HiFantastic news Dave. Don't hurry back soon. Wetzel was TfL's Vice Chairman. Looking down the list of his fellow board members, it's difficult to see Boris wanting to keep many of them on. In fact, he ought to consider asking for their resignations en bloc. They have presided over one of the most bloated bureaucracies in the country and failed in virtually everything they have set out to do.
It's been a fun eight years and I would like to thank you for all your help in London achieving a 5% modal shift from car to public transport, a dramatic increase in cycling, road safety reductions and improvements to the public realm and for pedestrians.
I sincerely hope that the new Mayor will build on these transport achievements to enable London to retain its position as one of the World's leading cities. As for me - I am now job-hunting (anywhere in the world!) and clearing my office.
Monday, May 05, 2008
The Great London Lefty Clearout Begins
Boris joked about the GLA shredding machines whirring away over the weekend. It seems that some of the great Leftists of our time are also packing their bags. Dave Wetzel, who I believe was the inspiration for Private Eye's Dave Spart character, has just sent this email round to his colleagues...
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72 comments:
I hope Steve Norris has some involvement with TfL.
That's all jolly nice, but if EVERYONE who's gained any significant experience in governing London for the past eight years does the same thing, Boris may well be in for a bit of a shock. Let the charlatans be on their way; but experience is a valuable asset.
Private Eye was referring to Dave Spart from the early 1970s, long before Dave Wetzel became prominent so I don't think there's any connection.
Most Mayor's office appointments are political and terminate at the end of the Mayor's term. There are other people who are part of the public service - including Transport Commissioner - who are non-political.
It might look like political spite for the new Mayor to force experienced non-political officers out for following the previous Mayor's policies when he was the Mayor. Especially people like Giles Dolphin (planning decisions manager).
No doubt there are a lot of nervous people around to-day and not just in TfL.
The Guardian's Employment Vacancies section will be avid reading
The problem is - Do you jump now or wait until the Labour Titanic actually sinks below the waves with all hands ?
FFS, this wonk can't even use plain English in a leaving email....................
Dave Wetzel was one of the good guys at TfL. I know. I have worked with him in the past.
Steve Norris would be a disaster.
I have many friends at City Hall and they are all resigning this week. These people work on housing policy, children and young people's policy, policing, business and economic development, waste, strategic planning, transport, community relations (Jewish, Asian and Black), cycling, I could go on. I wish Mr Johnson all the best in replacing such brilliant and experience policy analysts. He's going to have a difficult job.
Quote: "...a dramatic increase in cycling, road safety reductions and..."
Why would he be pleased about road safety reductions?
Glaister is unambiguously Britain's leading transport economist. It would be odd to ask him to resign.
I agree, but often when you ask for a complete resignation you then reappoint thoe you want to keep. It happens in US Presidential transitions.
If I had presided over eight years of road safety reductions I might be leaving too.
I agree with Most Ordinary and hope Steve Norris becomes involved.
His 18 Doughty Street hour long interview with Iain was impressive.
There's nothing like an Iain Dale hour long interview to sort sheep from goats.
If Steve had been running for Mayor he would have got my vote.
"I have many friends at City Hall and they are all resigning this week."
Oh noes! Whatever will London do...?
"These people work on housing policy, children and young people's policy, policing, business and economic development, waste, strategic planning, transport, community relations (Jewish, Asian and Black), cycling...
Well, I somehow think London will get by, since most of those policies (particularly waste) are dictated to us from the EU, and therefore all the Mayor can do is tinker round the edges and try to tone down some of the more loony suggestions.
And 'community relations'? There's one that can be cut with no ill effects whatsoever! Despite the best efforts of the 'Guardian', people in London get on pretty well together without the State interfering...
"...often when you ask for a complete resignation you then reappoint those you want to keep. It happens in US Presidential transitions."
This must be true. I saw that 'West Wing' episode too.... ;)
Can we expect the advertising for the replacement jobs to be somewhere other than the Grauniad; that would be a strong demonstration of the wish to recruit other than statist lefties?
Oh anon@11.02, here's hoping Boris doesn't replace any of them!
The fewer interfering jobsworths that State bodies employ to mess up people's lives, the better we shall all be. And that goes for Councils and Westminster and Brussels as well as London.
It might look like political spite for the new Mayor to force experienced non-political officers out for following the previous Mayor's policies when he was the Mayor.
