Paddick on bikes

[CotterPin]

I am not sure whether this has been covered elsewhere - and apologies for it being a London-centric story - but I have just been looking at the transport manifesto of Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate: http://www.brianpaddick.org/serious-about-london/transport-manifesto.

He has precisely four lines on cycling:

• License all cycle couriers.
• Additional £50m to be spent on cycle lanes on all red routes
• Introduce the Velib scheme, similar to the one in Paris
• Cycling representative on the TfL board

Note that the first is actually regressive (whatever your views on couriers) so will hardly do anything for cycling in London.

However he has an entirely separate manifesto for black cabs: http://www.brianpaddick.org/serious-about-london/black-cab-manifesto

I would suggest that he has been heavily lobbied, at the very least.

Putting it at the mildest, he does not sound like he would be very good news for cyclists in London if he were elected on this manifesto.

 

[Tony]

Hmmmm. Visualises self riding in London bus lane followed by cabby. Not a pleasant thought.

 

[rich p]

Has he got a chance anyway though?

Any idea of the odds vis a vis Ken, Boris and Brian?

 

[barq]

Johnson is currently leading by 12 points. I would take that with a pinch of salt since the figures come from the Evening Standard. However a friend of a friend (in the know) told me that Ken is privately very depressed and thinks he'll loose.

 

[CotterPin]

That'll be a shame. Ken, whatever you think of his policies, has certainly be one of the bravest politicians we have know, pushing through unpalatable schemes.

 

[rich p]

Boris was ok on HIGNFY but as a politician he's a clown otherwise the Tories would have given him a proper job. He got the gooner when he was shadow arts minister IIRC for putting his foot in it too often. Surely Londoners can't be gullible enpough to vote for him. Maybe they (you?) have had enough of Ken and Labour should have put up a fresh candidate?

 

[dynohub]

Boris was ok on HIGNFY but as a politician he's a clown otherwise the Tories would have given him a proper job. He got the gooner when he was shadow arts minister IIRC for putting his foot in it too often. Surely Londoners can't be gullible enpough to vote for him. Maybe they (you?) have had enough of Ken and Labour should have put up a fresh candidate?

I fear Ken (and probably the government in due course) will be victims of the "time for a change" fixation that the electorate get at intervals.

I'm a socialist (and therefore no fan of the government ) and I think Boris is a dangerous and probably clever man who exploits "playing the buffoon" as a form of populism. However I also think Ken has lost the plot in some areas and "read the runes wrongly" in others - the message I get from Londoners I meet (I go to London regularly for work and meet Londoners regularly elsewhere in the same context - the ones I meet are probably fairly described as "educated "liberal" middle class types) is that the proposed £25 congestion charge has really got up their noses and is a real vote loser. (Please don't take this as a view from me on that issue).

 

[simon l& and a half]

Paddick's views on the £25 4x4 tax and the skyline make him a nimby semi-tory. Not at all interesting

 

[dynohub]

Paddick's views on the £25 4x4 tax and the skyline make him a nimby semi-tory. Not at all interesting

BUT, if the result of the £25 charge is to get Boris elected (and then get the charge abolished) - is it worth it?

(It's NOT a 4x4 tax by the way - you don't help the case by wrongly labelling it)