Archives – September, 2008
Amidst all the debris of the collapse of Anglo-Saxon finance capitalism, we only have one prominent politician on either side of the pond defending the spivs and speculators, and accusing their critics of indulging in “neo-socialist claptrap” – the mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Why should this be?
Well, firstly Boris is has a record of defending the indefensible, like a defence lawyer who knows his client is guilty as hell. Lord knows he has done this often enough in the past, both as a Telegraph columnist and in his former role as editor of the Spectator. His stance as an apologist for the Iraq war and as a climate change sceptic are two notorious examples of this. For Boris the defence of unpopular causes against the Left is probably an intellectual game as much as anything else.
He’s also a keen supporter of the City of London Corporation, an aberration in the governance of London, which is very much a relic from the medieval age. He forgets that much of the City’s recently improved performance is down to government legislation like the Big Bang at the end of the 1980s, and to competition in the form of Canary Wharf during the 1990s, both of which challenged the City’s monopoly over finance in the heart of London.
Finally, private equity and hedge funds were major contributors to his mayoral campaign earlier this year, so Boris has some favours to return. These extend beyond the field of journalism. For example, the co-founder of the private equity firm Englefield has been appointed by Johnson to the board of the London Development Agency, a position for which he will be paid £14,000 for a minimum of three days’ work a month. Lazarus gave two donations to Johnson’s mayoral campaign, one of £10,000 last October and another of £12,500 in February. Londoners need to be completely confident that the Mayor’s appointments are being made solely on merit. If donors to the mayor’s campaign are now being rewarded with paid positions in his administration it shows his promise to end cronyism was nothing more than empty words.
Capitalism is not going to go away – globally we are probably seeing the Anglo-Saxon form being replaced by Chinese state capitalism – but should we really be so reliant on financial services, as we have been for a number of decades in London, thus putting our eggs in one basket? Indeed an opportunity has now arisen, while the taxpayer “bails out” the banks, for us to demand more investment in the real economy, like green technology and alternative energy sources; a move back to mutuality and co-operative ideals in the mortgage markets; and more accountability on the part of financial institutions to the rest of us like getting rid of tax lopeholes, if we are expected to assist when the sector is on its knees.
Boris would be much better off arguing for these things during the present crisis than defending the indefensible.
September 24, 2008
Having been in Beijing for the whole of the very successful 29th Olympiad in August, and then attended the Urban Transportation Management Forum organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Government to talk to their Planning Bureau about the experience of congestion charging in London, during my visit of East Coast cities in China l was struck by the possibility of introducing congestion charging to Beijing itself. Such measures need increasingly to be considered in response to the necessity both to reduce congestion and also to improve air quality in Beijing, particularly after the successful short-term measures undertaken during the Olympics come to an end.
Certainly the clear blue skies at the end of the Beijing Olympics were impressive, particularly after the concerns expressed by some about the possible adverse effects of air pollution on the performance of top athletes. The latter of course did not materialize, as we saw 43 world records and 120 Olympic records shattered in the course of the Games. Credit here should go to the initiatives taken by the city authorities to improve the air quality in Beijing over the period of the Olympics, which has essentially been achieved by providing better and cheaper public transport and by implementing the car licensing scheme. The success of the latter has interestingly led to local people calling for the extension of the two-month odd-even license plate restriction that allows the city’s 3.3 million private car owners to drive only on alternate days. In the case of public transport Zhou Zhengyu, Deputy Director of the Beijing municipal committee during the Olympics, announced that the reduced ticket prices brought in for the duration of the Games would be extended for some considerable time afterwards. Remember that in Beijing there was a cut in the standard price of a bus ticket by 60 per cent for regular passengers and 80 per cent for students. And last October, the price of a single journey subway ticket was slashed by 30 per cent to 2 yuans. So, not surprisingly, as a result of the cheaper fares and traffic control measures introduced for the Olympics, the proportion of Beijing residents now using public transport on a daily basis is up to 45 per cent from 35 per cent.
The national government initiative since the beginning of September to raise taxes on big cars and reduce them on smaller ones, in order to save energy and cut pollution, will also contribute to improving the quality of life in Beijing. Owners of cars with engines above 4 litres capacity will have to pay 40 per cent tax, double the existing rate. The tax for cars between 3 and 4 litres will rise from 15 to 25 per cent, while those below 1 litre capacity will be reduced from 3 to 1 per cent. Furthermore, the tax move is a good first step for the country towards an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly economy, while helping to save fuel and thus increase energy security.
Yet Beijing will still be home to about 3.3 million cars, and the figure is growing by 300,000 a year. The only solution to this challenge is the continuous development of the city’s public transport system along the lines already implemented by the authorities, but with one addition – congestion charging that will ration road space by price, so that the marginal cost of an additional trip by a car owner will be paramount in their minds.
