Alarm bells ring, and so I seek reassurance that it can’t be as bad
as I envisage – henceforth, I clicked to ‘Twitter’ to ask questions, preferably
to get ‘answers,’ - attempt to communicate with the Conservative via advisory
methods and importantly observe response (s) and calculate whether Shaun Bailey
has the character to take on this demanding job. I directly notified Bailey I
was in the process of articulating my thoughts on his London Mayoral campaign
and allowed him to contribute, my invitation was ignored.
Generally, it’s etiquette to offer recipients a chance to
contribute to something that involves them, by doing so I don’t feel I am
stabbing Bailey in the back clandestinely; to back this up, my social media
threads to Bailey have been gracious, polite and thought provoking rather than;
in your face, or worse… based on
fabrication. I even expressed a means of inappropriate language use on par what
Bailey had pledged in his opening statement in thanking members on getting
behind ‘BackBailey2020’- he’ll adopt to positive campaigning from the outset.
Rightly, social media comments picked up the ‘Under Khan’ (Sadiq Khan is the current London Mayor) term; - nothing wrong with
‘Under Khan’ per se; albeit, what transcended thereafter was innate negativity.
There’s a misrepresentation of language and blatant
tautology that replicates Theresa May’s inept General Election campaign in 2017
and Zac Goldsmith’s failed London Mayor Campaign in 2016. Londoners don’t buy
into tautology soundbites like the
rest of the nation. What seems outwardly inappropriate is the tone can Khan
chose to govern City Hall as he wishes, he can’t – 750 million pounds of cuts
have been enforced on City Hall since 2010 by a disdainful, austere crusade on
public services. Now Khan is entrenched in clawing back finances from Central
Government, as you can imagine this is a durable, arduous task. This needn’t be
the case, alas aligns the tenure position clearly that Khan’s been made a
scape-goat for long-term political gain. Again, Londoners won’t buy it in our
transparent bio-directional clime - naturally, it exacts the remit
Conservatism has no indication to serve Londoners; instead the signs are they
want to rule over them.
Bailey implies this with some absurd policies. i.e. armed
foot officers in a bid to ‘rid violent
crime’ or lessen it with more firepower, profoundly deliverable on cutting
out City Hall ‘waste,’ the same waste that has already been reduced by 21%. A good time to portray that Whitehall governs
control of over 70% of the MET’s collective funding, albeit responsibility has
been abandoned and left to the London Mayor and London’ CT contributions, to
bridge. In seven years the MET alone has lost 39% of Whitehall funds, it left
Khan to set out a reality check to H M Government in January 2018; highlighting the dangers that law enforcement
funding cuts will mean to Londoners. A fluctuation of violent crime across the
board; a report Central Government has flouted; of the onus further savings are
required by City Hall; there’s practically no options left and Shaun Bailey
continues to post up ‘political
opportunism’ rather than coming up with viable funding alternatives.
What I’ve clarified renders BackBailey2020’s social media
announcement of: ‘I would help the police
go after more criminals by funding 800 extra detectives through savings made by
cutting out the waste at City Hall. This will ensure more crime is investigated
and criminals brought to justice;’ Obsolete. Another area of contention is
where would the 800 posts go, considering 120 police buildings have closed due
to austerity? The MET infrastructure has changed so much that it isn’t about
employing 800 more detectives; austere measures has created a non-compliant
environment for problem and crime solving, again, engineered from Central
Government – and explicitly outlined by Sadiq Khan’s evidence at the Budget and
Performance Committee earlier in the year. A Mayor of London’s job is to give a
sure fire over-view of what the austere implications would entail. A steep rise
of violent crime late 2018 is accurate. What Bailey fails to compute is the
undeniable threat of Salafists / Daesh
hitting vulnerable parts of the Capital – London in 2017, faced *four deplorable terror attacks* which
automatically stretch protection resources to the hilt and all on top of the
corporate murder of seventy one Grenfell Fire victims; underpinned by Tory
Council malpractices.