So when Labour came into Power in 1997 and did the exact same thing replacing experienced people throughout with their own place men that was OK?
You lot really are hypocrites.
Come off it.
I've looked down the list of those on the TFL which you have kindly referenced.
Most of them are academics or else experts in their field. Even Dave Wetzel, I was surprised to see, is a fully qualified transport nerd.
There are one or two union bores who clearly have to go.
What you are advocating in disastrous and dangerous.
Having voted for Boris, I would be very concerned if he took the course of action you are urging.
Curbishlyauto, that isn't true. No Permanent Secretary was dismissed in 1997. The current Cabinet Secretary, in charge of the civil service, is Sir Gus O'Connell who was John Major's press officer for four years. Major's next press secretary, Sir Christopher Meyer, became Ambassador to the USA and to the UN under Labour.
anon 11.02
Fantastic news, no need for redundancies. Win, Win. With Conservatives taking over around the country, we will very soon have little call for 'diversity' and 'community' officers.
We wont miss them.
Curbishlyauto said... "So when Labour came into Power in 1997 and did the exact same thing replacing experienced people throughout with their own place men that was OK?
You lot really are hypocrites."
No, that was a stupid thing to do - but there's little reason for Mr. Johnson to do the same stupid thing.
Look at the mess U.S. diplomacy is always in after the election of a new president, because all its key diplomatic staff has to be replaced.
Just because you've voted Lib Dem or Labour doesn't mean you can't be of service to a Tory mayor.
Not all of these are political non-jobs, so I don't think a langen Messer approach to TFL would be wise. Boris will need transport experts.
I'm not so sure about groups like the City Parochial Foundation for Race on the Agenda (ROTA) or in fact anything with Parochial in its' title.
If he feels the need to put someone in charge of community cohesion, he should avoid active racial nationalists like Barnbrook or Jasper. They tend to be a bit biased.
He can start too by getting rid of that bloody awful building. It just makes us all look like world class twerps. Something neo-classical with columns, porticos and great stonework would seem apt.
ps. Boris needs to get planning for 2043. That's the big one. 2012 is just a low-key rehearsal. (Clue: Londinium 43AD)
Anonymous 11.02
Just shows you the depth of corruption at the core of Ken Livingstone's administration. These people SHOULD be working for the ratepayer- that hasn't changed.
But they're not - instead they feel they owe their positions to political figures NOt their paymasters.
Good riddance to the lot of them.
You may all be interested in a post by Bob Piper on his blog: http://www.bobpiper.co.uk/2008/05/sweep_the_bloody_lot_out.php in which he advocates the complete politicisation of the civil service and the replacement of civil servants according to their political leanings every time a new government comes in.
Don't worry David Boothroyd. As you've so often reminded us, it's a psephological impossibility for Broon to lose in 2010. So you're OK there for a bit.
Or are we not feeling quite so cocky these days?
If he feels the need to put someone in charge of community cohesion, he should avoid active racial nationalists like Barnbrook or Jasper.
I think Barnbrook ij Jasper's "job" would be an excellent start towards reversing all the harm that yellow-faced, yellow-toothed creep has done.
Anonymous said...
"FFS, this wonk can't even use plain English in a leaving email...................."
He was addressing his colleagues not you. They would be totally familiar with terms like 'modal shift' because that is a major aspect transport policy in London.
I have never said that at all and you're a damned liar.
Two sorts of people are involved with TfL.
Paid officials who have a full time job and the Board who are meant to supervise them.
The Board appointments and that of Peter Hendy are in the gift of the Mayor. All are subject to the Mayor's choice whether to reappoint.
The paid offcials have employment law rights. Some, who have been political, should be paid off asap. For the rest we need an assessment of which posts are essential and which can be wound up. Many of the roles of TfL can be handed back to the boroughs. It is a nonsense that broughs have to go cap in hand to obtain momey from TfL to do work in their own boroughs from the money sequested by the Mayor. Many of the items on which TfL lavishes 'grants' (ie handing back borough money) are not things which the borough would chose as a local priority or need.
Big challenges for the Mayor and TfL include:
1. Crossrail - the budget is likely to run out of control.
2. Tube modernisation - ditto
3. Take over of London overground suburban network - good idea in theory how will it work were services are shared with long distence trains to Kent, Surrey etc.
