Twinned with Nevada
This, from the comments on Polly Toynbee’s piss-poor hatchet job, seems eminently sensible:
I think Boris would be the ideal person to run London. The nation is deeply in need of a sharp reminder of what happens when you put Tories in charge, and London is the perfect contained locus within which to give that object lesson. And it’s not as if any nice parts of the country would get trashed in the process.
It’d be appallingly fascinating. From a distance.
Posted on July 17th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
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Appallingly fascinating from a distance, but just appalling from within London.
Only if they’re dumb enough to vote for him.
Problem is, I think people are. I have this horrible, horrible nightmare vision of people voting Boris into the Mayoral position in roughly the same way they’d vote someone into the big brother house. Not because they’d be good, but because they’d be fun to watch doing it…
I think it’s all too plausible. Look at it from the other end - how on earth do you run against someone who so convincingly plays the idiot - and doesn’t mind making an arse of himself in public. Tough,I’d say. Toynbee fell into the heffalump trap this morning of getting cross about Boris, which isn’t the way to deal with him at all …
Not merely fascinating, but entertaining. And although it’s true that it would only affect The World’s Crappest City, Tory rule would obviously affect most those least able to protect themselves, much like a neutron bomb. But I have a suspicion Enola Boris is heading inexorably for London either way.
It’s made up my mind to vote Ken again, that’s for sure. Keep Boris somewhere he can’t do any harm, thanks. Mayor of Brighton, perhaps?
The thing is, the Tories don’t really believe in something called “London” anyway - not just because they abolished the GLC, but because all their supporters live in parts of London that are kept as separate as possible from other parts. Their dearest wish is to not have to pay for anything that goes towards the upkeep of the non-Conservative parts of London.
the boris johnson thing that time trumpet did was great.
i dont like toynbee however one thing she said that was ok is that he is not the harmless buffoon he pretends to be.
I rather liked this comment on the same article:
“I think Bertram Wooster would be a great mayor. I just hope Stephen Fry can run as Vice Mayor and save him from his aunt.”
So you’re suggesting that every now and then, the Tories should be allowed to pick up some major city and hurl it against the wall just to show everyone else they mean business?
(The model for this sentiment ought to be familiar.)
If by ‘allowed’, Alex, you mean ‘democratically elected’, then yes, I’m afraid I am.
Unless I’m very much mistaken Boris won’t be using white phosphorus and cluster munitions to signal a Tory resurgence.
But you’re actively advocating his election, which is a pretty weird thing to do from the Left.
I think you’re taking this a bit too seriously, Alex.
I think it’s a seriously stupid suggestion.
And anyway, I’m not even sure if I’m ‘from the Left’, to be honest. I certainly get pissed off being told that I am, considering the myriad bullies, arseholes and other assorted turds that that comprise the vocal majority of ‘the Left’ these days.
No they don’t. There are some about but they’re not the majority: they’re a minority of a minority but just as football hooligans have been known to obscure football supporters, so the same applies here.
The Left is always flagellating itself in public and telling everybody how dreadful it is. I wish it would stop.
As for Johnson, he’s a clown and a cynic and not fit to run a tuckshop.
Only an execrable hack like Toynbee could write that Livingstone had “earned respect with the bravery and skill of his Congestion Charge”.
Only a country which is close to comatose about its civil rights being washed down the drain and its democracy thoroughly hijacked by big business and crony capitalism would fail to notice such a contemptible and outrageous lie.
Livingstone’s road pricing scheme that dare not speak its name is an unconscionable corporate scam administered by Crapita from unmarked offices in Coventry.Crapita administer the extortionate fines that TfL exact from hapless motorists who venture quite often inadvertently and momentarily into the Zone.
Livingstone against the wishes of the vast majority of Londoners vastly extended the Zone westward in February.Having made enormous sums for his corporate backers with the original Central Zone,the extension they sought to further increase their profits was duly pushed forward regardlesss of public sentiment which, as most people are aware,is against all new road pricing schemes.
Once into the Zone drivers are corralled by the cynically placed no right turn signage into the corridor of cameras.Capita staff at Prologis Park,Coventry scan the picture to ascertain the recoverabilty prospects of imposing the fine.If the vehicle is deemed legitimate with insurance cover and legal plates etc. then the penalty charge notice will be immediately in the post.
Unsurprisingly the scam has backfired on the authorities in that there is now a massive black market in false or foreign plates sought by people who want to avoid paying the charge.
That Livingstone’s scam targets as a matter of policy drivers who are legal in all other respects other than they are unaware of the pre-pay requirement operated by TfL shows that breathtaking cynicism rather than Livingstone’s “bravery and skill” lies at the heart of the Scheme.
Such drivers therefore enter the Zone in ignorance of the way the Scheme works or anticipate European-style toll payment booths with negligible charges that would have been far more sensible but would not have yielded the vast amounts of revenue sought by Livingstone and his corporate sponsors all seems to have gone unnoticed by the fair-minded great British public.
In fact Livingstone’s Scheme bears no resemblance to any road-pricing scheme anywhere else.Both in its catch-all revenue raising priorities and the extortionate level of the charge it is an utter anomaly with grave implications for our civil liberties.TfL deliberately made the charge difficult to pay precisely so as to make 70% of their profits from fining those they deliberately keep in ignorance about how the scheme works.The majority of these drivers are of course from outside the capital and feeling intimidated by security scares on the capital’s public transport network dedide after some years to take the fateful step and travel into London by car.
A big mistake for which Livingstone’s TfL and Capita will be all over them like wolves.
It’s no surprise that Toynbee mentions The Evening Standard as being violently anti-Livingstone.The paper,for all its faults,ran the story of how TfL’s corporate backer Derek Turner made the frank admission about making the charge difficult to pay back in 2004.
Latterly,the Standard has been more muted in its criticism.Probably now it’s been brought(should that be bought?)on side.
At all events,the impact of the Scheme on employment in the Zone and on poorer residents of the capital wishing to visit relatives elsewhere within it has not been at all beneficial.
If Livingstone manages to win again and is still in charge when the London Olympics take place we can expect with some degree of certainty that the Congestion Charge will be waived for our foreign visitors and Livingstone and TfL will claim,along with corporate hacks like Toynbee,how magnanimous they are.
Like the Scheme itself,which smacks of typical British hypocrisy in its very name,it will be another corporate scam none of us will even have noticed because we now lack any capacity for logical reasoning about the world in which we live and believe what we are told by people who have their elite interests already sewn up.
Even Orwell couldn’t have made it up.