Donald Trump has taken a number of steps to create war in Iran including ripping up the Iran Nuclear Agreement; escalated crippling sanctions; designating their military as terrorists and sending more troops and aircraft into the Region

Here in the UK, both candidates for the Tory party leadership ( and hence the next Prime Minister )  – Jeremy Hunt & Boris Johnson – are competing between themselves  to aligning with Trump while Teresa May is being left in the dark about what the US is actually doing. So much for the special relationship.

So British government should call for restraint and deescalation and explicitly rule out military options with Trumps administration dangerous brinksmanship in the Middle East.

The Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London gets a very hostile reception in Clapham after the riots of 2011.

As Boris Johnson becomes a shoe in for the next Tory Party leader and as a result the next Prime Minister, lets not forget what we are getting – the Boris Johnson show.  

Now whilst l was at City Hall for the whole of his two terms, my abiding memory of Boris Johnson as Mayor of London was when the riots started in the summer of 2011, he did not want to come back from his hols when London was burning! It was the only time he was out of kilter with mood in London and so much so that he got a very hostile reception when we did eventually get back in Clapham. 

Many people backing him in London cite his time at City Hall. For example James Cleverly MP piece in the Evening Standard last week but a much better piece is a blog piece by Brian Coleman. Both served him as his Chair of the London Fire Brigade, but Brian’s piece gives much more in sight of the man himself than anything else you may read so far and in the coming few weeks. Finally l am not surprised that Boris Johnson did not turn up for the C4 debate for the Tory Party leadership on Sunday night. After all he would be too busy writing another column for the Telegraph for their Monday morning edition, as he has done for most of political life. Showing to all what his priority is all along – himself.  So the Boris Johnson continues to its next chapter.

I went to the 23rd silent march in North Kensington, last Tuesday night. And people rightly ask about the usefulness of electing Members to the European Parliament when said l was standing for Labour. At this point, l highlighted the Labour manifesto and our commitment to “…delivering a robust and comprehensive European fire safety strategy fit for the 21st century.”

In essence it is pledging to support stronger rules in the EU construction products regulation which sets standard on how products react and are resistant to fire. We will also campaign to support an EU wide fire safety strategy to identify where and what needs to be done to improve fire safety across the EU. That strategy should form the basis of identifying weak points in current standards and identify where more regulation and funding is needed. By doing all this we will hopefully stop another Grenfell inferno ever happening again. 

So while the EU Election on the 23rd May appears to have been reduced to a referendum on a no-deal by Farage, you are ultimately electing people to represent you on matters quite literally of life and death. 

The campaigners trying to block Heathrow expansion lost  their judicial review on last Wednesday morning.

Now while the Judge in Heathrow expansion case made clear the hearing was only concerned with the legality of the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS) and not the merit of concerns of on issues like pollution, noise, climate change, surface access & habitat. It therefore did not have have a bearing on legal stature of ANPS. 

While all the claims were dismissed the one that struct me was on Climate Change matters. Here we were told that ” the Paris Agreement does not form part of UK law and so, while the UK has ratified it until Parliament decides if and how to incorporate the Paris Agreement target, it has no effect in domestic law.” This on the day that the House of Commons adopted the Climate Change emergency motion from the Opposition!  

If you want to read the judgement summary,  please go to the following link. 

Whatever happens, its not the end as it is almost certainly going to be challenged by the local London councils, the Mayor and Green campaign organisations. 

Developers vision of the site without the mature trees we have already

As the hoarding around the development on the immediate North side of Parsons House along the Edgware Rd went up, it was clear a row of trees from the pavement along Edgware Rd were inside the hoardings. Was this going to be the death of this line of trees?  The developers vision of the site clearly shows the finished site without a line of mature trees there already ( including the bus shelter at the corner of Crompton St ). 

Looking at the original planning report for the development given by Westminster City Council, it was quite clear the developers could get away with cropping the trees down.  Thankfully as Edgware Rd is a red route, the pavements are actually the responsibility of Transport for London (TfL) along with the trees who have been quite clear the trees must be saved. And have now made it part of their license agreement with the developer that the trees be saved and worked around. 

So thank you TfL for saving these trees along the Edgware Rd by intervening at this early stage long before the trees may have been cut down in the early site preparation of the housing development. 

With the Sultan of Brunei introducing new Sharia Laws in Brunei to stone gays and adulterers, there is only one response that will register with him, the withdrawal of British Troops protecting him. 

It is not good enough for Jeremy Hunt MP & Mark Field MP at the FCO just to say they are disappointed by the introduction of gays and adulterers in Brunei, as the UK opposes capital and corporate punishment. A far better way would be withdrawing the 2,000 British troops protecting his monarchy in Brunei which consist of an infantry battalion, an RAF detachment and a training unit. Our troops are defending set of values which are certainly not in keeping with our ones by protecting him and his views, so it is time to move on.  If nothing else we are complicit with his actions. 

Interestingly Brunei is being considered for a new British military base in Asia- Pacific by Gavin Williamson at the MoD, if his pronouncements before and during the Christmas period are anything to go by. This idea should be dropped anyway and furthermore since the incompatibility of our values with the Sultans. 

And finally will he be dealing with his notorious playboy brother, Prince Jefri in such matters? 

Now that the Local Government Boundary Commission for England has announced that the numbers of councillors in the City of Westminster should be reduced down to 54 from 60, we now need to redefine the ward boundaries to accommodate this. Or do we? 

It would be far easier to keep the Ward boundaries as present, and reduce the representation of the less densely packed wards down to 2 councillors each from the 3 at the moment. So in effect the lowest six wards by population density should be reduced to two councillors each.

Now that may sound to easy a solution but are not the best solutions in life usually the simplest ones around.  

Crossrail construction continues but when will the service finally be open?

You did not have to go far to hear the rumours of the delays on the Crossrail works in Central London. The cafes and pubs around Paddington Railway Station have been opening talking about it for months where many who work on the Crossrail project have lunch and a drink after work, that the Elizabeth line was not going to be ever completed by the 9th of December 2018.

In the Far East they will be laughing at our woes over Crossrail ( and HS2). As in the time since 2008 when Crossrail got formal government approval, the Chinese have built the most extensive network of High Speed rail in the World, 15,000 km of railway lines. For example the two ring high speed rail service known as Nanlong Railway link in Fujian province is 248 km long and has 99 bridges and 82 tunnels and due to open in the beginning of the 2019. So we clearly must improve our project management and learn from what is being done in the Far East in delivering major transport infrastructure projects in London and the UK.

Quite honestly the way its going it will not be opened before the next Mayoral contest in 2020 and l will not be surprised if its not well into the next term before its complete to hand over.

Indeed at the rate the Brunel Building is going up – increasingly casting a shadow across the whole of Little Venice and spoiling its skyline – it will be finished and let before the first Crossrail train is operational across the whole of London. Who could have for seen that at all?

So if the Crossrail boss has no idea of the revised launch date, it maybe useful for him to spend some time at the cafes and bars of Paddington to find out.

This was published as a letter in the Spring addition of SEBRA News W2

The Brunel Building – could this be occupied before Crossrail is operational?