more of the same from Ken Livingstone or a new fresh approach if they vote for change on May 1st.”

Livingstone: the man with a tin of piecrust promises

Ken Livingstone is refreshingly honest for a politician.
Asking us to judge him on his record after eight years in power, he says: "With me, everyone knows what they're getting. It's on the tin."
And what a tin it is!
It's amazing you can get so much on it.
ASfter all in his period inchange of London he has:
• Failed to prevent a rise in domestic violence as he pledged to do
• Failed to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour on public transport – instead it has gone up
• Failed to protect green parks and open spaces as gardens the size of 22 Hyde Parks have disappeared
• Failed to meet his own recycling targets – London has the worst household recycling rate in the country
• Failed to meet his election promise over housing targets. He is on track to miss his target by 50%.
• Failed to deliver on a 2004 Manifesto promise to bring late night tube trains on Fridays and Saturdays
• Failed to deliver on 2004 Manifesto pledge to increase the number of female bus drivers. The number has actually fallen.
• Failed to keep his promise made in 2003 (8 months before the last Mayoral election) on congestion charging to keep it to £5 per day. He raised it soon after re-election to £8 per day. Furthermore, the Mayor U-turned on his 2004 Manifesto promise to retain the existing congestion charge residents’ discount.
• Failed to deliver on school travel plans. By 2009 he promised every school would have one. Currently only 53% of schools participate.
Furthermore, on transport, after his re-election in 2004, the Mayor:
• Raised single bus journey costs by 20% Raised single tube fares by 50%. In total, this is a 100% increase in fare charges since May 2004 on the tubes and buses.
• Failed a commitment on the environment to expand the London schools environment programme to secondary schools. This expansion has not happened.
• Failed to stand up against controversial figures preaching hate. He invited Muslim Cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to London – a man who supports the death penalty for homosexuals.
• Failed to promote a tolerant and cosmopolitan London by making anti-Semitic remarks more than once – firstly towards the Ruben Brothers and secondly to an Evening Standard journalist. The court case that followed cost the taxpayer £200,000.
• Failed to deliver on a key election pledge of introducing a ‘Culture Card’ in the Capital. This was promised at the last two election campaigns and has not materialised.
• Failed to protect taxpayers’ money – he spent nearly £50m on plans which have been shelved for the West London Crossing and Cross River Trams.
• Failed to protect taxpayers’ money – The Mayor promised to launch a campaign to with major private sector employees to give a second chance to Londoners who have been excluded from the Labour Market. This turned into a scheme called ‘Diversity Works’. It cost £9.8m to the London taxpayer and is currently under investigation by the police as part of the LDA financial mismanagement case.

They seek him here, they seek him there

Is he in heaven, or is he in hell?
Well I'm sure I know where I would prefer him to be but the fact is that ken's campaign is all but absent without leave.
Where I operate, which is in most parts of London, Ken's profile seems to be so low it's out of sight.
And now, a day after the cheeky ex-technician and his cronies criticised Boris over missing Time Out's hustings (which were pretty weak because their own candidfate decided he couldn't be bothered to continue), word comes through that Ken has pulled out of the Centre for Social Justice Hustings himself and is failing to front the NO2ID Hustings.
It's hardly any wonder that Londoners are asking – Where is Ken?

Realism NOT fear from the next Mayor please!

If there was a reason to vote for Boris then it's surely his upbeat but realistic message about living in the capital city when compared to the unproductive fear and loathing demonstrated and vocalised by Ken Livingstone and his Labour party colleagues.
For example compare Boris's most recent speech on crime: "We are lucky to live in the greatest city on earth", with a Home Secretary who says she is frightened to walk the streets of Peckham and her colleague Harriet Harman, Member of Parliament for Camberwell and Peckham and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, who actually donned an armoured jacket to protect her from being stabbed while out on her rounds in her own constitency surrounded by no less than four police officers.
http://www.harrietharman.org/news_story.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=145&tx_ttnews[backPid]=1&cHash=71f9a10c1a
Surely this underlines Boris's central message on Ken's lazy arrogance when it comes to dealing with crime in London.
As Boris said: "We have had 27 teenagers murdered by other kids in 2007. We have seen a steady and undisputed rise in robbery, violence against the person and other violent crimes."
And we all know that we are suffering from an epidemic of unreported and uninvestigated crime (I'm still waiting for the cops to interview me about a mugging immediately outside my home, which I captured on CCTV - that the police have never even bothered to see).
But as the Conservative Mayoral candidate points ouit: "Bitter experience has taught us that too often the police do not have the time or the resources to deal with our case."
So what can we do?
"We could continue to shrug our shoulders and say that crime, disorder and incivility are just a part of city life. We could turn a blind eye to the robberies and the muggings, and hope that no one we love will be a victim.
"We could throw up our hands, in the manner of the current Labour Mayor, and say that these problems are beyond our control - caused by television and the glamorising of violence. We could accept defeat. We could declare that we have run out of ideas. Or we could say that enough is enough."
The Mayor of London has a statutory and moral duty to lead the fight-back against crime.
Boris rejects the fatalism and defeatism of the Labour Mayor. "I reject the assumption that we can do nothing," he says in his crime manifesto.
"I believe that by systematically tackling small crimes we can drive out more serious crime.
"I believe that we can change the lives of kids who would otherwise be sucked into a nightmarish culture of violence and criminality.
"As soon as I become Mayor I will take action, and implement the following measures:
"I will:
- Provide strong leadership. By taking responsibility and chairing the Metropolitan Police Authority and using my influence to tear up red tape and needless form-filling, so we can get more police out on the streets.

