Yes, should just shut up and stop pointing out the errors and distortions of the London mayoralty, especially when there’s people like Andrew Gilligan to do…it…

“no-one will believe them when they have a legitimate beef with Boris.”

About 263,000 people read the Standard, and a few hundred people read BorisWatch and other scrutinisers. I really don’t think that we’re saturating the media.

Shocking stuff Ben Six!

In a way it is, if this is him 8 weeks in imagine what it’ll be like after four years!? ]]> http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/2106/comment-page-1#comment-122940 Mike Morris Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:20:48 +0000 http://www.pickledpolitics.com/?p=2106#comment-122940 What Gilligan was rightly saying; was that the usual suspects should stop crying wolf all the time whenever Boris so much as sneezes. Apart from the fact that it shows the far-left to be undignified losers of the London election; no-one will believe them when they have a legitimate beef with Boris. You know the fable. But seriously the country is moving to the right folks. If you can't see the signs and think that pushing Labour farther to the left is a solution to your problems - you are dumber than i thought. What Gilligan was rightly saying; was that the usual suspects should stop crying wolf all the time whenever Boris so much as sneezes. Apart from the fact that it shows the far-left to be undignified losers of the London election; no-one will believe them when they have a legitimate beef with Boris.

You know the fable.

But seriously the country is moving to the right folks. If you can’t see the signs and think that pushing Labour farther to the left is a solution to your problems – you are dumber than i thought.

But Marvin, we are only eight weeks in so there shouldn’t really have been any significant problems so far. But what the ‘anti-Boris forces’ are doing is what Gilligan and co so obviously failed to do at the start of Ken’s administration, which was to scrutinise the procedures and the people who have been given all the levers of power in the capital.

Maybe if Gilligan and his chums had done the work back at the start, rather than wait until the election for Conservative assembly members to leak them all the information, then many of the problems with Ken’s administration would never have happened.

But for him to complain about people watching Boris’s every move now when he still can’t stop banging on about Ken’s every word eight weeks after the man left the job, is laughable.

“.. What’s your critique of Boris’ 6 weeks as Mayor then?”

Well, I wasn’t expecting hideousness, but if you want a brief summary…(it would be very arduous to find every link, but if you want to check or see more then there’s BorisWatch, The Tory Troll, Dave Hill and Mayor Watch).

- He has shown himself to be unaware of major policy, at least twice.
- He promised ‘complete transparency’, but has since slashed debate times and press conferences, while delaying the release of embarrassing finance details.
- He sacked James McGrath after ‘advice’ from David Cameron, and then received praise from the Conservative leader for acting “very quickly and rightly”.
- He has delegated out a great deal of power to his unelected officials. Many of these (despite his continuous references to ‘cronies’) have little experience and/or dodgy records (see Tim Parker in the TfL for the former and Steve Norris for the latter).

In other words – and because Gilly loves his ‘narrative’ – I can’t be sure what Boris is actually doing, and whether he’s just an empty vessel.

On the plus side (because I’m not REALLY a bitter old bastard):

- The budget for the Beijing Olympics has been slashed.
- Several campaign pledges have been or are being honoured (such as the free transport to injured veterans, although that has been a bit complicated).
- There’s only been six or seven weeks, and (despite the tremendous pay doled out to the ‘transition team’) I’m not going to pass any sweeping judgements yet.

Respectfully,

Ben

* http://www.boriswatch.co.uk/2008/06/26/why-the-standard-cant-keep-playing-the-gilligan-card/

At least Ken would give us something of substance to actually moan about! Be it C-charge jihad against the US embassy, telling Iranian Jews to try their luck with the Aytollahs, telling Jewish reporters they’re like concentration camp guards, suggesting the black head of the CRE will be joining the BNP, bendy buses killing people, dodgy deals with 3rd world socialist dictators, hugging Islamic extremists who want to chuck gays of tall buildings, smearing Liberal Democrat politicians with paedophilia … And never, ever apologising… I could go on!

.. What’s your critique of Boris’ 6 weeks as Mayor then?

We’re waiting