Plus: Farewell, Ivan Massow. How Eric Pickles cost me £50,000. David Laws’ new book. And: the rise of Jeremy Corbyn is my fault.
Yes, it really is spelt like that. Plus: I bet four candidates go through to the London Conservative Mayoral primary, and that Yvette Cooper is Labour’s next leader.
Boris’ estuary airport would have created 340,000 new homes, vast numbers of jobs and new business along with the roads, rail links and new river crossings the East End so badly needs.
Labour’s Corbyn troubles open up new opportunities for next May’s contest. A bigger Open Primary than planned offers a means of taking them.
We also have the running order for candidate interviews on Saturday week.
We list the committee members who will decide the Open Primary Shortlist. If it’s wide of the mark in any way, please direct your complaints to CCHQ.
CCHQ’s secrecy over the London Mayoral candidate selection spits in the face of Party members.
Plus: Greenhalgh impresses as only three candidates show at a hustings. Osborne’s minimum wage. And: Hunting – I don’t like posh people on horses killing foxes.
The view of London members may be sharply different from those based elsewhere. But it is hard to argue that this finding isn’t promising for the Richmond Park MP.
The contest should run “long” rather than “short”. And our preference is for a ballot of members – which all candidates’ names should be on.
Plus: Labour – Alastair Campbell v Labour failure. Tories – Dale v Massow? Labour again: Watson V Flint V Eagle V…. And: Roy Jenkins’s sex life. P.S: I’m getting married.
Plus: Ivan Massow – a joke. Greenhalgh and Boff – no charisma. Tulip Siddiq and Stephen Kinnock – impressive. And: Ben Harris-Quinney (for it is he)
Plus: Bennett’s brain fade. Why I will not put my name in for Kensington. No to Sol Campbell. Why there are no gay people in Alabama. And: arise, Lord Montgomerie!
And other fun and serious ideas from the first declared candidate for the Conservative nomination for the London Mayoralty
The capital needs more than a business-bashing agitator for the Opposition or a City Hall that will sacrifice economic growth on the altar of dogma.