Just caught up with yesterday's Politics Show, featuring interviews with Ken Livingstone's former economics adviser John Ross and Sir Simon Milton, Mayor Johnson's de facto new chief of staff. Defending Livingstone's record, Ross stressed the disorder of Johnson's first four months and blamed next year's fare rises on the abandonment of the proposed gas guzzler C-charge and the Venezuela oil deal. A good £65 million flushed away there, he says.
Does he have a point? Whatever the size of the sum involved, there's surely an effect on the income stream. Does this partly explain Johnson's apparent enthusiasm for the "third option" on the western extension? John Zamit of residents' group SEBRA told me last week that its obvious attraction for the mayor that it would please locals who've grown to like the scheme and keep the C-charge revenue rolling in too.
Milton, interviewed in Birmingham, denied he'd given Johnson an ultimatum over Tim Parker. "The governance model that had developed was going to be problematic," he observes. Mmm, savour that lawyerly language. The key to it, he adds, was Johnson's deciding to "take more day-to-day decisions himself." What he doesn't say is that Parker pissed a load of people off. (I could name names, you know...)
He also outlined an autumn timetable, saying the youth crime prevention strategy is coming "shortly" followed by an initiative on gangs in November. The housing strategy will be unveiled in the same month, once the necessary government signatures have been obtained. I bumped into Sir Simon a couple of times at the conference yesterday. "So you're in charge now?" I said. "Oh, I wouldn't say that," he replied. The man's a pro.
