Ken Wont Take No For An Answer (from Ealing Times)

Ken Wont Take No For An Answer (from Ealing Times): "Ken won't take no for an answer
By David Doyle
Comment

MAYOR of London Ken Livingstone is under fire again after it was revealed he has spent more than �1 million repeatedly asking the public if they want the west London tram - and they are still telling him 'no.'

Councillor Jason Stacey has accused Mr Livingstone of ignoring Ealing residents' view by repeatedly ploughing taxpayers' money into consultations even though the public are saying they don't want it.

And now a Capital Radio Freedom of Information Act request has exposed that the cost of these consultations has now topped �1 million.
continued...

Speaking on the radio station Jason Stacey said: 'It does surprise me in terms of the high cost of the consultations, especially as we actually could have told him the outcome probably from the start.

'Mayor Livingstone has continued despite the local election results earlier this year, so it's really no surprise now that he is going to ignore the residents once again and carry on.

'I suspect the only time he'll actually listen is when the electorate kick him out.

'He's had the poll results, the people of the area have spoken quite clearly, yet he's decided to proceed. I don't see how that is a good use of taxpayers' money.'

The most recent polls show 44 per cent of people are against the tram with 40 per cent in favour of it."

London Olympics 'are going exactly to plan'

London Olympics 'are going exactly to plan': "London Olympics 'are going exactly to plan'

LONDON'S 2012 Olympics are going 'exactly according to plan', mayor Ken Livingstone has said despite the spiralling costs.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell revealed earlier this week that the estimated �2.4bn cost of building the Olympic park had risen by �900m.

At the same time, the costs of regenerating the run-down area of east London where the games are being held has gone up by �1.5bn.
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Mr Livingstone admitted that further costs were 'inevitable' as they had not yet factored in inflation.

But he insisted all the extra money would be recouped and the games would make a profit.

He said: 'It is not Alice In Wonderland.

'Nothing's a mess. Everything's going exactly according to plan.

'These games will make a profit.

'We are buying land now, we are doing it up. It will be sold for the construction of housing and employment immediately after the games so this money will come back in.'"

Transport Briefing — Public transport developments and project news

Transport Briefing — Public transport developments and project news: "Transport for London finance supremo quits
Filed 23/11/06

Transport for London has announced that Jay Walder, the organisation's managing director for finance and planning for the last six years, will leave at the end of February next year to join the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company as a partner.

The departure of one of its most senior staff will come as a blow for TfL. Walder is credited with securing a landmark funding settlement from the government's 2004 Spending Review that has formed the basis of TfL's five-year, �10bn investment plan and allowed TfL to borrow money to undertake projects such as the East London Line extension._

Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said: 'Jay has made a huge contribution to transport in London. His financial expertise unlocked the biggest investment in London's transport in the last 50 years. Over his six years at TfL he has identified �1.26bn of efficiency savings through to 2009/10, which we are able to plough back into improving services, and has helped win for TfL the rating of 'excellent' from the Audit Commission.

'He also successfully introduced the Oyster smartcard, which gives millions of Londoners easier, faster journeys. We will be sorry to see him go, but Jay's work at TfL has broken the cycle of short-term stop-start investment and means London's transport system faces the future in a much healthier state.'

Walder's decision to quit follows his failure to secure the top London transport job succeeding transport commissioner Bob Kiley last year. The position was awarded to Peter Hendy.

Hendy said: 'Jay joined TfL just after it was created and has been a key figure in turning it into an organisation that is respected around the world for its record of delivery and innovation. Jay's experience at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York, allied with his experience as an academic and financier, meant he was the perfect person to lead on issues such as transport plans for the Olympics, major investment projects such as Crossrail, and TfL's long-term strategic plans.'

Jay Walder said: 'TfL has been an extremely rewarding experience. I am grateful to the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone for inviting me to join TfL. The last six years have been a fantastic opportunity. I am delighted that I will continue to live in London in my new role at McKinsey and watch as the transport network benefits from the investment now flowing in.'"

BBC NEWS | UK | England | London | Mayor's foreign trip was 'modest'

BBC NEWS | UK | England | London | Mayor's foreign trip was 'modest': "Mayor's foreign trip was 'modest'
Ken Livingstone with children in Havana, Cuba
Mr Livingstone said the expenses were 'modest'
The trip by London Mayor Ken Livingstone and officials to Cuba and Venezuela cost tax payers nearly �36,000, a breakdown of costs reveals.

The mayor's personal visit to Venezuela to sign an oil deal was cancelled, and he returned from Cuba leaving his officials to go on to Venezuela.

A preliminary estimate of the total costs was made public after calls by members of the London Assembly.

