Garden Bridge: B. Johnson 0 Sadiq Khan + Londoners 6

 Some 30 plus trees that would have 

been cut down to make away for Johnson 

and Lumley's vanity project

Great news: Today Sadiq Khan refused to underwrite the maintenance costs of Boris Johnson's Garden Bridge Folly. Hopefully his decision will have effectively killed off this ludicrous and expensive folly that has wasted at least £43 million of taxpayers money with absolutely nothing to show for all this expense. 

Sadiq Khan now should hold a proper inquiry into how this happened and what lessons can be learned.  

28.4.17: Breaking news – Sadiq Khan refuses to 

give guarantees to underwrite the maintenance 

(above and below)

From one of the threatened trees looking across the 

Thames where the Garden Folly would have gone

Spare trees looking good with 

their fresh young Spring growth

Brexit ..... now gloomy Saturday

24 hours on from Leave's victory I remain numbed and shocked that the UK Referendum (23rd June 2016) opted to pull out of the EU after 43 years of membership, albeit often rather lukewarm. 

It feels like a nightmare, except that it remains fully in place when you wake up. There is never the comforting thought that it was all a dream. Furthermore 24 hours on the implications of the vote continue to sink in.

The UK is now deeply divided with much of the country outside of London and wealthy parts of the south east, Manchester, Liverpool, Scotland and Northern Ireland voting to leave. During the day it became clear that Nicola Sturgeon and her Scottish government will be pushing for a second independence referendum as Scotland voted decisively to stay in the EU. If there is a second referendum Scotland may well vote for independence in order to try to stay in the EU. Whether the EU will allow Scotland to join as a separate state is quite another matter. There have also been calls for a United Ireland referendum as a majority of the Northern Ireland population wanted to stay.      

Bizarrely Boris Johnson claimed after the result and Cameron's resignation that "This does not mean the United Kingdom will be any less united." (24th June 2016). Clearly Johnson and I are not on the same planet or this was a massive dose of wishful thinking, especially as he had been roundly booed and insulted by a crowd of Remainers on leaving his house that morning.  

Amazingly Johnson is now saying there is no rush to file for EU divorce. If he really thought Independence from the EU was such a good idea you would think he would want the UK to 'take control' as soon as possible. It has been suggested that Johnson saw Leave as another jolly jape and is only now waking up to the dire consequences. 

During the campaign I was advised by a fellow #winelover 'to get a life' and that the result would make little difference. I'm not sure whether he was thinking very long term but, if it is the short term, events  on Friday show this was clearly a piece of Candide insouciance. 

Further to Cameron resigning, Jeremy Corbyn now faces further challenges to his leadership of the Labour Party. Sterling has fallen considerably against the dollar – down from close on 1.50 to 1.36 and the Euro from just over 1.30 to 1.23 and our credit rating has been cut by Moodys to negative. We will see next week what the currency markets and the stock exchange do after a weekend to reflect on the implications of Thursday's vote.

Cameron is right to resign. He lost the referendum that he had no need to call and should never have been held. It was called to calm internal Conservative Party tensions as well as trying to head off the threat of UKIP.  Gambling with the UK's prosperity. Then having called the referendum Cameron and the Remain campaign failed to promote a vision and really positive case for the UK to stay in the EU. Instead they relied on the fearful consequences that won't resonate if you are poor and already fearful of your job prospects.

Leading Leave Tory politicians did try to get Cameron to stay so that he could lead the delicate UK negotiations. Ian Duncan Smith stressed that Cameron's good relations with other EU leaders would be a great positive! Not surprisingly Cameron decided that he wasn't going to be the patsy and that Leavers would have to sort out the crap for themselves.   

It is difficult to know how far those who voted to leave were convinced by Leave's dubious claims and lies. Johnson has a history of lying and making up stories as he himself has admitted. The ideal CV for the next likely Prime Minister! Farage has already distanced himself from the claim that if Leave won there would be money available from the '£350 million we send to the EU every week' to fund the NHS.

Equally Leave are also 'clarifying' that they weren't claiming to reduce immigration but only control it – whatever that might mean.....  

The sound of chickens coming home to roost.....        

EU Referendum – why I am voting for Europe

On Tuesday we will be back in London after three weeks in the Loire. Back in time to vote in the UK's EU Referendum on Thursday, which is the most important vote in my lifetime. Having always been Pro-Europe I will certainly be voting to Remain. I hold a British passport but I consider myself to be European, so it makes no sense to me to turn our back on Europe – its culture, the UK's major trading partner and the European Union. 

 

Take back control!

Britexiters claim that leaving the EU will give us our country back. It will do no such thing. The UK has already negotiated exceptions, such as to stay out of the Euro and the Schengen Agreement. There are claims that we will thrive outside the EU perhaps with a free trade agreement with the Commonwealth countries.  

This is surely fantasy! Far better to be together with our major market with a voice rather to run away and hope for the best. A free trade agreement with the Commonwealth harks back to the time of the British Empire at the end of the 19th Century. The Asia Pacific region, for instance, is the closest and most enticing market for Australia and New Zealand not the UK.     

Curiously and sadly a number of the English regions that are predicted to vote leave are the very same that have benefited from European Union aid to depressed areas.    

Voting to leave the EU on Thursday will hand control of the UK to people like Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage. Johnson famously could have gone either way on Europe and is widely seen as only campaigning for exit because he sees this as his chance to become Prime Minister. Furthermore he has cheerfully admitted that when based in Brussels as a reporter he invented new stories about European legislation – shapes of bananas etc.  

  

“People in this country have had enough of experts,” according to Michael Gove. Fair enough, perhaps, from a member of the public but a truly extraordinary statement from the current Minister of State for Justice. How does UK case law function if it isn't the distillation of legal decisions by legal experts – judges – over many years? Furthermore Gove was previously Minister of Education, somewhat of a worry if the education of our children is in the hands of someone who mistrusts expertise!

UKIP and Nigel Farage playing the race card – poster launched 

the day that MP Jo Cox was brutally murdered 

Echoes of Nazi propaganda

And the vile Farage – head of UKIP ? Ever ready to play the race card as the UKIP poster shows. Farage launched this poster that shows migrants moving into Slovenia playing on the fears of uncontrolled immigration into the UK just hours before the MP Jo Cox was murdered. The man charged with her murder gave his name in court as "My name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain." 

Clearly Farage didn't order the killing of the MP but he and his party created the mood music – you reap what you sow!

Rather belatedly Gove admitted on Sunday that he 'shuddered' when he saw the UKIP poster.   

After a surge by the leave campaign, the latest opinion polls show a move back to Remain. Let's hope Remain carries the day on Thursday. It will be tight!   

     

Olympian weather and Boris' warning

Rain-pain!

After a few days of summer weather to lull visitors and, perhaps, Londoners too into a false sense of security today has seen a return to classic 2012 summer weather with some torrential downpours this afternoon. 

The centre obscured by dark clouds

A building storm (above and below)

 Towards the O2

Greyness around the Olympic stadium

Rain-pain encore

Don't say that Boris didn't warn us!