The news was initally reported via Bike Biz, with a headline “Government joins #boycottaddisonlee“.

The UK Government’s Chief Procurement Officer John Collington has been reported as saying “We expect all private hire [...]]]> Yesterday, UK cycling website road.cc reportd that Addison Lee, a London minicab firm, had lost its sole contract with the United Kingdom Government.

The news was initally reported via Bike Biz, with a headline “Government joins #boycottaddisonlee“.

The UK Government’s Chief Procurement Officer John Collington has been reported as saying “We expect all private hire vehicles in London to adhere to the prohibition on using bus lanes. In regard to Addison Lee, the only existing government contract with the company will expire at the end of this month and is not being renewed.”

No-one can be sure of the size and nature of the contract, though rollkit.com intends to investigate via Freedom of Information requests on Tuesday morning (we’re having an early bank holiday to celebrate this wonderful news).

The cancellation of the contract comes despite knowledge that Griffin has donated over £250,000 to the Conservative party, the largest contingent in the UK’s Coalition Government.

John Griffin, chairman of Addison Lee, joined Sustrans’ Eleanor Besley for a debate on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, where he tried to outline his gripe with cyclists.

Griffin wasn’t in the Today studio as originally planned. He joined the debate confirming he was stuck in traffic, and wasn’t using a bus lane to beat the queues.

Later in the Today programme, rollkit.com heard #boycottaddisonlee supporter John Prescott join in a debate about how the news agenda is increasingly being driven by social media, citing the Addison Lee ‘Ratner Moment’ as an example.

Now may also be a good time to criticise BBC London TV News, who were a pioneering stalwart of ‘travel news’ for their lack of understanding of the significance of this story, until late in the day. Travel Cams on Breakfast telly, unfortunately, are not quite an example of cutting edge travel reporting in a 21st century capital.

Liberal Democrat ministers have also been fairly relaxed toward the Addison Lee debacle, in recent news Nick Clegg, the UK Deputy Prime Minister, stated that he helped his party join the Coalition Government, because he did not want his party to be harmed by the unfavourable reputation the country’s Labour party had. No comment was passed about the damage his party may have sustained in the last two years since his party joined a Conservative coalition.

Mayoral Canidates for the London elections next week, Boris Johnson, Ken Livinstone, Brian Paddick, Siobhan Benita, Carlos Cortiglio, and someone for UKIP were fairly quiet on the matter. Jenny Jones, the Green Party candidate spoke out vociferously against the idea of Addison Lee cars breaking the law. Rollkit.com is forming the opinion that Jenny Jones would be our preferred candidate for Mayor of London, given other recent gaffes by candidates.

“It is very hard to know what the dispute is about. It is said to be about Health and Safety but actaully all Unite’s material [...]]]> To be a good politician, you have to be able to spin well. Frances Maude deserves a medal for the bull he’s just been spouting on the BBC news channel.

“It is very hard to know what the dispute is about. It is said to be about Health and Safety but actaully all Unite’s material suggests it’s about much more than that.”

Frances Maude, 10:57

Earlier in his interview, he stated the dispute was purely about pay.

“Tanker drivers work in an increasingly fragmented and pressurised industry where corners are being cut on safety and training in a bid to squeeze profits and win contracts. Drivers face growing job insecurity as a result of the contract ‘merry-go-round’ and a ‘beat the clock’ culture has flourished with drivers forced to meet ever shorter delivery deadlines.”

“This is not about pay – this is about ensuring that high safety and training standards are maintained, so that our communities are safe. It is about a simple measure, the creation of an industry-wide bargaining forum. It is about bringing fairness and stability back to an essential national industry.”

Unite Website – 11:00

Take the latest outburst from “Baroness” Sayeeda Warsi. Len McCluskey, from Unite the union, said this Summer’s Olympics would be the perfect time for industrial action, or civil disobedience.

On the day Dr Fox resigned from Government over the problems with Werrity, Sky 1′s “An Idiot Abroad” had this injection…

An odd day to read the news, Nick Clegg says people should not “write off” the Lib Dems, despite them slumping to sixth place in the Barnsley Central by-election.

“”In truth it was a no contest for any non-Labour candidate,” [...]]]> Yes, it’s time to look at the news from today…

Clegg defiant against the voters

An odd day to read the news, Nick Clegg says people should not “write off” the Lib Dems, despite them slumping to sixth place in the Barnsley Central by-election.