Mr Livingstone said the cost of the trip was 'modest'.

The mayor and four officials stopped in Cuba, at a cost of about �20,000, including �16,991 in flight tickets.

When Mr Livingstone's plans to go to Venezuela fell through, the four officials carried on at a cost of nearly �16,000, including �12,948 on flights.

'Modest' expenses

The mayor's office said it had yet to calculate the costs of unused tickets and other facilities used by the entourage.

Mr Livingstone's political opponents have told BBC London political editor Tim Donovan the tour raised questions about judgement and was 'humiliating and embarrassing'.

They are also asking how Londoners are going to benefit from the visit.

The mayor's office said Mr Livingstone was invited by Lord Moynihan - chair of the British Olympic Association - to attend a sports congress in Cuba.

After Cuba, the mayor was scheduled to fly to Venezuela to sign an oil deal with President Hugo Chavez, which will ensure subsidised Venezuelan oil for London.

The mayor said: 'Since I was first elected in 2000, I have spent an average of just ten days a year - less than 3% of the time - on mayoral trips abroad.

'Given that Cuba plays a central role in the international Olympic and sporting movement, particularly in fields like boxing, the costs of my visit to Cuba are modest and in line with the costs incurred on other mayoral trips.

'Similarly, the costs of the advance trip by key staff to Venezuela to prepare for the visit were also modest.'"

MayorWatch� | Ken's Trip Cost 36,000GBP

MayorWatch� | Ken's Trip Cost 36,000GBP: "Ken's Trip Cost 36,000GBP
First Published: Monday 13 November 2006

Ken Livingstone's trip to Cuba and aborted journey to Venezuela cost Londoners almost �36,000 according to figures released to the Assembly today.

Costs for the the Mayor and four staff to stay in Cuba were approximately �20,000 which included �16,991 for flights. The officials continued on to Venezuela at a cost of �16,000 including �12,948 on flights.

Defending the trips the Livingstone said 'Since I was first elected in 2000, I have spent an average of just ten days a year - less than 3% of the time - on mayoral trips abroad.

'Given that Cuba plays a central role in the international Olympic and sporting movement, particularly in fields like boxing, the costs of my visit to Cuba are modest and in line with the costs incurred on other mayoral trips.'

'Similarly, the costs of the advance trip by key staff to Venezuela to prepare for the visit were also modest.'

The figures were published after demands from the London Assembly to reveal costs of the trip to Cuba and Mr Livingstone's cancelled journey to Venezuela the Mayor's office."

MayorWatch� | Ken's Trip Cost 36,000GBP

MayorWatch� | Ken's Trip Cost 36,000GBP: "Ken's Trip Cost 36,000GBP
First Published: Monday 13 November 2006

Ken Livingstone's trip to Cuba and aborted journey to Venezuela cost Londoners almost �36,000 according to figures released to the Assembly today.

Costs for the the Mayor and four staff to stay in Cuba were approximately �20,000 which included �16,991 for flights. The officials continued on to Venezuela at a cost of �16,000 including �12,948 on flights.

Defending the trips the Livingstone said 'Since I was first elected in 2000, I have spent an average of just ten days a year - less than 3% of the time - on mayoral trips abroad.

'Given that Cuba plays a central role in the international Olympic and sporting movement, particularly in fields like boxing, the costs of my visit to Cuba are modest and in line with the costs incurred on other mayoral trips.'

'Similarly, the costs of the advance trip by key staff to Venezuela to prepare for the visit were also modest.'

The figures were published after demands from the London Assembly to reveal costs of the trip to Cuba and Mr Livingstone's cancelled journey to Venezuela the Mayor's office."

Public sector chiefs pay outrage | Metro.co.uk

Public sector chiefs pay outrage | Metro.co.uk: "Public sector chiefs pay outrage
Friday, November 3, 2006

Money

Campaigners hit out at 'City salaries' for public sector bosses after revealing the 10 highest earners were paid 40 times the salary of a rookie nurse or police officer.

Figures compiled by the TaxPayers' Alliance showed there were three seven-figure pay packages and 60 more individuals picking up �250,000 or more a year.

And they showed that the top dozen earners in the NHS were getting an average �183,000 a year each - nearly 10 times the starting salary for a nurse.

The Alliance added together details of salary, bonuses, incentive plans, benefits-in-kind and, in certain cases, pension contributions as recorded in official publications.

Top of the rich list was Bob Kiley, who was paid �1,146,425 as Mayor of London Ken Livingstone's transport supremo.

He received a unprecedented public sector settlement worth nearly �2 million when he quit the post in January and remained a �3,200-a-day consultant."

