Ken Livingstone enjoys himself in Davos

You wont be surprised to hear that Ken has gone on another jaunt – this time to Davos in Switzerland – why is he spending tax payers money on this occasion? He has gone to talk about climate change and his plans for London. Well, when I last looked out the window London was not the hotbed of heavy engineering, and if you are going to clean up industrial cities then I think there are higher priorities. Ken – come back to London and sort out the problems here – on the ground – or should I say Underground – where once again we have had delays, cancellations and poor service this week.

Ken’s “Green Credentials”

Whilst we are talking about Ken’s eco trip to Davos, I am indebted to “London Salmon” who spotted the following in the ES magazine, and to which I have added my own comments:

1. Ken announced that he was installing solar panels on City Hall, at a cost to the London taxpayer of £500,000, which would only reduce bills by £10,000 a year, meaning there will still be £350,000 to make up when the lease runs out.
2. Staff at City Hall flew abroad more than 500 times last year, mostly on Ken's orders. These included many trips to Brussels, which could have been made on Eurostar at half the environmental cost.
3. He flew all the way to Cuba, en route to Venezuela, only to be stood up Hugo Chavez; (as Ken was not seen as an electoral winner). All at the bargain cost of £35,000.
4. He has introduced road charging, yet installed over 1,000 new traffic lights that keeps more vehicles in the "low-speed, stop-start mode at which carbon emissions are highest." Congested vehicles are polluting vehicles – puffing out their emissions at pram, pavement and pedestrian level.
5. He has made the cost of public transport more expensive, discouraging people from leaving their cars at home.

The voting system on the Greater London Assembly means that Ken needs to keep the support of the Green Party in order to get all his plans through. The Green Party are on side with agreements to fund some of their projects including £50,000 to help campaign against the Thames Gateway Bridge.

We all know that Ken’s plans to raise the congestion tax on larger family cars are just another ploy to extract more money from Londoners, and to penalise large families – when tax is used as a deterrent it is iniquitous and just another sign that Ken hates cars and the freedoms that they bring us to choose how, where and when we travel.

http://londonsalmon.typepad.com

Young people still most affected by Crime

The annual London Councils poll of the experiences of Londoners found that crime was cited as a key concern by 52 per cent of residents, with younger people aged 18 to 34 most concerned about the issue.

In spite of all the assurances we have been given about extra police in London, we are still seeing incidents of violent crime every day.

The British Crime survey and the NSPCC have highlighted the fact that young people who are often perceived to be the perpetrators of crime are also at the most risk of being victims.

Have you been a victim of crime – what is your experience? What should be done?