- Make buses, trains and stations safer. By spending less money on press officers and more money on police officers to increase their presence on buses, trains and station platforms. By introducing 'Payback London', a scheme that will require under 18s who abuse their right to free bus travel to earn it back through community service projects.

- Tackle knife and gun crimes. By demanding they are treated as a high priority by the police, and using every strand of Mayoral power to prevent it through funding community groups, sports schemes and handheld weapon scanners.

- Help the ignored victims of sexual violence. By providing desperately needed long-term funding for new Rape Crisis Centres to help the ignored victims of sexual violence - a horrendous crime that is on the increase.

- Demand a police service accountable to you. By providing local communities with New York-style crime maps which show the true crime levels in every neighbourhood, which can then be used to ensure Borough Commanders are held to account at monthly open public meetings."
Meanwhile Ken tells us that his priority is to make London environmentally friendly. Surely, he must understand, as Boris appears to, that what we Londoners want is to live in a safe city and that this should be the Mayor's priority?

Ken: If it bleeds, it quite rightly leads!

Market research suggests that stories of crime and violence increase the ratings for news. This isn’t the fault of the news organizations, broadcasters, reporters and the like. This is surely the responsibility of the people entrusted to protect us.
When they don’t people find the results interesting, indeed necessary. So for Ken Livingstone, the man who appears to have no answers to make London safer, to say "if it bleeds, it leads" the news shows not just gross insensitivity to the families of two teenagers stabbed to death in the UK capital, but complete contempt for his duty as Mayor.
It is hardly surprising therefore that Livingstone’s 15-point crime manifesto launch was overshadowed as Boris Johnson demanded that he stop using the "crass" phrase to attack the capital's TV stations for reporting murders. Among Livingstone’s crime policies are: an 1,000 extra police officers next year to boost counter-terrorism work and local Safer Neighbourhood Team; extra cash for specialist police teams investigating rape in every borough; 11 new Safer Transport Teams focusing on stopping crime and anti-social behaviour on buses, more resources for targeted police operations against gangs and £79 million to fund facilities and activities for young people.
However, just hours after 17-year-old Devoe Roach was stabbed in the chest in Stamford Hill, Mr Livingstone appeared on BBC London to accuse the media of sensationalising killings in the capital, repeating a phrase he used to the Home Affairs select committee this month.
After his live televised interview at 6.20 last night, it emerged another teenager, 14-year-old Amro Elbadawi, was knifed in the throat in Maida Vale.
Some 27 young Londoners were murdered last year, but the Mayor insists the murder rate is falling and accuses the media of failing to report the drops. Boris has quite rightly accused Mr Livingstone of "crass insensitivity" to the families of those involved.
In his own statement on crime Boris says: “ Londoners are told that crime is going down. They are reassured that there are more police on the streets, and that more money is being spent on security. Yet most Londoners don't feel any safer because every day the headlines tell a different story.
“If we look up from the newspaper we feel no safer; on the top decks of buses, on station platforms and street corners a culture of incivility and adolescent anarchy has been allowed to spread, unchallenged.
“It is the Mayor's first duty to ensure the safety and security of all Londoners and his second to reassure them that they truly are safe, to offer an antidote to the apprehension that darkens every late-night bus ride or walk home.
“This is not an area in which we should throw our hands up in defeat, blaming violent video games or a decline in moral values. I want everyone in this city to have the optimism and confidence that goes with increased safety and will use all the powers at my disposal to achieve it:
• We have to work with the police and communities to prevent young Londoners becoming victims of gang violence. I will give support to the wonderful work of local community projects that get young people off the streets and give them purpose and a realisation of their value as members of society. I will provide £2.6 million to fund hand-held scanners or new knife archways at transport hubs to hinder the mobility of those who carry knives and guns.
• The police do a brave and difficult job, but they are burdened by bureaucracy. Too much time and money is spent on form-filling, when it could be used to employ more police on the beat. I will lobby for an end to the stop and account form - this would mean that police could spend an extra 160,048 hours on the beat - the equivalent of adding 78 new officers to the force.
• We must stand up for our brave, hard-working police men and women to ensure they get a fair deal from government.
• I will provide local neighbourhoods with New York-style crime maps, to enable residents to hold local police to account.
• More people are travelling by bus that at anytime since the 1960s, but they are increasingly intimidated by antisocial behaviour. I will double the strength of Safer Transport Teams, by releasing funding for approximately 440 extra PCSOs to patrol the buses and trial live CCTV. I will give revenue inspectors more powers to tackle fare evasion.
• Those who abuse their free transport privileges will be able to earn back their free Oyster by doing community service as part of my Payback London scheme.
• I will provide funding for 3 new Rape Crisis Centres to help the forgotten victims of sexual violence.”