“”In truth it was a no contest for any non-Labour candidate,” … “It was a very safe Labour seat. Labour got a huge majority on an abysmally-low turnout and everybody else was left to pick up the pieces.”

So, if we take that literally, Nick Clegg doesn’t pay attention to what the polls say unless it suits him. I’d rather expect that, as a champion of a new way of politics, he’d take a more measured view of what the people think.

Smith upsets Letts by talking about pornography.

Jackie Smith’s programme about pornography on BBC Radio 5 Live was a hoot. Though I am still left wondering whether her comment that all those shelves of women being objectified and degrading themselves equally means that gay porn is men degrading and objectifying themselves? Barely a smattering of complaints, according to Ofcom, so it went down well, with the listeners at least, but not with Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail. You know the old adage, if you don’t like it don’t watch it? Well, that applies to listening too. Poor old (well, nearly 50) Letts mustn’t have enjoyed listening to “Porn Again”, judging by his reaction in the paper:

“Little Miss Brassy barged her way on to the publicly-funded airwaves last night to present a breathy, oh-so-daring radio programme about pornography.”

“The point of the exercise, purportedly, was to report and inform. Pull the other one. The aim here was titillation and self-promotion.”

“Did the title of the show, ‘Porn Again’, not say it all? A jokey pun, and quest for a second chance. Miss Smith yearns to turn herself into a media celebrity. The BBC wanted to pull in the viewers by having a former Home Secretary say ‘t*ts’ on air.”

Let’s get this right, Letts points out that the programme title should have said it all. I’m struggling to understand how the man who wrote “Bog Standard Britain”, a book about how critical correctness has “crushed the individualism from our nation of once indignant eccentrics” has the gall to whinge when a programme tailored exactly to those eccentrics surfaces.

That same Quentin Letts who wants to flatten town centres, and replace them with houses, because the town centre is ‘dead’.

That same Quentin Letts who is frequently welcomed onto the airwaves of the BBC (particularly Radio Four), to come up with pious shite such as this gem:

“I was just thinking about the Olympics. My feeling about the Olympic Games is that it should be about games, it should be about sport, it should be about men running the 100 yards or the 100 metres and it should be about enormous Russian women putting the shot and it shouldn’t be – at least we think they’re women – and it shouldn’t be – it shouldn’t be about the arts. And it horrifies me when this whole thought of the cultural olympiad gives me a bit of a shiver.”

I’m sure those Russian women putting the shot would love to give you a shiver.

[Any Q’s 25^th January 2008 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/anyquestions_transcripts_20080125.shtml]

More Porn!

Staying with Pornography, since it’s topical, an article from the Daily Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1362646/Northwest-University-investigate-sex-toy-demonstration-Faith-Kroll.html

It would appear that Northwest University in Chicago has been getting a lot of attention over a sex-display after class, the President of the school is upset, and the right-wing media are setting themselves up to wet themselves over it, but secretly wish they were there, no doubt.

Before we get to the details, the article tells us that the University is one of the top ones, and it charges about 40,000 US Dollars per year to learn. There was a video shown in a “Human Sexuality” class, and the students felt it was not realistic. Thankfully, the guest lecturer, said he could organise a couple to demonstrate a sex toy, and the female orgasm. Attendance was optional, strong warnings on the explicit nature given, and a handful of students left, leaving around 100 behind to watch and behold.

There was a video clip going around the internet a few years ago, where power-tool style sex toys were being used by a woman, and in this case, that’s what was chosen as the tool to display sex toys and the female orgasm.

The president of the University says it was poor judgement. Unfortunately, for many women and quite a lot of men, the education on the female orgasm was worth more than the lesson itself.

Naked Women!

Speaking of Pornography, the newspaper really doesn’t know which side of the fence to sit on, as it displays “Olympic Water Babes” naked, underwater. Their snapper used a Nikon D300, apparently, though I rather expect that any men reading are more interested in the names and ages of the athletes – thankfully the Mail has given a handy key to that.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1362768/Meet-Britains-Olympic-water-babes-whove-shed-inhibitions-costumes.html

And Finally…

Tensions were growing today after the Sun reported from a soldier that the MoD paid £22.51 for a light bulb worth 65p.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/3445710/Ministry-of-Defence-pay-22-for-65p-lightbulb.html

Unfortunately the invoice printed in the paper does not display whether the invoice is for £22.51 or 22.51p. Big difference. Not sure why we only get such a small snippet to make it quite so impossible to give the story legitimacy, either.