Shortcuts: From Macmillan to Livingstone, a brief history of political snubs | Backbench | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Shortcuts: From Macmillan to Livingstone, a brief history of political snubs | Backbench | Guardian Unlimited Politics: "From Macmillan to Livingstone, a brief history of political snubs - Excerpt from Article


Michael White
Wednesday November 8, 2006
The Guardian

It's more like Old Ken Livingstone, daring tribune of the left, than New Ken, elected mayor of a global hub city, to be wrong-footed in mid-manoeuvre. But here was new, responsible Mayor Ken making a populist gesture of solidarity with Venezuela by buying some of its oil on the cheap, only to have his scheduled meeting with President Hugo Chavez cancelled this week because the prez was too busy electioneering. In fact, campaign rivals had used the deal to embarrass Chavez. London may have poor citizens deserving of cheap fuel, but is by no stretch a poor city. The last thing he wanted was photos.

Article continues"

BBC NEWS | England | London | Mayor's 'Kenezuelan' PR disaster

BBC NEWS | England | London | Mayor's 'Kenezuelan' PR disaster

Mayor's 'Kenezuelan' PR disaster

by Tim Donovan BBC London Politics Editor

President Chavez was a guest of the mayor in May

Ken Livingstone stood in the foyer of Havana's Hotel Nacional on Monday morning betraying no signs of the public relations disaster on his hands.

He was seen laughing and joking with his team of four officials as he waited to be taken on a tour of Havana's beautiful old quarter.

But he heard late the previous night that his Venezuelan plans had gone up in smoke.

An advance party of the mayor's officials, sent to Venezuela's capital Caracas to finalise arrangements, found itself unable to pin Venezuelan officials down to any kind of itinerary.

Worst of all President Hugo Chavez - in the middle of a frenetic presidential election campaign - could not make much time in his diary after all to see "his new best friend" from London.

Time constraints

The mayor's officials talked of "time constraints". In fact, it seemed not much more than a handshake and a brief meeting was being offered. It's possible that not even that would be arranged for sure.

One of the problems was President Chavez and his officials have been away at a conference in Uruguay.

Mr Livingstone played host to Chavez when he visited London earlier this year and hoped to be feted in similar style.

But it rapidly became clear that was not possible.

Just a couple of days before, the mayor had been buzzing with the news that he had been invited to address the Venezuelan National Assembly.

The mayor said the Cuba trip had been useful

"I imagine there will be some references to the US imperialism," he joked with one official.

Instead he is now facing the prospect of searching questions from the London Assembly about a globe-trotting escape which has ended - according to his critics - in extreme embarrassment.

The advance briefing from the mayor's office had been that the trip would see a major agreement signed.

Subsidised Venezuelan oil would be given to London, not directly, but through a scheme which targeted financial help for London's poor - most likely in the form of assistance with bus and Tube fares.

Kenezuela trip

In return, London would share its expertise on transport and waste and planning with officials from one of the most chaotic cities on the planet.

But with President Chavez's political opponents beginning to sniff an opportunity, it may suddenly have dawned that offering cheap oil to one of the richest, developed and industrialised countries in the world might not go down well in the middle of an election campaign in the "teeming barrios" of Caracas, where his political fate will be decided.

The collapse of the "Kenezuela" trip follows controversy about the first leg of this Latin American tour, a visit to Cuba which he had done nothing to publicise beforehand.

When BBC London heard he was staying in the capital Havana for longer than he had planned to stay in Caracas, the mayor found himself in a position almost impossible to defend.

Fuss or publicity

On the one hand, he said an invitation by Lord Moynihan - chair of the British Olympic Association - to attend a sports congress was important to accept and he would be meeting Cuban sports officials.

On the other, he was, he said, only stopping over on the way to a much bigger deal and it was not a journey or trip warranting much fuss or publicity.

Geographically, he said, "it was like getting off a couple of Tube stops early" from the final destination.

Now, he's left with an equally difficult task of suddenly talking up a Cuban visit that a few days ago he was playing down.

Cost of a foreign affair

Talks with government officials "have been useful", he said, and plans for a Cuban festival in London "even bigger and better".

With his political opponents, such at the Conservatives and Lib Dems on the London Assembly, making hay, accusing Livingstone of junketing, the mayor has been left on the back foot.

And it is only likely to get worse when the London Assembly probes further the purpose and the cost of a foreign affair which has soured so quickly.

A little bit desperately, the Mayor's press officials pointed journalists towards a statement of the Venezuelan government on Tuesday which said that the London "oil deal" would definitely still go ahead.

It is likely the Venezuelan officials will now come to London to announce it.

