No I WON'T "give him a chance"
So people I respect and trust, from friends on Facebook to journalists at the Guardian, are saying calm down and give Boris a chance.
I gave him one. I gave him a chance when I read up on his platform and what he plans to do for London (what there is of it) and compared it to a) what Ken has done, b) what Ken planned to do and c) what the other candidates planned to do. I did my homework. I came out of it not wanting Boris. And I still don't want him.
I thought the congestion charge was the best idea EVER (after the pedestrianisation of Trafalgar Square and free admission at the museums and galleries, that is). I think posh snobs with their Chelsea tractors whose children are too special to walk or take public transport to school (as I did from age seven (walking -- transport came later)) damn well deserve to pay £25 a day for their gas-guzzlers.
I was really looking forward to Ken's planned cycle superhighways from the suburbs into the centre of the city. Boris claims to be a cyclist and to want to promote cycling. Yet he has no idea for doing so as good as this.
I think it's beyond a joke that Boris' first big idea for improving transport was to bring back Routemasters but that he underestimated the cost of doing so by factor of 300%.
I think the bendy buses have their points. With their three sets of doors and low floors they are ideal for people in wheelchairs, parents with buggies, and old ladies with shopping trolleys (in fact, for old people uncertain on their feet in general). I don't think they should be "gotten rid of" as Boris wants to. I think a better solution would have been to introduct express bus routes, like we have in Vancouver, and put the bendy buses on those.
I think Ken's community policing is a far better idea than Boris' PCs on buses. I ride the bus every day and never feel in danger of being stabbed. I think it's appalling that Boris wants to make the police "less politically correct." What does that mean? Undoing all the work towards tolerance and sensitivity that has been done in the years following the Stephen Lawrence tragedy?
Finally, he wants to do away with Ken's 50% social housing goal and do something else to encourage affordable housing. What that something else is, I've yet to learn.
And that seems to be it. I have reached the end of Boris' so-called "platform." And I hate ALL of it.
Finally, and just because I think it bears repeating: I am incapable of articulating how appalling it is to me that a man who uses words like "piccaniny," states the opinion that a marriage between "three men and a dog" would be theoretically as valid as one between two people of the same sex, and described Islam as "the most viciously sectarian" of religions has any sort of public platform whatsoever. These comments are abhorrent and indefensible from any public figure, let alone the mayor of one of the most diverse and cosmopolitan cities in the world.
You've had your chance in my eyes, Boris. You blew it. If I had never seen your mug after yesterday it would have been too soon. And yet the denizens of the "doughnut" suburbs of London, who probably don't even have Oyster cards and rarely, if ever, come into the centre, have decided that I have to see it on a regular basis for the next four years. I doubt that 10% of them did half the research I did before casting their votes.
I gave him one. I gave him a chance when I read up on his platform and what he plans to do for London (what there is of it) and compared it to a) what Ken has done, b) what Ken planned to do and c) what the other candidates planned to do. I did my homework. I came out of it not wanting Boris. And I still don't want him.
I thought the congestion charge was the best idea EVER (after the pedestrianisation of Trafalgar Square and free admission at the museums and galleries, that is). I think posh snobs with their Chelsea tractors whose children are too special to walk or take public transport to school (as I did from age seven (walking -- transport came later)) damn well deserve to pay £25 a day for their gas-guzzlers.
I was really looking forward to Ken's planned cycle superhighways from the suburbs into the centre of the city. Boris claims to be a cyclist and to want to promote cycling. Yet he has no idea for doing so as good as this.
I think it's beyond a joke that Boris' first big idea for improving transport was to bring back Routemasters but that he underestimated the cost of doing so by factor of 300%.
I think the bendy buses have their points. With their three sets of doors and low floors they are ideal for people in wheelchairs, parents with buggies, and old ladies with shopping trolleys (in fact, for old people uncertain on their feet in general). I don't think they should be "gotten rid of" as Boris wants to. I think a better solution would have been to introduct express bus routes, like we have in Vancouver, and put the bendy buses on those.
I think Ken's community policing is a far better idea than Boris' PCs on buses. I ride the bus every day and never feel in danger of being stabbed. I think it's appalling that Boris wants to make the police "less politically correct." What does that mean? Undoing all the work towards tolerance and sensitivity that has been done in the years following the Stephen Lawrence tragedy?
Finally, he wants to do away with Ken's 50% social housing goal and do something else to encourage affordable housing. What that something else is, I've yet to learn.
And that seems to be it. I have reached the end of Boris' so-called "platform." And I hate ALL of it.
Finally, and just because I think it bears repeating: I am incapable of articulating how appalling it is to me that a man who uses words like "piccaniny," states the opinion that a marriage between "three men and a dog" would be theoretically as valid as one between two people of the same sex, and described Islam as "the most viciously sectarian" of religions has any sort of public platform whatsoever. These comments are abhorrent and indefensible from any public figure, let alone the mayor of one of the most diverse and cosmopolitan cities in the world.
You've had your chance in my eyes, Boris. You blew it. If I had never seen your mug after yesterday it would have been too soon. And yet the denizens of the "doughnut" suburbs of London, who probably don't even have Oyster cards and rarely, if ever, come into the centre, have decided that I have to see it on a regular basis for the next four years. I doubt that 10% of them did half the research I did before casting their votes.