…’cause he might be ruling us all soon and I’m feeling a bit scared…

Wonderful… when compared to Ken Livingstone.

Fun read.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/01/boris-johnson-mayor-never-was-london-vote

Intermittently boisterous, spendy, uninterested in following due process.
Quite good at taking the credit for things begin by others.

Excellent.

Yes Ken first raised the idea of the bikes but Boris made ir happen amd developed the scheme, the Olympics where a huge success, he brought back the double deckers and got rid of the murderous bendy busses.

The reason the left hate him is he was very popular with centre and even some centre-left voters – they are afraid

Excellent

Ok…who saw that coming?

He introduced an updated design of bus, aside from that he didn’t do anything of note. His entire political career has been one of calculated steps to further his political career. He was ineffectual as London mayor.

Well, Ken Livingstone introduced the Congestion Charge, which helped lower congestion and pollution levels in London, as well as raising funds, which then helped fund the research and development of cycle networks, and the very successful cycle hire scheme. Introduced the fantastic Oyster card scheme, reduced public transport fares, introduced free travel for all schoolchildren. Vastly improved the Tube system though much needed investment. Acted as a great leader in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings. Many other things.

Boris? Well, he was very good at promoting Boris Johnson. Left London worse off than when he took the job. Stuck his name to various things which he had bugger all to do with (‘Boris Bikes’; did a dodgy deal with Barclays which gained far less revenue than promised and left Londoners with a much bigger bill), the cycle networks (again, painting Barclays blue on existing cycle lanes for absolutely no benefit at all other than advertising for the bank), seriously pissed off transport unions leading to multiple strikes and travel chaos. Introduced the massively expensive and seriously flawed new ‘Routemaster’ buses. Other vanity projects include the useless (and massively costly) Emirates Airline cable car, and closing down London fire stations to pay for a pointless ‘garden bridge’ that nobody wants.

So, to sum it up: Shit. London is now a more congested, polluted and divided city than when he took over. He failed to do anything positive really. And cost us an enormous amount of money for very little benefit.

Excellent.

PMSL!

Intermittently boisterous, spendy, uninterested in following due process.
Quite good at taking the credit for things begin by others

Mostly this.

To call him excellent requires a leap of imagination I am just not able to conjure!

A few big ticket items Boris Bikes, Underground, Olympics, all relatively successful.

Thinks like improving living standards for people in rented accommodation? Improving air quality, Very lacklustre if not completely incompetent

He is a adversarial negotiator who shouts on public platforms when it doesn’t go his way and further damages the negotiations, he will/would be a **** disaster if he is the one responsible for negotiating a settlement with Europe.

Quite good at taking the credit for things begin by others.

Really? You do surprise us! 😆

Given he jumped on the leave bandwagon at about 11:45pm, having previously been undecided for some time and prior to that very pro EU, then managing not only to somehow garner enough votes for the unthinkable to actually happen (for which of course he and everyone else involved had no plan should they win) but to take all the credit for it too…

Words fail me just how incompetent the man is! Just look at how he hijacked the London Olympics, you’d think they were all his idea the levels of credit he was taking for them!

To call him excellent requires a leap of imagination I am just not able to conjure!

Ah, but on Planet jamba, Boris is the Messiah. You just need to find your faith 😉

“Yes Ken first raised the idea of the bikes but Boris made it happen”

He didn’t; it was already happening. What he did do, was sell the scheme cheaply to his Barclays chums, for a lot less investment than other companies were willing to pay, ending up costing Londoners much more than promised.

“the Olympics where a huge success”

Were they? I seem to remember they caused untold congestion and travel chaos, and have left little ‘legacy’ other than a nice velodrome and swimming pool I suppose. And the borough of Newham has destroyed perfectly good social housing to make way for private developments. With some of the highest numbers of homeless families in the UK. And remind me exactly what Boris did to bring the Olympics to London?

“Ok…who saw that coming?”

Jambalaya having a particularly ‘unique’ view of things? Oh, who indeed… 😉

I don’t think anyone else would have got the new segregated cycle lanes through tbh

w a more congested, polluted and divided city than when he took over. He failed to do anything positive really. And cost us an enormous amount of money for very little benefit.

