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London mayor pushes for
Latin teaching in schools
London, 18 March 2010: The mayor of London Boris Johnson has thrown has his weight behind a campaign to extend the teaching of Latin to all state schools in the UK capital.  Johnson, a Classics scholar, caused a row earlier in the week when he said he wanted to “head-butt” the UK Schools Secretary Ed Balls over his “death-defyingly stupid” remarks that few parents wanted Latin reintroduced to schools.  The mayor is now lobbying the Conservative Party education team to overhaul the school curriculum if it wins the forthcoming general election, in order to find space for classical languages such as Latin.
 
The mayor is a noted enthusiast of the Classics and Roman history, presenting a number of television programmes on the subject and even introducing Greco-Roman names to some mayoral programmes such as his youth violence agenda Dedalus.  The mayor told a City Hall meeting on the subject that Latin provision in state schools had dropped to just 33 per cent offering it as an after school lesson.  The Labour government has long regarded the teaching of Latin, both at school and university, as a “dead language”.
 
The meeting coincided however with a motion passed by the London Assembly, slating the mayor’s lack of progress in meeting many of his manifesto commitments made during the last election.  One London MP remarked: “Perhaps if Boris Johnson cared as much the pressing needs of London as he does about Latin there would be lower bus fares, no cuts to police numbers, no cuts to tube ticket office staff and a much smaller list of broken manifesto commitments,”

Amsterdam mayor joins
race for prime minister
Amsterdam, 14 March 2010: Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen has become the new leader of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA). Former leader, Wouter Bos resigned after the collapse of the coalition government over the continued Dutch military presence in Afghanistan. Job Cohen, who was runner up in the 2006 World Mayor contest, has won national and international praise for his efforts to integrate Muslims into Dutch society. “Our country must not become divided along ethnic, cultural and religious lines,” he said.

But his policies have been denounced by the right-wing anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders. Wilders criticised the mayor as being soft on crime and immigration. “Cohen likes drinking tea and cuddling as a way of easing religious and ethnic tensions instead of tackling the problems,” Wilders warned.

While recent opinion polls suggest the Freedom Party may become one of the two largest parties in the Dutch parliament, its leader is not a popular contender for prime minister. Job Cohen is the people's favourite choice, according to two opinion polls carried out shortly after he announced his candidacy for Labour party leader.

Asked if they would prefer Job Cohen, the caretaker conservative prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende or Geert Wilders for the premiership, 52 per cent of people in a poll for EenVandaag picked the Amsterdam mayor. Balkenende picked up 17 per cent of the vote with Wilders on 15 per cent. In a second poll by Maurice de Hond, Cohen scored 55 per cent, Balkenende 25 per cent and Wilders 15 per cent.

UK government unveils
plan B to cut congestion
London, 11 March 2010: The UK government has abandoned plans for congestion charging in cities outside of London, while calling on city leaders to do more to improve mobility and lower emissions.  A new Urban Challenge Fund of the Department for Transport will replace the largely unspent £2bn Transport Innovation Fund, which struggled to find cities willing to introduce road pricing schemes in exchange for cash to fund new local transit projects.  Referendums in Manchester and Cambridge both saw proposed congestion charging schemes defeated amid massive public hostility.

Cities will only be eligible to receive money from the fund if they can show their plans will improve journey choice, tackle congestion, improve safety; lower carbon emissions; and promote healthier lifestyles through better air quality and more walking and cycling.  The government report The Future of Urban Transport, as reported by City Mayors, published in November last year identified that initiatives geared to tackling simultaneously the various transport challenges faced by urban areas would better support economic growth and deliver improvements to health and the urban environment.

UK Transport Minister Sadiq Khan said: “The Urban Challenge Fund is designed to support cities that want to deliver economic, health and environmental improvements at the same time, and are prepared to take the bold decisions needed to make that happen.  This new fund will help to create a cleaner, safer and more prosperous future for generations to come.” Khan also told the UK Parliament when announcing the new fund that the previous strategy for enhanced and low carbon city transport had failed because it had “too narrow a focus on the issue of congestion, the failure to win public acceptance for the more challenging proposals and inability to transform governance at the same time as delivering radical change.”

