KHOODEELAAR! Challenge to Boris Johnson to answer Muhammad Haque's statement as published on the London EVENING STANDARD website

1245 Hrs GMT London Tuesday 30 June 2009   

 

KHOODEELAAR! UPDATED Challenge to Boris Johnson to answer Muhammad Haque's dissection of Boris Johnson’s CRASS role for Crossrail, as published on the London EVENING STANDARD website [see texts, below after the 'news' element in the following  piece] 

Boris: I'll block Victoria towers until firm pays Crossrail cash

Ruth Bloomfield
17.06.09

MAYOR Boris Johnson has threatened to halt a billion-pound project to transform the streets around Victoria Station in a row over Crossrail funding.

Plans to build five tower blocks to the station's north were approved in February as part of a huge renovation of the 6.1-acre site.

To secure the deal, developer Land Securities agreed to pay £2.5million to revamp the Victoria Palace Theatre, which is showing Billy Elliot.

But today it emerged the Mayor has ordered Westminster council to withhold planning permission unless Land Securities also contributes £1.2million towards the Crossrail link.

Land Securities responded angrily to Mr Johnson's last-minute intervention, with Westminster planners due to consider the scheme tomorrow. It said in a statement: "The direction to refuse at such a late stage in the planning process for a major London regeneration project is of great concern with significant implications, especially at this time of economic stress."

To revive the project the developer is suggesting cutting the amount it will spend on public art to find the money to pay the Crossrail tax, introduced by the Mayor to raise up to £300million towards the east-to-west rail link through central London, improving access to the City from Heathrow.

It planned to spend £2million on statues and other art in the area, but will instead contribute £800,000 - although it says it will also incorporate "artistic features" into the buildings.

The row highlights tensions over Mr Johnson's Crossrail funding strategy. Critics say the financial burden of the levy could force developers to abandon schemes with the building industry reeling from the recession.

A spokesman for the Mayor said: "Crossrail is of overwhelming strategic importance to the development of London, particularly in tackling congestion on the rail network caused by development.

"In those circumstances it is entirely appropriate to seek contributions. This will often be justified under the London Plan, but it is also a well-established principle that emerging policies can be taken into account in planning decisions."

Land Securities plans to redevelop the block between Victoria Street, Buckingham PalaceRoad, Bressenden Place and Allington Street.

Westminster council supported the plans of modern blocks despite objections from English Heritage, which claims they will do "serious" harm to the "historic environment". The proposed developments are a 13-storey block in Buckingham Palace Road, a 19-storey office building in Victoria Street and three blocks in Bressenden Place - two 14-storey and one 12-storey.

As well as shops and flats, there will be 35 affordable homes and almost 1,000 parking spaces for bicycles. The Thistle Royal Westminster Hotel will be knocked down. Land Securities also intends the buildings to use rainwater or greywater - waste water from dishwashing or laundry - on garden areas and there will be charging points for electric vehicles.

The development is a scaled-back version of a plan Land Securities put forward last year but had to revise after planners decided that three proposed skyscrapers, the tallest at 134 metres, would have ruined views of Buckingham Palace.

A spokeswoman for Land Securities said the firm did not wish to comment until after tomorrow's planning committee meeting. Westminster council also would not comment before the meeting.

 

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Reader Views (9)

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Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.

What’s totality unbelievable here is that Land Securities are getting away with such a meagre Crossrail contribution!
Their development will put enormous additional strain on the Victoria public infrastructure and they’ve had the cheek to threaten they’ll be scaling back their public art budget as a consequence. This incidentally is fine with me, since their interpretation of what constitutes public realm enhancement is something London can easily do without, but what isn’t okay, is for developers to build what they build, without significant consideration and significant accompanying financial contributions to begin to redressing the impacts of their developments. No development site in London exists in isolation from the infrastructure required to get people to it.
Whether or not you agree with Crossrail, what ought to be the focus here is that if you’re a commercial developer seeking to make a profit, and by doing so you exploit your sites infrastructure connectivity, which in turn represents a significant amount of its value, then it’s entirely reasonable that you contribute to the expansion, upgrading and maintaining of that public infrastructure.
This development when let will significantly contribute to congestion in Victoria, and they ought to be contributing a whole lot more.