The geography of Beijing, with its various ring roads, would lend itself very easily to congestion charging. A congestion charge zone could be introduced within either Ring Road 2 or 3 at the beginning and then be extended outwards depending on the success of the scheme and public demand for it. As in London, in order to win public support, the funds raised from the congestion charge would have to be seen to be reinvested into public transport, and some exemptions or at least a discount rate might have to be granted to residents within the charge zone. Nevertheless, the scheme could be put into operation very quickly using simple technology like CCTV at the entry points off the ring roads and camera enforcement using a database of car licenses. (Though l understand there is not as yet a national database of car licenses in China, and l am unsure as to numbers of cars that move between the various cities of China, this should not be an insurmountable hurdle for the authorities to overcome.)
So l look forward to one day visiting Beijing again and seeing road congestion charging, or least another variant of road pricing, being implemented to improve the quality of life for Beijingers. This should be the icing on the cake, on top of the outstanding investment already undertaken by the authorities, and would be consistent with the Chinese national authorities’ focus on people-centered and scientific methods of development.
September 12, 2008
The spectacular Beijing Games of the 29th Olympiad, which l attended as a private spectator, were an enthralling sporting festival. Over 16 days we saw such dramas unfold in the Bird’s Nest stadium as the performance of the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt of Jamaica. In the Water Cube pool we had similar outstanding performances by the US swimmer Michael Phelps with his personal haul of 8 golds, meriting a separate entry in the medals table on his own! This while the Chinese lost their “pin-up” boy Lin Xiang who pulled out of the 110 metres hurdles – the only real shock the hosts suffered as they emerged as a sporting superpower at these games. Let’s also not forget the huge success of Team GB coming fourth in the medals table.
So, in short, the Beijing Games will be remembered in years to come for the amazing sporting event that it was, as 43 world records and 120 Olympic records were shattered, rather than for the fireworks and theatricals. This is the first lesson amongst others to be drawn from the Beijing Games for when we host the next Games in 2012. Other lessons we need to learn from Beijing for London 2012 include managing the “IOC lanes” on the roads (reserved for International Olympic Committee officials and key sponsors of the games); air pollution measures; ticketing and touting; and the need to be hospitable to visitors.
As l moved between the various Olympic venues, Beijing seemed awash with Olympic lanes for the IOC officials and sponsors. Beijing has far more four-lane roads to meet such requirements than London, even though for most of the time the IOC lanes appeared empty. Here in London we will struggle to accommodate such lanes on our roads, particularly where we already have bus lanes. Thus it may be worth considering our bus lanes doubling up as IOC lanes, particularly in light of how little those in Beijing were actually used by officials and sponsors.
We should not forget that the major environmental issue of the Games was air quality, as it was in Athens in 2004, and in both cases it was suggested that the pollution would affect the performance of top athletes. The Beijing city authorities improved air quality by providing better and cheaper public transport, and by implementing the odd-even license plate restrictions that allowed the city’s private car owners to drive only on alternate days, as well as quite literally closing down the factories outside the city boundaries before and during the Games. Clearly the air pollution did not affect the athletes, as World and Olympic records were shattered, from the sprints to the marathon. And interestingly Beijing’s residents are demanding the continuation of such initiatives as the license plate system, so this truly becomes part of the environmental legacy of the Games. While London does not face the problem of air pollution to the same degree, it will nevertheless be a challenge to meet the EU requirements for air quality by 2010 and we should be mindful of how any slippage in achieving these targets may impact on our public image in relation to the 2012 Games, as air quality has clearly been established as the critical green issue over the past few Olympics.
Ticketing in Beijing clearly favoured foreigners, as the prices were pitched for local audiences yet were more readily available for those of us from abroad. Moreover, in the early stages of most events we did see many empty seats. This is not surprising as the level of interest in events clearly increases dramatically as we get beyond the qualification stage to the quarter-finals onwards. Some blame should be apportioned to sponsors not taking up their allotments of tickets; indeed it would have better if they had been given away instead. But we should be aware that selling tickets for 2012 at London prices will result in a great deal of demand amongst Londoners while making them unduly expensive for many foreign tourists, quite the converse to Beijing. In this respect some of our clubs have extensive experience of ticketing issues like pricing and distribution and we should get their advice and assistance. For example, it is no accident that Old Trafford, as one of the cheaper grounds in the Premier and with an extensive marketing operation, can sell 75,000-odd tickets every other week during the season.
As for the problem of ticket touts, interestingly the worst touts in Beijing were all foreigners who seemed to have an abundance of tickets, so not surprisingly when the authorities arrested and deported them this went down well with both locals and tourists.
And finally, now that we have taken the baton, we should acknowledge how well Beijing hosted the games. Londoners, like Parisians and New Yorkers, have a reputation for being short-tempered with visitors, particularly those of us like myself who live in Central London. Beijing, however, excelled in welcoming foreigners. It was as if the whole city treated us all like house guests, with most foreigners having tales of Beijingers reaching out to them with kind gestures. Furthermore, we probably won’t be able to provide anything like the huge army of helpful, smiling volunteers. But what London can offer instead is a mixing pot of variety. From the noblest arts to modern street culture, London has it in bags, along with a sense of humour and a great sense of occasion. Despite the difficult job London faces, nothing will stop me being in London for the 2012 Games.
September 9, 2008
