Phil Taylor

Today Jenny Jones, one of the two Green party members of the London Assembly, is quoted by the BBC as saying:

Stop and search already disproportionately targets young people from ethnic minority communities and this aggressive approach has, in the past, had the long-term effect of alienating the young people it is seeking to protect, as well as having a damaging effect on community relations in London.

She added that she will raise her concerns at the next Metropolitan Police Authority meeting on 29th May and will ask for a report into the potential long-term consequences of reducing the safeguards in the stop and search process.

Her comments are in response to Tuesday’s announcement that the Met will use their powers under section 60 of the Public Order Act to stop and search people without the need for reasonable suspicion.

By contrast the new mayor has said:

I welcome this new initiative by the Met and I believe that Londoners will also be reassured to see the police being proactive in the fight back against the terrible scourge of knife crime.

Quite right Boris. Totally wrong Jones.

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The Ealing Times is reporting on the new cabinet, see here. This information was published on the Ealing Council website. Like most things on the website it is a bit obscure but it is there! Follow this link to see one of the papers for the Annual Council meeting next Tuesday.

The Annual Council is a short formal meeting which marks the start of the municipal year, sees the election of a new mayor and deputy and ratifies the council leader’s choice of cabinet. He has asked me to take on a new portfolio called Customer and Cultural Services. This incorporates most areas of the council where we deal with the general public, everything from the help desk to libraries.

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The Mayor has been quick to follow up on one of his election promises to make life easier for Black Cab drivers by removing the half-yearly inspection which only came in October last year.

I anticipate more Black Cab friendly measures from this Mayor as long as he keeps on cycling in to work. It is simple self-preservation. The Sunday Mirror pictures not only showed him breaking the rules but also chatting to two cab drivers. God help him if he crosses the cabbies they will knock him into the gutter double quick. It is not as if he is not easy to spot on his bike.

Seriously though all good red-tape slashing stuff.

Today the Healthcare Commission has published various summaries of its latest patient satisfaction survey, see BBC coverage here and Ealing Times. Amongst this wave of numbers is a report detailing Ealing Hospital Trust’s performance, as judged by its own patients, follow link.

According to the BBC Ealing is amongst the worst ten hospital trusts in the country. The Ealing report makes pretty poor reading. In 44 out of 62 questions Ealing was in the lowest 20% of NHS trusts. It was at the bottom of the class in the following seven areas:

• Did you have confidence in the nurses treating you?
• Did a member of staff explain the risks and benefits of the operation or procedure?
• Did a member of staff answer your questions about the operation or procedure?
• On leaving hospital, did hospital staff tell you who to contact if you were worried about your condition?
• Did you feel you were treated with respect and dignity while you were in the hospital?
• How would you rate how well the doctors and nurses worked together?
• Overall, how would you rate the care you received?

Today the Mayor announced that the Londoner is dead and that some of the money will be used to buy 10,000 new street trees over the next four years. I am happy that the Londoner has gone but as a local councillor perhaps less so that the Mayor is treading on the boroughs’ toes. Street trees are clearly a local authority responsibility, at least on their own roads.

Anyone who lives in Ealing knows that we have just planted 100s of our own trees over the last winter. The Mayor’s announcement mentions that these new trees will be going 250 at a time to 40 “areas of London that need them most”. Again, most wonderful but does that mean that he will effectively be subsidising feckless Labour boroughs that refuse to spend out on street trees whilst careful boroughs that provide street trees will not benefit?

The sums are interesting. Overall spending on the Londoner was set to be £2.9 million in the current financial year. Trouble is not much of this came from the GLA. In 2006/7 £504K came from the GLA, £1.5 million from TfL, £500K from the LDA and £250K from the Met. It will be interesting to find out who got their money back. You’d hope that the Met did. Again the LDA cash should be used for hard economic development not prettifying the streets of London. I guess you can make a case for taking £500K off TfL to make walking more attractive. They would be glad to get £1 million back I expect.

A week since the election and Boris is still going strong with more frantic new broom type sweeping from the new mayor. Today we hear he is sending in the heavies to both the GLA and the LDA to find out where our money is going.

It is striking how he is using the expertise of the Tory borough leaders. He has hired two from Westminster and Bexley and now two more are lending a hand from Hammersmith & Fulham and Wandsworth.

Stephen Greenhalgh, leader of Hammersmith & Fulham is famous for cutting their council tax by 3% two years running since his gung ho young group were elected in May 2006. Edward Lister has 15 years experience as leader of Wandsworth grinding out efficiencies. The A Team are on the job.

The Evening Standard is also reporting that the Chief Executive of the LDA, Manny Lewis, has been given six months pay to go quietly. He will be replaced by Westminster council chief executive Peter Rogers. I suspect we will be seeing a lot more bang for the LDA buck very shortly.

I have just received a copy of Ken Livingstone’s thank you e-mail to his supporters; I signed up to receive communications from our ex-mayor in order to better keep an eye on his campaign. To the end he tries to link the BNP to the Boris campaign in spite of the fact that the BNP appeal directly to Labour voters. He says:

It is noteworthy that a number of parties to the right of the Tories notably the BNP polled much higher in the Assembly list than in the Mayoral vote, suggesting that some of their voters voted tactically for Boris Johnson.

Finally, here are some words that I will personally strive to make sure he eats:

There is no doubt that the new Mayoralty will inaugurate decline and division.

Bitter and vile to the end.

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The Mayor today outlined his plans to outlaw alcohol on public transport in London - everything except the trains.

This is great news. My elderly neighbour called it “wonderful”. Some people have criticised it on libertarian grounds, for instance Guido Fawkes, and predictably Bob Crowe of RMT thinks it is all too hard.

People forget that London Underground banned smoking on the Tube about 20 years before the smoking ban and it was entirely uncontroversial. When I first came to work in London in 1984 I remember the cigarette butts lying in rows in the grooves of the wooden floors of tube trains. First they banned smoking on the trains and then after the Kings Cross fire disaster in all LU premises.

The smoking ban itself passed hardly the slightest incident of disobedience last year. By the end of June public transport will be dry and everyone will have forgotten there was ever a time when you would drink on public transport.

Ray Lewis supported Boris at both his initial policing launch and at his last push event.

Good to see the Mayor hitting the ground running.

Lewis’ CV is pretty inspirational and he is a very engaging speaker. He says:

We see no shortage of young black males in the courtrooms, so my vision is to seek to prepare as many as possible for the boardrooms.

Good start.

Today the BBC is reporting that Lyle Tulloch, 15, from Peckham, was fatally stabbed in a stairwell at Newall House, Borough, on Saturday.

Regrettably that makes Lyle Tulloch the 12th teenager to be murdered in London this year.

Thankfully it has been over a month since our last teen murder on 27th March.

Our new mayor rightly highlighted this issue during his campaign. Now he has to be seen to act swiftly to make a difference.

1 January: Henry Bolombi, 18, stabbed
5 January: Faridon Alizada, 18, stabbed
21 January: Boduka Mudianga, 18, stabbed
26 January: Fuad Buraleh, 19, beaten
19 February: Sunday Essiet, 15, stabbed
29 February: Ofiyke Nmezu, 16, beaten
2 March: Teng Le, 17, stabbed
13 March: Michael Jones, 18, beaten
15 March: Nicholas Clarke, 19, shot
27 March: Devoe Roach, 17, stabbed
27 March: Amro Elbadawi, 14, stabbed
3 May: Lyle Tulloch, 15, stabbed