ConservativeHome's London Mayor blog

A final video reminder of why Ken Livingstone must go

This video was produced for 18 Doughty Street Talk TV over a year ago.

Click here to find out which candidate The Independent endorsed this morning.

Dirty tricks Ken starts throwing the mud

One of the reasons we made our mudthrower video was that we expected Ken Livingstone to start smearing as election day neared.

We haven't been disappointed:

The Evening Standard has a copy of a Labour leaflet warning that the Freedom Pass is under threat if Boris wins.  It isn't.  Boris has repeatedly says that he will protect the Pass and does so again in his final broadcast.

Also in the Evening Standard we learn that a Bengali language leaflet is being circulated that says that Boris Johnson "hates Muslims" and will ban the Koran.

We also have Livingstone-backed London newspapers winning extra advertising from Transport for London.  There should be a ban on such things happening during election times.

We must hope that today's YouGov poll and its 11% lead for Boris Johnson is accurate.  The sooner London is rid of the low-low politics of Livingstone the better.

Extravagant Livingstone, and his heavy-handed minders

A new video focuses on Livingstone's profligacy:

Under Ken our tax to the mayor has doubled. So what does Ken spend the money on?

• £3,700,000 - More spin doctors than the Prime Minister
• £4,000,000 - Free tea and biscuits for Transport for London workers
• £12,000,000 - Voluntary contribution to the European Space Agency

Remember: This is our hard-earned money. Ken Livingstone has wasted enough. On May 1st: Make him pay.

And another catches two of his minders knocking over a 10yr old Boris-supporting girl as she tried to approach him:

Also click here to watch ConservativeHome's 'Ken The Mudthrower' video.

The Case Against Ken Livingstone (and images of Boris' biggest backer)

Earlier today ConservativeHome was outside City Hall to see Chris Grayling MP launch the Conservative Party's Case Against Ken Livingstone.  The Case represents a comprehensive demolition of Livingstone's record on transport, transparency, crime, housing and the environment.  PDF here. Alongside him were MPs Andrew Rosindell, Stephen Hammond and John Horam; GLA candidate James Cleverly; and council leaders Stephen Greenhalgh (our taxcutter of the year) and Ian Clement (Bexley).

Chris Grayling ended his brief presentation by reminding us of his favourite Ken Livingstone quotation (from 2003):

"I will save the Routemaster.  Only some ghastly, dehumanised moron would want to get rid of the Routemaster."

On the way back from the launch ConHome's outside broadcasting unit (a bicycle) spotted Boris' most enthusiastic backer in a Citreon 2CV emblazoned with Back Boris stickers.  The photos aren't great (it was a busy road) but you get the idea...

Ken's press officer army triple the size of Brown's

We learn today that contrary to Brown's promises about ending the culture of spin at No.10, he has been hiring a new adviser every week. The annual wage bill of his SpAds now reaches £1.75m - roughly the same level it was under Blair.

Not to be outdone though, Mayor Livingstone has not only matched the Prime Minister with his number of press officers (24) but has hired almost three times the number (70)! In addition to that, he has 105 media staff at TfL and the LDA to promote his policies, although in fairness his record probably needs that many people to put a positive spin on it.

Livingstone has also spent:

• £8m of taxpayers' money on opposing nuclear power
• £2.8m pa on Pravda The Londoner newspaper
• £2.2m on promoting home insulation scheme worth £300k in grants
• £793k on promoting a Oyster card giveaway
• £517k hosting a leftie event attended by Che Guevara's daughter, Gerry Adams and George Galloway
• £4750 of taxpayers' money to Chinese torch-bearer former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq in exchange for appearing alongside him at a press conference
• £4,088 for a rebuttal file answering claims that he should not have met the extremist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Boris, who has pledged to put 440 police community support officers on buses and another 50 PCs on station platforms using money from Livingstone's £3.4m "propaganda budget", said:

"This is a man who has more press officers at his disposal than the Prime Minister. Year on year he ups his publicity budget at taxpayers' expense. London needs a value-for-money mayor. I would spend this propaganda money on worthwhile projects that will actually benefit Londoners, not massage egos."

