It took and ex Tory to make Labour see sense

Quentin Davis has made himself useful, nearly.

Having crossed the floor from the Conservatives to Labour he embarked on a report for the government telling them what everyone else already knew. Davis' report said that the armed forces needed more recognition and support, as the Americans would say "no sh*t Sherlock!"

Many of the proposals are very sensible, indeed they are things that I and other Conservatives have been saying for years. It is just a pity that these high profile plans seem to be put forward rather than real support for the troops. It shouldn't be the case of either or but of both.

Zimbabwe beatings

When you hear that opposition supporters in Zimbabwe have been beaten, what image comes into your mind?

Split lips? Bruised faces? Fractured jaws? Broken bones? All these things are being dished out by Mugabe's henchmen and much much worse. It gets to to stage where the words that the papers and news reports use to describe violence lose their meaning.

Conservativehome has two photographs of a women who was beaten across the buttocks as a punishment for supporting the MDC. If you think that beaten across the buttocks doesn't sound like too much of a punishment these pictures will change your mind, the pictures show truly horrific injuries. The Daily Mail felt that there were to gruesome to publish.

WARNING

These are very disturbing images, please be aware of this if you chose to click through.

Injuries sustained by Zimbabwe opposition supporter.

Health Care Commission survey

I have just had a look at the Health Care Commission survey, it does not make happy reading.

London's hospitals are generally performing well below the national average, there are some pockets of good news but mainly there are lots of red lights on the chart.

After years of increased health spending it is almost depressing to see that our hospitals are still not meeting patients expectations. There are plenty of great people working in the NHS but these result show that, despite all Labour's spin, their top Stalinist approach just does not bring in the results.

Recruit good people, give them the tools that they need and let them get on with it. How hard can it be?

Ooooops, Crewe & Nantwich Labour candidate won't back Brown

Avoiding the question like a pro, Gordon must be so proud of her. Pity the feeling isn't mutual!

A sad and shocking loss

I didn't blog about the murder of Jimmy Mizen straight away because I really didn't know what to say.

This death has shocked me deeply, not just the fact that it happened to such a clearly peaceful and caring boy, but Lee is an area I know well. I went to school just yards from where the killing took place, it is where my eldest son goes to school now. I have campaigned around that area numerous times, I have good friends who live on the street.

It is so very close. It is so easy to imagine how it could have one of my boys in a similar circumstance in a few years time. I'm am not sure I could have spoken of forgiveness with the strength and dignity of Mrs Mizen, had I been in her place.

My sympathies go to his friends and family.

Order, counter-order, disorder

Honestly Darling, you really are the most graceless, dim-witted pumpkin I ever met.

There doesn't seem to be much of consistent plan in the Treasury. Action, counter-action, reaction, inaction. Order, counter-order, disorder.

I will make my personal position clear, I like the idea of raising the lower threshold for income tax. It is simple to execute, costs nothing to administer, needs no forms and helps the lowest paid most. And I'm not talking about a couple of hundred quid either I think it should be increased by thousands.

So why am I not jumping for joy at Alistair Darlings latest emergency statement to the house? There are many reasons.

It is an unplanned, un-costed, knee-jerk reaction to a problem created by his now boss. It is too little, too late. It is clearly designed to shore up Brown's position as PM and avoid a humiliating defeat in Crewe and Nantwich. And most of all it looks as if it is a one year only fix.

We should not forget that the scrapping of the 10p tax band was a cynical move to pay for a cut in the basic rate, just to wrong foot the Conservatives. This is little better.

Until Labour stop spinning for short term political advantage they will be doomed. I would love to just let them get on with it but they are screwing up the lives of millions of people in the process and I can't just sit back and let that happen.

Goodbye paper, hello trees

If anyone thought that Boris was going to be slow in making good on election promises the last week will have put them right.

The Londoner, the Pyongyang-style free sheet is soon to be no more. Rather than spending millions of pounds of taxpayers' money telling them that the Mayor is solely responsible for making the sun rise each morning, Boris is going to plant more trees.

To be honest, I'm not entirely convinced that he is going to be digging the holes and popping the saplings in himself but you get the picture.

And would you like Oysters Sir?

