Mayor Johnson held his third statutory People's Question Time on Monday night along with the massed ranks of assmbly members. I wasn't there, but Tory group leader Roger Evans was:
The venue was the O2 Academy in Brixton, more often the scene of concerts and sell out music performances. The room was so large that it was difficult to see people at the back and the acoustics on stage were truly awful. We were reduced to lip reading colleagues on the large screen as we certainly couldn't hear what they were saying.
None of this prevented Roger compiling a full and only a teasingly tiny bit partisan report. The Standard's Paul Waugh took a close interest too. He picked up an off-message moment:
After ruffling a few feathers at Tory conference over the EU referendum, [Boris] has now hit out at Shadow Home Sec Chris Grayling over The Wire. The Mayor said that it was "absolute nonsense" to compare London to Baltimore as portrayed by the cult US TV series.
"Someone the other day compared London with Baltimore, absolute nonsense. You know, this programme, The Wire in Baltimore. There are 35 murders per 100,000 in Baltimore, there are approximately three murders per 100,000 in London. It is far, far more dangerous in Baltimore than it is in London, especially for gun crime."
Boris, who spoke at a public meeting last night, also declared that a sharp rise in gun figures in the capital was largely down to youngsters pretending they had a weapon. He also insisted that the number of killings was also well down.
But Paul goes on to show that while things may be nothing like as bad here as in Baltimore, some at the Yard detect worrying trends in that direction. Read his full post.