4. Croydon Tramlink - just taken over by TfL. Running at a loss.
5. Buses - gone from revenue neutral to a stonking subsidy of approaching £800 m a year.
6. Look at new forms of transport - tramtrains which run on both rail lines and them into street.
Iain, I'll lay my cards on the table and say I voted for Ken. I enjoy your blog and enjoy your views, and I think there's probably a lot of common-sense ground we agree on. I also work for TfL, but I'm far from unable to spot that we make mistakes.
I wondered, though, what you meant by "failed in virtually everything they set out to do". Getting any modal-shift from car to public transport is very hard indeed, and 5% is on a scale that, as far as I know, is unknown in any other developed-world city. Road safety improvements have been tremendous, so good that targets were made more challenging recently so that complacency didn't occur.
Crossrail has received support, Thameslink 2000 is, finally, occurring, London Overground has taken over the very poor Silverlink trains and is already improving them, the East London line is being massively extended and improved, the DLR has been extended on time and on budget to London City Airport and is being extended to Stratford International and Woolwich, as well as a programme to add 50% more capacity to the core routes by 2010.
Bus ridership is a at levels unseen for 40 years, with newer more reliable and accessible vehicles providing a genuine alternative for many to the car. The previous mayor did protest the mess that the PPP would be, but given that it was forced upon him by the hopeless hand of Mr Brown, London Underground seems to have made a pretty good job of trying to get the best out of it: the Victoria line is getting brand new signalling, trains and track and all this looks like it'll be delivered ahead of schedule - and this is from Metronet! Tubelines, the other provider, have been much better, and the Jubilee line is about (in the next two years) to see a massive improvement in capacity (25% ish) and reliability. Station refurbishments haven't just put up some new tiles - there are many more (monitored) CCTV cameras, staff on stations and Help Points for when a member of staff isn't nearby.
Sorry this is such a long list, but there has been a lot happening, and it seems a shame to rubbish it.
There are certainly some areas where things don't seem to have gone so well - the Thames Gateway Bridge doesn't appear a wise scheme to me, and the West London Tram was poorly proposed and unnecessarily antagonising to local residents. However I've lived in London all my life (since 1982) and I've never seen a time of more rapid improvements to the transport system - you may not agree with what they set out to do, but it seems odd to say they've failed in almost all of it.
Finally, as has been pointed out by other commenters, although some TfL board members might be political appointments (and thus understandably might be looked at under a new mayor), there is a lot of sense in keeping people who are experts in their fields and non-partisan, for example academics.
Perhaps he could join the lucrative lecture circuit like ex-colleagues . . .
An Evening with Lee Jasper - tickets £10
He will take the floor at 8.15pm to discuss “MONEY, POWER AND THE ROUTE TO SUCCESS” and will be available for any questions you may have.
Watch out Keith Chegwin and the bloke who used to be on Countdown's dictionary corner - the good times may be about to come to a crashing halt with new competition in town.
What about trolley buses?
You have to realise that most of the high level beaureucrats at TFL have presided over an era of "Imposition" on communities over the last 8 years.
We are now going to be able in a lot of cases to regain these areas.
Consultation on road calming measures should be precisely that.
Not what "tfl thinks best"
Good riddance to these prolls and welcome back local automony
Well done, Cllr Nicholas Bennett! That's the kind of "on the ground" info that is far more useful and valuable than a self-centred agenda from City Hall.
Now, you might actually be able to achieve some worthwhile reversions back to the boroughs, and that's the sort of input that the new Mayor needs, to give him the "ammo" to make those changes. It was never going to be possible until Red Ken, but Boris ought to be open to sensible proposals from the Boroughs.
The problem is that in Labour or Lib Dem councils, civil servants who vote Tory put their heads down, go with the way democracy decided, and try to sort out how to work in the best interests of the people.
And there are a lot of Labour voting public servants in Tory councils who do the same.
Hurrah for that sense of public service and long may it continue.
The stench of corruption however hung over Ken's City Hall, and Boris is bound to face a load of Livingstone placemen who think (like in the 80s) they're there to build a socialist power base in London, rather than to make the tube run on time or get crime down.
The Sparts who seek to hold up or bring down the first ever Mayor of London with a million mandate should be weeded out and thrown out. End of.
