Still Early Days but...

Today, we see how essential it is that somebody other than Boris of the Blues or whoever stands on behalf of the yellow and red portions of the Labserveral Cartel.  It seems that for ten years we who use public transport in London are to be fleeced more and more in order to pay for more roads.

No doubt, these will be on the lines of the Blue Labserverals' Zil lanes, built with our money but closed to us.      There is no reason for the people of London to pay more and more of their wages for the privilege of going to work.  Those of us in the public sector have our wages frozen.  Those in the 'private' sector find their wages falling and possibly their hours as well.  And those fortunate enough still to be self-employed, see their businesses deliberately crushed by the big names who compete.

I propose something different.  The day I am elected Mayor of London, I will close the underground system and send a bill to the corporations in the City of London. It won't be a tax, it'll be good honest blackmail.  They don't pay tax, but there's no reason they shouldn't pay yours and my fares everyday instead of just on New Year's Eve when most of us already have a ticket anyway.  Then the fares can be zero, oyster can be scrapped, and we can go back to being anonymous and untraceable as we move through our own city.

Sure, they can move to Frankfurt if they wish and so I will be talking to the mayors of New York, Paris and Frankfurt with a view to the whole world making the same decision at the same time.

We note already that the tube often closes at the weekend when people would wish to use it for having fun rather than going to their place of daily drudgery.  It follows that the tube is not for our benefit but that of our employers. Well than, let them pay for the infrastructure, not us.

Vote Edwards (Independent) for Mayor of London in 2016.

After a Week, nothing has changed...

Or has it?

Well, firstly, I work as a public servant, and so, on Thursday 10 May, I joined a quarter million of my colleagues in industrial action against an attempt by our government to place an extra tax burden on my shoulders.  I was on a picket line and at one point, we became a mass picket under the terms of Public Order legislation introduced during the rain of the evil one.  Of course, nobody came to arrest us because, for once, the Police were taking part in public demonstrations as well.

The sad thing about it was, the youngest person on the picket line was, as far as I could see, aged about fifty.  I hope this doesn't mean that, when we fade away, nobody will replace us on the picket line.  I hope there are other forms of action that will capture the imagination of the young and they too will take to the barricades as the young are supposed to.  Well, I can dream can't I?

But, I'm not standing for mayor to encourage the young to protest.  That's a separate issue althoguh I have to say, if I become mayor, and I mess up (as any honest politician if such a thing existed will tell you is inevitable) then I hope they'll protest against me and I hope I have the good grace to step down.

As well as striking, this was also the week in which I came close to getting my new band together.  This is an important part of my strategy because any opportunity to gain an audience is something to be embraced, not spurned.  I'll tell you more about the new band when details are firmer, but in any case, rest assured, it's part of the arsenal I will bring to bear in my attempt to take city hall.

And of course, any publicity is good publicity, so, in a shameless attempt to get on TV, I'll be having an audition to get on Mastermind soon.  Wish me luck?

So, let's see if I can master paragraphs shall I? With proper paragraphing, I can produce a nice handy list of reasons I want to be mayor of London. It can form the basis of my manifesto.  

Policing

Decisions the police make about what laws to enforce and what not to enforce are political decisions. They can find a half a dozen policemen on overtime to raid a flat in the wee small hours, terrorise children and then produce a warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act while at the same time they are unable to prevent the same houses getting burgled, nor even provide enough police to damp down the Tottenham riot before it happened, even though not expecting it would show a criminal error of judgement. So, I want to be the one making those decisions, and I want to make sure those decisions are made in the interests of London's working people.  

Public Transport
I live in Tottenham and work in Southwark and overwhelmingly I find myself with the choice of spending more than I can afford on the tube, taking a slow bus journey or even walking to work (which takes three hours) rather than the two on the buses. The buses often wait at stops "to regulate the service", change destination in mid journey, or sometimes simply don't arrive at all. If I am mayor, I will ensure that buses are more predictable and that they are better places to be. As for the tubes... well, I will close the tube network until businesses in central London agree to fund it entirely through a levy. After all, they already avoid paying tax, so they can afford it.  

Culture

London is a vibrant cultural hub, providing spectacle for the whole of the World. Unfortunately, publicity tends to be about the big-ticket events, attractions, or venues . I would like to change that, bringing tourism to the wider range of smaller attractions, events and venues that London offers.

Are we thinking on a similar wavelength? Then follow me. Help me take City Hall in 2016, ready to return London to those who love her.

Day One - supporters 4

My name is Alcuin Edwards and last night, I decided that I wanted to become Mayor of London. I have no idea how to do that, but I intend to find out over the next four years, and in the process, gather supporters ready to take on the big boys of the Labserveral Cartel, the Greens and the Far Right (and Far Left too for that matter but at the moment as London is concerned, there is no competition from that diresction for the time being). So. It's not something we decide every day now is it, so why do I want to stand for Mayor. The reasons go some way to developing a manifesto so here goes. First of all, as a London voter, I was faced with a group of candidates, none of which I could support wholeheartedly and added to that, the knowledge that, rather than a single transferrable vote, we in London get the abortion known as an alternative vote, where for the second round, only the first two (who we knew would be Ken or Boris) would be counted. It might as well have been first past the post with a choice between Ken and Boris. I wanted another choice. Secondly, there's the old joke, a conservative is a revolutionary who has nopt yet had his front door kicked in by the jackbooted thugs we pay to fight our imaginary "wars" against drugs, against "terror", against "dangerous dogs", against the poor agaisnt the disabled, against anyone who isn't a member of the club of privilege that sits at the top of our society. My door was kicked down two years ago while police were looking for non existent drugs after having "intelligence" that my stepson was a dealer. They found nothing, they apologised, but that doesn't fix my front door. And now, this week, they kicked down a door near me and handcuffed a twelve year old girl, "justifying" the raid on the grounds that they found a grinder that had been used to grind cannabis. If the police can justify a raid on the grounds that someone on the premises USES drugs, then they must raid EVERYONE who ever smoked a joint. Now here, I admit to an admiration of the late Robert Jasper Grootveld, one of the founders of the Dutch provo movement, whoa rranged coach trips to Belgium just so that the police could be embarrassed and the Dutch anti-drugs laws become untenable. I propose that we get as many people as possible to grow COFFEE in their attics and basements and make sure the press are there when these micro-plantations get raided, which they will. But there's more. London is wonderful. It's the only place in the world where you could see a band playing didgeridoo, bongos, Chinese violin and marimba. How beautiful is that? I want to encourage diversity in art, but more than that, i want to encourage artists that have little or no money and make their art without major grants and the like. Instead, let us make sure that galleries like the Palatine, or Stoke Newington International Airport in Dalston, indie radio stations like ill.fm and small independent venues that put on five bands a night for a fiver get the recognition they deserve. They all go toward making London the most vibrant city in the world. This is a beginning. If you like what you read, follow me, help me, and between us, we can take City Hall by storm.