Boris Johnson......the next PM?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/9842262/Boris-Johnson-opens-The-View-From-The-Shard-viewing-deck-in-London.html#?frame=2468428

Click for the photos

THERE IS SOME SPECULATION THAT HE COULD SUCCCEED DAVID CAMERON IF A EVOLT HAPPENED AMONG TORY MPS.

Badboy wrote:THERE IS SOME SPECULATION THAT HE COULD SUCCCEED DAVID CAMERON IF A EVOLT HAPPENED AMONG TORY MPS.

I don't know Badboy, he has 3 more years to serve as Mayor of London. Cameron will definitely not be voted as PM in 2015 by the population so the backbench Tory MP s will force his resignation. For Boris to contest the Election he will have to fight a by-Election to become an MP, I am sure an MP will resign to allow Boris to do this. It would mean resigning as Mayor in 2014 which will not go down well with the people of London.

Nick Clegg is currently doing a Radio phone in to support the by-election caused by the resignation of Hulne. Boris Johnson
phones in and ask him when all these MP's are going to get out of their Limos and either walk to work or cycle .The money saved could go towards the infrastructure of London which is sorely needed.
He has a good sense of humour and will charm voters.

He makes people laugh which is more than Cameron does!

cherry1 wrote:He makes people laugh which is more than Cameron does!

He's very clever - a logical thinker too. Don't ever forget that Livingstone had ordered hundreds of Mao suits for his staff! Livingstone did have charisma but this covered some asinine ideas. Thanks goodness he's gone.
I'm not kidding. Johnson also found an excellent wine cellar in the town hall for which he is still very grateful.

Yes he is very clever, he plays the fool a lot which may lead some people to think
they can pull the wool over his eyes, but nobody should under estimate him.

As I have said before , to be voted President of the Students Union at Eton speaks for itself. He rides a bike to Parliament , says no way will there be a 3rd runway at Heathrow , has a great sense of humour but underneath it all is a sharp mind.
He even went to the aid of a woman on his way to Parliament on his bike. who was being mugged , how many MPs would do that. I think he might have a problem getting out of being Mayor of London and he may not be able to contest the Election , we shall see.

1. 
   

1. »
   

1. 
   

1. 
   

1. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Boris Johnson calls for easing of foreign student visa restrictions
   
   
   Boris Johnson challenged the government’s immigration policy and warned it
   will mean British universities losing bright students from countries like India
   to rival colleges in the United States and Australia.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   London Mayor Boris Johnson was
   mobbed by school children in Delhi after he handed over the London 2012 Olympic
   cauldron petal to Indian Olympians Photo: Stefan
   Rousseau/PA
   
   
   
   
   
   
   By Dean Nelson, New
   Delhi
   
   1:58PM GMT 26 Nov 2012
   
   
   
   
   
   Britain must remove students from immigration target figures and allow them
   to stay longer to work after their courses end, the Mayor of London said.
   
   
   
   Mr Johnson was speaking during his six day visit to India where he is seeking
   to capitalise on London’s successful Olympics last summer to generate business
   for London. His comments were amplified in letters to Home Secretary Theresa May
   and Business Secretary Vince Cable in which he said the government should move
   away from a focus on immigration numbers and towards one which centred on
   economic growth.
   
   
   
   
   
   ^{Boris Johnson plays cricket with
   schoolchildren in Delhi (PA)}
   
   
   International students inject £2.5 billion per year into the London economy,
   he said, but the capital’s reputation had been damaged by tougher visa rules for
   students and the decision to strip London Metropolitan University of its licence
   to recruit non-EU students. The decision threatened to force 2,500 international
   students, including 350 from India, to abandon their courses and return to their
   home countries.
   
   
   
   Related Articles
   

• 
  David Cameron urges Indians to come to
  'welcoming' Britain
  13 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Whitehall's border bullies are driving overseas
  students away
  23 Jan 2013
  
• 
  Number of Indian students in higher education
  down 25%
  11 Jan 2013
  
• 
  College raided in bogus students
  investigation
  04 Dec 2012
  
• 
  Boris to go up against India's David
  Letterman
  30 Nov 2012
  
• 
  Net migration fall partly driven by increase in
  student visitor visas, think-tank claims
  29 Nov
  2012
  

The government was right to tighten rules for those who might become a drain
on the state, he said, but warned “It’s crazy that we should be losing India’s
top talent and the global leaders of the future to Australia and the United
States.”

