Evening Standard takes us for a Boris Bike ride

Now I know the Evening Standard is mildly obsessed with the "Boris Bikes" even managing to tie them into house prices going up:

But recently it's just got ridiculous.

After a series of stories about the bikes "beating the tube strike," raising money for charity, and saving the universe, a new columnist is given space for eight incomprehensible paragraphs comparing the Velib and "Boris Bike" baskets:

"You are walking through the stalls of the Place du Marché Saint Honoré in the premier arondissement in Paris. Four hundred grams of aged comté cheese. Six daffodils. Two daurades royales that you are going to bake in sea salt from somewhere like the Camargue. A pistachio macaroon. What is the essence of this experience? It is choice. It is freedom. It is participating in the most inefficient purchasing process known to man — shopping with French artisanal producers. And the thing that gives you this glorious freedom, that allows you to roam at length? It is the basket. Wads of cash, yes, but you need the basket.

Does this experience have any deeper political impact? For Guy Debord, intellectual leader of the Situationist movement that overtook France in May 1968 (and would have succeeded in revolutionising the Republic had the students not discovered that it was August and therefore time to go on a three-month holiday), there was only one way to escape the stratified, commoditised and alienating experience that he termed “the society of the spectacle”. He called it “la dérive”, the wander."

Eh? Is anybody able to translate that? Who wrote this drivel?

Leo Johnson is co-founder of sustainable finance and a partner at PWC.

...oh and Boris Johnson's brother. Funny how the Standard forgot to mention that.

Boris Johnson's tube strike ban: the facts

Boris Johnson is on the news banging on about banning strikes where less than 50% of union members vote.

As I've said before, such a "turnout threshold" would have prevented his own election on the back of just er, 19% of London voters:

Take Boris's consultation on removing the Western Extension which received the impressive backing of around 0.3% of Londoners.

Or his comrade David Davis, who withdrew his labour at public cost and received the backing of just 24% of his electorate.

Or Boris himself who was elected as Mayor with the first preferences of just 19% of his electorate.

But the simple fact is that Boris has zero powers to implement a strike ban in any case.

And the only reason he is talking about one now is to cover for his total inaction in getting the promised "no strike deal" with the unions.

So as you mull that one over on your journey home tonight here's a few other statistics to think about:

Boris Johnson's meetings since 2008:

• Rupert Murdoch: 1
• Rebekah Wade, The Sun: 2
• Lord Rothermere, Daily Mail: 1
• Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan: 1
• Lily Allen: 1
• Kelly Brook: 2
• Tube Union leaders: 0

Me at Snipe London: Boris vs Ken 2

My latest column for Snipe is now available online:

Like all sequels, Ken vs. Boris 2 (and this time it’s personal) promises to be a far less blockbusting version of the original, with London’s media far less thrilled with the prospect of covering it for 19 months to come.

“I think we’ll try to ignore them for the next year at least” one well known broadcaster told me looking wearily around the room.

“The thought of it is quite depressing” another London-based hack conceded to me later that day.

You can read the rest in the latest print edition of Snipe or alternatively just sneak a peek over here.

My local wonders and blunders

Living as I do in the social media capital that is SE London, I'm never that far from a top-draw hyperlocal news site, community website or blog.

However, my own particular patch of the city has remained totally unblogged and so yesterday I decided to set up a new community site: The Kidbrooke Kite.

So far there's only a couple of starter posts over there, but I've got lots of other ideas for stories to investigate and personal gripes to whinge about in the coming weeks.

I'm also looking for others to get involved in the project so do please get in touch.

So if you live in the area or are just interested in finding out more, please head over to The Kidbrooke Kite and associated Twitter page and follow or subscribe.

Wonders and Blunders

A while back I asked my Twitter followers for their suggestions of their favourite and least favourite buildings in the capital.

I was overwhelmed with the number of responses and discovered quite a few gems (and horrors) that I had never come across before.

Well I've now chosen my own two least favourite and favourite buildings in London and you can read exactly what they are and why over at Building.co.uk.