- Nicholas, London

Crossrail has been and is a seriously flawed project contrived in its ‘Crossrail Act’ state to let Big Business take chunks of scarce public resources away from being applied to important infrastructure needs in and around London. Crossrail is not economic. Never has been. The Crossrail Act was passed by denying constitutional law and constitutional objections to be duly, evidentially, adequately, fully or at all put to Parliament. BOTH major Parties colluded in suppressing the evidence that would show the crassness of Crossrail. Even Gordon Brown’s own specialist Rod Eddington [formerly of British Airways] advised against Crossrail. Both Houses of UK Parliament had token Select Committees on the CrossRail Bill [2005 -2008] but BOTH were whipped and programmed to DENY the scrutiny of the contents, the purpose, the costs and the implications of the scam. The Crossrail Bill was Lobbied through by a known 'ex' aide to one Transport Secretary [in the CRASSrail Bill chain] Douglas Alexander. The Crassness of Crossrail is evident in its contrivance, in its passage and in the grubby behaviour of all concerned in its peddling. Scrap it now. By behaving like a bully, who is frqrt5ebnetly going on the record to show that he is engaged in bullying those London businesses that are reluctant pay a Crossrail levy, Boris Johnson is proving, whether by intent or by idiocy, the deep wastefulness and crassness of this Crossrail scam.

Muhammad Haque
Organiser
KHOODEELAAR! No to Big Business.Crossrail.scam

- Muhammad Haque, London UK

Why should they pay for this 'White Elephant'? They are putting money to good use to improve the lovely Victoria Palace Theater.

- Vince, London, West London

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KHOODEELAAR! In February 2008 dissected the two Houses of UK Parliament as in serious disrepair

KHOODEELAAR! In February 2008 dissected the two Houses of UK Parliament as in serious disrepair 

 

 

Mr Waller has got the main fact right.

 

Crossrail is not proving to be the right solution for the transport need of London. No wonder, it is struggling to attract spontaneous support.

 

 

There are currently 113 objections ['petitions'] against the Crossrail bill deposited in the legislative House of Lords by individuals and groups from across the London region".

 

 

Quite a few of those are from the East End of London I am likely to represent one of these, the Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Bill, objections to the Committee set up in the House of Lords.

 

Preparations are afoot for a session of robust criticism to be heard in the "Lords" against the seriously flawed scheme.

 

 

The un-named MPs in your item should risk being caught doing something that the HOUSE OF COMMONS has been deprived of for years - breaking party whips and speaking the truth as based on objective evidence.

 

 

There could not be a more appropriate time for the 'elected' house of the parliament to show that it has any relevance to the overdue task of holding the executive to account. With a bit of imagination the legislative 'house of lords Crossrail bill select committee' is poised to create a historic precedent - by actually listening to the people on the ground who have sound and sensible things to say that will, if heeded by Gordon Brown even at this stage, save a good deal of pubic money and spare us all a huge environmental folly. 

And signs are that this is quite possible, if the first impressions discerned in the behaviour of those Peers who visited the East End and the Brick Lane and Whitechapel London E1 area on 20 February 2008 looking at sites of some of the proposed Crossrail holes is anything to go by. 


 

 

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KHOODEELAAR! In February 2008 dissected the two Houses of UK Parliament as in serious disrepair

KHOODEELAAR! In February 2008 dissected the two Houses of UK Parliament as in serious disrepair 

Twitter, to End POVERTY

Mr Waller has got the main fact right.

 

Crossrail is not proving to be the right solution for the transport need of London. No wonder, it is struggling to attract spontaneous support.

 

 

There are currently 113 objections ['petitions'] against the Crossrail bill deposited in the legislative House of Lords by individuals and groups from across the London region".

 

 

Quite a few of those are from the East End of London I am likely to represent one of these, the Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Bill, objections to the Committee set up in the House of Lords.

 

Preparations are afoot for a session of robust criticism to be heard in the "Lords" against the seriously flawed scheme.

 

 

The un-named MPs in your item should risk being caught doing something that the house of commons has been deprived of for years - breaking party whips and speaking the truth as based on objective evidence.

 

 

There could not be a more appropriate time for the 'elected' house of the parliament to show that it has any relevance to the overdue task of holding the executive to account. With a bit of imagination the legislative 'house of lords Crossrail bill select committee' is poised to create a historic precedent - by actually listening to the people on the ground who have sound and sensible things to say that will, if heeded by Gordon Brown even at this stage, save a good deal of pubic money and spare us all a huge environmental folly. 

And signs are that this is quite possible, if the first impressions discerned in the behaviour of those Peers who visited the East End and the Brick Lane and Whitechapel London E1 area on 20 February 2008 looking at sites of some of the proposed Crossrail holes is anything to go by. 