London prostitutes
fear for their safety
London, 10 March 2010: London mayor Boris Johnson has urged residents to play their part in tackling the capital’s vice trade by pressuring shops who advertise the services of massage parlours.  Outlining his strategy to tackle violence against women at an event to mark International Women’s Day, the mayor suggested that a “climate of tolerance” existed which allowed organised crime to flourish.  Sex workers however criticised the mayor’s suggestion as “outrageous” as it could force women out of safe premises and onto the streets.
 
Detailing his strategy, which also includes increased rape crisis provision, the mayor said: “People do not understand the deep and intimate connection between a little card in a newsagent's front window and organised crime in London.” He also argued that better use of existing laws against brothels and publicity campaigns could reduce demand for prostitution in the capital.  However, the English Collective of Prostitutes, which campaigns on behalf of sex workers and for more workable laws on prostitution, accused the major of hijacking International Women’s Day to attack its members and jeopardise their safety.
 
Under Boris Johnson the Metropolitan Police Authority has stepped up its activities against the vice trade in London, including the removal of telephone box card advertising for prostitutes and action against phone companies allowing lines for such activities.  However, critics of the mayor’s plan claim that the public risk their own safety in confronting those who advertise the vice trade.  Women’s groups have also called for more to be done against the trafficking of women into the capital from overseas, amid speculation that the Met police’s anti-trafficking unit is to close due to budget cuts.

Glasgow leader’s sudden
resignation raises eyebrows
Glasgow, 6 March 2010: Steven Purcell resigned unexpectedly as Leader of Glasgow City Council on 2 March. He has now also given up his seat on the council and has reportedly left Scotland. Purcell is understood to have become ill with stress and to be suffering from exhaustion. In an unusual move, he engaged a law firm and a PR agency to issue statements on his behalf rather than using Council officials.

According to sources speaking to the Herald newspaper, the lawyers acting for Mr Purcell have warned council officials they may face legal action if they speak about the circumstances of Steven Purcell’s departure. In a statement they confirmed he will continue as a councillor and hopes to resume his political career once he has recovered his health.

Following his resignation, which he made by phone to the Council, Mr Purcell spent two nights in the Castle Craig Hospital in the Scottish Borders. The hospital describes itself as a leading rehabilitation clinic.

The BBC reported on its website that a council statement saying Mr Purcell resigned because of a “chemical dependency” was withdrawn. The BBC added that his spokesman said claims of a chemical dependency were without foundation, which has now been confirmed in a letter form the hopital.

Steven Purcell has been considered a major success in the last five years. His most high profile achievement was leading the campaign to secure the 2014 Commonwealth Games for Glasgow. Purcell was one of the youngest leaders of a major city when he took the helm in Glasgow in May 2005 at the age of 32.

Although from a different political party, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond paid high tribute to Mr Purcell. He said that “we had a fantastic professional relationship in getting the games for Glasgow and Scotland”

Steven Purcell has been a member of the Labour Party for over 20 years and was first elected to Glasgow City Council in 1995. In the two years before he became Leader he held the high profile Education portfolio in the city council. During his time as Leader he has made education, social care and tackling the causes of poverty the highest priorities of the council.

Yesterday in a separate development, a close friend of Purcell collapsed and died inside Glasgow City Hall

European cities sign up to
migrant integration charter
London, 22 February 2010: Mayors from some of Europe’s most important cities met in London today to discuss immigration. At the conference, organised by Eurocities, delegates will sign a charter setting out their vision on migrant integration. A spokesman said by the charter cities commit themselves to strengthen their efforts in ensuring equal opportunities and non-discrimination for migrants.

Conference host, London Mayor Boris Johnson, said London was a city shaped and enriched by the people who have come here from all corners of the globe. “Our history is not only English, but is also the history of the Italians, French, Scandinavians, Jews, Jamaicans, Irish, Asians and countless more, he added.