Sounds like he’ll do well as PM in a country already divided and looking for heads on stick then! 😆

Come on guys, he’s not stupid (sadly, otherwise I could forgive him)… He knows he’s done something even he can’t comprehend the ramifications of, all he wanted to do was undermine his mate Dave and create a power struggle where over the next 2 or 3 years he’d eventually manage to have created enough of a Tory party power struggle to challenge for its leadership… If Boris takes the reigns, invokes article 50 and begins the whirlwind of shit that comes with it… He’ll probably be the first person in some time to get hung for treason!

I work in London but live outside of the mayor’s feifdom. BJ did okay on the whole, but the thing you have to bear in mind is that the mayor is a figurehead of quite a large organisation. The ideas and execution are done by others.

There was a whole thread of people picking specific examples where he’d failed to do something or other over his tenure – which are probably all valid, as were a lot of the excuses as to why it didn’t get done.

The London I remember from Ken’s reign was worse than the London of today. Whether that’s anything to do with Boris, I don’t know.

he’s not stupid

Very true, but his great failing is he doesn’t give a shit about anything other than his popularity. He’d bring back Slavery if he thought it would make him popular.

I don’t live in London, but I used to travel there for work a lot from 2001 to 2009.

As a city to visit for work / pleasure, travel around and look at it improved tenfold during that period – when I first went it hated it with a passion and counted down the hours till I could leave again, but it got better, I got more used to it, but it genuinely became a better place to be and get around and for a such a big city, it’s pretty clean and tidy too.

I left the finance industry in 2009 and didn’t need to go back until last month, I didn’t go down with any great expectations, it was just another job, but I was pleasantly surprised – its seemed to have continued along the same path and for a large city is seems to be at least a pretty nice place to live, it’s not as ‘hard’ or grimy as it was in 2001, not by a long shot and yes the tube is busy, but now at least all the unwritten rules about where to stand, how to flow through lifts rather than trying to get on the wrong side etc are sign posted and Oyster at least means there’s less of a scrum at the gates – even for muggles like me who have to buy a ticket.

It’s worth noting though that I have a pretty charmed existence compared to locals – because I only go a few times a year at most and it’s all paid for by work – I don’t worry about the congestion charge, nor do I worry about paying £40 a day to park and I don’t have to hike in from some fringe of the tube because I stay in a nice hotel near the London Eye – I’m not sure how much I would like it if like some of the people I know who live there who haven’t bought a place seem to have to more further and further out every year because their rent jumps 30-40% at the end of their lease. I guess he could have tried some sort of New York system rent control, but I’m not sure if that was in his remit.

As for Boris, I would imagine the best thing he did was not throwing away all the socialist-ish things Ken did – as a Tory he could have done away with the congestion charge – it was HATED at first, scraped the expensive bike rental scheme etc – I bet it really hurts Ken that they’re always been known as ‘Boris Bikes’ I doubt he did much to stop people calling them that.

I guess it’s worth also rememeber that whilst Ken started the process of improving public transport by taxing private transport – the plan was dreamt up by an American I forget the name of who used to run the transport plans for New York, so neither of them dreamt it up – they just both listened to the same bright bloke.

Regarding the Garden Bridge;

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/24/joanna-lumley-role-boris-johnson-thames-garden-bridge-london-thomas-heatherwick

Regarding the Garden Bridge;

The loss of that will be one small silver lining in the 6 year depression we’ve just started 🙂

Ok…who saw that coming?

All the people who elected him for two terms ?

He said he would keep platform staff in all tube stations. He then decided to remove all staff from tube stations .
It erks me that he takes credit for the cycle scheme. & the Olympics . He’s managed to do several other jobs whilst mayor. He must’ve been saving for a deposit or something .

He must’ve been saving for a deposit or something .

A multi £m lifeboat to ride out the depression we’ve just started…

I seem to remember they caused untold congestion and travel chaos

To be fair, the exact opposite happened. London was a joy to move around as there was much less traffic and near empty trains!

