Dear Paul,

I hope I am not normally seen as a pessimistic sort of character, but at the Mayoral election on May 3rd I am afraid I see real risks for this city.

The election comes at a critical time for London. Londoners are going through one of the most difficult periods in recent memory. Despite this, we’re making progress. Progress that would be put at risk if we were to take the wrong turn now.

When I was elected the whole budget was out of control. My determination to end the waste and mismanagement of the previous Mayor has freed up the money to pay for a strong plan for our future. We are putting that money where Londoners want to see it spent in spite of the very difficult financial circumstances.

I feel like a man who has built half a bridge. I can see the other side. I can see what needs to be done.

That is why this weekend I launched my 9 point plan that will secure Greater London’s future. It’s a plan that protects the investment we need to create jobs and will help Londoners get through these tough times.

My plan is:

• Cutting waste at City Hall – freeing up £3.5 billion for services
• Putting £445 back in your pocket by freezing the Mayoral share of council tax
• Creating 200,000 new jobs over the next four years
• Making our streets and homes safer with 1,000 more police on the beat
• Restoring 300 acres of green space and planting 20,000 street trees
• Investing £221 million to transform local high streets, supporting small businesses
• Ensuring a true Olympic legacy – 11,000 new homes and 10,000 new jobs
• Reducing Tube delays 30% by 2015. Building Crossrail and orbital rail to link our suburbs. Extending the Bike Hire scheme
• Securing a better deal for London from No 10

That is the choice for Londoners on 3rd May. To go forward with a programme of investment and modernisation or go back to the irresponsible and unaffordable approach of Ken Livingstone.

Help me secure Greater London’s future by pledging your support: www.backboris2012.com/pledge

Best,

Boris Johnson

P.S. This really is a critical election and Londoners cannot afford to go back to Ken Livingstone. Please help us ensure Greater London continues on the right track by donating to my campaign: www.backboris2012.com/donate

Dear Paul,

On this Leap Day, we’re asking you to make an important commitment that will have a major impact on your future… and the future of all Londoners.

Please pledge to vote for Mayor Boris Johnson on 3rd May: www.backboris2012.com/pledge

There are only 64 days to go until Londoners head to the polls to elect the next Mayor of London. As Boris supporters, you know how much is at stake.

The return of Ken Livingstone means a return to waste, high taxes, broken promises and Bob Crow and his cronies back at City Hall.

Times are tough, but Boris Johnson’s fresh and honest approach at City Hall is showing signs of progress. By ending the waste and mismanagement of the previous Mayor, Boris has freed up the money to pay for a strong plan for the future.

Boris’s Greater London plan is:

• Putting 1,000 more police officers on the street and cutting crime by over 10%
• Cutting council tax, having frozen it for the last three years saving the average household £445
• Investing £22bn in transport infrastructure, creating 32,000 jobs, linking our suburbs and cutting tube delays by 30% over the next three years
• Investing £221m in local high streets, supporting small businesses

It is imperative to protect this progress. We must not leave our future to chance. We must ensure that Boris gets another four years in office to build on his achievements and deliver his full Greater London Plan.

When it comes down to it, putting a cross next to Boris Johnson’s name on 3rd May is the most important action you can take. If you don’t vote, London’s future is at risk.

For this reason, I am asking you to please pledge to vote for Boris on 3rd May.

Take the pledge: www.backboris2012.com/pledge

Thank you for your continued support. Together, we will win this election and help Boris keep London moving forward to secure a Greater London.
Thanks for your support,

Lynton Crosby
BackBoris2012 Campaign Director

Now more than ever, the responsibility of any Mayor is to treat every penny of Londoners’ money with care. Because it’s not my money. It’s yours.

And it will only ever be used on the things that take London forward. To invest in transport infrastructure, put more police on the streets, make the Olympics a success and build more affordable housing.

Anything spare should always be passed back to Londoners.

When I was elected in 2008, Londoners were tired of 8 years of successive council tax hikes.

I promised to end the culture of waste created by Ken Livingstone and keep taxes low.

I kept this promise. We’ve frozen our share of council tax every year. And we’ve done this by ruthlessly ferreting out waste.

• We no longer spend £10,000 on a subscription to the Morning Star.
• We no longer spend £3m a year on a personal propaganda sheet for the Mayor.
• And we haven’t spent £20,000 on a lunch for Hugo Chavez. Or £30,000 on a trip to Cuba.

By working over the last three years to turn around London’s finances, I am able – for the first time in the history of the mayoralty – to cut my share of council tax.

The choice at this election could not be clearer. My record shows that, whenever possible, we keep taxes and charges low.

• We scrapped Ken Livingstone’s plans for a £25 tax on family vehicles.
• We scrapped the Western Extension of the Congestion Charge, providing relief to small businesses.
• We extended the Freedom Pass to 24 hour operation. And we put Oyster on national rail, leading to cheaper fares for many.
• And we’ve done this in the teeth of a recession, whilst increasing police numbers and protecting the investment that will help our city grow once more – providing jobs and prosperity.

Ken Livingstone’s record shows he puts up taxes and charges at every opportunity. We couldn’t afford it during the good times, and we certainly can’t afford it now.

His Labour allies on the London Assembly have already voted against a budget that freezes council tax. Next week, they will be asked to vote to cut council tax. I will urge them to do this, and I urge you to join me in sending them a message to vote the right way.

