Don’t push it.

I usually refrain from a running commentary on Boris Johnson’s acts as mayor.  Some people have taken to follow his every move, and while it is a very valid exploit, I cannot hope to carry it out effectively*.

Today, though, I feel I must comment on the resignation of Johnson’s First Deputy Mayor.  Let’s not forget, this was a position that he created despite reasonable warnings at the time that such a position was against GLA rules (with good reason).  Tim Parker now, apparently, sees that the position was not a sensible one to inhabit, or indeed to exist to begin with.  This effectively sees the end of Johnson’s Deputy Mayor scheme.

Such an error in judgement in creating posts only to realise that there was a perfectly good reason why they did not exist to begin with is forgiveable.  To lose so many high-ranking members of your administration in a matter of months is shocking.

I hope for London’s sake that this is a repeat of the Winter, as Johnson’s campaign got a complete overhaul and turned from a joke to a highly successful operation.  If not, London will be mismanaged for the next 42 months.  With the Olympics approaching, the last thing we need is a lack of decent thinking at the top of London government.

As always, though, the Tory Troll has the most insightful comment on the subject:

But with ‘King Stooge’ out of the building, and with planning powers now passed back into the Mayor’s hands, we are now faced with the very real prospect of Boris Johnson actually doing his own job. These are scary times people.

- - -
*To see it done properly, see Tory Troll and Boris Watch.

I have already made comment on the new Number 10 website.  It seems as if  the design was stolen from the Themes Database, and badly botched before being put online.  Full comment with outgoing links from the theme’s author.

This just goes to show how monumentally divorced the government is from the real world.  There is no excuse in hiring a company to make a website on an open source platform and then not declaring copyright disclaimers.  If the press released shouted “open source”, even the most technically unaware individual in the Number 10 office should stop and think “wait, that means we didn’t make it ourselves.  Maybe the copyright notice should reflect that”.  It is a disgrace.

It really gets to something when government cannot even deliver a simple Wordpress website without messing up.  I have used loads of Wordpress themes in the past, all with appropriate copyright notices.  It was with a slight smile on my face that the latest theme for this website went live with my name at the bottom, not anyone else’s - I built it from scratch, line by line.  Apparently the Number 10 website cost £100,000, but it is no more technically advanced than this site, and whoever put it together could not be bothered to design it, or even steal a design properly.  I am obviously wasting my time, when I could be making government websites for ludicrous sums.

For those of you that missed the ambiguously meaningful news Labour has evaded fiscal oblivion with the help of their backers, who have allowed them until 2015 to repay the cash.

This means that the prospect of “Labour Ltd.” is rightly banished, but by no means assures the continued existence of the party. Simply because they are wealthy enough to continue to operate by no means means that they will continue to enjoy the base which they have become dependent upon. The rumblings amongst the unions are also highly ominous, although perhaps not indicative of any actual motion in lieu of any viable alternative.

As far as I can determine the next seven years will be crucial for Labour’s continued existence in a way that perhaps even the past seven have not been. If Labour can refresh and reinvigorate themselves, then set about seizing the agenda then the shallow state the Tories remain in (despite desperate diggings towards depth) and the low profile of the Liberal Democrats will assure their continued existence. I remain of the view that with David Miliband at their head this could be achieved.

Alternatively their current dire state could be followed by all out internecine warfare and division, something which would at least give us a chance to see some Blairites getting thrashed; but would also lead to the Tories establishing themselves thoroughly in the absence of any unified opposition to their agenda. It is hard to imagine an outcome, either with Labour as challengers or the LibDems, that would come from this context yet not include the Conservative Party becoming, once again, the “Natural party of government”.

Certainly a descent from the seeming impossibility of Tory return to power that was in force a mere matter of years ago. At least Labour can focus upon popularity rather than cash, however. Whether this renewed devotion of attention allows them to regain the droves that have abandoned them remains to be seen.

