The start of slash and burn?

Not content with pushing up bus and tube fares to fill an entirely self-inflicted budgetary black hole, it now appears that Boris Johnson has, in a throw-away remark to the London Assembly Budget Committee, announced that no more money will be spent on developing the Cross-River Tram, which would have linked Kings Cross and Camden with Peckham and Brixton. The Tram is vital for the regeneration of some of the capital’s most deprived areas, relieving pressure on the over-crowded Northern Line and speeding up journeys to parts of London served solely by buses. The tram received over-whelming support last year in one of Boris’ beloved consultations.

Whilst funding had not yet been agreed for the project, with the Mayor taking his foot off the accelerator, there will be absolutely no chance of HM Treasury stumping up cash in the next decade.

Another good bit of news for public transport users from a Mayor who has decided they should pay up to subsidise Chelsea Tractor drivers, Porsche and the poverty-stricken burghers of Kensington. At least our old friend Brian Coleman, an arch-opponent of the tram, will be pleased.

By the way, a petition to Boris on this very issue can be signed here.

Is this man the greatest threat to local democracy since Thatcher?

Last month Scotland’s First Minister took the, erm, courageous decision to announce on behalf of his nation that the Scottish people hadn’t minded the economic side of Thatcherism ’so much’ and that it had been the lack of a social conscience to her policies that had so alienated people north of the border.

Apart from the basic political illiteracy of proclaiming such a clear seperation between economic and social policy, this statement amounted to a pretty impressive re-writing of history.

However, in the light of the Programme for Government set out by Salmond’s minority SNP administration this week, the reasoning behind the First Minister’s sudden apologia for the economics of Thatcherism has become a lot more clear. Unfortunately, he won’t be in a position to divorce the social costs of his economic policies quite as easily as he did in his glib statement.

The Abolition of Council Tax Bill that will be introduced during the coming session of the Scottish Parliament will replace the current property-value based council tax with a Scottish local income tax. Now, there is much to be said in favour of significant reforms of local government funding