The increase in coverage for Pay as You Go Oystercard holders is great news (it would have been better if SE London was in the first tranche, but you can't have everything).

This move will mainly benefit people in outer London who make occasional trips into the centre of town. The one off non Oystercard prices are punitive and it is little surprise that many people in this group use their cars for much, if not all, of the journey.

Livingstone's relationships with the train companies wasn't good and this prevented the roll out of Oystercard readers across the surface rail networks, Boris' less confrontational approach seems to be getting more done.

You don't have to pick fights in order to win battles.

Don't forget the soldiers

With all the focus on the May 1st election, Boris mania, Brown bashing and by-election fever we should not forget that there are British service people still working hard in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places less high profile.

Also spare a thought for those who are in camp at the moment but who have recently returned or who are soon to deploy. If even half of this report is true the attitude of the government towards soldiers has not improved, indeed as the economy suffers and Brown's attention is taken up with his own survival I fear that forces welfare will be pushed even further to the sidelines.

My first London Assembly AGM

It wasn't the slickest meeting I have ever attended.

I found some things very amusing, the most notable of which was seeing Ken Livingstone in the public gallery. Ahhhhh. He rather reminded me of David Brent in the Christmas special of The Office.

Jenette Arnold was voted in as Chair of the Assembly with the Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens voting on block. Unfortunately Jeanette's hope to paint us as being in bed with the BNP backfired rather spectacularly when Richard Barnbrook voted with Labour to support Daren Johnson as Deputy Chair. Hopefully this will put an end to their obsession with this subject and ensure they focus at the job in hand.

Having written about the BNP a number of times in quick secession I now intend to give them the attention they deserve, which is almost none.

The oxygen of publicity

Dan Hannam MEP, has a talent for hitting the nail on the head. It is well worth reading his recent article on the BNP and the media's obsession with them.

Here is a snippet that might get you in the mood.

You will have noticed that the BNP is almost never mentioned without the soubriquet “far Right”. The BNP doesn’t call itself Right-wing. On the contrary, it favours nationalisation, higher taxes, protectionism and (though it keeps quiet about this) republicanism. It markets itself as “the Labour Party your parents voted for”. Its manifesto calls for “the selective exclusion of foreign-made goods from British markets and the reduction of foreign imports,” and promises to “restore our economy and land to British ownership” and “to give workers a stake in the success and prosperity of the enterprises whose profits their labour creates by encouraging
worker shareholder and co-operative schemes”.

As Hayek wrote in 1944 in his brilliant chapter on “the socialist roots of Nazism”, the dispute between fascists and socialists is a dispute between brothers.

Almost normal

After the scrum of media which followed the election results things seem to be working towards some sort of normality here at City Hall.

I spotted Boris coming in on his bicycle, without a media tail, much to the surprise and delight if London Bridge commuters, who smiled and waved as he went past. We had a quick chat about what to wear while cycling to work, Boris wears a suit I tend to go for sports wear.

Over the next few days we will complete the process of allocating committees and areas of responsibility. And I'll try to get through the thick pile of reading that has been put into my in tray for the Assembly's Annual Meeting on Friday.

Having not learned that publicity for the BNP gives them votes, Labour look as though they plan to use Richard Barnbrook as a political football. While on BBC Radio London on Sunday Labour's Jeanette Arnold took great delight in saying that "You will be voting with the BNP against me becoming Chair of the Assembly".

She just doesn't get it! Firstly she seems not to have noticed that we did rather well at the last set of elections which means that we do not need the support of the BNP. Secondly, if Labour insist on playing petty games like this they will be the ones who lose out. It is their constituencies which provide the BNP with most support.

And what is your concern about Boris?

This was the question which greeted callers into Dotun Adebayo's show on BBC Radio London last night.

I was a guest on the show answering the questions of callers about the election results with the other guests, Jenette Arnold AM for Labour and Ashok Viswanathan from Operation Black Vote.

Dotun and the programme's producer were being fiercely neutral but the young lady answering the telephones was having a tougher time.