Concepts and artwork for the new Routemaster.

Via the indefatigable Tory Troll.

As a wannabe web nerd, I spend some time browsing professional Wordpress theme designs.  Today I spent some time mocking up a design for my own website, which I will begin building in the next few days.  It was with interest, then, to find that the much-trumpeted Number10 website has been unveiled - built on Wordpress!  Get Gordon, all trendy and open source!  Just today I read an article by a blogger on the problems with pushing Wordpress too far beyond a simple blog format, trying to decide whether the platform can really cope with uses beyond those which it was designed for.  In short, I love Wordpress and am happy to mould it to suit any purpose, but the kind of site at Number10 should really be on a more robust content management system.

(I suspect at this point that most readers will not care greatly about the intricacies of Wordpress as a publishing system, so I shall leave the issue aside.)

The visual identity of the site is remarkably different to the old one.  What was once a practical website that looked as if it was created by a team of civil servants with solid scripting knowledge, but little eye for design, is now reasonably professional but not remotely official-looking.  It feels like the website for a small business, not the gateway to the seat of power.  But the simplicity and closeness is not necessarily a bad thing.  The colour scheme works well, and the use of white space is a stark contrast to the overbearing mass of information dumped by the previous incarnation.

This is genuinely web2.0.  Not only is it open source in software, it fully integrates feeds from Flickr, Twitter and YouTube.  This is, really, everything that WebCameron is not.  Where WebCameron is lacking, Number10 shows the Tories how it is done.  But where WebCameron works, this is too poor a comparison to look like an imitation.  There is no original blog content from the PM himself - why use easy-as-pie Wordpress if nobody is actually blogging?  And why on earth is all of the video contained in a TelegraphTV-style media centre instead of being embedded into articles?  Fundamentally, though, why use blogging software if there is no facility to comment?

This could have been a great break for government to reach into new media.  To get the public’s attention where it is of most value - on the internet.  I have long argued for the internet as being massively more important for government than any other media source, including television and newspapers, and this site relaunch was the perfect opportunity for government to wake up.  But they are still slumbering.

The gesture of using Wordpress is thoroughly unnecessary.  There is no good reason for using a blogging platform for the kind of content the Number10 website hosts.  If the website were to contain blogs, or even comments under articles, Wordpress would be perfect.  But for the kind of use Number10 has, Wordpress is simply the wrong package to choose (even from the open source options available).  The (surely deliberate) attempt to look hip and trendy by straying into WebCameron territory is pointless unless the great benefits of WebCameron are realised.  Most argue that Cameron’s site did not go quite far enough towards interaction, and, fundamentally, failed to keep moving forwards.  Instead, it has stagnated.  The new Number10 has a ready stream of content to keep it fresh, but it is simply press releases and speech transcripts.  I want to see short video clips of Gordon behind his desk telling us “I’ve just got off the phone with Putin, discussing South Ossetia.  We are agreed on…”.  Such content can be put up within minutes, and would give the public at least a nudge towards believing that Gordon is actually serving a purpose behind that shiny black door.

This is a typical government Emperor’s New Clothes phenomenon.  You know the story: the Emperor is really proud of his new outfit and shows it off to everyone.  Blinded by the Emperor’s presence and the fact that everyone is enamoured by the outfit, everyone is amazed by this most brilliant set of clothes ever produced.  Until one thoughtful person points out that the Emperor is, in fact, stark naked.  Here is a blog: it’s built on Wordpress, it looks like a blog, it feels like a blog, it quacks like a blog… etc. In fact, though, it is nothing of the sort.  It uses blogging software where a traditional CMS would be more appropriate.  It integrates photos via Flickr instead of directly though the site simply because Flickr sounds trendy.  Likewise video is pumped via YouTube on the front page, because of brand association, and then via a different out-of-the-box system on a the video page because YouTube isn’t actually the best way to show video after all.  As for the use of Twitter: a nonsense gesture, and transparently vacuous.  Everything that makes this website look like a blog is inefficient and wrong: in short, only there to make it look like a blog!