Anon 10:56 - That was to be my point. I tuned in late,but you said it for me. Do these deeply silly, slags imagine that this is how Americans write a letter of resignation? "Hi -It's been a fun eight years ...". I cringe every time I see faux American usage that would not enter the mind of any American. Just as American politicians don't refer to children as "kids" - although it is an American word. OE David Cameron refers to children as "kids". Patronising, n'est pas? Or presumptuous. Don't they know how spine-tingling they are? Sometimes American politicians come across as a little bit pompous, but they are at least aware of the dignity and seriousness of the office of serving the public.
I do hope Boris will order Lee Jasper investigated, by the way.
Verity said ...'Do these deeply silly, slags imagine that this is how Americans write a letter of resignation? "Hi -It's been a fun eight years ...". '
This was not a letter of resignation. It was a personal farewell e-mail to his colleagues. The style he uses is entirely up to him. He doesn't need your advice.
Thanks, Anonymous 2:17, but I'd pretty much figured that out for myself. That "the style he uses is entirely up to him" is correct and that he chose to write as he did tells me he has no sense of the dignity of public service. If he wrote the note from outside, that would be different, I suppose. But if he wrote it on taxpayer property on taxpayer time using a taxpayer computer, it demonstrates a depressing lack of understanding public service.
I hate this slaggish, intrusive informality in official matters and I've never encountered it in any other country. They're slags.
Verity said ... "But if he wrote it on taxpayer property on taxpayer time using a taxpayer computer, it demonstrates a depressing lack of understanding public service."
You have an incredible lack of understanding of the world of work in present-day Britain. Things have changed since - when was it? - the 1980s? when you last worked here.
If Boris is serious he will keep Stephen Glaister - assuming he wants to stay.
Get shot of all the non jobs for 12 months and if nobody notices then forget em completely.
Oh and no more adverts in the gruniard then you might get some real managers instead of otherwise unemployable lefty wonks.
Listen to the wisdom of Boothroyd Iain and distinguish between the Mayor's equivalent of SpAds and the Mayor's civil service. For the most part the SpAds obviously go with regime change.
Dare I say it as a provincial Iain but you appear to be showing your lack of grasp of the detail of London's city govt at every turn.
Anonymous 11:02 - whose friends who work at City Hall on various propaganda projects like community relations (Jewish, Asian and Black ... Wot? No indigenous people who make up 97% of this country? No room at the table for us?
And what the hell business is it of any administration in the world how "communities" get along with each other? Also, frankly, there should be no "communities". You're either British or you're from the EU working here or you're a tourist. The people who live in London are Londoners. The socialists are such toxic, divisive asps, aren't they?
Also, Anonymous, why do you capitalise the word 'black'? Black is a colour, you know. Not a proper noun.
Anon 2:49 I last worked in Britain in the 1980s? What a strange assumption! I wasn't even in the country in the 1980s! I last worked in Britain well into this millennium! Yes, the workplace in Britain is much more informal than it used to be, but taxpayer money and equipment is taxpayer money and equipment. And the employment of imagined Americanisms under the impression that they make the writer sound madly mainstream is creepy.
All job adverts to be in papers other than Guardian and Independent otherwise we will end up with more of the same load of left wing incompetents
Dave Wetzel was an old GLC hack who was running a resturant in Brentford when Ken got in back in 2000. Gathering up his old Socialist Action team from the GLC days, Ken gave him a job. Just how up to date was he?
As for the 5 percent modal shift from cars to buses....well, the very flawed C-Charge system (Derek Turner, the chief engineer told me himself that it was the wrong system but Ken refused to listen 'cos he wanted it rushed in in his first term') took, they say, 70,000 vehicles off the roads each day.
Even if thoese drivers still came into town ( I didn't 'cos I was made redundant as a consequence of the charge) and made four bus journeys as day, that would only add up to 300,000.
Were did the other 1.7m journeys come from? Migration, that's where. A shift to the buses was reflected in a huge influx of bottom-of-the-ladder workers. The C-Charge had very little to do with it.
But as pointed out elswhere, the bus subsidy has gone balistic and the C-Charge consumes all its income in admin.
When the charge was still £5 per day, I got hold of the accounts and calculated that the costs of admin (a few years ago) was £4.75 per car per day, leaving 25p profit.
I wrote to the FT and they said 'we'd like to run this letter, but we need to see your calculations'.