European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, wrote in a message sent to the conference participants that integration was a responsibility to be shared between immigrants and host societies, as well as between different levels of governance. “The European Commission supports local governance initiatives because it is at local level that stakeholders develop contacts and forge relationships,” she explained.

Britain’s city centres
hit by retail stagnation
London, 16 February 2010: Britain’s retail property market remains in stagnation in many city centres, according to a new report. Research by the Local Data Company has found that the seaside town of Margate in Kent has more than a quarter of its shops vacant, with 27 per cent boarded up in the English blackspot. The Midlands city of Wolverhampton, near Birmingham, has almost one in four retail units standing empty at 23 per cent. The North and Midlands were hardest hit, it said.  Several councils affected by the report disputed its figures.
 
The data firm’s study of more than 700 areas of England and Wales found that shop vacancies have effectively doubled since the end of 2008. However, the report also found that the rate of vacancies was easing: “Although the numbers continue to increase, the rate of that increase is slowing down, giving rise to some optimism that, at the end of 2009, the worst was behind the high street,”
 
British Property Federation chief Liz Peace said: “The fact of the matter is that Brits now do a lot more shopping over the web, so we're seeing a fundamental reshaping of high streets. The next government will need to balance cuts in spending with ideas for reinvigorating regions that have suffered from years of underinvestment.” The New Economics Foundation, which has criticised British towns and cities for allowing ‘clone’ chains to dominate their high streets, argued that divestment was a result of short-termism by global companies with no direct interest in local communities.

Rome mayor calls closure
of Roma camp a success
Rome, 3 February 2010: With the evacuation of Rome’s most famous Roma camp, Casilina 900, almost complete, bulldozers have moved in to demolish caravans and makeshift homes. While the living conditions in the camp were primitive, some residents would have preferred to stay. A woman, who has lived in Casilino 900 for 35 years, said her ten children grew up in the camp, got married and she has 62 grandchildren. “They all have their homes in the camp. My grandchildren live here as well and what they are doing is not right. It's not right that they are creating problems among us," she said.

However, Rome’s right-wing mayor, Gianni Alemanno, said the camp had to closed because it was on an illegal area. "These camps must be in authorized areas where it is easier to guarantee better life and health conditions and ensure that people can live properly,” he added.

Alemanno called the transfer a success and a very important day for the Italian capital and the nomadic community. He said authorities wanted all illegal and tolerated Roma camps to disappear by the end of the year and in a few years all the others must no longer exist as well.

He added that such camps must become only a temporary thing. It's no longer possible to have the shameful situation of camps without running water and filled with garbage. These people must be given a document that gives them rights and they must be assisted to find work.

The Casilino 900 camp is one of the largest in Europe for Roma. It has existed for 40 years. Many of the Roma here say they are concerned about being moved elsewhere because they don't want to end up with other ethnic groups. Human rights organizations fear the real reason behind the transfer is to identify and expel them.

An estimated seven to nine million Roma live in Europe. They are a minority that has changed significantly over the years. In the past they were a nomadic population that moved frequently. But in time they have stopped travelling. In Eastern countries they have become part of the population and urbanized the cities. Human rights organisations fear the real reason behind the transfer is to identify and expel them. (Report by VoA News)

Moscow’s Mayor calls
Gay Pride a satanic act
Moscow, 27 January 2010: Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov has called gay pride marches satanic acts, saying he would not tolerate them being taking place in the Russian capital. "For several years, Moscow has experienced unprecedented pressure to conduct a gay pride parade, which cannot be called anything but a satanic act. The city has prevented such a parade and we will not allow it in the future. Everyone needs to accept that as a maxim," the mayor declared.

In past statements Mayor Luzhkov Luzhkov compared homosexuality to “social plagues" like drug abuse and xenophobia, saying it was high time to crack down on them with all the power and justice of the law instead of talking about human rights.

Russian gay rights campaigners called the mayor’s outburst disgraceful but expressed little surprise. “The mayor must be the most homophobic city leader of any large city in the world,” Nikolai Alexeyev, parade organiser, said. He also stressed that preparation for the parade, scheduled for 29 May, would continue.

