Last night I finally got to interview Mike Read on 18 Doughty Street. As regular readers will know, we had a couple of abortive starts! I have to say that I was impressed. Most people think that celebrities who try their hand at politics are inevitably useless and won't get anywhere. I won't pretend that some of his policy answers weren't a bit woolly, but he was able to articulate a vision for London which few of the other candidates I have interviewed have been able to do. You can see the full interview HERE. I've now interviewed virtually all the declared candidates apart from Andrew Boff and Nick Boles. Click on the following names if you'd like to see any of the archived interviews... Warwick Lightfoot, Richard Barnes, Victoria Borwick, Winston McKenzie & Simon Fawthrop.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Mike Read & the London Mayoralty
Last night I finally got to interview Mike Read on 18 Doughty Street. As regular readers will know, we had a couple of abortive starts! I have to say that I was impressed. Most people think that celebrities who try their hand at politics are inevitably useless and won't get anywhere. I won't pretend that some of his policy answers weren't a bit woolly, but he was able to articulate a vision for London which few of the other candidates I have interviewed have been able to do. You can see the full interview HERE. I've now interviewed virtually all the declared candidates apart from Andrew Boff and Nick Boles. Click on the following names if you'd like to see any of the archived interviews... Warwick Lightfoot, Richard Barnes, Victoria Borwick, Winston McKenzie & Simon Fawthrop.
I think we should have a Winston Mackenzie v Nic Boles fist fight to decide who is the most suited of the two.
ReplyDeleteI'm not averse to changing my opinion... I'll give it a watch.
ReplyDeleteWhen's Ken coming on?
ReplyDeleteI've now interviewed virtually all the declared candidates apart from Andrew Boff and Nick Boles
ReplyDeleteErr, no. You mean you've interviewed people seeking the Tory nomination. What about the other parties, like, for instance, the party that has won this election the last two times?
You attitude just shows how 18DS is still just the Tory Party in front of a web cam
Anonymous, Ken is the only other candidate. There are no other declared candidates in the Labour Party or the LibDems. If there were, I would happily have them on too.
ReplyDeleteNot exactly Schwarzenegger but I suppose that's the way things are going. If you see Lingstone down the gym, watch out.
ReplyDeleteWhat concerns me is Mike Read's dodgy syrup.
ReplyDeleteLet's face it - ken is here to stay.
ReplyDeleteMike Read had some ideas about the Congestion Charge. All bad unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI showed on ConHome that the CC has taken more than £900 million off people in its first four years of operation and only returned a surplus of £25 million.
If as Read suggests we cut the CC down to £5 from £8 and allow post-billing the thing will collapse. Essentially the CC takes £250 million and has day-to-day running costs of £150 million. 30% of the income comes from fines. Post billing will kill the fines income. The price cut will also reduce the income. The costs will not decrease! Both these measures would be fair but result in the CC actually costing money rather than generating it.
Maybe Read wants to kill it by stealth. In reality I suspect he has no idea about the numbers.
I assume that anonymous at 2.03 means the labour party when he mentions 'the party that won this election the last two times'.
ReplyDeleteIn fact they only won it last time. In 2000 their candidate was Frank Dobson who came third.
Did he mention anything about underground car parking? Apparently he's looked into it and it is feasible.
ReplyDelete