The Cycle Superhighways are actually fairly good – well the properly segregated finished bits anyway.

He seemed to want to be associated with the big newsworthy things and not much else

He said he would keep platform staff in all tube stations. He then decided to remove all staff from tube stations .

Pretty sure all the platforms I went through this morning were staffed.

He said he would keep platform staff in all tube stations. He then decided to remove all staff from tube stations .

Boris actually said that there would be staffed ticket offices, and what happened is that pretty much all ticket offices have now closed. That was more of an operational decision made by LU as the numbers of tickets bought from ticket offices had fallen significantly what with Oyster, better ticket machines and contactless card use. Those spaces are currently being reused either as additional operational space or for commercial retail giving additional revenue to the business. The majority of staff are now present in the station to assist passengers.

For all his façade of a buffoon and big ticket schemes seemingly frivolous, when he’s been on local radio doing phone ins from the public, he’s generally been on the ball. I’m often impressed that he knows instantly about a particular obscure local issue someone phones in about and he’s usually responded that he’s already been talking to XYZ about it, knows the people involved and is getting something done.

Though Ken was similar, but he seemed more defensive about the questions, giving excuses about why things couldn’t be done. Then he spent a lot of his time in office on official jollies abroad.

Both were fun and ideal characters as London Mayor, and did actually get involved in local issues.

As PM, not so sure either are suited, but Boris isn’t as stupid as he seems. He knows his stuff.

Poor. I can’t remember the source but the best quote I’ve heard on Boris is that ‘if you think Boris is on your side, you’ve missed something’

Being Mayor of London should be a full time job – Boris has never been properly committed to it, maintaining his Telegraph column and then standing as an MP. He’s persued populist projects irrespective of whether they made sense.

Transport
Bendy Buses – I’m neutral on these as I never really had much interaction with them. The dangers to cyclists wouldn’t exist if they were used on routes with segregated cycle infra and bus stop bypasses and they had a large capacity and lower emissions. Other cities use them widely.

New Routemaster – a massively expensive folly which delivered none of the benefits it was meant to. More expensive and less efficient then off the shelf designs the big selling point – the open rear platform – isn’t even used. The Garden Bridge and Emirates AirLine are two more vanity projects that are both useless and will leave London with long term ongoing operating costs.

Bike infrastructure. Many years wasted on ineffective blue paint and ‘Elephant and Castle being fine if you’ve got your wits about you’. Came good in the end but if he’d done it properly from the start we’d have been a lot further along.

Tube – investment has continued but a disastrously confrontational relationship with the unions has led to a lot of strikes. Promising no ticket office closures pre election then closing all of them is typical.

Roads
Congestion charging zone limited rather than expanded. Has tried to bury data rather than deal with terrible pollution and air quality.

Housing/Building
Approval of a huge number of ugly high rise towers in inappropriate locations providing investment properties for overseas buyers rather than doing anything to address the shortage of affordable housing. Having promised not to build Ken’s ‘Dubai on Thames’ he went ahead and approved high rise all over the place.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/apr/10/boris-johnson-london-legacy-folly-vanity-rowan-moore

Policing and Crime Don’t have an opinion – doesn’t seem to have improved but countrywide cuts more responsible than any specific decisions from Boris.

I was living in London when Ken dropped the tube fares. My cycle to work was transformed, it was like the aftermath of a neutron bomb. THAT reduced pollution and RTAs.
People should confuse political/economic judgement with intelligence. Also you shouldn’t impute intelligence on someone with an enormously privileged education who only managed a second class degree. Sure, Boris likes to show off with his classical allusions since that marks him out as special since most people didn’t study Greek and Latin. However there are loads of bright people out there who just happen to have encyclopaedic knowledge about other things. I just hope they manage to work out how he is a 1st class c*** as well as a clown.

“To be fair, the exact opposite happened. London was a joy to move around as there was much less traffic and near empty trains!”