 

 

 

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KHOODEELAAR! Evidential challenge to London GUARDIAN,a backer of wasteful, debts-causing Crossrail.....

0055 Hrs GMT 

London Friday 1 May 2009: 

KHOODEELAAR! has been telling you so for 6 years and 4 months.. That the Guardian is a concealer of the truth. That the Guardian twists the facts. Or marginalises that which ought to be the most prominent… As it has exhibited again. In the piece we have reproduced from the Guardian’s web site, by-lined to Simon Jenkins, who as a columnist is not at all comfortable with the Guardian, is reduced to using only 26 words about Crossrail and Boris Johnson. In the remainder of the piece, the Guardian lets Jenkins wallow about the less important things.. That suits the Guardian agenda.. which is to conceal the truth and to continue to allow Crossrail to be given the funding and the important that it does not deserve. Or the funding that London cannot afford… The Gua5adin belongs to the secret cult.. It is that CULT that wants Crossrail. The £Billions of public money.. And Alan Rusbridger is too happy to oblige….It matters not to him how much extra costs the public have to incur for allowing Big business looters to pocket the £Billions that should be given instead to maintain the EXISTING transport infrastructure….[To be continued]

By khoodeelaar

_______

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jun/30/economicgrowth-economic-recovery

GDP: what the economists say

• Buzz up!
• Digg it

• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 June 2009 10.55 BST
• Article history

James Knightley at ING

The GDP revision is "a major surprise" and much worse than expected, said James Knightley at ING. Changes to the methodology of calculating construction output cut an extra 0.25% off output, while lower services output knocked off another 0.25%.

"Consequently the new figure of -2.4% quarter-on-quarter is now the biggest fall since 2Q 1958 and the 4.9% year-on-year decline is the worst since the quarterly series began in 1948. The ONS has also revised history further back to show the recession now started one quarter earlier in 2Q08."

Knightley says the data should only provide "a temporary knock" to sentiment, however.

"Indeed, with today's other data showing a good gain for consumer confidence and the third rise out of the past four months for Nationwide house prices, the outlook for the UK economy is improving significantly.

"Moreover, more weight should be placed on the PMI indicators, which will be released over the next three days. The services sector is already in positive territory, while the manufacturing and construction indicators are edging closer to the break-even 50 level. All are currently consistent with flat- to positive-GDP growth in the second half of this year."

Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics

"The downward revision to Q1 GDP growth ... clearly leaves an extremely weak platform for growth this year. With the annual rate pulled down from -4.1% to -4.9%, average GDP growth in 2009 now looks likely to be -4% weaker rather than the -3.5% we previously expected.

"Note too that the breakdown is not pretty, with the renewed fall in the household saving ratio down from 4% to 3%, underlining that the adjustment in the household sector has a long way yet to go."

Alan Clarke, UK economist at BNP Paribas

"Obviously the GDP figures are worse than expected – half a percentage point worse.

"We had a reasonably sized output gap before this data came out, and now it is half a percentage point bigger – so there is even more downward pressure on inflation."

0055 Hrs GMT London Friday 1 May 2009: KHOODEELAAR! has been telling you so for 6 years and 4 months.. That the Guardian is a concealer of the truth. That the Guardian twists the facts. Or marginalises that which ought to be the most prominent… As it has exhibited again. In the piece we have reproduced from the Guardian’s web site, by-lined to Simon Jenkins, who as a columnist is not at all comfortable with the Guardian, is reduced to using only 26 words about Crossrail and Boris Johnson. In the remainder of the piece, the Guardian lets Jenkins wallow about the less important things.. That suits the Guardian agenda.. which is to conceal the truth and to continue to allow Crossrail to be given the funding and the important that it does not deserve. Or the funding that London cannot afford… The Gua5adin belongs to the secret cult.. It is that CULT that wants Crossrail. The £Billions of public money.. And Alan Rusbridger is too happy to oblige….It matters not to him how much extra costs the public have to incur for allowing Big business looters to pocket the £Billions that should be given instead to maintain the EXISTING transport infrastructure….[To be continued]

By khoodeelaar

"In Q2 we may well have a positive GDP, but we are not going to be closing the output gap and the deflationary forces are not going to be going away. I think this is good reason for the BoE (Bank of England) to not be anywhere near an exit strategy any time soon."

Philip Shaw, UK economist at Investec

"At first glance the figures do look weaker than expected – and at second glance the broad shape of the economy remains similar.

"Given the pattern of stock shedding, we would still expect a positive effect from the inventory cycle on GDP over the next two or three quarters, but we are certainly starting from a lower base."

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