“The most important thing is academic freedom — if people are genuine
students and genuinely desire to learn and contribute to the economy there
should be a system which allows them to travel from one major centre of learning
to another, and that’s what we’re trying to achieve,” he told students and
academics at Delhi’s Amity University which announced it was establishing a new
15,000 student campus in London.

In an interview with The Telegraph, he said changes in visa
regulations, to limit the amount of time students can remain in Britain to work,
had caused a negative impression. “Indians are being put off. It’s a bit of
perception [but] too many people have had difficulty. A lot of people raise it
with me, students and businessmen too. They need to stay and take up employment
more speedily [and for a longer period]. But generally their applications need
to be processed faster and we need to be more sympathetic and not shutting off a
major source of investment in our education,” he said.

^{During Boris Johnson's visit to Delhi he
handed over the London 2012 Olympic cauldron petals to Indian Olympians
(PA)}

Until last April, Indian students studying at a British educational
establishment were automatically allowed to stay and work for two years after
their course ended. But concerns that too many were coming to Britain for
dubious courses and staying for low paid jobs led to new rules which allowed
longer stays after course completion but only for those with 'graduate level
jobs’ on salaries higher than £20,000. These students can stay for three years
and can extend for a further six years if they meet the salary requirements.


Mr Johnson told the Home Secretary it was necessary to “shift the debate on
student visas away from numerical targets and squarely onto policy based on
promoting jobs and growth in the UK. This is why I am supporting a growing,
cross-party consensus on removing students from the Government’s net migration
target,” he said. He is also calling for a 'Migration Advisory committee’ to
conduct a cost-benefit study of international students to the British economy
and new measures to protect foreign students against being repatriated if their
college loses its license to recruit overseas.

His comments were welcomed by the British Business Group in India which has
raised concerns about the changes. “No one can argue that bogus institutions or
students should go unchecked. But it is vital for the UK’s prosperity that we
are seen as a preferred education partnert for good and genuine Indian students.
Our image as an attractive education destination has clearly suffered recently
in India,” said Mark Runacres, head of the British Business Group and an
educational consultancy.

British officials said the number of Indian undergraduate and postgraduate
students had doubled from 2007 to 2011, but it is not yet known whether the new
rules have affected those wanting to study in the United Kingdom.
==============
There are thousands of bogus students entering Britain , this problem has to be sorted !!!

The real problem is pure greed Panda, both the universities and government see these prospective 'students' as cash cows and do little or any checks on their true status. This is one contributory factor as to why and how the terrorist pilots of 911 infamy were trained to fly in the US by US flying schools.

malena stool wrote:The real problem is pure greed Panda, both the universities and government see these prospective 'students' as cash cows and do little or any checks on their true status. This is one contributory factor as to why and how the terrorist pilots of 911 infamy were trained to fly in the US by US flying schools.

One terrorist applied to a flying School for lessons in the U.S.A. and said he didn't want to learn how to fly back......this was before the 9/11 bombing and the driving school never thought to report it???
The Report from the Border Agency that 200,000 that they have "lost" 200,000 applicants and have 300,000 awaiting investigation is disgraceful. I suggested all the soldiers made redundant could do a better job and some of the Sailors also made redundant could patrol the British Coastline to stop immigrants entering the Country. I bet the Government hasn't got a clue how many illegals are in the Country.

Didn't I say Boris for PM!!!
Well, I went to put a bet on and thought the odds would be about 100to 1 because the Election is over 2 years away.
David Milliband is odds on at 4/5 and Boris second at 12/1 so I bet a Tenner.
I'm very surprised that DM is hot favourite , there are no bets at the moment for anyone else, including Cameron. The
Bookie thought I had some inside information , even though I said it was only a hunch on my part , but he is going to have a bet on Boris as well.

