A company that has since gone into liquidation I might add.Let's not forget that the buses were designed by Johnson's pal Heatherwick, who he was a fan of channeling work towards , ending in the garden bridge fiasco.
Go to the head of the class, methinks.Boris did appear to be a moderately competent Mayor of London - I am wondering if he had an efficient No 2 there who was sensible and did all the work, whereas here he has Dominic Cummings!
His deputy mayors did all the work. He just turned at launches of schemes that his predecessor initiated and commanded that money be p*ssed down the drain on various vanity projects.Boris did appear to be a moderately competent Mayor of London - I am wondering if he had an efficient No 2 there who was sensible and did all the work, whereas here he has Dominic Cummings!
His deputy mayors did all the work. He just turned at launches of schemes that his predecessor initiated and commanded that money be p*ssed down the drain on various vanity projects.
Pretty much, yes. He did a good job of it as Mayor of London, he's not doing it (so far) as PM.Isn’t that how a boss is supposed to work - pick good subordinates and let them get on with it?
How not? They only just started.Pretty much, yes. He did a good job of it as Mayor of London, he's not doing it (so far) as PM.
Really?! See posts above (e.g. #63).How not? They only just started.
When I said he did a good job, I largely meant by not actually doing too much - yes he had some notable failures, but he largely was happy to grab some headlines and let the staff get on with their jobs.I can't agree that he did a good job as Mayor of London.
Whereas the Cabinet don't strike me as particular capable, probably not surprising as the more sensible ones realized Brexit was a bad idea and are now out for one reason or another. Cummings may be good at making a noise and persuading people but he doesn't actually have much track record of delivering things other than campaigns.
When I said he did a good job, I largely meant by not actually doing too much - yes he had some notable failures, but he largely was happy to grab some headlines and let the staff get on with their jobs.
Oh, like I said, the idea behind the new Routemaster was sound. It was the implementation that stinks - of either ineptitude or corruption.Out of the three I’d say a semi-successful attempt at procuring an iconic bus for our capital city isn’t such a bad thing.
Leaving the buses aside, how much do those posters cost relative to the money wasted on the Garden Bridge and the Dangleway?To be fair, comparing Boris to the other two mayors is not exactly starting from a particularly high base. Least odious of the three is hardly a ringing endorsement - one who has subsequently been found to have a creepy obsession with concentration camps, and the other who seems to feel it appropriate to plaster the Underground with taxpayer-funded “the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has...” posters.
Out of the three I’d say a semi-successful attempt at procuring an iconic bus for our capital city isn’t such a bad thing.
He heralded the decline of the bus network by removing the western extension of the CCZ, announcing that there would no longer be any hierarchy of road vehicles, abolishing the bus priority budget and rushing through ill-conceived cycle lanes.Pretty much, yes. He did a good job of it as Mayor of London, he's not doing it (so far) as PM.
Again, when I said "he did a good job of it" I meant (mostly) getting out of the way of his underlings.He heralded the decline of the bus network by removing the western extension of the CCZ, announcing that there would no longer be any hierarchy of road vehicles, abolishing the bus priority budget and rushing through ill-conceived cycle lanes.
Again, when I said "he did a good job of it" I meant (mostly) getting out of the way of his underlings.
Nope, because the other part of the post was "but he largely was happy to grab some headlines and let the staff get on with their jobs." - the worst biggest failures were the headline grabbing stuff (e.g. going tilting after bendy buses and replacing them with overpriced new Routemasters).So are you saying the blame of the list of bad things you quoted should fall on the underlings? That doesn't reflect well on him viz-a-viz the "Appoint good people and get out of the way" thing, does it?
Yes, that was the price per bus. Of course they're now old technology and have never performed as well as other hybrids on the market at the same time as them.Apparently each of the (1,000) new Routemasters cost £355,000. That is an astronomical amount of money for a bus. Even more-so when you consider the quantities of scale that an order of 1,000 should have brought.
So Boris spent £355 million just on a new bus fleet, wow. I would say that is at least 2.5x as much as what they ought to have cost and maybe a lot less for such a whopping order?
And yet the company that built them (Wrights) still went under...Apparently each of the (1,000) new Routemasters cost £355,000. That is an astronomical amount of money for a bus. Even more-so when you consider the quantities of scale that an order of 1,000 should have brought.
So Boris spent £355 million just on a new bus fleet, wow. I would say that is at least 2.5x as much as what they ought to have cost and maybe a lot less for such a whopping order?
They weren't overpriced because Wrightbus was making a killing. They were overpriced because the design was poor.And yet the company that built them (Wrights) still went under...
And yet the company that built them (Wrights) still went under...
Leaving the buses aside, how much do those posters cost relative to the money wasted on the Garden Bridge and the Dangleway?
I don’t care if the posters cost £0.01p or £1 million, to me they’re an abuse of position using a public transport system for political propaganda purposes. If TFL didn’t report to the mayor then I bet they would have refused to do it.
Perhaps for balance we could also see a “The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has trashed TFL’s finances with his fares freeze so you won’t be getting upgrades on various lines and we can barely operate the service advertised now in some areas”, or even “Violent crime has increased under this Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, with London now seeing a high rate of stabbings and acid attacks.” I won’t hold my breath on either of those!
I don’t care if the posters cost £0.01p or £1 million, to me they’re an abuse of position using a public transport system for political propaganda purposes. If TFL didn’t report to the mayor then I bet they would have refused to do it.