Update: Phil Taylor sends in some other reminders...

• Don't forget the £3 million advertising the start of the Tour de France
• What about the £3.3 million spent on Low Emission Zone and Emissions Related Congestion Charging consultations (which were basically just ad campaigns designed to make the Mayor look green)
• On its own the Met was spending £8.6 million in 2006/7, a 42% increase on the previous year
• I make the total number of communications people across the GLA family to be 265
• The Mayor's total ad bill across the GLA family is certainly at least £100 million
• Central government spent £328 million on advertising through the Central Office of Information on big campaigns in 2006/7 and spent £552 billion overall in 2006/7 - so advertising was 0.06%.  Livingstone spends £100 million on advertising out of a total budget in the order of £11 billion - so 0.91%.  Livingstone spends 15 times as much as even the Labour government.

Half of children in Inner London live in poverty

No progress has been made in reducing the number of children in poverty in London since 2000. Over a quarter of all children in London are living below the poverty line, and after housing costs a massive four in ten children live in poverty. In Inner London, this rises to half of all children.

This is just one of the many startling statistics uncovered by the Centre for Social Justice in its Breakdown London report released today. Other key findings include:

• A baby boy born in Islington has a life expectancy more than eight years lower than one in Kensington & Chelsea.
• In the last seven years there has been a 17.5% increase in offences involving violence against the person.
• In the last seven years there has been a 128.5% increase in drug offences.
• In the last four years there has been a 33% increase in youth unemployment.
• A fifth of adult Londoners (one million) are hazardous or harmful users of alcohol.
• Despite being an economic powerhouse London has the worst working age employment rate of any area in the UK and a rate of economic inactivity 16% higher than the national average.
• Nearly half of all families with dependent children in London are headed by a lone parent, 65% higher than the national average for England and Wales.
• An estimated 1.68 million working days are lost every year in London because of alcohol, at a cost to the London economy of £294m and to the NHS of £52m.

Livingstone hasn't dissented from any of the government's failed approaches. Boris Johnson believes a lack of focus from the Mayor's office has contributed to "Breakdown London". One of the proposals he has already made in this area is the establishment of a Mayors Fund - a match-funded pot of cash that will be made up of investments from the City, Film Industry etc. This fund will manage the whole process for people wanting to give something back to the city.

We hope that he takes a serious look at the approaches advocated by the CSJ such as an expansion of abstinence-based drug treatment and more relationship/parenting support. More widely, a radical agenda of empowering the voluntary sector in London (not in a politically correct, vote-chasing, corrupt Lee Jasper way!) would do wonders for the city.

Help us make the 'Nasty Ken video'

We got a taste of it yesterday when Ken Livingstone accused Boris Johnson of smearing Islam.

The final three weeks of the Mayoral campaign look set to get nasty.  Ken Livingstone is in a corner, fighting for his political life and we can expect him to fight dirty.

He's always fought dirty.  When people cross him - think of Evening Standard reporter's Oliver Finegold who was accused of being like a concentration camp guard and Trevor Phillips whose views were likened to the BNP - Ken gets nasty.

He attacks politicians who hold him to account, he attacks journalists who investigate his cronyism and he attempts to discredit former employees who ask tough questions about corruption at City Hall.

Please get in touch if you'd like to help us make a short video that reminds voters of 'Nasty Ken'.  We're looking for people with video making skills and for reminders of other times that Ken Livingstone has turned nasty to save his political skin.

Also please use the thread below to suggest ways of bringing the theme alive within a short YouTube-style video

Livingstone doesn't want to know who funds him, except...

If you were watching Newsnight you will have seen an incredulous Jeremy Paxman pressing Livingstone on why he says he doesn't know, or want to know, who funds him in his election campaigns. Click here to watch the Paxman hustings.

Andrew Gilligan - named Journalist of the Year last night - has already found one piece of evidence that suggests that Livingstone is misleading people on this:

"Ken Livingstone took a secret campaign donation from a property developer and then misled the public by claiming he does not know who funds him, the Standard reveals today. The Mayor received the £30,000 knowing it was from multi-millionaire Sharad Patel, who wants to build a £120 million theme park and leisure complex in north-west London, then claimed he knew nothing of who his donors were. He saw the cheque, from Mr Patel's wife made out to the Labour Party, and agreed to meet him for dinner, once his 2004 election campaign was over."

