WE ARE ALL LONDONERS

Tower Hamlets Conservative Councillor Phil Briscoe has taken his campaign against the welcome banners that are draped across London to the next level. After uncovering the fact that Tower Hamlets Council spent £49,500 on welcome banners to the borough, Cllr Briscoe decided to take on Ken Livingstone.

Cllr Briscoe said "Labour politicians in London and Tower Hamlets seem obsessed with spending money on banners and posters that tell us how good we should be feeling. Perhaps if they spent more of that money on decent homes, schools, hospitals, transport, and crime reduction, then we wouldn't need to be told to feel positive about life in this area."

The “We are Londoners, We are One” campaign that was launched this year cost the GLA £1.5 million and follows on from “7 million Londoners campaign” in 2005 that cost about the same amount. Ken Livingstone responded to Cllr Briscoe’s concerns by stating that the campaigns were paid for by industrial sponsors such, as British Gas, and a range of media partners including Capital Radio. As such the campaign only cost the GLA approximately £600,000 and this came from a central gov’t source.

The Mayor of London then argued that as the 2005 campaign had been so successful he was justified in launching this new campaign.

What worries the Tower Hamlets Conservative Group is how the success of the campaign was measured. Mr Livingstone happily mentioned that as 10,000 pieces of merchandise were sold each month and a lot of private sector support was given the campaign was a triumph.

So success in the Mayor’s mind is how much merchandise you can con the people of London into buying and how much good publicity you can give to companies like British Gas that have driven up the costs of the average London family.

The Tower Hamlets Conservative Group feels that £3 million could have been better spent in London then on a merchandising exercise