To not observe the struggling resources for what City
Hall are subjected too from a May administration, is neglecting a duty as a Mayoral
candidate understanding the restrictions of running City Hall and secondly, as
a bona fide Londoner from a ‘run-down housing estate’; London Mayor Hopeful,
Bailey appears to unheedingly do both. My default position is to dig beyond the
penned rhetoric because anyone can pen a statement of ‘opportunity and
hope’—this isn’t new and quite honestly Londoners deserve better. Bailey speaks
of the real challenges ahead in a profoundly populous City without actually
delivering on a costed plan or a vision – there’s a pitiable clause of: ‘keeping London moving and taking note that
new builds are paramount.’ Any spontaneous out pouring of suggestive detail
suffers from the dreaded round-figure implausibility; I am referring to the 1
billion pound black hole in its operation budget which Bailey refers to and expressed by George Osborne’s ‘Evening Standard’ in regards to the ‘Crossrail Project’s’ delay till autumn
2019.
It won’t take long to work out what the one billion pound
black hole comprises of… the financially agreed ‘Crossrail Project’ got
bamboozled by unscrupulous under-funding to a tune of £590m at a pinnacle moment
in system operations. The irony was, H M
Government reportedly had to repay the exact cost back to the ‘Crossrail Project’ – yet, the
Right-Wing Press informed their credulous readership the project had to be
literary saved …. They called it a
£600m bailout and now overspending of
£350m has been superciliously offered as a ‘loan’. This is after ‘Crossrail Ltd’ had the project
funding cut by £1.1bn, seven years ago – stated by Sir Terry Morgan the ex-CEO
on the firm’s website. Again; Central Government mendacities… hence, why Bailey
is haplessly nebulous on this particular matter of a one billion pound *black hole* in his opening statement as
a Mayoral Candidate. Presumably, fully costed to which he conceitedly claimed –
albeit, so far no proof of how that final round figure came about.
However, it makes for a scandalous headline in the ‘Evening Standard.’ All of the denunciation goes on Khan’s London
Mayor’s management, knowing full well TfL and DfL are joint partners of ‘Crossrail Ltd’s’ project. In fact on
record the ex-CEO Sir Terry Morgan underlined the factor the public investment
helped in securing other ‘Crossrail Ltd’ contracts nationally. Wasn’t City Hall
part of the success of ‘Crossrail’ securing local government contracts? Suffice
to say. Bailey’s opportunistic ambition discombobulates actuality. “After two and half years of Sadiq Khan , it
is clear we cannot afford more of the same.” And this is a positive Conservative campaign. Bailey will dismiss the business status of ‘Crossrail
Ltd’ and dismiss the 50/50 joint project legal responsibility also in regards
to TfL and DfL. Be under no illusion that Bailey must compute Khan is not the
CEO of ‘Crossrail Ltd’ of the simple factor, there is no CEO of ‘Crossrail Ltd’
Sir Terry Morgan moved onto become Chairman of ‘HS2 Ltd’ in August 2018,
appointed by The Secretary of State, Chris Grayling.
Meaning the Crossrail Project delays were
internally implemented directly from Whitehall not only via fiscal restraints,
but also by moving vital personnel over to private corporations i.e. ‘HS2 Ltd.' All funded by UK taxpayers, henceforth, tying the hands of London Mayor, Sadiq Khan; notably this was his professional
response: ‘I was angered, disappointed
and frustrated when I was told by ‘Crossrail Ltd’ that the central section of
Crossrail wouldn’t open in December 2018 as had been promised for a number of
years now.’ After all this, Khan is still freezing the cost of Crossrail
travel for Londoners for he knows that ‘Crossrail’ will open up routes to a
further 1.1 million commuters within a forty-six minute transit from the
capital. Meanwhile London Mayor Candidate 2020 has indicated the total
opposite: ‘Londoners could be paying back
this Crossrail bailout for years to come.’
My calculations are direct from the ‘Crossrail Ltd’
budget of (2009) the costings puts the project at present (October 2018) £150m
within the initial economical agreement of £15.9bn; again, the team of ‘BackBailey2020’
will ignore this actuality. I advised Bailey to contact Sir Terry Morgan for
clarity, he’ll be in the office next to Grayling; then again, who is really the
CEO of ‘Crossrail Ltd’? The plot thickens.
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