Beer and sandwiches with the unions

I don't have a track record of saying nice things about the unions but there's a first time for everything.

Matt Wrack, the General Secretary of the Fire Brigade Unions, and Kevin Courtney, the National Union of Teachers Deputy General Secretary been game enough to join the London Assembly Conservatives in a debate at our party conference about the relevance of the unions in the 21st century.

As we will be putting on drinks and food (courtesy of Canary Wharf Group's support) we have decided to call the meeting "Beer and sandwiches with the unions".  See what we've done there?

Having two union leaders step into the lion's den like this is quite a coupe for us and it promises to be a lively event, particularly as the speakers from our side are Richard Tracey and Brian Coleman both of whom have had run ins with the transport and fire brigade unions respectively.

Please join us at 4.00PM in the Manchester Town Hall, committee room 11.  Feel free to bring your "one out - all out" placard or you capitalist stove-pipe hat, depending on affiliation.

See you there.

Will you swim for charity?

If you were inspired by David Walliams' swim in the Thames but you want a shorter distance and less chance of a dodgy tummy how about this:

Advocacy for All is a charity that I support and they are organising a swimathon at Crook Log swimming pool on Tuesday 11 October between 4 - 9 pm

Can you help? If so they need:

1. Swimmers, as many or few lengths as you can do
2. Helpers around the poolside
3. Lane counters
4. General helpers
5. People to raise sponsorship to help Advocacy for All to swim 5 miles (equivalent to the distance between their two offices)

If you can help in any way drop them a line or give them a call.

Tel 020 8300 9666
www.advocacyforall.org.uk 

P.S.  I feel really guilty because I'm not available to swim on that day. (Faceplant)

Livingstone, serious about winning, not serious about being Mayor

Livingstone has said that he will cut TFL fares by 5% if elected next spring.  That's great for headlines and may even prove to be good campaign politics but it shows that he is focussed solely on winning the election, not of governing.

His pitch is that TFL are projected to make an operating surplus, he implies that this money is just sitting around waiting for a home.  The truth is that the money is being used to improve London's transport infrastructure, providing the updates and upgrades that Livingstone failed to do during his two terms as Mayor.

The surplus also funds the extra British Transport Police, like the team based at Bromley South train station, and the safer transport teams that have helped slash crime on the public transport system.

In his interview Livingstone confesses to hiking fares up and then freezing them before elections.  This can win short term popularity but makes it almost impossible for TFL to plan any long term capital projects.


As I said before Boris will not play politics with fares the way that Livingstone did and has promised to do again.

Labour's lack of economic credibility

So the Red Eds want us to believe that they are credible on economic matters.  Really?!?!?!?!?

Ed Balls has come up with a half apology for not regulating financial services well enough, no apology for spending public money that we didn't have or borrowing huge amounts of money when times were good or burying his head in the sand when times were bad.

Ed Miliband says that Labour can be taken seriously again on the same day that he says that he will cut 33% from university tuition fees.  They talk about reducing the deficit more slowly that us but so far they have not only failed to give any examples of cuts they would make but have in fact outlined more spending commitments.

People aren't stupid and they have plenty of international examples of what happens when public finances go wrong.  They can can see how badly Labour screwed up the economy and they can see that Miliband and Balls would do the same thing again if given the chance.

Big plans for Bromley

Earlier today I joined Boris Johnson and Stephen Carr at the launch of the Invest Bromley conference.

The conference outlined a plan designed to attracted £1billion of investment in and around Bromley town centre, improving the transport links, boosting the business offer and reinforcing its position as a retail destination.

I have long felt that outer London is where the UK's sustainable economic growth will happen and I'm glad to see that Bromley is taking a lead in this.

Not playing politics with fares

Yesterday the Mayor announced that he would continue with the fares policy he laid out a number of years ago, to increase fares by inflation plus 2%.

No one likes fares going up but Boris is dealing with the legacy of under-investment in the transport system and ensuring the money raised is going into public transport improvements. He is doing exactly what he said he would do.

Unsurprisingly Livingstone has jumped on this as an opportunity to attack. Once again his hypocrisy is breathtaking.

Boris is investing more in transport improvements than Livingstone ever did and is being open and honest about fares policy. Compare the to Livingstone who froze fares ahead of the 2004 election and then cynically whacked the up afterwards and did the same in 2008 leaving a multi-million pound black hole in TFL's finances.

Fare rises are never good news but ask yourself how you want your bad news delivered, honestly or deceitfully?

Bernard Hogan-Howe

The field of candidates for the job of Met Commissioner was incredibly strong and showed that despite its challenges this is the most sought after job in UK policing.

I'm very pleased with the choice that the Mayor and Home secretary made, Bernard Hogan-Howe has a strong background in urban policing both in Doncaster with the South Yorkshire police and as head of the Merseyside police.  And I have no doubt that he will focus strongly on fighting crime.

I hope that his time as Assistant Commissioner for Human Resources at the Met and as HM Inspector of Policing will have given him some ideas about how we can further drive down bureaucracy and waste in the Met and reduce the proportion of officers on long term sick.

This is a tough job at the best of times, but budget pressures, need for reform and the Olympic & Paralympic Games will add another level of challenge.  Once the first 18 months is out of the way it should be plain sailing for him.

What I did on my Summer holidays

Having two primary school aged children is a great way to remember little traditions from your own childhood.  The "What I did on my Summer holiday" essay is one of them.  So here's mine.



20 Brigade's Flash

 The first couple of days of the break was just about getting up late and then going to bed late, bliss.  I also did a bit of preparation for the London Triathlon relay which I did with two colleagues from LWARB.  Just as the riots were kicking off in London I was heading down to Salisbury plain to join 19 (Light) Brigade who were conducting training for 20 (Armoured) Brigade who were themselves preparing to deploy to Afghanistan.

It was enlightening listening to the views of soldiers when they read about calls to deploy the military to the streets during the disturbances.  There really isn't a huge appetite to do police work while in the middle of very high intensity military commitments.

While I was off "on the plain" Susie and the boys were down in Cornwall trying to make the most of the little sun that there was and once I finished my soldiering we all went up to Norfolk for a week.

All that relaxation is now well behind me as I look forward to what will be an interesting period leading up to the elections in May.