My, but we're puzzled at Boris today. For someone who doesn't - apparently - believe the Mayor of London should have a foreign policy, he's been wading into this Tory party conference debate over an EU referendum. In a wonderfully obsfucating statement, BoJo said:
"It will be a matter for William Hague and David Cameron to work out how to give effect to the consultation that I think the people want"
Anyone who can tell us that means in non-politician speak, to the comments box please. There's also what is absolutely, definitively not a U-turn on Phase 3 of the Low Emission Zone. It was 'suspended' earlier this year in a move that was supposed to benefit small businesses, but it'll be back in 2012 - in time for the Olympics but a year too late to stop the (perhaps Tory by then) government getting fined for missing air pollution standards. With estimates of deaths caused by pollution ranging between 3,000 and 8,000 a year, we're a bit stumped by the logic of putting off something, already long planned, even further. But at least taxis over 15 years old will be removed from the streets from 2012 (moving to 10 years old from 2015).
And then we come to this matter of saving an extra £2.6bn on London's public transport, bringing the total savings to £5bn, without losing a single driver or affecting services. Is there really so much slack in TfL's operating budget? We're reminded of David Mitchell's diatribe on the obsession of politicians with "waste" (yes, our opinion of our elected officials really has sunk so low we're taking cues from comedians), and remain to be convinced. Or is this a hint about just how much fares are going to rise next year? (Image by daejn from the Londonist Flickr pool)