Susie and I planned to have dinner after the show, so she came to the studio with me and was sitting in the studio's anteroom, this was also where the calls are filtered. Susie said that the nearly tearful look on the woman's face, while listening to the clip of Livingstone's nearly tearful concession speech indicated her political affiliation. As did her interaction with callers, Susie was stifling a laugh as she heard her answer the phone calls with the question "and what is your concern about Boris?"

"I feel voters' hurt" says Brown

"Rubbish" say I.

Funny how Brown seemed completely oblivious to voters hurt a few weeks ago. At that point he was confident he could push through the tax grab on the low paid and get away with it. So much for feeling their hurt.

It is completely clear to even the least politically astute observer that Brown's only feels anything when he has lost a vote or runs the risk of losing a vote.

Over the next few days Labour ministers will come out with variations on the theme of "voters have given us a warning". This is a disgustingly arrogant point of view. It assumes that voters are only ever focused on Westminster and the Labour government. It clearly has not hit home to Brown, Harman, Smith et al that what voters wanted was a change of councillor or council or, in the case of London, a new mayor.

Voters don't want the Labour government to change, they want to change the government.

Signing in

I spent the day at City Hall, meeting colleagues, being shown around the building and being formally signed in.

The mood was interesting. Lots of smiles and handshakes and promises of good working relationships in the future, and that was from the other parties. The members of the Conservative group were upbeat but it is clear that the focus will be on getting the job done rather than patting each other on the back. That said I had lots of congratulations from a range of Assembly Members for the scale of the win in Bexley and Bromley.

Boris' signing in speech showed the humour that we have come to expect but he also made the serious point that we need to make good on our election commitments and put political prejudice aside for the good of London. He also made it clear that he wouldn't tolerate and "dogs in the manger". On an unrelated note I noticed that Sir Iain Blair didn't clap at the end of the speech.

Seeing members of the BNP milling around the building put a downer on the day. You can thank proportional representation and the collapse of the Lib Dem for that.

UPDATE: To be fair the almost complete lack of UKIP campaign also was a contributing factor. The main culprit was PR, it is why I am so against it.

Boris wins

By 139,772 votes, 81,382 votes from Bexley & Bromley. That equates to 58.22% of his majority, thank you all so much.

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who voted for the Conservatives (and me) yesterday. The result was much better than I could ever have imagined.

I had lots of help from the local activists, councillors, MPs and my predecessor Bob Neill. Bob is a good friend now and a great politician and I will need to work hard to fill his shoes.

I must also thank my agent, Andrew, my family and most of all my wonderful, supportive and gorgeous wife Susie.

Here are the main results:

CONSTITUENCY RESULTS FROM Bexley & Bromley
James Cleverly - CON - 105,162
Alex Heslop - LAB - 29,925
Tom Papworth - LD - 21,244

MAYORAL ELECTION RESULTS FROM Bexley & Bromley
Name
Party
Johnson - CON - 122,052
Livingstone -LAB - 40,670
Paddick - LD - 17,332

Finished at last

After a long day out and about I am finally home.

Thank you to everyone who helped out on the campaign and to everyone who voted for either Boris or me.

And now to bed!

Rubbish in the paper

The Evening Standard has some great reporting and some much less great reporting.

In what is clearly a rushed piece to fill some pages in the lead up to the election the Standard has made at least two mistakes, firstly they say that I have a good chance of being Boris' race advisor. Interesting! I have not had any discussions with either Boris or anyone on his team about such a position, and I would have said no to the job even if we had.

I can only assume that the have assumed.

Secondly, and more seriously, they claim that my friend and colleague Bob Neill ran up a £4,000 taxi bill last year. The true figure was in fact £0.00.

Sloppy and lazy.

Final weekend of campaigning

I have spent the last weekend of the campaign flitting back and forth between the teams out campaigning across the two boroughs.

On Friday I was joined in Bexleyheath by Holly Watt of the Sunday Times, this earned me a mention in dispatches which you can read here.

Boris joined me on Saturday to visit Bromley, Orpington and Bexleyheath and I spent Sunday delivering leaflets on my own in the rain.

This is the side of politics which rarely gets reported.

Ooooops, Livingstone sees red

Well a "red man" anyway.

Someone has just sent me these two photos of Ken Livingstone completely ignoring a pedestrian crossing sign. And holding up traffic in the process.

Naughty, naughty!