PA is reporting that Bob Crow has lost his libel action against Boris:

“The general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) had complained about leaflets produced for Mr Johnson’s campaign for re-election in May. He said they meant that his policies, leadership of the RMT and association with Mr Johnson’s predecessor, Ken Livingstone, seriously damaged Mr Livingstone’s electoral prospects and caused grave harm to Londoners’ interests.

Mr Crow also claimed they meant that he was part of and supported a culture of political immorality involving broken promises, cronyism, scandals and waste. But Mr Justice Tugendhat, at the High Court, ruled today that the words complained of were not capable of being defamatory of the union leader.”

Quite…

Labour are getting worked up over claims made by Political Scrapbook that Boris Johnson had secret dinner  in January 2011 with Rupert Murdoch just two days before the phone hacking investigation was launched. Their City Hall cronies have jumped on the bandwagon, insisting: “this is extremely serious, for the Mayor to not declare a meeting with Rupert Murdoch at the height of the phone-hacking crisis is truly scandalous”. Indeed, it would be scandalous and a great scoop, if it was actually the case. However, rather embarrassingly, a Boris spokesman points to the fact that the information has been on the Mayor’s website for nearly a year. Oh dear…

UPDATE: At the time of going to pixel the Indy are claiming they could not open the link provided to them by City Hall. Seems fine in the Guy Newsroom…

UPDATE II: The Beeb are covering this, but seem to have missed this quote from a Boris spokesman: “Details of the meetings have been published on Mayor’s website for the best part of a year.”

Boris Johnson has let slip, again, that his eye is on a bigger prize. Speaking to NY Mag, the London Mayor said:

“We have to have a new airport. One of the only reasons I want to assume supreme power in England is to make sure that happens“.

He then told his interviewer:

“For God’s sake, don’t quote me saying that“.

Look out for an olive that looks like BoJo…

Via: Guardian Datablog

City Hall have confirmed that Sam Lyons has taken over from Guto Harri as interim chief-of-spin for Boris. Speculation that Guto Harri was off to spin for News International looks set to be proven correct at any moment.  Unofficial News International sources say he has signed and is starting on Monday. Guido spoke to NI officially, who did not handle it too brilliantly:

GF: Can you confirm that Guto is joining you on Monday?
NI: I can’t really say anything about that. But can I put you on the list for it?
GF: What list? So there is an announcement coming?
NI: Errr, I don’t really know to be honest.

You snooze you lose Dave…

As mob unrest continues and the country is on the brink of economic collapse, who should land in Athens?

Boris. Orator and traveled diplomat. Remember his speech to the scousers? He speaks Greek.

What could go wrong?

UPDATE: He has gone to pick up the Olympic torch.

@GuidoFawkes Apparently he's there to pick up some torchy-thing? Can't be the first time Boris has visited Athens in pursuit of an old flame—
James Willby (@JamesWillby) May 16, 2012

The complex London vote on May 3 saw Londoners cast four votes on three ballot papers, each using a different electoral system. IntElect a joint venture between Data Research Services (DRS) and Electoral Reform Services won the contract to do the count. The services company set up by the Electoral Reform Society has been widely criticised for messing up the count taking more than 24 hours to deliver a result. They promised a result within 12 hours…

This is despite the electronic system costing even more to implement than a manual count. The same group messed up the Scotland’s 2007 STV vote. Just imagine how bad it would be if this was done nationally..

Months before Labour selected a candidate for Mayor of London, Guido chatted with a senior City Hall Tory politico, asking him who he really preferred to fight; Oona or Ken? Without hesitating he said “Oona so long as Ken stands as an independent again. If not, Ken”. He got his wish…

That was a real fear for Labour. If Ken wasn’t their candidate, he would still be a candidate. The Labour machine could have selected Oona if it really wanted. It didn’t kick into action against his cynically parasitical organisation. Not because Ken outwitted them, it was because they feared a rogue Ken again, be in no doubt that if the Labour establishment and Labour HQ really wanted they could have stopped Ken being their chosen candidate. Implicit blackmail by Ken when Labour was reeling from losing the general election got him the candidacy.

Labour will spin and blame it on a ruthlessly negative Lynton Crosby campaign, and in many ways it was a classic, however it was only workable because Ken has so many negatives to mine. That type of campaign could not have been run against Oona. She is too fresh, too funky London and too centrist. Labour lost London they day they succumbed to Ken’s blackmail.