Bow Road Underground Station Sign - CC / Flickr

I loose track who I’ve told and who has just heard earlier stages of the plan… so here’s an explanation about my imminent move to London.

Essentially for the last 6 months I have been wondering whether to move. After 3 years based predominantly in Brussels I felt it was time for something new, or at least a different challenge. Despite the appeal of Berlin I’ve opted to move back to London. The reasons for this are essentially professional – the scale of the web projects I am managing for clients in London gets larger and larger, and the clients more and more high profile – Diane Abbott and Ken Livingstone for example. I’m doing all of that while not being in London more than a couple of days a month… so what can I do if I’m there all the time? Plus the cost of regular Eurostar trips is mounting.

I’ve now found a flat for my move to London – in Bow in East London, between Victoria Park and Bow Road tube station. For the political nerds that’s Bethnal Green & Bow constituency, represented by Rushanara Ali MP (who happens to be one of my web clients). I get the keys to the place on 20th August and will shift my stuff to London on 12th September. Between now and then I’ll mostly be in Brussels, with a couple of short trips to visit friends in Stockholm and family in France.

So that’s the plan. Where’s the next interesting web campaign?

London - CC / Flickr

I’ve known for a while that I needed to move away from Brussels. I even tried to crowdsource some answers about where to move. But now my mind is made up – London it will be, from sometime later this year. I don’t know quite when yet, and I equally don’t know where I’m going to be living there, but the decision is taken.

Why?

It’s all to do with work. Were it about Parc Duden, St Gilles and Tripel Kameliet I would stick with Brussels. But the problem is that I have basically no work in Belgium, and hence spend very, very little time there. Eurostar commuting and living out of a suitcase are only things a person can do for so long…

I see little prospect of the work situation improving in Brussels – the communications environment is inherently inward looking, and the client base for small, edgy web campaigns is minimal. The number of MEPs wanting to make interesting use of the net is equally limited.

London by contrast offers a wealth of opportunities. I’ve just launched a new website for Ken Livingstone who hopes to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London in 2012. That builds on the 12 websites I designed for candidates in the UK election. And I’ve managed all of that while not actually being there much! What can I do when I have the opportunity to meet people, build networks, and attend all the interesting events about internet politics that take place in London?

So the planning for London has already started and it will stretch through the summer, culminating with a van full of my stuff on a ferry from Ostend. As an EU nerd there will always be a pull towards Brussels – this is already my second stint – but it’s time for a change.

This was essentially the sentiment behind Boris Johnson’s promise to get a new Routemaster bus onto London’s roads by 2011 2012, replacing the bendy buses he made such a fuss about. It’s time to restore a London icon was the refrain, and the original design proposals that I previously blogged about did at least look a bit like the bus of old.

But shock of shocks: the realisation that no manufacturer makes a front engined bus chassis, that an open back would require a conductor at all times, and that hydrogen power is not yet adequately advanced means that the plans have been changed quite a bit, culminating in the unveiling of the final design a few days ago – as shown in this Youtube film:

More from the Mayor’s website here.

The engine has now been moved to the back, the characteristic bonnet has been removed and the only two aspects of the traditional Routemaster – the curved rear and back entrance – remain. Only the back does not even have to be open all the time.

Interestingly the bus actually has 3 doors and 2 staircases – a welcome innovation… But where else in the world are there double-deckers like that? In Berlin of course – the MAN Lion’s City DD… This irony has of course not been noticed by ‘design critic’ Stephen Bayley who is quoted thus in a sycophantic and ill-researched BBC article about the new bus:

It proves the old rule that if you want things to stay the same, they have to change. And it was designed for London, unlike the hated and insulting bendy-bus, which was designed for Berlin

No Stephen. This bus has not been designed with London in mind. It’s a standard chassis, probably built in Sweden, with a slightly amended body on top of it and some odd bit of 1950s history bolted onto the back, making the bus work more like a Berlin double decker than a London one. It’s a horrible mess, designed with the heart rather than the head. And who’s to say it will even be on the roads by 2012?

Map - CC / Flickr

This is not a post about election systems. It is a post about the pattern of election results in the UK general election on 6th May 2010. The thinking here is still rather vague, but I think there’s something to it.

The best that UK political commentators ever seem to do is talk about national swings and, if you’re lucky, get in some passing reference to Wales and Scotland. I reckon the 2010 election makes a mockery of that, and that the UK should be viewed as 6 regions instead. Numbers 1-3 are the most important developments.

1. The Midlands and The North – typified by enduring support for Labour, even in areas where the demography would indicate that the Conservatives would have greater chances. Sporadic breakthroughs for the Liberal Democrats, but not in fights against the Conservatives.
2. Anywhere within 75 miles of London, but not London itself - typified by very strong results for the Conservatives, cleaning up in suburban towns in the commuter belt. Labour persists only in pockets of former working town poverty.
3. London – more leftist and tolerant than the rest of England, yet an electorate showing an increasing degree of sophistication to return parties of a different colour to Westminster than were voted to the borough councils. Lib Dems struggle, and in poor areas Labour strengthen. Some minor Conservative gains in richer areas.
4. Northern Ireland - most clearly on its own. All the parties are different from the rest of the UK.
5. Scotland – the SNP minority administration, and four-party competition give it a genuinely unique flavour, typified this time by the Labour vote holding up rather well, the SNP doing much less well than for elections to the Scottish Parliament, the Lib Dems steady, and the Conservatives failing to make any headway.
6. Wales – parallels with Scotland work only as far as they concern the Nationalists. Labour suffered losses to the Conservatives to a greater extent than in Scotland, and Lib Dems failed to make breakthroughs.

