Olympic bureaucrats must not ruin London 2012

Having met the owners of a long-standing Westminster news stand this lunchtime, who are being threatened with closure during the Olympic Games because of the news stand’s proximity to Parliament, Ken Livingstone said;

“We won the Olympic bid for one reason – to benefit ordinary Londoners for years to come. If the right decisions are taken now the Olympics will bring thousands of new jobs and homes to London and provide a much needed boost to thousands of businesses in the capital.

“I am deeply concerned that the interests of Olympic bureaucracy has overtaken commonsense and Londoners are losing out. From a much loved newsagent in Westminster which is threatened with closure or the unnecessary clampdown on thousands of ordinary London businesses who merely want to cash in on their Olympic Games, I believe it is time for the interests of Londoners to come before the bureaucrats.

“We cannot afford for London 2012 to be remembered by Londoners as the, ‘them and us Olympic games’. If I’m elected I’ll work with LOCOG, Government and the Metropolitan Police to deliver an Olympics where the interests of Londoners come before the bureaucrats and fat cats.”

Tory Mayor’s manifesto full of significant gaps

Boris Johnson’s manifesto fails to mention childcare, lesbian and gay Londoners, faith communities or child poverty.

The gaps in Boris Johnson’s full manifesto include:

Lesbian and gay Londoners
Lesbian and gay Londoners are not mentioned once in Boris Johnson’s manifesto.

Faith communities
There is no mention of any faiths in Boris Johnson’s manifesto.

Childcare
The word childcare does not appear in his manifesto.

Child poverty
Child poverty is not mentioned once in Boris Johnson’s manifesto.

Black Londoners
Boris Johnson’s manifesto only talks about black and minority ethnic Londoners in the context of crime.

The only passage that deals with the Black community reads – “In my mentoring programme for young black boys, who are over-represented both as perpetrators and victims of crime, with a disproportionate number of young black people affected by serious youth violence. For example, 86 per cent of gang members in London are of black Caribbean ethnicity.”

The only use of the word ‘diversity’ appears in the crime section as well.

Ken launches youth manifesto

Ken launches youth manifesto with plea to young Londoners ahead of voter registration deadline.

On a whistle-stop morning tour of Further Education colleges in the capital, Ken Livingstone will today promote his pledge to restore a London-wide EMA, the headline commitment in his Manifesto for Young Londoners.

Ken will issue a rallying cry to London’s young people to ensure they are registered to vote, ahead of the deadline for voter registration tomorrow (Wednesday 18th April).
In addition to the pledges to drive down the cost of living for all Londoners and cut fares by 7%, Ken’s promises to young Londoners, if elected in May include:

* Restoring the London-wide Education Maintenance Allowance;

* Campaigning against rises in tuition fees;

* Re-establishing a London Child Poverty Commission;

* Creating a London Apprenticeship Offer, and piloting a pre-apprentice course;

* Creating jobs for young Londoners from the Olympics legacy and across the GLA;

* Work with businesses to promote Saturday jobs;

* Providing safe place for young people who are threatened by gangs and violence.

Ken pledges to extend Croydon Tramlink

Labour’s Ken Livingstone will today commit to a project to extend the Croydon Tramlink, if elected Mayor of London on 3rd May. Ken is making this commitment in addition to his Fare Deal pledge to slash transport fares by 7%, a move that will save the average Londoner £1,000 over the next four years.

The proposed extension to the Croydon Tramlink will run from Harrington through to Penge and then Anerley Roads and then link to either the Crystal palace bus or rail stations, or both. A map of the proposed extension and possible options is available here.

Ken Livingstone said: “My platform is based on making Londoners better off, which is why I have announced a Fare Deal cut in fares which will leave the average London fare payer £1,000 better off over 4 years. But there are additional transport projects we can do because of the sheer size of the surpluses at TfL. The extension of the Croydon Tramlink extension is about building for our future.”

Labour release ‘We are Londoners’ film

Three Londoners who appeared in Labour’s London elections party election broadcast on Wednesday 11th April this week are featured in a new film, ‘We are Londoners’. The three participants explain in the film why they took part in the original Party Election Broadcast and why they are backing Ken’s campaign.

Labour’s party political broadcast featured ordinary Londoners talking about their lives and how Ken’s policies will make them better off. To see Labour’s party election broadcast on YouTube click here.