Last year's parade coincided with the 'Eurovision' song contest and ended with arrests after marchers defied the ban and clashed with police. Alexeyev is optimistic that the European Court on Human Rights will force Russia to allow this year's parade in Moscow. A verdict is expected soon.

Members of Russia’s gay community are also hoping that mayors from other world cities will put pressure on Moscow’s mayor to soften his stance. “How can openly gay mayors like Klaus Wowereit (Berlin) or Bertrand Delanoe (Paris) shake this man’s hand,” they ask.

Doncaster council to face
government investigation
London, 27 January 2010: Doncaster council in England has been plunged into a new crisis following a central governent decision to subject the council to a probe into the running of its services. Doncaster’s elected mayor Peter Davies is also now embroiled in a row over the appointment of a new chief executive for the council. Potentially the council could see some of its services taken over by central government if inspectors recommend such action. The troubled council has also featured prominently in the nation’s press in recent weeks on account of a high profile court case involving serious torture of two brothers by other children.
 
The decision by the government’s Audit Commission follows widespread concerns over poor performance at the council, as well as its recent failures in child protection, both in terms of its record as having an unusually high number of child deaths and the more recent Edlington case. The Edlington case shocked Britain last week when two 11 and 12 year brothers were given indeterminate sentences for the torture of two younger boys in the former mining community last April. The council offered an “unqualified apology” for its failures, as the perpetrators were in council care at the time.
 
A further row has broken out after the council voted to install an interim chief executive following the previous chief executive’s resignation during the court case.  Councillors voted 38-15 to appoint the council’s legal director Tim Leader to the post, against the wishes of the mayor Peter Davies (English Democrats), who preferred the council’s deputy director for children’s services. The council will now hold a further meeting to determine the appointment.  As well as the longstanding issue of council corruption and poor performance in children’s services, the authority has been plagued by senior level departures in previous years. In 2007 the council’s Australian-born chief Susan Law, headhunted from Cape Town, quit with a £120,000 pay off after a row with the then Labour mayor Martin Winter, having reported him to police for alleged corruption.
 
UK Communities Secretary John Denham said in response to the announcement: “I promise the people of Doncaster that we are prepared to use the powers we have to tackle any issues identified by the Audit Commission which require government action.” Under local government law, a corporate governance inspection is one sanction the Audit Commission can apply to any council giving concern and the government has reserve powers to strip the council of its responsibilities and award these to either another local authority or the private sector. LGA deputy chairman Richard Kemp added that outside intervention was regrettable but necessary: “Doncaster has been a basket case for local democracy for more than a decade,”

Mediterranean cities
agree co-operation
Marseille, 27 January 2010: A new Euro-Mediterranean partnership of mayors has formed to promote greater co-operation across a number of themes, transcending traditional diplomacy in the region. The establishment of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM) at a meeting in Barcelona is hoped to bring about regular inter-municipal dialogue on immigration, climate change and urban development among the partner countries. Organisers stress that closeness to citizens, efficiency in project management and tackling real life issues will be its priorities.
 
Addressing the meeting, Committee of the Regions president Luc Van den Brande said: “The aim of ARLEM is to activate the regional and local representatives of the three shores of the Mediterranean so that they launch common decentralised cooperation projects of, share best practices, foster mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue and develop new creative twinning,”
 
The Barcelona Declaration of 1995 called for greater co-operation between municipalities in the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, a point acknowledged by mayor Jordi Hereu: “Barcelona's vocation to be the capital of this Euro-Mediterranean area means that we support any initiative to strengthen political relations within the Euro-Mediterranean region. It has been obvious from the beginning that the Mediterranean Union is not only a matter for states. Regions, cities, and civil society are necessary in the process of creating this Union.”
 
Participation is not solely limited to around the three shores of the Mediterranean, as Stuttgart mayor Wolfgang Schuster noted: “In Stuttgart we have about 100,000 people who hail originally from the Mediterranean region. This is why I feel that I am also the mayor of a Mediterranean city, and I am very glad to say that our culture in central Europe has been very much influenced by the cultural heritage of the Mediterranean region.”
 
