Chris Boardman appointed Greater Manchester's first Transport Commissioner

Just a couple of things:

London's integrated transport system pre-dated Boris Johnson by many years. I didn't read that Boardman was seeking to take the successes of his London mayorship as a working template but if so, he might want to check the facts and reconsider.

Manchester would not even be in the top ten rainiest cities in the UK, let alone the rainiest. 'Most miserable weather' is less easy to define, however it's nowhere near the top ten for windiest, snowiest, foggiest or coldest so I expect it would not score highly in this category either.

Apart from these, I agree about wishing Boardman luck.

it generally comes in around 15th in UK lists, Cardiff or Glasgow take the top spot, though the North West is the rainiest part of England.

but it always rains at least once when I visit Manchester, so it feels miserable and damp, but then technically I live in a desert so experiencing any precipitation is notable.

"it was stolen after Khan brought in lawlessness"

Comments like that do make you look a bit silly.

Terrible guess. I've lived there and still visit often (in non-pandemic times). I didn't say it was a sunny enclave, just that it is nowhere near the wettest and most miserable weather in the UK as you had claimed, so I'm glad you've changed your mind and agree with me that it's not the worst weather in the UK. 

I'm pleased you don't want to get into a battle about the London Cycle Hire Scheme; I'm sure you're aware this was Ken Livingstone's project and couldn't resist giving them their eroneous nickname 'Boris bikes'. Whether this was to be provocative or you were just following your habit of making patently false claims on his behalf, I can't tell. 

Either way, it appears that you are counting not cancelling ongoing projects alongside not disassembling London's pre-existing integrated transport policy as the 'template' to which Boardman is seeking to follow. These projects aren't already in place in Manchester to the same levels, so Boardman would be much better advised to be proactive regarding his role.  And, thankfully, he won't be able to launch unused cable cars, plan garden bridges, investigate a pointless estuary airports and mess up Jubilee Line renovations. 

Anyway, I hate to upset you as you are particularly sensitive when it comes to Boris, but although he told a Tory leadership debate in 2019 that his bike was stolen, he had already written a column in 2014 where he told how his bike really came to it's end.  You should look it up. 

I can't think of any of his successes and you haven't identified any, so it would be really difficult for me to claim someone was secretly pulling strings behind them.  Boardman won't know about Johnson's successes at setting up an integrated transport system, for the very reason that he didn't, so cannot possibly use it as a template. This is not saying anything that anyone other than Boris' biggest fanboy might find even slightly controversial.  As for eye swivelling: if this were true, it still would be better than automatically typing lies to back him up every single time he's mentioned  - you do know that he doesn't read this and, even if he did, he wouldn't love you back, don't you?

I actually laughed at you classifying Boris lying about having his bike stolen as him being 'keen to exemplify his time as London mayor' and it being a parable. Comedy gold. 

I'm off for a run. Enjoy your Sunday. 

"It sounds promising that he is seeking to take the successes of Boris Johnson's London mayorship as his working template."

I hope not. I just Googled "Boris" and "lord mayor of London" and I could find very little to support the word "successes". Just look at the Reuters report.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/fact-check-did-boris-joh...

hirsute wrote:

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/fact-check-did-boris-joh...

This is a good article - Pete Apps is a very good housing journalist (speaking as someone who used to work in housing).

As the article points out, Johnson's affordable homes were largely built using a legacy Labour programme, which the Tories subsequently slashed. He also switched the focus from 'social rent' to the (ironically) much less affordable 'affordable rent' and shared ownership (which arguably isn't an affordable tenure at all). In fairness to him, it was again partly because that was what central government wanted.

Both mayors are largely at the mercy of wider factors, including on the likes of homicides, which were falling across England before the Johnson mayoralty but began increasing nationally again in 2015.
www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/hom...

The London mayor has pretty limited powers. I'm interested in how Johnson "lifted all London boroughs out of poverty": was it with some inspirational Latin quotes?

hirsute wrote:

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/fact-check-did-boris-joh...

Fuck me. You're not saying that Spaffer Johnson was LYING?

Don't feel sorry for me. I do like facts. I'm just not sure what 'facts' you are refering to. Let's stick with Bojo for the moment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-johnson-record-factbox/fac...

Go on then.

And, start with German water cannons,

Oh dear. You appear to have fallen for the "Johnson great for cycling when London Mayor" bullshit.
The fat clown did nothing for cycling in London, other than a couple of photo ops.
His predecessors (Livingstone in particular) did all the heavy lifting.