Without, presumably, stopping off in Cuba on the way.

Gulfnews: Livingstone caught in a row over his secret trip to Cuba

Gulfnews: Livingstone caught in a row over his secret trip to Cuba: "Livingstone caught in a row over his secret trip to Cuba

By Rots Lydall, Evening Standard


London: Ken Livingstone was yesterday at the centre of a foreign junkets furore after planning a secret visit to Cuba. The Mayor is spending five days there before heading to Venezuela to secure a deal to obtain cheap oil for London.

No details had been released of the publicly funded Cuba trip, sparking suspicions that it is an excuse for Livingstone to meet ailing president Fidel Castro.

The Mayor's aide said he had flown to Cuba to attend a sporting conference sponsored by the International Olympic Committee. Accompanied by two aides, he arrived on Friday night.

The 11th World Sport For All conference ended at midday yesterday, giving Livingstone just three hours to attend seminars of little obvious use to Londoners or the capital's hosting of the 2012 Games.

Angie Bray, Tory group leader on the London Assembly, said: 'If he has gone to do the Olympics stuff, why has he arrived on the last day of the conference? It's outrageous that he's charging the taxpayer for what I suspect is a visit to his old comrade who is very ill.'"

BBC NEWS | England | London | Mayor U-turn on Tube 'terrorist'

BBC NEWS | England | London | Mayor U-turn on Tube 'terrorist': "Mayor U-turn on Tube 'terrorist'
Mohammed Kamel Mostafa
Mostafa was jailed in Yemen in 1999
London's mayor has backed down over comments he made about the employment on the Tube of a convicted terrorist.

Ken Livingstone had earlier said he was 'happy' for Mohammed Kamel Mostafa, son of jailed Islamic cleric Abu Hamza, to be working on the underground.

Mostafa, 25, was jailed for three years in Yemen in 1999 for plotting a bombing campaign.

But the mayor said because Mostafa had failed to declare his convictions, his employers 'are correct to dismiss him'.

'Mr Mostafa has convictions in Yemen,' he said. 'These must be taken into account.


I was not aware of this man's convictions at the time of my press conference this morning, only of his family
Ken Livingstone
'They should have been brought to light by those doing the security checks, the failure to do so must be investigated.

'I was not aware of this man's convictions at the time of my press conference this morning, only of his family.

'It is clear that anyone who has been involved in terrorism in any form cannot be employed on the London Underground.'

Earlier, during a press conference at City Hall, Mr Livingstone appeared to back Mostafa's employment on the London Underground.

'Has he broken any law here in Britain? [No, so] we are happy to have him working for us,' he said.

Mostafa was convicted of plotting to sabotage economic and tourist sites in Yemen in August 1999, when he was 17-years-old.

He has recently been working as a labourer for a company contracted to Tube Lines, one of London Underground's maintenance firms.

'International crime'

It is understood Mostafa's previous convictions were not brought to light during his recruitment and he has since been dismissed.

The Tube's vetting procedures were supposed to have been intensified since the 7 July bombings, but Bob Crow, head of the RMT, has called for a review of the Underground's current recruitment procedures.

Labour MP Andrew Dismore said applicants with terrorism-related convictions anywhere in the world should not be eligible for employment on the Underground.

'The key point here is that terrorism is an international crime,' he said.

'Bearing in mind what happened on 7/7, he should not have been working on the Underground.'

Mostafa's father, Abu Hamza, was jailed for seven years in February for incitement to murder and inciting racial hatred."
Editor's Comment Ken does U-Turn his bendy buses can't!

ITV News - Mayor in Hamza Tube storm

ITV News - Mayor in Hamza Tube storm: "Mayor in Hamza Tube storm
8.24, Tue Oct 31 2006

London mayor Ken Livingstone has caused uproar after saying he was happy for jailed cleric Abu Hamza's son to work on the Tube.

Mohammed Kamel Mostafa, 25, was jailed for three years in Yemen in 1999 for allegedly plotting a bombing campaign.

Mr Livingstone said: 'Has he (Mr Mostafa) broken any law here in Britain? The answer is no and we are happy to have him working for us.'

However he added: 'As he failed to declare these (previous convictions) to the subcontractor they are correct to dismiss him.'

Critics, including those bereaved after the July 7 bombings, expressed anger that Hamza's son should be allowed to work in the London Underground.

Meanwhile, Hamza himself is continuing his appeal against conviction for race hate crimes and soliciting to murder.

Lawyers for the cleric, who is serving a seven-year sentence at Belmarsh prison, are arguing that hate laws do not apply to foreigners killing foreigners.

They claimed that the laws used to convict him only apply to those who incite British citizens to kill."

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