Tories don't burn babies, despite what the Lib Dems might say

I'm listening to coverage of the Lib Dem conference and the two big things that come across are: Nick Clegg's apology over the tuition fees pledge and the line that Tories are evil and it's only the presence of the Lib Dems in government stopping us from delivering our evil agenda.

These two points are closely linked.

Second point first.  The "Tories are evil" narrative is short sighted and counter-productive.  It is clearly being deployed by senior Lib Dems in an attempt to keep their grass-roots onside, it isn't working because the more the Tories are painted in such negative terms the more Lib Dem activists will ask why their MPs are in bed with us.

It is a line which doesn't stand up to even the most superficial examination.  As was shown with the Lib Dems plans to screw up the House of Lords, if a policy really is unpopular with the Conservatives we have the numbers to kill it off.  Tax cuts for lower paid workers and way of helping bright, but poor, kids get on in education and in the Conservative party's DNA.

The Tories are evil line, shows a habitual dishonesty in the Lib Dems relationship with their voters and supporters as shown in the tuition fees pledge.  You will notice that the apology is for signing the pledge rather than breaking it.  Nick Clegg and Vince Cable have both tied themselves up in knots trying to defend their actions, it would be easier for them to tell the truth; they never believed that they would get anywhere near government so felt it was safe to make a whole host of uncosted and undeliverable promises.  Now that they are in government they realise that they will never be able to do that again.

If the Lib Dems want this coalition to last until the next election they will need to get out of the habit of lying for short term political gain.

Why is no one interested in good news about the Fire Brigade?

Last week the Fire Authority put out a press release which contained fantastic news about the result of proactive work by the Fire Brigade. None of the major media outlets and only a few local papers ran the story.

The news was that the number of fires in London has more than halved over the last decade and is now at its lowest point since records began in 1966. In 2001 there were 55,063 - around 150 blazes each day, by last year that figure was down to 26,845 fires, around 74 each day, a 51 per cent drop. In 1966, when records began, there were 30,436 fires. The number of house fires in London has also fallen, by more than a quarter (26 per cent), from 8,940 in 2001 to 6,618 in 2011.

The London Fire Brigade has implamented a rigourous program of preventative work to reduce the risk of fire. Visiting vulnerable and high risk members of the community, installing smoke alarms, giving fire saftey advice, visiting schools, working with the furnature industry, architecture and building industries to design fire risk out of products and building.  This work has undoubtably saved lives, the figures show that Londoners are now safer from fire than ever before. Yet, no interest from the media.

Clearly I, and everyone else in the Fire Authority and Fire Brigade, will work to ensure that these figures keep going in the right direction but it would be nice if the media were a bit more willing to recognise the Fire Brigade's sucess.

Proud of London, proud of Londoners

The 2012 Games are over, our Olympic and Paralympic athletes have achieved more than we could have hoped for and deserve the praise that they will receive from the crowds at today's parade.

In addition to them the civil engineers who built the venues, athlete's village and other infrastructure deserve our thanks, as do the members of the organising committee, officials from the sporting bodies, the sponsor companies, members of the emergency services, the army of volunteers, members of the armed forces, transport workers and everyone else who helped make the Games such a huge success.  Many of their contributions will have been behind the scenes and not formally recognised but they will know, in their own hearts, that they played a part in putting on one of the greatest events that the world has seen.

Over the last six weeks London has been shown off to the world and the feedback has been fantastic, international visitors have showered us with unsolicited praise.  Just as the athletes surpassed the high targets that they were set, so London and Londoners have excelled in providing a warm, welcoming and impressive reception to the millions of visitors that we have had.

The years leading up to the games and the last six weeks in particular have reinforced my huge pride in our city and I feel that we have every right to claim that London is the greatest city in the world.