They don’t seem to get it.  The Number 10 website could easily have become a fantastic blog-based hub of accessible government.  It could have featured regular minute-long video pieces from the prime minister, with comment facilities below.  It could have hosted the ability to discuss the vast number of press releases and speeches archived on the site.  It should, at the very least, have hosted a blog from Gordon Brown.  He need not have pretended he had time to log into Wordpress and hit “publish” five times a day, but if he can squeeze out three books while Chancellor and Prime Minister, he can knock off a few blog posts each week.

I do not regularly comment on new government website builds, but this one was different.  It was built up in the press as the dawn of a new era in prime ministerial closeness.  Instead, it is a perfect exercise in appearing to be everything that you want, but actually turning out to be nothing at all.  I am severely disappointed in this squandered opportunity: the Emperor’s clothes may be new, but they are not actually clothes at all.

It looks like I am holding the fort here at Scribo Ergo Sum while my esteemed co-writers are variously engaged away from broadband connections.  Only through such experience can I consider Harriet Harman’s plight at the moment.  Stuck in London while her boss is practicing pilates in a jacket and tie somewhere in East Anglia, Harman is the only senior Cabinet member at home.  Poor woman; I almost feel pity.

To avoid an embarrassing croquet-at-Dorneywood incident, Harman has been cleverly concealed away from the prying eyes of the press.  Smart.  The media machine rumbles on, slowly losing steam over the will-he/won’t-he of a Miliband coup.  The news channels are full of Olympics, taking up as much as half of each bulletin.  The Conservatives are continuing to drip out press releases each day, policy by policy, quietly preparing the ground for an all-out assault at Party Conference.  And we are all blissfully oblivious to the fact that nobody is actually running the country.

The government’s response to South Ossetia is beginning to cause a bit of a stir (proving that journalists will literally write about nothing in August!) in the blogosphere and beyond.  But the problem extends far beyond foreign policy.  The SATs debacle is still on the agenda, and mercifully nobody is trying to brush it under the carpet.  The sad fact is that nobody is even in the building to pick up a broom to begin with!  Ed Balls is nowhere to be seen.  Nobody has adequately explained how the mess was allowed to come about to begin with, nobody is dealing with the consequences, and nobody is taking the flak.

Or take the economy.  Inflation is up to 4.4% today: well above double the government’s own target.  Alistair Darling’s attempt to reassure the public that he was “considering several options” last week was a resounding failure, not least because he indicated that people ought to wait until the Autumn for a better picture of the government’s plans for the housing market.  The result: people decide to sell in a few months, further hitting the ailing industry.  He appeared on radio with no policy to announce or explain, and no timetable for action to set out.  He wanted simply to show people that he was there, doing his best.  But his best was to speed up the property slump: a shocking failure.  After that miserable performance, it seems as if some wise advisers suggested that he should keep quiet for a few weeks, leaving all official Treasury business to be fronted by Yvette Cooper.  Who has done nothing but muddy the waters further.

I must admit to finding Silly Season a little refreshing.  One is not being constantly bombarded with suit-clad ministers running from studio to studio rubbishing the other guy’s latest lightbulb-above-head moment.  Sport and celebrity weddings take the place of reports and committees.  But there is a catch.