I sent it to them and they printed the letter.
TfL? Did a very bad job in my view.
Apart from the waste and the poor c-charge tech, they also bought polluting diesel instead of gas-powered buses, also helped cause youth chaos on the buses. The policy of reducing road space has neutralised the effects of the C-Charge and the multi-coloured street scapes are the ugliest in europe.
Like all Labour policy, everything new they did had an underlying, hidden, old Labour aim, which ended up ruining the outcome.
Actually WANTING a modal shift from car to public transport would be grounds for dismissal in my book. Public transport is collectivst, anti-individualist socialist nonsense - which is exactly why the left love it and hate cars.
If there's real market demand for buses (which I doubt) then let the free market provided it rather than having a city-state piss away fortune.
just heard that clown wetzel on radio 4. he sounds like a total lefty moron who is only interested in taking cash. hes a ex junk shop and chinese take and mini cabber. what the fuck does he know about municipal transport?
goodby leftie clown
Dave Wetzel is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. He is not and never has been a member of Socialist Action.
Can anyone tell me if Boris is applying for the Chiltern Hundreds or somesuch? Or is he planning to stay on as an MP?
davidncl: There are plenty of reasons why the market doesn't provide a bus service even when one is needed. There are market failures associated with information, externalities and the semi public-good nature of buses.
Looking at the externalities: if we add one extra vehicle to a transport system it isn't only the driver of that vehicle that is inconvenienced by congestion, but also every other driver/passenger already using the road network. Buses provide an alternative to car usage and can reduce congestion if they result in less space taken up on the road. As other road users value this freeing up of space (and decrease in congestion) then it is not daft to subsidise buses.
Also buses are, off-peak, often non-rival to some extent: i.e. if you get on the bus with me it doesn't make it any worse an experience for me (assuming you don't try and make it unpleasant for me). So free passes for older people are generally a good way of getting something for not much cost - the buses would have spare capacity as you need a certain number of vehicles to cover the demand of the peak period, so outside of this period (when many older people wish to travel) there is space that is not being utilised, but would be valued by potential users.
Markets don't work well with non-rival goods - they tend to under-supply them, so there is a good economic argument for subsidising travel here as well.
There are also good economic arguments based on the externalities from vehicle emissions and on the fact that the economy as a whole can benefit if people on lower incomes, who cannot perhaps afford cars, have the ability to travel further than walk or cycle would permit to access jobs.
These are all good reasons for subsidy, and all elements that free markets won't bring on their own. There is even some evidence of 'wasteful' competition in deregulated bus services, which, impressively manage to provide no increase in benefit to other road users, bus users or bus companies.
'Dave Wetzel is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport......' Er - Dave Wetzel was a 3rd rate councillor on the GLC and a mate of Ken Livingstone. He was recalled by Mayor Ken from being a sweet-shop proprietor and placed as head of one of the most important committees for London whose record is less than outstanding. If he picked up the FRSA and other bits and pieces en route, that is just typical of the hard left of the 70s sucking up to the trappings of the ancien regime once they get a taste for them. I will not be patronising Wetzel's new sweet shop.
'I have many friends at City Hall and they are all resigning this week.'
If that is so, they were clearly more interested in serving a political agenda than serving the people of London. So good riddance.
Verity.
"No indigenous people who make up 97% of this country?"
You are too fond of making up statistics, or maybe you don't understand numbers. Indigenous people make up 91.5% of the UK population.
"Yes, the workplace in Britain is much more informal than it used to be, but taxpayer money and equipment is taxpayer money and equipment."
I don't know what sort of places you worked in (I have worked in dozens of offices). Almost all employers allow staff to send internal personal e-mails to each other. I have never heard of an employer who doesn't. If staff are worried about doing it in work time they could always do it in break time.
Bloody hell, I'd no idea the TfL was such a rabble. Union barons, inclusion and diversity officers, eco nuts... it's so far left, one shove and they'd be in the Irish Sea.
Can't see them staying aboard for long.
"Dave Wetzel was a 3rd rate councillor on the GLC"
He was Deputy Leader of the GLC'
He was also Leader of Hounslow Council.
".... what the fuck does he know about municipal transport?"
He was Chairman of the GLC Transport Committee.
He worked for London Transport for 7 years (and also for British Airways).
