Summertime – and City Hall’s emptying out. Tired and grumpy politicians are dispersing for the month of August. The staff heave a sigh of relief as the politicos desert the capital’s government building.
The Scoop – which is a kind of amphitheatre next to the Thames outside City Hall – is staging Shakespeare free for six weeks. The tourists love it, and for those who haven’t visited City Hall – it’s certainly worth taking a trip to London Bridge station (Northern and Jubilee lines) to tour the building.
In fact, the whole area is absolutely bustling and blooming – from Hayes Wharf galleria (an atrium shopping/eating mall) to Tate Modern, the wobbly bridge, the London Dungeon, Tower Bridge and across the bridge – the Tower of London and that glass gherkin gashing the skyline. It all happens on The Queen’s Walk. Mind you when the Queen came to open the building – I don’t think she did walk.
I felt a twinge of guilt when writing “wobbly” to describe the wobbly bridge because, of course, it isn’t too wobbly any more. It is – and will be for many decades, if not longer – a fantastic bridge across the Thames. All the fuss over its initial teething problems now seem hugely overblown to me given how long it will be around for. But the British seem to revel in knocking such adventurous architecture – and not being willing to make that extra effort initially to get things right for the long term. We see the cost of this in the second-rate architecture and ugly quick fix builds that disfigure so much of London.
Some politicians have headed west across the water – those that weren’t invited to Tuscany I guess. I was watching a reporter speaking from the Democrat Convention in America. She gave her report, finishing by saying that as a Brit she could spot a Brit accent in a nano-second and she had heard two English voices at the convention. She then appeared interviewing them – and I realised that they were a young couple I know, both of whom had been involved in the LibDem London election campaign earlier this year.
There seems to be a buzz of expectation that Kerry can do it even with the disadvantage of a charisma bypass. I guess America is waking up to thinking that anything is better than Bush. Rumour has it that the Lib Dems were warmly welcomed at the convention but that the Iraq war advocates of New Labour were not. How things change!
Summer, of course, means silly stories in the press – though I did say no to an invitation to back a new policy of making it mandatory to walk up tube escalators during rush hour to cut congestion and create healthier commuters. It did get me thinking though. Perhaps Ken should introduce a congestion charge for lift users in the City’s skyscrapers – all in the name of encouraging fitness by getting people to walk up stairs you understand …
As for Labour, they would probably like to murder Mandelson for his late decision on the European Commissioner’s post. His apparent dilly dallying, shilly shallying has given the Lib Dems extra time – and judging from our stunning by-election victories in Brent East and Leicester South – the by-election in Hartlepool will be a real opportunity.
But I will leave politics behind for a little while as I too head for my summer break to come back refreshed for the year ahead at the London Assembly.