Mansion tax: Labour shows its true colours with this spiteful tax on
homes


If the two Eds get their way, an Englishman’s home will not be a castle, but
a leaky ruin








Ed Miliband, leader of the
Labour Party Photo:
PA






By Boris Johnson

9:14PM GMT 17 Feb 2013


458 Comments




Whoa there, I hope you haven’t just spent a happy weekend of pottering about
and improving your home, in the way of British families for hundreds of years.
Forget about the conservatory, folks. Stuff the new kitchen. You want my advice,
you will let it all slide.


If you see one of those damp patches appear on the ceiling – about the size
and colour of a poppadom – you should just lie back and watch it grow. If the
floorboards yawn open, just cover the gap with cardboard. Never mind the state
of the downstairs lavatory. A faint aroma of ammonia never hurt anyone. Drip
from the ceiling? Shove a bucket under it.


I tell you why I offer these household tips: they are the only sensible
response to the first policy Ed Miliband has offered the British people. Under a
Labour government, it is now clear, you would run a risk in making any
improvements whatever to your home – because any such effort might lift you over
the limit for Ed’s so-called “mansion tax”.


At which point the state would fine you viciously for any increment in value
over a certain threshold. It is always a relief when your opponent stops ducking
and weaving, and announces what he actually believes in.


At last we can see exactly what kind of a Labour leader Ed Miliband proposes
to be – and he is taking his party right back to the politics of envy and
nihilistic class war that kept them out of office for a generation. The proposal
for a new tax on people’s homes is ill-thought-out, unjust and un-British. It is
colossally unfair on Londoners, since the vast majority of homes that would
currently qualify are in the capital; but then there are plenty of other
properties dotted around the country – family farms, for instance – where the
notional cash value of the buildings would incur a mansion tax far beyond the
ability of the family to pay.



Related Articles

• 
  The public still blame Labour for recession
  
  15 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Marathon man Jim Murphy admits Labour has a long
  way to go to win trust
  15 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Miliband hasn’t learnt any economic lessons
  
  14 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Cable plays down 'wacky' tax proposals
  
  17 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Friends: The One with Dave's microwave
  
  16 Feb 2013
  

The proposed tax is unfair on those who may be asset-rich – the elderly widow
springs to mind – but whose income is low. If Labour were to pursue the policy
announced last week, and set the threshold at £2 million, the result would be
bizarre – from discontinued improvements to deliberate vandalism: anything to
help the home owner limbo dance under the danger area. It is peculiar to try to
raise money for the state by taxing this one particular form of wealth, and in
this one particular way.

What about someone who owns several houses, all of them worth £1.9 million:
why should he or she pay nothing, while someone who owns just one pricey home
gets totally clobbered? What about someone who lives in a home worth a million,
but happens to have a load of Van Goghs and Cézannes on his kitchen wall, or
gold bars under his bed? Why should he get away with paying nothing, while the
taxman pulverises the little old lady still living in the former family home
next door?

The pressure to be fairer between households, and to reduce the sudden
severity of the tax, would be very great. If Ed and Ed came to office – a very
big if – they would almost certainly modify the mansion tax, so that it was less
of a blatant disincentive to doing up a home. They might have several bands for
the new tax – hundreds of bands, thousand of bands (or Milibands, as they will
be known).

They might decide to solve the elderly widow problem by going with the even
more demented Liberal Democrat proposal, and taxing fixed wealth of all kinds.
So we would have a new race of ghastly beady-eyed officials tasked with feeling
under our beds for gold bars and running an expert eye over the pictures on the
wall, or rifling through the jewellery box. An Englishman’s home, to put it
mildly, would no longer be his castle.

Every property owner in the country would be engaged in an undignified haggle
with the authorities to persuade them that their home was under this or that
threshold. The end result would be in many cases to force sales, and to reduce
the value of property – and for a country whose wealth is, for better or worse,
so tightly tied to property, that would not be a good outcome.

Yes, of course we need people to be able to afford to live in Britain. But
the answer is not to make it even more punishing to own a home in an expensive
part of the country. The answer is to get going with a massive programme of
house-building on the many brownfield sites. Here in London we have a crying
need for homes — hundreds of thousands of them over the next 10 years.

We could build about 80 per cent of them on the 18 brownfield opportunity
areas that have already been identified across the city, and all we need is a
steady stream of funding to be able to get on with it. That could be found by
simply earmarking, for London, the £1.3 billion that the London residential
market already raises in stamp duty. And with one in four small and medium
businesses in construction, that programme would get huge numbers of people into
work.

