ninme

Telegraph - What exactly am I getting for my council tax?

Mr Livingstone was supposed to champion London. Instead, his embarrassing spat with the Jewish community over his “concentration camp” remark has damaged the reputation of the capital - and his insistence on telling Asian builders to go back to Iran was excruciating. Now he has called the American ambassador, Robert Tuttle, a “chiselling little crook” for exempting his embassy from the congestion charge. He only has to tell the Chinese that they are opium addicts and the Aussies that their lager is as bad as their cricket and the whole world will be boycotting London.

Meanwhile, the mayor, along with his six senior advisers, each paid £110,000 a year to provide “service delivery”, is slowly bringing London to a standstill.

…Here I skip a list of a variety of problems with London, including congestion, public transport, the possible postponement of the Olympics from 2012 to 2013, and how much of this is the fault of Blair and Brown.

The Labour Party helped destroy the last Conservative government by attacking the poll tax, promising that under Labour things could only get better. On May 4, in the local elections, voters will have a chance to tell it what they think of its improvements.

The Telegraph - Shaming the capital

Londoners have been much too ready to humour Mr Livingstone - partly, perhaps, because they see the mayoralty as a footling job, not to be taken too seriously. This is in spite of the fact that Mr Livingstone has increased his demands on council tax payers by no less than 118 per cent since he was elected only six years ago.

The sooner voters see through the “cheeky chappie” to the thoroughly nasty, scheming politician underneath, the sooner they will elect a mayor who is fit to speak for London.