Please visit: www.borisbudget.com

Best wishes,

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

5 June 2010 01:02am

Town halls have been told to publish details of every item of expenditure over £500 to remove the “veil of secrecy” over the finances of local authorities.

Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles wrote to all councils demanding that such spending should be made available to the public on the internet by September.

Local authorities are also urged to publish senior staff salaries, councillors’ expenses and service data such as council tax collection rates.

Mr Pickles said greater transparency would help ensure that money was better spent by allowing taxpayers to scrutinise how it was being used.

“There is a need to banish the veil of secrecy and revolutionise local government,” he said. “Local people should be able to hold politicians and public bodies to account over how their hard-earned cash is being spent and decisions made on their behalf.

“They can only do that effectively if they have the information they need at their fingertips.”

He said that the public should be able to see what they were getting for their taxes.

“The swift and simple changes we are calling will unleash an army of armchair auditors and quite rightly make those charged with doling out the pennies stop and think twice about whether they are getting value for money,” he said.

The move is part of a wider Government drive to improve transparency about how taxes are spent.

On Friday, the Treasury released the Combined On-line Information System – known as Coins – which gives a detailed breakdown of public spending decisions over the past five years. It is one of a raft of Whitehall databases David Cameron has ordered to be made public as part of the new coalition Government’s commitment to greater openness.

” Dear Secretary of State,

My friend, who is in farming at the moment, recently received a cheque for £3,000 from the Rural Payments Agency, for not rearing pigs. I would now like to join the ‘ not rearing pigs’ business.

In your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to rear pigs on, and which is the best breed of pigs not to rear? I want to be sure I approach this endeavour in keeping with all government policies, as dictated by the EU under the Common Agricultural Policy.

I would prefer not to rear bacon pigs, but if this is not the type you want not rearing, I’ll will just as gladly not rear porkers. Are there any advantages in not rearing rare breeds such as Saddlebacks or Gloucester Old Spots, or are there already too many people not rearing these?

As I see it, the hardest part of this programme will be keeping an accurate record of how many pigs I haven’t reared. Are there any Government or Local Authority courses on this?

My friend is very satisfied with this business. He has been rearing pigs for forty years or so, and the best he ever made on them was £1,422 in 1968. That is – until this year, when he received a cheque for not rearing any.

If I get £3,000 for not rearing 50 pigs, will I get £6,000 for not rearing 100? I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4,000 pigs not raised, which will mean about £240,000 for the first year. As I become more expert in not rearing pigs, I plan to be more ambitious, perhaps increasing to, say, 40,000 pigs not reared in my second year, for which I should expect about £2.4 million from your department. Incidentally, I wonder if I would be eligible to receive tradable carbon credits for all these pigs not producing harmful and polluting methane gases?

Another point: These pigs that I plan not to rear will not eat 2,000 tonnes of cereals. I understand that you also pay farmers for not growing crops. Will I qualify for payments for not growing cereals to not feed the pigs I don’t rear?

I am also considering the ‘not milking cows’ business, so please send any information you have on that too. Please could you also include the current DEFRA advice on set aside fields? Can this be done on an e-commerce basis with virtual fields (of which I seem to have several thousand hectares)?

In view of the above you will realise that I will be totally unemployed, and will therefore qualify for unemployment benefits. I shall of course be voting for your party at the next general election.

Yours faithfully,

The Conservative led Scrutiny Panel forced Lib Dem leader Cllr Osbourne to admit at last night’s Scrutiny of the One Council Project that £2 million savings that had been previously  promised have not been achieved saying ‘It is down to us – we are the Administration.’

In another shocking piece of news the Lib Dems  announced there will be 200 fewer Council posts by 2013 and that any future savings will depend on the reduction of staff. The Scrutiny Panel were also told that the future savings were ‘not in the bag’ and more needed to be done. Conservative portfolio holder for the One Council Project Cllr Nick Kilby expressed his grave concern and said ‘The Lib Dems know, like us, that the Council cannot go on as we are, and as in all their ideas, they sound good until the wheels fall off! They fail every time to give the political leadership that these projects need. Worse still they fail to make the savings the Lib Dems have promised.’

Deputy Conservative Leader, Cllr. Paul Johnston, said: ‘It’s pretty obvious that morale among some staff is quite low and, through staff turnover, this is starting to feed through into the experience of citizens accessing Council services . Staff reductions may well be inevitable but they must be handled sensitively so that staff are engaged in the process of change, not threatened by it.’

Conservative Leader Cllr Howard Jones said   ‘We are concerned that savings which were promised are still not being realised and have serious doubts about the robustness of the financial plan. Two of the projects are at least two years behind schedule and that in spite of assurances given we are concerned that the Customer First project neither actively engages with the customer nor engages sensitively with the staff. It is a wasted opportunity to improve efficiency and make positive changes for residents. We would do it differently and do it better.’

That is because the grand communiques have little relation to what people are facing right now. What everyone really wants to know is; how does this help us?

Well, here’s one thing I hope will. Yesterday, Londoners on Job Seeker’s Allowance and the new Employment and Support Allowance were able to start benefiting from half price travel on the buses. I introduced this policy to help people who have recently lost their jobs bounce back quickly, by being able to travel cheaply to interviews, access libraries and job centres.

Up to 150,000 Londoners will be eligible for this scheme. And unlike the policy of my predecessor, this won’t be funded by Venezuelan oil.

It’s part of a range of measures to help Londoners through the recession, such as paying our invoices quicker, providing advice to small businesses and (most important of all) freezing our share of the council tax.