He was President of London University Transport Studies Group.
He is professionally qualified (Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport) and is widely respected by Transport professionals who have had dealings with him.
Anon 1102am said
"I have many friends at City Hall and they are all resigning this week."
I'd advise your friends against doing this if I were you, as they are probably all unemployable elsewhere.
"These people work on policing"
There are police officers? No, thought not. They make bubble diagrams about policing. They will be missed by no one, least of all coppers.
"business and economic development"
Oh dear, looks like business will have to make their own decisions now instead of being told what to do by City Hall. I'm sure they'll cope.
"waste"
Admittedly, this is probably an area they have a huge amount of experience of.
"strategic planning"
Oh no, a few less PowerPoint slides!
"transport"
I think the good riddance to the transport lad has already been done to death.
"community relations (Jewish, Asian and Black)"
Looks like Jews, Asians and Blacks are just going to have to work out how to get along with Jasper and his mates telling them how to. Bet they do far better without the state sticking its oar in.
"cycling"
Oh well, fewer red light jumpers and pavement riders won't do anyome any harm.
"I could go on"
You mean there are even more non-jobbers quitting? Excellent! Boris will reduce the tax bill just by turning up on his first day!
"I wish Mr Johnson all the best in replacing such brilliant and experience policy analysts."
I don't, I hope he doesn't bother replacing them at all.
"He's going to have a difficult job."
Looks like he doing a brilliant job already.
7:15 - It was a rough guess to highlight the absurdity of leaving 95% or so of the population out of the "communities" agenda.
Ninety-one point five, eh? Seems like a conveniently tidy number. I notice you don't reference your source ...
You write: "I don't know what sort of places you worked in (I have worked in dozens of offices)."
My condolences and I hope the next job works out for you. You might try being less aggressive.
If Dave Pretzel....
' was President of London University Transport Studies Group.
He is professionally qualified (Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport) and is widely respected by Transport professionals who have had dealings with him.'
...why was he running a take-away in Brentford when new mayor Ken came calling for another of his free meals in 2000?
Incidentally, why are all these GLA people resigning and running? Worried about what's going to be exposed?
I want to know about the otherwise secret contract signed with IBM for the next 5 years of the C-Charge. Bet Lenin left a few booby-trapped clauses in that...
Incidentally, the FRSA tag. The Royal Society of Arts used to be for the encouragment of the arts and manufacturing, but it was taken over by Blairites, is now run by an ex-No10 policy wonk and has been turned into a lefty 'think tank'.
Last time I looked it was pushing papers on drugs policy, rather than pushing good design or some such. No wonder Pretzel was given membership.
'He [Dave Wetzel] was Deputy Leader of the GLC
He was also Leader of Hounslow Council.'
Ahem - as a former leader of a London Council myself, I have reluctantly to admit that this does not necessarily qualify one as being more than 3rd rate......
Like many of his generation including Ken), Wetzel was a genius at municipal masturbation but not much else.
As Boris said, any "dogs in the manger" will be humanely put down. It was not an idle threat. Communist wastrels are a thing of the past.
"Dave Wetzel was a 3rd rate councillor on the GLC"
He was Deputy Leader of the GLC'
He was also Leader of Hounslow Council.
".... what the fuck does he know about municipal transport?"
He was Chairman of the GLC Transport Committee.
He worked for London Transport for 7 years (and also for British Airways).
He was President of London University Transport Studies Group.
He is professionally qualified (Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport) and is widely respected by Transport professionals who have had dealings with him."
And for all that, what a piss poor job he's done over the last eight years... don't make me laugh!
"Municipal masturbation" (Smerus). I love that.
As someone with his own business, sometimes dealing with the public sector, what I am about to say will come as no surprise to those in a similar position: You could fire three quarters of the buggers.
A great many are clueless, back-protecting clock-watchers who wouldn't last the morning in a competitive business. Jobs that might take a couple of days are spun out to six months of meetings, reports, Powerpoints and biscuits, usually ending in the wrong decision.
Cut deep, Boris. Very deep.
Further to my last, a little poking around in the world of TfL. It's hard to know where to start, so a few extracts below. I wonder what Isambard Kingdom Brunel would have made of it all.
Incidentally, Lee Jasper sent his apologies for this particular meeting...