If you listen to Nick Boles, the housing minister, you can see that he
understands the urgency of the problem. The Treasury understand it, and George
Osborne knows that Tories win elections when they help aspirant people get the
homes they need – and it is time to return to the great Tory building programmes
of the Fifties, but with beautiful standards and on brownfield sites.

As for Labour, they have shown their true colours. The Blairites in the party
must be watching with incredulity and despair. Never mind the individual
injustices – the message of the Miliband policy is that Labour is once again
hostile to one of the deepest instincts of the British people: to show the
energy, enterprise and ambition to want to improve your own home and to raise
its value. I cannot believe Miliband will pursue this policy through to the
election. If he does, he will have signed his political death warrant.

Share 139

Facebook 24

Twitter 115

Email

LinkedIn 0

Boris Johnson

• 
  Politics »
  
• 
  Labour »
  
• 
  Comment »
  
• 
  Personal View »
  
• 
  Ed Miliband »
  

In Boris Johnson




Boris Johnson in India






Boris Johnson: Greece should leave the euro






What I said to the Pontiff






Hundreds queue to see Boris Johnson






Why can't we deal properly with illiteracy?

Share

Come clean on figures for EU immigration, Boris Johnson tells Nick
Clegg


Boris Johnson has called for ministers to issue estimates of how many
Bulgarians and Romanians are expected to move to Britain after Nick Clegg
appeared to admit he had seen some predictions.








Mr Johnson intervened in the
debate while campaigning with Maria Hutchings, the Tory candidate in the
Eastleigh by-election Photo: Getty
Images







By Rowena Mason, and Peter
Dominiczak

11:30PM GMT 20 Feb 2013





There are fears of an influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe when
restrictions are lifted next year, potentially putting pressure on public
services, and the Mayor of London said figures should be released if they
existed.


Ministers have repeatedly denied making any forecasts, but the Deputy Prime
Minister suggested that there were estimates.


“The Government is not going to pretend that we have scientific figures,” he
said during his weekly phone-in on LBC Radio. “We’ve seen estimates, but they
are estimates.”


He said the Government would put some predictions “out there” if they became
more precise, but at the moment, the figures were too broad. It was taken as a
public admission from the Coalition that the figures did exist after Eric
Pickles, the Communities Secretary, said last month that he had seen numbers but
was not confident they were correct.


Mr Johnson said Mr Clegg was a “great big vacillating jelly of indecision”
over immigration, adding that he “needs to discover some spine on this issue”.




Related Articles

• 
  '50,000 Romanians and Bulgarians will come to
  UK'
  20 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Sketch: 'Have some bumf!' Boris Johnson hits
  Eastleigh
  20 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Clegg: Government has made estimates of number
  of Romanian immigrants
  20 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Romanian and Bulgarian immigration: how the
  rules have changed
  20 Feb 2013
  

He said he was “not certain” there were any official predictions but he would
“of course” like to see them if they existed. “If they’ve got some estimates
they should clearly release them,” he said.

Mr Clegg’s spokesman claimed that the Deputy Prime Minister had seen only
non-government estimates. “He was referring to the fact that there are estimates
around, for example from MigrationWatch, which he has seen but which he does not
think are robust,” he said.

MigrationWatch claims that 50,000 Bulgarians and Romanians a year will arrive
in Britain until 2019 once they gain the right to live and work unrestricted
under European Union freedom of movement rules









Mr Johnson intervened in the debate while campaigning with Maria Hutchings,
the Tory candidate in the Eastleigh by-election.

The candidates have repeatedly been questioned about immigration by voters
worried about a squeeze on housing, jobs and public services.

As Mr Johnson campaigned, a van went past showing a Ukip billboard warning of
a “second wave” of immigration from Bulgaria and Romania

Boris Calls London Assembly Members 'Jellies'


The Mayor of London was incredulous when members chose not
to quiz him about his budget, meaning he had to leave.


3:44pm UK, Monday
25 February 2013










Mayor of London Boris Johnson has reacted with anger after the
London Assembly rejected the chance to quiz him about his budget.