Considering that England is the home of more than 80% of the UK electorate I think we need to be a little more nuanced in how we analyze what’s going on there – and the recent election shows these differing tendencies very clearly.

Get a second breakfast from passenger in next seat who’s not eating theirs, but she wants to know how to get to Esher from Heathrow. I know, sort of. London’s grey. Grey. Very rainy. Heathrow transit bus at T3 ‘The journey will take approximately 7 minutes to Terminals 1 and 2. Security is our top priorrrriiii…..’ Groan. Security checks again on the same bags checked in MTL – who put explosive in there in between? Surprise, surprise there was none.

Loads of people on a pilgrimage tour queuing to transfer, sadly don’t have an atheist bus t-shirt handy. Good coffee, strong. Try to work a bit, 3G works well for the first time in ages. MP3 player keeps out the hubbub. Help an Israeli to get an internet connection, and talk to a Canadian about the Sunderland Metric Martyr and plugs. Seriously. Online check in for evening flight.

Gate for Brussels is at the end of the world. Guy Verhofstadt is in the same plane. New glasses a big improvement. Plane tiny, 2+1, Embraer, dwarfed by the jumbo jets and new A380s parked up at LHR. Tech fault with our plane, then delay, plane sounds like its about the fall apart as it accelerates on the runway.  Why do BMI staff have such idiotic hats? And what’s with giving all passengers the Daily Mail?

Try to sleep. Perhaps 20 mins. Fail. Bags fast at Bruxelles, grey. Bus driver a maniac, home in 20 minutes. Unpack. Feel very grimy. Print tonnes of stuff for the work I’m to do in Stockholm. Wish I spoke better Swedish, and wish I had more time. Why do people vote Piratpartiet? Photocopy loads of stuff, almost get blown off bike on way home. Turns out some trees did blow down in Antwerp.

No proper food. More coffee. Iron. Pack. Shower, ahhh. Better. Knackered still. Run to Schuman, bus back to the airport, evening sun brightens mood. Security really lazy and slow, rest OK. About to board today’s third flight, Boeing 737 this time, all Star Alliance. Are any flights out of Brussels not code share or Star Alliance? Let there be a comfortable seat to rest my tired shoulders.

What a load of complete and utter rubbish. The very existence of the G20 is a post-modern construction, logos and all, a vague effort to widen the appeal of the G78 with the realisation that there are more than 8 major economic players in the world. All the leaders flock to London, press crews in tow, security everywhere, riots to make it look like all of this actually matters, even Jamie Oliver to do the cooking.

The meeting is too large to be effective and 6 months from now there’s no means to ensure that anything agreed was actually implemented – there’s no legal sanction for non-implementation, and no government is going to survive or fall on the basis of its negotiation stance at the G20. The meeting will essentially be forgotten.

The G20 is hence the ultimate postmodern fudge – ideal for the 24 hour news environment that favours the personal story over the substance, ideal for the ego-driven leaders that like the limelight, but a waste of time when it comes to results and actually changing the world.

[UPDATE 5.4.09]
Peter Oborne, one of those tough, probing journalists that really gets under the skin of politicians looks at the numbers in more detail. I think the overall direction of his piece is about right.

Oh no. How wrong could I be. I have today arrived home to a terse ‘Reminder Notice’ (pictured) from Southwark telling me that my Council Tax is in arrears. How can it be in arrears? They have not even sent me a bill! Presumably there could be some valid reason for a wrong payment, but of course there’s not a word of explanation. They also helpfully add the line on the notice: ‘If payment is not made within seven days you will lose your right to pay by instalments’.

So if financial reasons (rather than their sheer incompetence) were the issue, they would aim to punish me twice. Great. Maybe time our Lib Dem-Tory administration did something about this? Fat chance.

[UPDATE - 4.5.07]
I called the Southwark Council Tax call centre, and they helpfully informed me that no direct debit had yet been setup, and that all that would have happened previously would have been solved if I had filled in a form – not sure that ever arrived. I asked if I could set up the Direct Debit on the phone and I was told no, you have to clear your payments first – on the premium rate automatic payment line of course – and then call back a week later to establish the Direct Debit, if the one-off payment has worked out. What a mess! Are they setting out to make it hard and complicated to pay?

So last week – more than 2 months on – I started to think this was quite ludicrous, and called their payment centre based in Bromley. My call was held in a queue for a while, and then someone answered telling me that there was high demand and if I left my details, someone would call me later. I’ve been waiting more than 2 days and there has been no call.

After no luck with the previous call, I tried once more. This time I was told to e-mail the company that collects the Council Tax for Southwark – Soucounciltaxuk {at} Liberata(.)com. I sent them a simple e-mail, and received an automated reply:

Thank you for your email, this is an automatic response. Due to the popularity of this service we are not able to deal with your enquiry immediately. A response will be issued as quickly as possible within the next ten working days. Thank you for using this service.

So you can’t get them to answer letters, they don’t take your details on the phone, and then they reckon it will take 10 days to reply to an e-mail.

Now, how hard should I have to try? I’m just waiting for one of those automated bailiff letters to drop through the letter box one of these days, accusing me of not having paid, when surely I should not have to go after them to get them to bill me?

[UPDATE - turns out that was what happened - they sent me a nasty letter demanding payment!]