So the media myth claimed. The reality was a little different in the area surrounding the Olympic village. Whilst ‘official’ figures show lower figures of those travelling into London, those travelling around London often found it more congested than usual. I remember personally, trying to get through Stratford during the Olympics; it was a nightmare. Many local roads were gridlocked and there were frequent delays and issues on public transport services. Police stopping vehicles caused even more chaos. The VIP lanes were mostly empty as people sat in traffic jams alongside them. Hardly a ‘joy’.

“For all his façade of a buffoon and big ticket schemes seemingly frivolous, when he’s been on local radio doing phone ins from the public, he’s generally been on the ball. I’m often impressed that he knows instantly about a particular obscure local issue someone phones in about and he’s usually responded that he’s already been talking to XYZ about it, knows the people involved and is getting something done.”

Oh, he was very good at bullshitting, that’s true. He didn’t actually do anything of real note though.

“The London I remember from Ken’s reign was worse than the London of today.”

I don’t know what London you remember, but I’m not sure that higher pollution, massive accommodation cost increases, an increase in racism and hate crime, less educational and training opportunities and rapidly growing economic disparity has made London better.

I remember personally, trying to get through Stratford during the Olympics; it was a nightmare. Many local roads were gridlocked and there were frequent delays and issues on public transport services

That’s interesting. I didn’t spend much/any time around the Olympic Village itself other than to attend a few things. The rest of London – Zone 1, Zone 2 to the South and West – was much more relaxed than usual.

All you need to know about Boris is here

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/02/21/boris-johnson-eu-brexit-supports_n_9286400.html

“To be fair, the exact opposite happened. London was a joy to move around as there was much less traffic and near empty trains!”
So the media myth claimed. The reality was a little different in the area surrounding the Olympic village. Whilst ‘official’ figures show lower figures of those travelling into London, those travelling around London often found it more congested than usual. I remember personally, trying to get through Stratford during the Olympics; it was a nightmare. Many local roads were gridlocked and there were frequent delays and issues on public transport services. Police stopping vehicles caused even more chaos. The VIP lanes were mostly empty as people sat in traffic jams alongside them. Hardly a ‘joy’.

I went to work every day during the Olympics, passing through Stratford twice every day. My experience was that I’ve never seen it so quiet. I presume it did get busy at peak times for the games themselves, but as a commuter it was bliss

The VIP lanes were mostly empty as people sat in traffic jams alongside them

Nothin to do with the Mayor though, the VIP lanes are mandated by the Olympics body as a condition of getting the games.

During the 2012 Olympics I was cycling from Richmond to North Greenwich. The roads were pretty empty and where possible I cycled in the VIP lanes in Wandsworth. The worst bit was in Greenwich itself , but the pedestrian routes were well segregated.
One of the good things that Bozza did was have Eddie Lister as a bedrock. We had several projects that Eddie cut through the crap to get moving.

I really like Boris as mayor…..much better than the Tosser that is mayor now………did he mention he is from a council estate….Tosser ..who cares, I’m from one too and no one listens to me

I said……..see…lol

“Nothin to do with the Mayor though, the VIP lanes are mandated by the Olympics body as a condition of getting the games.”

The Olympic committee aren’t elected by the people of London to oversee things like travel/traffic, congestion, pollution etc. That was Boris’ job. And he failed to ensure that local needs were met sufficiently.

Amusingly, Sadiq Khan has had a nice dig at Boris the lying racist, by pledging to sell off those useless water cannon Boris bought only to be told by Theresa May that he couldn’t use them (against Londoners, mainly, I think was his plan). 😆

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-johnson-water-cannon-sold-without-being-used-london-mayor-sadiq-khan-announces_uk_57765594e4b0f7b557952900

“One of the good things that Bozza did was have Eddie Lister as a bedrock”

Eddie Lister, the Thatcherite who oversaw decades of savage local spending cuts during his time as leader of Wandsworth council, the social engineering of gentrifying the borough (read: socially cleansing the poorer residents), all just to offer ludicrously low council taxes to encourage wealthy new property owners to move in.

“We had several projects that Eddie cut through the crap to get moving.”

As long as you benefitted personally, that’s ok then. 🙄