Mr Johnson had been due to be questioned by Assembly members on his £16.5bn
budget for the capital in a session at City Hall.

But they voted by 16 to eight in favour of not scrutinising his decisions for
2013/14, leaving the politician incredulous.

He said: "They have no questions. They don't want to scrutinise. Are you
saying they are abdicating their duty to scrutinise me?

"Are you saying they haven't the guts to put questions to me? Great supine
proto-plasmic invertebrate jellies.

"That's it? They don't want to ask any questions."

Assembly chair Jennette Arnold battled to continue the meeting as Mr Johnson
muttered his protests while he gathered his belongings and walked out.

The budget, which has sparked controversy for proposing to axe 12 London fire
stations and cuts to police spending, was later approved unamended.

Mr Johnson said in a statement: "It is vital that we boost economic growth
and create the jobs that we need to help lift this city and country out of our
current economic difficulties.

"Businesses will only want to invest here if they see us offering the best
quality of life for a major world city.

"That means building more houses, making London safer and continuing with
crucial infrastructure projects like the upgrade of the Tube and Crossrail -
delivering value for money, whilst making London safer and ensuring that we have
emergency services that we can continue to be proud of is one of my key
priorities."

Classic Boris Johnson as he condemns EU limit on bank bonuses


Boris Johnson has launched a classical attack on the European Union over its
plans to cap bankers’ bonuses, invoking the memory of the Roman emperor
Diocletian.








Mr Johnson said the rules would
only harm Europe Photo:
AP






By James Kirkup, Deputy Political
Editor

9:30PM GMT 28 Feb 2013


81 Comments




Rules to limit the rewards would drive well-paid financiers out of the City
and harm the economy, Mr Johnson said, insisting that the plans were doomed to
failure.


“This is possibly the most deluded measure to come from Europe since
Diocletian tried to fix the price of groceries across the Roman Empire,” Mr
Johnson said.


The last Roman ruler to persecute Christians, Diocletian brought stability to
the empire after the chaotic third century. In 301AD, he passed his edict on
prices, an unsuccessful attempt to stop inflation by imposing maximum prices on
common goods.


The mayor’s comments put pressure on David Cameron to water down the new EU
bonus rules, agreed provisionally in Brussels this week.


Under them, annual bonuses will not be allowed to exceed a banker’s salary,
starting next year. Bonuses of twice annual salary will be allowed if
shareholders approve them.



Related Articles

• 
  Boris Johnson sews 'codpiece'
  26 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Boris condemns Cameron's alcohol price plans
  
  18 Feb 2013
  

Most contentiously the rules are proposed to apply to the staff of European
banks who work outside the EU, in financial centres including New York and
Singapore.

Supporters of the cap say it will discourage bankers from pursuing the sort
of high-risk deals that helped cause the financial crisis. Opponents point out
that hedge funds, private equity companies and other financial firms are
unaffected.

Mr Johnson said the rules would only harm Europe.

“Brussels cannot control the global market for banking talent. Brussels
cannot set pay for bankers around the world,” he said.

“The most this measure can hope to achieve is a boost for Zurich and
Singapore and New York at the expense of a struggling EU.” Mr Johnson added:
“People will wonder why we stay in the EU if it persists in such transparently
self-defeating policies.”

Britain had attempted to block the rules, but was outvoted. Ministers can now
only argue about how the cap should be applied.

Mr Cameron said on Thursday that Britain would push for more flexibility in
the cap.
=========================================
Sorry Boris...black mark.
It was Banks greed and Traders striving for Bonuses which led to this World-Wide crisis. There is a clause which gives shareholders a say on whether to allow extra bonuses . If Britain wants to get it's AAA rating back, it must be squeaky clean. I remember many years ago ICI used to give shares as a bonus to Staff, surely that's the best way to keep liquidity.

By Boris Johnson

10:01PM GMT 03 Mar 2013


227 Comments




To understand what has happened in Europe in the last week, we must borrow
from the rich and fruity vocabulary of Australian political analysis. Let us
suppose you are losing an argument. The facts are overwhelmingly against you,
and the more people focus on the reality the worse it is for you and your case.
Your best bet in these circumstances is to perform a manoeuvre that a great
campaigner describes as “throwing a dead cat on the table, mate”.


