Congratulations to Boris Johnson for successfully overcoming the incumbent Ken Livingstone by 139,772 votes. Boris polled 53% (1,168,738 votes) to Ken’s 47% (1,028,966) of 1^st and 2^nd preference votes.

Boris has been likened to Marmite. You either love him, or hate him. You either see him as a highly intelligent, capable man; or you see him as a bumbling buffoon who makes more gaffes than Gordon Brown. I personally believe him to be the former, and as such admire him greatly. People have always made grand comments such as “Boris for PM”, and “I would vote for the Conservatives if Boris was leading them”. This is now so much closer to being a reality than ever before.

How has this come about then? Boris has been known for years mainly because of appearance on Have I Got News For You (HIGNFY), as well as for the repercussions of many statements made in his articles. Liverpool and piccaninnies ring a bell? But I believe it is his ambition that has driven him on. He gave up his position as editor of The Spectator to take his place on the Shadow Cabinet. This shows the direction he wanted to take his career.

He set about the task of running for Mayor with a seriousness that took a lot of people by surprise; implementing policy idea after policy idea. Now that he is in office he needs to establish himself and consolidate himself in the minds of Londoners as a serious heavyweight in both Local, National and International politics. I have no doubt that he will do this with the animated enthusiasm that he always shows.

Where better an institution to take a group of budding politicians, than the centre of British democracy that are the Houses of Parliament? On February the 13th a dozen members of Bath Conservative Future made the trip to London accompanied by Bath’s next MP (well, we are optimistic) Fabian Richter, to be treated to a guided tour of the Commons and the Lords by former MP and chief whip of the Lords, Lord Cope of Berkeley.

Standing at the dispatch box where David Cameron regularly humiliates Gordon Brown at PMQs, and admiring the ostentatious chair that is host to the Prime Minister’s saviour, Mr Speaker, was a true privilege that shall stay in our memories for some time. Such a building so steeped in tradition and placarded with British military success on the walls and ceilings serves to stir up national pride in even the most liberal of Britons.

Following our guided tour, in typical Bath CF fashion, the society enjoyed a hearty meal and one or three of alcoholic beverages whilst discussing politics, sport, and how much one appreciates Bath after spending the day in the Capital. Slightly ironic was the pub we choose to dine at, the Red Lion in Westminster happened to be the location for the foundation of ‘New’ Labour.

A thoroughly enjoyable trip that was enjoyed by all was the consensus on the journey home, as we eagerly await visits from Liam Fox, and hopefully Boris Johnson and William Hague in the forthcoming few months.

Everybody must have heard about the tube strike in London, affecting millions of commuters, tourists and visitors alike. While the strike itself was unjustified, it has the merit of putting the light on one of Gordon Brown greatest failures, the Public Private Partnership for London Underground. For Labour politicians, PPP must look like the best of both worlds and there undoubtedly something deeply linked, to the infamous ‘third way’ in the idea of public and private finance working together.

As usual the facts are not to the advantage of the Labour Party, since Metronet as gone bankrupt it is fair to assume that the PPP is on the whole a failure. Separating train and track is not working on the railways and, there is no reason why it should be working on the Underground. In fact separation is even worse in the case of London Underground, mainly due to the fact that there is only one type of traffic using the track, as opposed to several on the railways. If one look at the history of the tube and also at other metro systems in the world, separation was never attempted and systems were and are integrated, may it be under a public or a private company.

Since Metronet is now bankrupt, Transport for London should take over instead its responsibilities, instead of paying administration fees and even for drawing another contract with a new provider. The contract with the other provider Tube Lines, could then be ended one their approbatory period ends in 2010, thence bringing back all maintenance and renewal works under the aegis of London Underground ltd, subsidiary of TfL. Heavy works like signalling renewals and new trains would be put to tender, and offered to the most competitive bidder.

I would even go further, and say that the opportunity should be used to completely revamp the existing structure of London’s transport. If projects like Crossrail or new tubes line are to be build, a healthy and well working structure will be needed, far from the bureaucracy which comes with PPP contracts. Several options are possible. The first one being the creation of a Transport for London plc, this would entail a complete reintegration of the buses and train operations into a single structure; economies of scale would follow and, opening up the capital of the company to private investors could allow billions of pounds in private money to be injected into the system. The second option would be as outlined before, for several subsidiaries to exist, London Underground ltd being one, as an eventual London Rail ltd, taking over the operation of Crossrail and Overground lines.

So far it seems that Labour transport policy is a complete failure since 1997, it is however not too late to end the current lunacy based on bureaucracy, lengthily contracts and micromanagement. This is providing of course that pragmatism triumph over ideology.

I see that Chris has already beaten me to writing about the Tory Reform Group event in London. It was a really good event and a good opportunity to meet other CF students and MPs. Our hosts, Ken Clarke MP and Ian Taylor MP were extremely pleasant. Mr Clarke’s speech tended towards the current troubles of the home office with regards to prisons. What he didn’t expand was how the Conservatives would run it differently. All in all it was a very enjoyable experience and has given me a very different experience of London.

Last night I and four other members of Conservative Future in Bath travelled up to London in the car to attend the Tory Reform Group’s annual parliamentary social event. Conservative MP and former Chancellor Ken Clarke hosted the event and gave a very good speech on the failings of this Labour government and how a Conservative government would go about being different.

Former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan-Smith also made a brief appearance and was immediately swamped by most students in attendance. Other dignitaries and self-proclaimed important persons gracing us with their presence included John Bercow MP, Lord Hunt, and Shadow immigration minister Damien Green MP.

Around ninety Conservative Future members from all over the country attended the event. Looking around the Jubilee Room in the House of Commons (which I had expected to be larger seeing as we had to squeeze in ninety plus people,) I did recognised a few faces included Richard Jackson from University College London, Fiona Montgomerie and Christian May from Exeter University, and Arleen Ouzounian from Kings College London and 18 Doughty Street. We also spoke to the Chairman of the Tory Reform Group, Tim Barnes who kindly said that he will help in getting CF events going in the South West and Bath area. We did also manage to take a few photographs which can be found here.

After the main event and speaking had finished, most people headed to the Red Lion just off Parliament Square for a drink (those of us not driving anyway,) and then later we went for a very good curry in Brick Lane. I think that Fiona and Christian chose the smart, if slightly more expensive option by staying overnight in London, while we left very early in the morning in the car and didn’t get back home until 4am!