Liam Fox was uppity though, lambasting Labour for waste. Yes, 11 months after the general election, Cameron, Duncan-Smith, Hague, Clegg and Fox still can’t quite get their head around the fact that they should have had more of an impact by now. That said, I am worried why the Government are rushing to throw the baby out with the bathwater, without investigating other efficiencies they can make – such as reducing the cost of the bloody lightbulbs!

Dear Friend,   I am so pleased that, like me, you are supporting I Value the Arts. The campaign aims to provide a voice for everyone who values the arts in their community and it has now received 16,430 pledges of support. This is great news, and a [...]]]>

Kate Adie - image: Steve Brock

Dear Friend,
 
I am so pleased that, like me, you are supporting I Value the Arts. The campaign aims to provide a voice for everyone who values the arts in their community and it has now received 16,430 pledges of support. This is great news, and a true reflection of how cultural services are an integral part of every community. However, in light of recent developments it is now more important than ever that everyone has the opportunity to sign up. I would like you to help raise the profile of the I Value the Arts campaign and get more people involved. It is vital that you get in touch with as many people as you can and ask them to pledge their support at www.ivaluethearts.org.uk
 
As you may know, the recent Comprehensive Spending Review left local councils facing an average cut of 28 per cent. The non-statutory status of local funding for cultural services has meant that the arts sector is left vulnerable to bear the brunt of these local authority cuts.
 
Unfortunately last month, Somerset County Council became the first local authority to announce that it was axing all of its arts funding. Not only has this signalled a cultural decline for the county itself, it has also set a precedent for other local authorities to follow suit. 
 
The arts are an easy target for cuts, and the repercussions of Somerset _ s decision are already being felt. Darlington Borough Council is preparing to withdraw the subsidy from Darlington Civic Theatre and the Darlington Arts Centre; which may lead to their closure, as it attempts to trim £22m from its £107m budget. The arts in Rochdale are also facing significant cuts, as budgets for all parts of the arts and heritage service are to be severely reduced, often by 50 per cent.
 
To prevent lasting damage being done to the arts, I Value the Arts has given supporters in affected areas relevant and useful information about plans for the arts in their community with practical suggestions about how they can make a difference. Of course, the more signatories we have, the more people there are to take action. So please, forward this email to as many people as you can and ask them to pledge their support at: www.ivaluethearts.org.uk
 
The more support we have the louder our voice and the louder we shout the more likely we are to be heard.

For more information about the campaign, go to www.ivaluethearts.org.uk or you can call the National Campaign for the Arts on 020 7287 3777
 
Thanks for your support

Kate Adie
Chair, National Campaign for the Arts

Sorry, Ed, I missed it. I’ll probably miss Cameron’s too. No hardship, I missed the Liberal Democrat leader’s speech. Greens and UKIP too!

Party Leader speeches are just over-rated opportunities [...]]]>

“My speech was seen and heard on the BBC and in the interests of impartiality and fairness, so the prime minister’s should be.”
Ed Miliband.

Sorry, Ed, I missed it. I’ll probably miss Cameron’s too. No hardship, I missed the Liberal Democrat leader’s speech. Greens and UKIP too!

Party Leader speeches are just over-rated opportunities for the leader to spout bollocks in front of an affirmed supportive audience. To make themselves look good.

To choose who I want to lead the UK, I pay attention to what’s said by the leaders of each party when in more impartial settings than their own party party where the leader of the gang gives a parting serenade of gratitude, proving how manly and heroic he is, that the leader is better than the man who invented the next best thing since sliced bread. It’s the last dance, so to speak. Then we all clap gratefully for the cameras.

The BBC going on strike and not broadcasting this bollocks from every leader would probably do the country a whole favour about now.

The questioning, as you might expect, was slanted towards “why have the Liberals got [...]]]> I listened to Liberal Democrat Lynne Featherstone on Friday gone, as she told the TUC’s LGBT conference that she fully supported them. This talk was followed by a Q&A session, cut very short because she had more important things to do.