That is because there is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing
a dead cat on the dining room table – and I don’t mean that people will be
outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point, says
my Australian friend, is that everyone will shout “Jeez, mate, there’s a dead
cat on the table!”; in other words they will be talking about the dead cat, the
thing you want them to talk about, and they will not be talking about the issue
that has been causing you so much grief.


That is exactly what Brussels has done with this recent gambit to cap
bankers’ bonuses. Look around Europe and you can see the continuing catastrophe
of the single currency, an ideological project that most Europarliamentarians
and most of the EU establishment continues to support with vengeful fervour.



In Portugal over the weekend, 200,000 people gathered outside the finance
ministry to protest against the biggest tax hikes and the biggest cuts to public
services in living memory. Young Portuguese are growing up to face a life on the
dole. In Brussels the cold autocrats have no answer to Portuguese pain. They
cannot solve the problem. They are the problem. So what can they do? They chuck
a dead cat on the table, and blame the bankers in London.


In Spain, unemployment has now hit 26 per cent – that is one in four
Spaniards who must live with the humiliation of feeling economically unwanted.
The Spanish economy has been contracting steadily for seven successive quarters,
and Spaniards are now regularly seen rifling through rubbish bins in search of
food or bits of metal to sell. There has been nothing like it since the 1930s.




Related Articles

• 
  Is Europe tearing apart the City?
  02 Mar 2013
  
• 
  Make no mistake, the EU is at war with the
  City
  02 Mar 2013
  
• 
  Regulator to give capital boost to new banks
  
  27 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Boris: EU bonus curbs are 'deluded' and
  'self-defeating'
  28 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Capping banker bonuses avoids facing real bank
  problems
  02 Mar 2013
  

Can Europe do anything to help the Spanish, as a generation is maimed on the
Procrustean bed of the euro? Of course they can’t. They can’t admit that the
whole concept of the single currency was flawed, or that it was always cruel and
mad to expect the Mediterranean countries to share an exchange rate with
Germany. That would be too much of a surrender. So they find a convenient
distraction, like Stalin blaming the Kulaks for his crazed totalitarian
policies, and they bash the bankers in London.

Look at Greece, a country that should be holy to us all as the birthplace of
European and Western culture, the home of freedom and democracy, where Phoebus
rose and Delos sprung. It is utterly barbaric that Greece should continue to be
subject to such treatment, but on it goes. Last week they announced that major
drug companies are no longer supplying Greek pharmacy chains with the kind of
preparations that most civilised countries take for granted. Pills that deal
with arthritis, hepatitis C, hypertension, cholesterol, heart attack – they are
all being withheld until the Greek government pays its bills.

The country is being starved of antibiotics, for heaven’s sake. The Red Cross
has cut its supply of donated blood, because it hasn’t been paid on time. What
is Brussels supposed to tell the Greeks, in their agony? That they must keep
taking the medicine? They haven’t got enough blooming medicine to treat everyday
diseases. No wonder semi-fascist parties are on the rise in Athens. So what do
the MEPs do, when they behold the pain – the physical suffering – being endured
by innocent Greeks? They chuck a dead cat on the table, and have a pop at the
bankers in London.

Look at Italy, where the biggest winner in last week’s chaotic elections
appears to be a stand-up comedian who has lost no time in pointing out that the
country’s debt is an unsustainable 127 per cent of GDP (and up from 110 per cent
when Mario Monti took over), and that they may have to junk the euro and go back
to the lira. In fact, says Beppe Grillo, it may be time to have a referendum on
Italian membership of the euro.

A referendum! The very word is one, as we all know, that causes the Eurocrats
to choke on their Douwe Egberts and spray the room with fragments of hysterical
Speculoos biscuit. Mon dieu, dio mio, Gott in Himmel, they cry. Anything but
democracy! What can they say when this idiot savant continues to blurt the truth
about the euro and Italy’s inability to deal with its debt? There is nothing to
say – nothing to do but to cause a diversion, bash financial services in London,
and thank the lord for the 101 uses of a dead cat.

