I know it’s not exactly fashionable nowadays for a Labour member like myself to welcome with open arms a policy of a Conservative Mayor of London. But I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway. The Barclays Cycle Hire scheme, launching next Friday (July 30th) has the potential to revolutionise the way we get around this great metropolis. How long have we looked on to cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam & Zurich with their fancy bicycles and cycle-friendly policies, while we put up with uncivilised busses & tubes?

That it took Boris Johnson, London’s somewhat entertaining, but according to some a serious thinking, Mayor to bring a London-wide cycle scheme which will be accessible to millions of people, is a shame. That doesn’t mean we should look down our noses on it though.

From next Friday, people all over London will have access to bicycles in many local neighbourhoods across town. I’ve already spotted two of them very close to where I live. For an annual membership of £45, users can take a bicycle from their local “docking station”, cycle to their place of work, a restaurant, the shops or a meeting with friends for up-to half an hour completely free. When you consider the amount of London that can be covered in 30 minutes by bicycle, it’s clear that this scheme has the potential to replace thousands of bus & tube journeys per year, and simultaneously improving the health and well-being of Londoners.

As the London Cycling Campaign points out here:

…cycling reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke and promotes good mental health.

Everybody recognises that London is oftentimes a grumpy, frosty city, home to millions of people in too much of a rush to smile, take a deep breath and enjoy the wonders that wandering through this amazing city can bring. If cycling improves the general demeanour of even a small percentage of our commuting population, it will be a great benefit to us all.

Ken Livingstone and Oona King, who are both running for Labour’s endorsement for 2012’s mayoral election should recognise the benefits that this cycle scheme should bring, regardless of the fact that Boris Johnson brought it into being.

This Londoner for one, can’t wait to give the new scheme a spin.

Let’s look at today’s heckling from the Prime Minister’s point of view shall we?

I’m the Prime Minister of Great Britain, with the nation on a high alert for terrorism and a range of other threats to my personal security and by extension the security of the state. I’m leaving a speaking engagement and being escorted by four or five burly police officers with guns, to my bomb-proof limousine, surrounded by police bikes and support vehicles with other armed police officers. Out of left field I hear a guy shouting, he sounds aggressive and upset. My security officers start urging me to walk faster to the safety of the waiting Jaguar. The aggressive man tries to get closer but the police officers close in so I can get into the car safely, and with all the hussle and bussle I can’t quite make out what the man is shouting about, but it’s definitely something about schools. By this point I have no idea what this man wants and to the police it looks like a security threat and they’ve whisked me into the car and away at speed to my next campaign stop.

This seems completely reasonable to me. How about from Ben Butterworth’s point of view (he was the man shouting aggressively and moving at speed toward the PM outside Centrepoint this afternoon):

I live in a fairly affluent middle class neighbourhood somewhere in South London. I work hard, and so does my wife. I like to think I have the right to send my children to the best possible state schools local to me. I even bought a house in the right area so I could get my kids into the school with the highest social status attached in the area. I’ve heard that nice talking Mr. Cameron on telly and I’m thinking of voting for him, he seems to understand the predicament that I’m in. On the way home from work, I see some commotion in the distance, lots of blue lights and security around the entrance of Centrepoint tower in Tottenham Court Road in London. Oh it looks like the Prime Minister. I’m really irritated about this school situation, why don’t I ask the PM about it. I rush toward him, shouting out my question but he runs into the waiting car and is whisked away. Typical. Politicians say they want to listen but never do.

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Sorry but you don’t just run up to the Prime Minister shouting aggressively in the middle of the street. There’s a reason our political leaders have security around them. There are real threats out there. There’s a reason the PM can’t just go out for a stroll down Oxford Street or to Starbucks for a Frappuccino. I think it was fully appropriate that he was whisked away and didn’t answer the question. There’s a perfect time and place for these things, and I’m sure he would have answered it. After all, Labour has revolutionised the education system and raised standards for ALL children, not just the one in the schools that dinner party guests are impressed that you got your children into.

And let’s get this straight. We live in London – one of the biggest most densely populated cities in the world. I challenge anyone to find a similar city anywhere on Earth where the quality of schools is high across the board. It’s impossible. I have children, and I live in London myself and so I know first hand about compromising with your children’s education.

I hope the media don’t drag this out and try to make this into a “Joe the Plumber” moment. Joe the Plumber famously heckled Barack Obama about small business tax policy and posted it on YouTube. He went on to become a major figure in the Presidential Campaign in 2008, ending up as a metaphor for the hard working middle class. It turned out he was a Republican, and therefore political in his motives when asking Obama what he did. Sure there will be further such events like this during the course of the election, but let’s not be naive enough to think some if not all will be politically motivated.

Looking at Ben Butterworth’s blog (http://benbutterworth.typepad.com/whybother/), I just found that he “actually thinks David Cameron is ok”. Okay, no smoking gun, but through Butterworth’s other posts he’s made it clear how much he dislikes Gordon Brown and the Government and how much he likes some of the Tories’ policies. He also said on Twitter he would vote Labour if Sarah Brown spreads Primula on a certain part of her body (http://twitter.com/benbutterworth). What a knob this man is – but the Murdoch-driven, Tory-loving media don’t mind using him to score a cheap point against the Prime Minister.

Can we have some decorum in our politics, please?!

I was really enjoying my peppermint iced latte at Starbucks earlier today when I almost choked after coming across a pile of leaflets like the one in the picture. Starbucks has always had its “community noticeboard” where local groups can post a leaflet or poster about specific events or issues. But I wasn’t aware that Starbucks was now allowing local political activists to post their propaganda in their stores – and as I said it was just a single leaflet on the noticeboard, but there was a whole pile of them next to the sugar! And no there weren’t any leaflets from other local parties, just a pile of this UKIP Europhobic diatribe, strategically placed to capture the political imagination of Maida Vale’s latte-drinking yuppies…

When I explained to the store manager that this is highly political and could lose them customers, she barely shrugged her shoulders. Unbelievable! I thought Starbucks would have been apolitical during this election, and whilst I admit that they may not have realised the significance of having just one pile of political leaflets (from the far right as well!), I would have expected that they should take a little more care not to come across as supporting a specific party or candidate. I will be complaining to Starbucks, and I should hope that they will present a more level playing field in the future, and not be so obviously biased.

And I should also think that my local MP Karen Buck could benefit from targeting the latte drinking yuppies herself – they’ll be important in keeping Westminster North Labour this year.