From outside of the European Union, Israel’s cities are also included: “The city of Haifa, which is the third biggest city in Israel, is a living example of the possibility of coexistence in the Middle East,” said its mayor Yona Yahav.  He added “A prosperous port city and a vibrant cultural hub, Haifa brings together Jews and Arabs and makes room for religious diversity.”

Urban Britain or a
tale of two nations
London, 19 January 2010: Urban Britain is increasingly becoming a tale of two nations with cities in South East England much more likely to emerge strongly from the recession than urban communities in the North of the country. A new report foresees that in addition to the “big hitters” London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, Brighton, Milton Keynes, Reading, Cambridge – all in the South East - as well as the Scottish capital Edinburgh have the right ingredients to succeed after the recession has passed.

Cities Outlook 2010, published by the independent think tank Centre for Cities, predicts that, as the UK moves out of recession, it will face an uneven recovery.  “Already-robust city economies like Brighton are more likely to grow stronger, leaving others like Doncaster further behind,” the report says. Brighton has added the highest number of private sector jobs over the past decade - an extra 20,000 jobs. Over a third of its workforce is graduate-level - and one in five of its jobs are part of the knowledge economy.

Other cities, such as Stoke, Burnley, Barnsley, Newport and Doncaster, with their weaker business base, have a much tougher outlook.  These cities all lost private sector jobs over the pre-recession decade.  Their rate of business start-ups is low and many of their residents have no qualifications.

The report also says that although the City of London was in some ways the epicentre of the recession, the UK capital had, so far, not suffered as much as other parts of the country. The authors attributed this to London's position as a city where the focus was "global business" and the "disproportionate effect" of the downturn on the manufacturing and traded industries.

UK Labour Party accused of
dirty tricks over referendum
London, 11 January 2010: Britain’s Labour Party has been accused of dirty tricks ahead of a vote to decide on the introduction of an elected mayor system in a London council. In spite of local Labour councillors in Tower Hamlets council supporting the introduction of a new mayor system, national party bosses have ordered them to campaign against the idea in any referendum in case the post is won by a hostile political party. The referendum was triggered on account of a petition lodged with the council by anti-war campaigner George Galloway of the Respect Party and will be held in May.
 
Local councils in England are currently consulting, under the 2007 Local Government Act, on their future forms of governance, which gives the supporters of elected mayors a rare window to push for referendums to be held locally. While the proposal in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets was pushed by the opposition Respect party, the controlling Labour councillors were said to favour it also. However, the Labour Party’s national officials have instructed its councillors, who could face expulsion if disobeying, to campaign against the proposal in case Respect are successful in winning any mayor’s election. In the 2006 local elections Respect came close to pushing the long dominant Labour Party into second place but a series of fall-outs and defections to Labour have seen the party’s numbers dwindle significantly in the town hall.
 
Following a successful petition campaign by Galloway and his supporters, the council has voted for a referendum on the introduction of an elected mayor system for Tower Hamlets to take place on the same day as its council elections on May 6. If passed a new election for an executive mayor would be held later in the year. Currently there are three elected borough mayors in London (other than the Mayor of London Boris Johnson) among the 33 local authorities, two of which are in neighbouring Hackney and Newham.
 
Respect was formed as a distinctly anti-war party in 2004 by expelled Labour parliamentarian George Galloway, the far left Socialist Workers’ Party and the Muslim Association of Britain. Its only significant successes have been in Tower Hamlets, where Galloway beat the Labour MP at the 2005 general election, and in the 2006 local elections. The move by Galloway’s party is all the more unusual owing to the fact that Britain’s far left generally opposes the ‘Blairite’ idea of elected mayors on ideological grounds. One local Labour source told CityMayors that Galloway was known to be attracted to the idea on account of the post’s significant salary and staff. Galloway will contest this year’s general election for another London seat but is not anticipated to win.