It’s a cunning manoeuvre, of course. It reminds everyone of the undoubted
role of arrogant financiers in helping to cause the crash. It focuses public
attention on a group that has few defenders, and away from the catastrophic
“austerity” policies pursued by the Troika of the Eurobank, the EU commission
and the IMF. It causes a predictable hoo-ha. Some people will say that a bonus
cap will cost jobs in London. Others will say that the bankers had it coming.
Some will point out that financial services contributed £63 billion in tax
revenues to the UK last year. Others will say, what the hell, we have been too
dependent on finance for too long. Some will say that banking is indispensable
to a global economy, and we will simply lose talent to cities outside the EU –
Zurich, New York, Singapore. Let them go, the others will snarl, and there rises
a general jabber of rage: kick them out! Tax their homes! Take their bonuses
away!

And all the while the political classes will be distracted from the real
problem – the continuing misery caused by the euro. That is the beauty of the
dead cat manoeuvre. But as any campaign strategist will tell you, it won’t work
for long.

Excellent Article Boris ....my £10 bet is looking more like winning.

PROCRUSTEAN;- Seeking to enforce uniformity by violent methods.

Boris Johnson attacks EU bonus cap


Plans drawn up by Brussels to cap bankers’ bonuses are a “vengeful” attack
on London, Boris Johnson said as he called on the Chancellor to step up his
fight against the rules.








The London mayor has attacked
Brussels' "vengeful" bonus
plans






By Philip Aldrick, Economics
Editor

7:18PM GMT 06 Mar 2013


150 Comments




Attacking the European Union proposals, the London Mayor said: “This is a
vengeful and self-defeating attempt to pick on London. We don’t try to cap the
pay of oil executives or football players. I can see why people rage about what
happened with the banks but this is an attempt to knock London off its perch and
we’re not going to let it happen.”


His comments came Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King and Andrew Bailey,
chief executive of City supervisor the Prudential Regulation Authority, warned
that the cap could damage financial stability and set banking reform back years.



They claimed that capping bonuses would lead to higher salaries, which would
be paid in cash and could not be clawed back. Mr Bailey said: “My concern about
the EU proposal is that in setting this hard limit it runs the risk it will push
up fixed remuneration. Fixed remuneration is essentially cash out of the door.
It is much harder to get fixed remuneration back once it is paid rather than
money that is deferred,” he told the Parliamentary Commission on Banking
Standards.


“What we have seen this year is quite substantial progress in requiring banks
to reduce the pools of remuneration to reflect redress and fines, but also
cancellation of previously unvested remuneration. And losing those incentive
methods... is something which concerns me.”


The Governor added: “To give banks the incentive to raise fixed remuneration
is going in the wrong direction.”



Related Articles

• 
  Boris: EU bonus curbs are 'deluded' and
  'self-defeating'
  28 Feb 2013
  
• 
  Make no mistake, the EU is at war with the
  City
  02 Mar 2013
  

George Osborne has vowed to water down the plans as the rules are formally
drafted. But Mr Johnson urged him to go further, and invoke the “Luxembourg
Compromise”, which allows an EU government to block a majority decision when it
is detrimental to the national interest.

“It is time for the Government to invoke the Luxembourg compromise and strike
down this measure,” he said. “I hope Brussels will think again. It’s not just
hostile to the greatest financial centre on earth. It’s hostile to growth across
the EU. If this did succeed, people would just head off to New York or
Singapore.”

Quote
George Osborne has vowed to water down the plans as the rules are formally drafted. But Mr Johnson urged him to go further, and invoke the “Luxembourg Compromise”, which allows an EU government to block a majority decision when it is detrimental to the national interest.

“It is time for the Government to invoke the Luxembourg compromise and strike down this measure,” he said. “I hope Brussels will think again. It’s not just hostile to the greatest financial centre on earth. It’s hostile to growth across the EU. If this did succeed, people would just head off to New York or Singapore.”

[/quote]

We are hamstrung as a trading nation by treatise and pacts signed by God knows who or when, which allow second rate bankers and back street spivs in Brussels, Germany and France to dictate who we trade with?
What bright spark agreed to this?
As a trading nation we have always succeeded although often at no small cost! The very nations that are trying to shackle us have never managed to better our success by the use of open and fair trading, they may well yet succeed by using foul methods if someone doesn't step up and put an end to the constant flow of money across the channel to Europe and the restrictions imposed on our way of life by what is little more than the 4th Reich of Gauleiter Merkel!