____
TRANSPORT FOR LONDON
CORPORATE AND EQUALITIES ADVISORY PANEL
THURSDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2008 AT 2.00PM
Valerie Todd introduced the report. The paper was considered in the context of the 2004 Equality Policy Framework, which was due to be updated as part of the implementation of the recommendations of the strategic review of Equalities and Inclusion. The Equality Policy in turn is implemented through equality schemes for each target group. The schemes for Race, Disability, Gender and Faith were in place with Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) and Age schemes to follow. Work was also underway on an Equality Impact Assessment Toolkit. A list of these documents would be provided to Members to give them the opportunity to request information if they required.
and
The significant increase in the number of staff prepared to declare their sexual orientation was seen as evidence that the culture of the organisation was a positive one. The invitation to TfL to host the annual Stonewall event at the London Transport Museum was a further demonstration of commitment to LGB issues and equality.
and
The Panel noted that the issue of diversity within diversity, for example the workforce statistics for BAME disabled women or elderly BAME staff should also be considered.
Bonfire of the non-jobbers! Excellent.
They will all have to go back to non-universities to do a Non-MBA in a non-strategically unimportant non-sector.
I say this because they are almost certainly unemployable elsewhere. No-one in the real economy (i.e. the private sector, the people who create the wealth these non-jobbers distribute amongst themselves) would look twice at them.
You can imagine the interview questions:
"so Mr X, you spent 8 years working for Ken Livingstone heading up a community cohesion programme, which involved managing stakeholder interaction and communicating core messages across all channels through an end-to-end multi channel communications strategy, and meeting agendas set down by the Mayor's community integration advisers designed to create better community relations between ethnically diverse and linguistically separated residents of all London boroughs, as well as dealing with the needs of sexual minorities, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and men-who-have-sex-with-men-but-who-aren;t-gay' community, which involved budgetary oversight of public funds. I see...Hmmmm - but what the f**k did you actually do?
Totally agree. If they TfL Board Members dont offer their resignations which if they had any honour they would do the 1st thing mayor Boris should do is Fire them.
What they have done to the poor motorist in london is nothing short of a disgrace.
Any future Tfl Street project should be scrapped
Adrian Yelland, I don't often agree with you, but that was aces.
Adrian Yelland - spot on. However the 'unemployables' exist also in the higher echelons of the Metropolitan and City Police forces, as well as across the UK, in most local authorities and county councils. They all conform to this loony, partnership, equality, social cohesion, every yob matters load of tosh. They then all go from one overpaid non-job to another, simply because these organisations have to hve people who speak the lingo and don't get the urge to smash it all up! Clear out TfL, then start on London's police forces, if you want to DO anything about crime and disorder. As for the MPA - what do they actually do other than hold meeting after meeting in the name of 'transparancy and accountability' - are things really any better since people like Len Duvall and Cindy Butts had 'an input'?
Adrian Yalland " men-who-have-sex-with-men-but-who-aren;t-gay' community " Brilliant.
Dave H Parochial ? I don't think we do Parochial down here; what does it mean in a lefty administration context ?
On binning all Kenites from County Hall perhaps Boris should heed the lesson of Iraq and Americas disastrous decision to deBa'athise that states admin.
Cheers
Former Londoner who ran away when he saw what was going to happen.
"They have presided over one of the most bloated bureaucracies in the country"
It will be interesting to see the extent to which Boris reduces TfL staff numbers over the next few months. It will be a harder task than he imagines.
"Dave Wetzel, who I believe was the inspiration for Private Eye's Dave Spart character"
I recall no Private Eye reference to Dave Spart being married to a former Bunny Girl babe.
Wouldn't Boris do best not to turn up for work at all? Just have 'You are sacked' letters delvered to everyone who 'works' for the administration.
I have a friend is now an academic at a red brick university who interviewed many people for her PhD. She said Dave Wetzel was the most impressive of all.
I notice from the minutes of the first public meeting of TfL (so much for Ken's furtiveness) that Steve Norris was a TfL board member - so no partisan nonsense there.
Two years ago, SteveN spoke at a Labour Party fringe meeting organised by Dave Wetzel. They recognise one another as transport experts. So perhaps we'll see DaveW back on board at Steve's invitation.
Dave enjoys great respect from people who know him, from all political persuasions, here and wherever he goes in the world. Amongst his many talents, he's the best chairman I've ever encountered.
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