In contrast Boris Johnson’s party election broadcast featured Boris Johnson talking about Boris Johnson.

Ken launches Tenants’ Charter and online petition for London Living Rent

Ken Livingstone will today step up his campaign to improve living standards for London’s tenants, as he launches an online petition for a London Living Rent, and a Tenants Charter at a meeting with local tenants in Brent.

Ken’s Tenants’ Charter will speak up for the interests of all tenants in London, whether they are tenants of private landlords, housing associations or local authorities. The charter will promote minimum standards that tenants in all sectors should be able to expect from their landlords, and which Ken will promote if elected as Mayor. These standards include a decent home, inflation-only rent increases, timely repairs, secure tenancies and landlords who comply with the law.

An online petition for a London Living Rent is also being launched today at www.kenlivingstone.com/livingrentpetition which Londoners are being urged to put their names to.

Anti-gay bus ads should never have been agreed, full stop.

Ken Livingstone has said that the decision of the Mayor’s transport body, Transport for London, to agree advertisements on the side of London buses referring to LGBT people as ‘ex-gay, post-gay and proud’ is a huge mistake that shows how London has retreated from the leading edge on LGBT rights.

The ads are a response to Stonewall’s bus advertising campaign promoting LGBT rights.

It’s reported today that London buses were booked to carry an advertising campaign expected to start next week, asserting the power of therapy to change the sexual orientation of gay people.

Ken Livingstone said: “London is going backwards under a Tory leadership that should have made these advertisements impossible. They promote a falsehood, the homophobic idea of ‘therapy’ to change the sexual orientation of lesbians and gay men. The adverts are insulting to LGBT Londoners and damaging for everyone who believes London is the greatest city in the world because of it’s tolerance.

“It is an indication of the weakness of the Tory political leadership in London that we are now moving backwards when it comes to promoting LGBT equality.

Ken launches plans to tackle London’s affordable housing crisis

Ken Livingstone will set out his plans to tackle London’s housing crisis on a visit to Havering with shadow housing minister Jack Dromey today.

They will visit the first phase of Old Ford Housing Association’s Orchard Village (formerly known as the Mardyke Estate) where 121 new homes for rent were completed last year as part of an £80 million regeneration. There Ken will set out plan to get more affordable homes built in London by:

* Making the homes built genuinely affordable, by bringing back the 50 per cent of market rents ceiling, and instructing the HCA to include that level in its new homes building programme;

* Using the extremely valuable land assets of the GLA bodies to build more homes;

* Working with local authorities, housing associations and builders in a joint effort to use our resources to build more homes;

Labour hits back after London’s Tory Mayor’s team invent Ken’s “unfunded promises”

Ken Livingstone’s campaign team has hit back at Tory claims that he has made millions of pounds worth of “unfunded promises” explaining that of the total so-called “unfunded promises” set out in the Tory ‘Can’t Afford Ken’ document:

* 8 of the promises set out are not in Ken Livingstone’s manifesto. The total cost of these ‘phantom Tory promises’ is £517.7 million.

* 7 of the pledges have been wrongly costed. The total cost of these wrongly costed pledges is £326 million.

* Ken’s fare cut is correctly costed at £1.14 billion. (See Labour’s full document for details.)

* All the other pledges are fully funded from existing budgets either within the GLA or from other sources, as set out in Labour’s rebuttal document [pdf].

£237 million wasted by Boris Johnson

On 16th March 2012 Boris Johnson claimed, “We have gripped the waste and bureaucracy that infused City Hall, and turned it round”, yet analysis has shown the Tory Mayor has presided over waste totalling £237 million in four years. This would be enough to fund:
* 10.5 months of Ken’s fare cut;
* More than 4,500 police officers;
* A London EMA for 2 years and 9 months;
* Ken’s childcare policies for the next 69 years.

Ken Livingstone said; “The fact that £237 million has been wasted by Boris Johnson is shocking. The Tory Mayor has wasted this money while telling us fares have to go up and police have to be cut because there is no more money.

“Londoners expect the Mayor to spend money on police officers rather than huge pay rises for his senior staff.

“In tough times the millions spent on chauffeur driven cars and pot plants by Boris Johnson is wasteful and would be much better spent on reversing the Tory Mayors cuts to 1,700 police officers.”