When Edward Heath signed us up it was a "Common Market " now it has intruded on nearly every area of our lives " for which successive PM's have signed new Treaties. If the Euro collapsed , which might just happen , Britain will have an easy get out.

Panda wrote:When Edward Heath signed us up it was a "Common Market " now it has intruded on nearly every area of our lives " for which successive PM's have signed new Treaties. If the Euro collapsed , which might just happen , Britain will have an easy get out.

I wouldn't be surprised if our 'Honourable Members' hadn't signed up the £ to underwrite the hedge fund that guarantees EU ministers bonuses when the whole rotten edifice collapses.

1. Home»
   

1. Finance»
   

1. News by Sector»
   

1. Transport
   

Boris Johnson plans to give police electric bikes that 'can climb
stairs'


Boris Johnson is planning to give London's Met Police electric mountain
bikes that can climb stairs and help them catch criminals.








The mayor also plans to trial
public hire electric bikes, similar to the popular Barclays bike
scheme Photo: Rex
Features






By Alice Philipson

6:18AM GMT 08 Mar 2013


30 Comments




The London Mayor believes the bikes will "keep the police one step ahead"
when trying to catch perpetrators of crime.


Mr Johnson is currently looking for sponsorship to trial the all-terrain,
full-suspension 'e-bikes'.


He says the bikes go over rough ground much faster than normal bikes go over
tarmac.


He also claims they can climb stairs.


In a document outlining the mayor's vision for cycling in the capital, the
mayor's office said it was seeking funding for "a trial of the latest
all-terrain, full-suspension electric mountain bikes with the Metropolitan
Police."



Related Articles

• 
  Activist US hedge fund halves National Express
  stake
  07 Mar 2013
  
• 
  Travel chaos as Waterloo trains stopped for four
  hours
  07 Mar 2013
  
• 
  IAG boss Walsh offered bonus for successful
  turnaround
  06 Mar 2013
  
• 
  Top 10 best selling cars in February
  
  06 Mar 2013
  
• 
  Ford in demand as new car sales jump 8pc
  
  06 Mar 2013
  

It continued: "These bikes go over rough ground faster than a normal bike
goes over tarmac, and also climb stairs. With criminals increasingly using
(ordinary) bikes, e-bikes will keep the police one step ahead."

The mayor also plans to trial public hire electric bikes, similar to the
popular Barclays bike scheme.

However, he said the new bikes would be placed in different locations to the
Barclays bikes, in areas which are particularly hilly or far from a tube
station.

The bikes will be "particularly useful for people who need to ride in a suit
without breaking sweat," the document says.

Electric bikes are popular in European countries such as the Netherlands and
Germany, where up to a fifth of new bicycles sold are powered by a battery.

The plans are part of a £913bn scheme to encourage cycling in the capital,
which will see 15 miles of segregated cycle ways built across London and some
major roads reduced to 20mph.

UUUM, I think Boris might just be joking about bikes climbing stairs.......although it is a good Idea for the Police to have more motor bikes.

Read the comments , very entertaining.

1 Comment


London Mayor rewards his friends while knifing his Leader

• Author: Toby
  
• Filed under: Conservative Party, Culture media and sport, Economy, Europe, Gossip, Local government, London, Transport, World politics
  

Thursday
Jan 17,2013
As Boris Johnson prepares to use the platform of the London Government dinner at the Mansion House tonight to try and upstage David Cameron’s long-awaited speech on Europe tomorrow, unsubstantiated gossip reaches me that the Mayor is moving to reward another of those associated with the Evening Standard’s campaign in 2008 to unseat Ken Livingstone and as a result help him to win the election as London Mayor.
Veronica Wadley (then the Standard’s editor) is now the Mayor’s (paid)appointee as chair of the London Arts Council.
A little bird tells me that now the Mayor is poised to appoint Andrew Gilligan (then the Evening Standard journalist who wrote some of the articles in the Standard most damaging to Ken Livingstone) as his new (paid) advisor on cycling in London.
Interesting, if true…..
I have now had it confirmed.
----------------------------------------------------
Boris, youv'e let me down