The questioning, as you might expect, was slanted towards “why have the Liberals got into bed with the Tories so readily?”. To be very honest, I have yet to hear a convincing answer. According to Featherstone, it’s our own fault because of the way we voted. How demeaning.

There was a lot of talk about the Tories’ past record on LGBT rights. Featherstone said we should not judge the ConDems on their past but on the way they are behaving now. At the same time, however, the ConDems are quick to blame a lot of things on Labour.

Featherstone, as Minister for Equalities, was largely dismissive of delegates concerns over the partnership. The Liberals and the Tories do have different viewpoints on equality issues, so there is no real surprise at the contention. There is surprise at the reaction of the committed Liberals, who on the face of it don’t seem to be able to comprehend that those of us with an interest in equalities can not understand why the Liberals got into bed with the regressive party on that aspect.

Bearing in mind that this opposition to the ConDem relationship is quite apparent, and anyone with half a brain cell would be able to guess that a room full of Trade Unionists from an LGBT background would be more than willing to voice this opposition, why was Featherstone quite so surprised by the grilling she got?

Had the ConDems done research, and rubbed their empty heads together, perhaps they would have figured it out, and briefed the MP so she could pretend at least to understand the views she was being given. It would have been much more helpful if, as an Equalities minister, she understood the views she was being given in the first place.

To quote the Mirror, it’s a Con Dem Nation now.

Bikers have been protesting in Westminster to say no to the motorbike parking charges. The [...]]]> When we elect a Mayor to our local Councils, his job is to be an impartial ambassador for the Borough you live in. When you elect someone to Mayor of London, their job is a bit more involved.

Bikers have been protesting in Westminster to say no to the motorbike parking charges. The latest, in Trafalgar Square, brought Boris into the fight between the Bikers and Westminster City Council.

“Do you want to stay in the bus lanes or what? Then stop this protest.”
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

Even better – as below, he’s on YouTube doing it too! What a buffoon. The bus lane thing is another story completely. Boris won the support of many London motorbike users by promising to abolish the bendy bus when he came into power. He’s currently getting on with that – wasting millions of our money replacing the rather new bendy bus fleet.

Then Boris started a trial where motorbike users could use bus lanes in certain locations. That 18 month trial comes to an end within a few weeks, and there has been no decision on whether motorbikes will be permanently allowed into bus lanes.

City Hall had to clarify what Boris meant by his short rant.

“He realises their desire to protest about parking charges in Westminster but was making the point that inconveniencing thousands of Londoners by jamming up a large part of central London only damages the respect that they need for the bus lanes trial to be successful.”
City Hall Spokesperson

So yes, he meant what he said. If the protests continue, he’ll punish them by revoking their right to use the bus lanes. Why else would Boris and his staff want to muddy the two issues together?

Don’t look at me. I didn’t vote for him!

I sat down to watch Question Time last night, and nearly spat my teeth out when Dimbleby announced that Cameron’s Government would only send a representative if Alistair Campbell was not on the [...]]]> Well before the General Election, I gave some examples of how politicians were trying to fundamentally meddle with the BBC’s political independence.

I sat down to watch Question Time last night, and nearly spat my teeth out when Dimbleby announced that Cameron’s Government would only send a representative if Alistair Campbell was not on the panel. Oh how petulent and immature our new Government has turned out to be.

The inference is that the Con-Dem coalition are unwilling to speak about their policy and legislature without a front-bench Labour spokesperson present. I’m not quite sure why, as surely not having a senior elected Labour person would make their job easier.

The fact that the Tories couldn’t be arsed to field a shadow minister for every programme when Labour were in power sailed over their heads. When the tables are turned, apparently the Con-Dems don’t like it.

This also shows how the Tories and Lib Dems view the BBC as a tool they can push around at will. Back in September 2009, Jeremy Hunt was pretty open in his view that the BBC should have more openly Conservative newsreaders.

What is the point of having a Royal Charter to set out the independence of the BBC from political interference if the Cameron-Clegg Government are going to undermine that very independence within two days of the Queen’s speech to Parliament?

More to the point, if the Tories and Lib Dems feel that they are so powerful and lacking in hmility that they feel they can veto a guest on a political programme, what will their next objective be?

If you value the impartiality of the BBC, be very wary over the next five years.