I like to see MPs as like police officers.  When all is well with the world, I don’t want to see them at all.  If the presence of police on a tube platform is slightly unnerving, the sight of MPs in summer is deeply concerning.  But if an attacker is approaching me 100 feet under Central London, I would dearly love a whole battalion of burly hi-vis-wearing coppers to march to my rescue.  Likewise, if everything is going up the spout, I expect to be lead by my government.  They were elected to govern, not have seaside photo-ops in a cat and mouse game of “I’m on a proper holiday”, “No, I’m on a more proper holiday. Look, I’m even wearing a T-shirt!”.  If some idiot contractor has screwed up exam result processing, I want someone to say “sorry: here’s our plan to avoid repeating this farce next year”.  If some idiot Chancellor has screwed up not trying to fix the economy until the Autumn, I expect him to either apoligise and announce a solid plan to save the economy, or to apologise and state firmly that there won’t ever be a plan to save the economy.  And if some idiot not-really-a-deputy prime minister cannot be seen to be taking control of government for fear of looking like she is positioning herself to depose her leader, then the whole sorry Labour party is far too fragile to be allowed anywhere near the corridors of power.

Giving the impression that you are on holiday, and letting the nation take a breather, is a fantastic skill in otherwise driven politicians.  But if you are the captain of a pleasure cruiser, currently heading for some rocks, you don’t grab a poolside sun lounger on the upper deck.  This government is cruising, rudderless, towards a whole series of crises at home an abroad.  And whilst they ostentatiously jump from the diving board boasting about who is on the most “normal” holiday, the cabin is empty and the warning lights are going unheeded.

I’m likely to avoid posting for much of the next 3 days; so, as a shortened form of holiday reading, here’s the hugely impressive Green New Deal, on which I’ll write a review in the very near future.

Via Pickled Politics:

Here are a list of popular festivals in London that currently receive financial support from the Mayor’s office or the London Development Agency.: Chinese New Year; St Patricks Day; St George’s Day; Vaisakhi; Africa Day; Baishakhi Mela; Pride and Soho Pride; Rise; Carnival del Pueblo; London Mela; Notting Hill Carnival; Liberty - disability arts festival; Thames Festival; Trafalgar Square summer festival; the Jewish Simcha on the Square; Chanukkah; Black History Month events; Diwali; Eid; Celebrating Sanctuary (refugee festival); Capital Age; Festival of Youth Arts.

Unsurprisingly, now Boris wants to cut funding from them all so they can rely on the businesses to support them. The guy is adamant on making London lifeless again. Meanwhile his office will spend over a quarter of a million on head-hunting alone.
This is just a start.

When Munira Mirza removed Rise’s anti-racist theme for Boris, she claimed Londoners, “deserve a great, free music festival.” The logic behind such a claim is fair; many Londoners don’t have the means or ability to organise street carnivals alone, so providing some support to ensure some can - and to make those festivals open to all - allows everyone to let off some steam. And, of course, the cultural elements allow Londoners to learn a little about each other and so reduce conflict within communities.

But, apparently, Londoners only deserve the one party now. What fun, eh?

I meant to post on the debate between Neal Lawson and Robert Philpot in the Guardian today; but Two Doctors says all I would do. Progress represent everything wrong with modern Labour. Doesn’t Philpot notice the corellation between Labour adopting their philosophy and votes falling away?

Compass, on the other hand, have many admirable policies:

“… we could start building council houses, mandate a living wage, create a national well being index, provide fee school meals for all primary kids, stop taxing people earning under £10,000, place a ban on advertising to children, introduce a fair voting system, drop ID cards, elect local health boards, introduce a graduate solidarity tax instead of fees and phase out our reliance on oil.”

- but can’t put them in place. The Parliamentary Labour Party is dead as a vehicle for socialism. The left-wing backbenches are virtually bereft of influence; when the government bargains with the DUP before its own MPs, they must realise that. Other, moderate MPs, meanwhile, buy fully into Progress’ baseless argument that voters will abandon Labour in droves should it dare to be nice to them (because, of course, voters aren’t abandoning Labour now.). So, they vote for the party right, and prevent any leftish challenge from reaching a contest across the party; as last year. Unless those MPs find their guts and start to make noise, Compass will need a revolution from the demoralised grassroots up to make the frontbenches.

Or, of course, they could find a new party. They wouldn’t be in government immediately - but at least those MPs they did elect could vote against measures like 42 Days, rather than cower beneath the Whips.