Coincidentally, at around about the same time Mr Patel got the Mayor's support in his fifteen year battle with Brent Council to build a theme park, hotel and leisure complex.

12.45pm update: The paper copy of the Standard has much more detail about how this came about. The Mayor's former Asian Affairs Director Atma Singh seems to be the main source, he's quoted in the paper revealing how Livingstone attended a fundraiser and personally appealed the assembled businessmen for money. Within weeks of donating one of the attendees was appointed to the TfL Board.

Greg Hands MP is also quoted:

"It is no wonder that Ken Livingstone has been trying to cover up his donations given what the Standard has found out. Be appears to have deceived Londoners but the case is overwhelming for him to come clean on who has funded him in the past and who is funding him now."

Sorry comrade: like me, you've had your day

Rare footage has just appeared on YouTube of retired communist dictator Fidel Castro campaigning in London today against his comrade Ken Livingstone. He evidently realises it's time Livingstone retired after his eight year rule, although Livingstone doesn't seem impressed by the suggestion:

Comrade Castro also tried to reason with Livingstone outside a SureStart centre recently, and on one occasion Livingstone had three police cars turn up to deal with the Cuban gentleman.

If you believe in judging a man by the company he keeps, see these reports by Freedom House, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch into Cuba's human rights record.

Related link: Livingstone's less than six degrees of separation with Saddam Hussein, Robert Mugabe and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Ken Livingstone's broken promises

Boris Johnson has today published a list of promises that Ken Livingstone has failed to keep:

1. "Failed to prevent a rise in Domestic Violence as he pledged to do
2. Failed to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour on public transport – instead it has gone up
3. Failed to protect green parks and open spaces as gardens the size of 22 Hyde Parks have gone
4. Failed to meet his own recycling targets – London has the worse household recycling rate in they country
5. Failed to meet his election promise over housing targets. He is on track to miss his target by 50%.
6. Failed to deliver on 2004 Manifesto promise to bring late night tube trains on Fridays and Saturdays
7. Failed to deliver on 2004 Manifesto pledge to increase number of female bus drivers. The number has actually fallen.
8. Failed to keep promise made in 2003 (8 months before the election) on congestion charge charging to keep it to £5 per day. He raised it soon after re-election to £8 per day.  Furthermore, the Mayor U-turned on his 2004 Manifesto promise to retain the existing congestion charge residents’ discount.
9. Failed to deliver on school travel plans. By 2009 he promised every school would have one. Currently only 53% of schools participate.
10. Furthermore, on transport, after his re-election in 2004, the Mayor:
11. Raised single bus journey costs by 20%
12. Raised single tube fares by 50%
13. In total, this is a 100% increase in fare charges since May 2004 on the tubes and buses.
14. Failed a commitment on the environment to expand the London schools environment programme to secondary schools. This expansion has not happened.
15. Failed to stand up against controversial figures preaching hate. He invited Muslim Cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to London – a man who supports the death penalty for homosexuals.
16. Failed to promote a tolerant and cosmopolitan London by making anti-Semitic remarks more than once – firstly towards the Ruben Brothers and secondly to an Evening Standard journalist. The court case that followed cost the taxpayer £200,000.
17. Failed to deliver on a key election pledge of introducing a ‘Culture Card’ in the Capital. This was promised at the last two election campaigns and has not materialised.
18. Failed to protect taxpayers’ money – he spent nearly £50m on plans which have been shelved for the West London Crossing and Cross River Trams.
19. Failed to protect taxpayers’ money – The Mayor promised to launch a campaign to with major private sector employees to give a second chance to Londoners who have been excluded from the Labour Market. This turned into a scheme called ‘Diversity Works’. It cost £9.8m to the London taxpayer and is currently under investigation by the police as part of the LDA financial mismanagement case."

Download a PDF of the full Broken promises document.

The London Evening Standard will be  publishing another YouGov survey today on the state of the mayoral race.  We'll publish it as soon as we get it.