| David Cameron speech: the Prime Minister's language analysed Two key themes were prominent in David Cameron's keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference on Wednesday. telegraph.co.uk |
Tea at Downing St for Chile's president Chilean President Sebastian Pinera to David Cameron: 'let's share a cup of tea' bbc.co.uk |
Doctor speaks of 7/7 frustration A doctor who survived the 7 July bomb attack at Aldgate speaks of her frustration over being unable to do more to help the victims. bbc.co.uk |
Boris Johnson: fares package presentation skills Boris's announcement of his new public transport fares package contrasted sharply with what happened this time last year. The package for 2010 was unveiled in style at a dedicated event at a London Underground depot in Haringey. But details - incomplete ones, as it turned out - of increased fares that will hit Londoners next January were included without fanfare in a sheaf of documents handed out at his press conference last week where he responded to the government's spending review.BBC London's Tim Donovan got to grips with the issue the following day, reporting that several tariffs will go up by considerably more than the average 6.8% that Boris spoke of. Still, as Labour's John Biggs has acknowledged, "at least he has spread the pain more evenly than in 2010." That's largely to the relative benefit of bus-users, who tend to be less well-off. But the bit of media management I most enjoyed was TfL's press release headline: "Mayor confirms 2011 fares at level signalled last year." This is true: it refers to the "assumption" in the October 2009 TfL business plan that fares would need to go up in January 2011 by an amount equal to the Retail Price Index figure for July 2010, plus two percent. July's RPI was 4.8% and, well, you can do the maths yourself. However, the assumption that had been made for the hikes that came into effect in January of this year was the July 2009 RPI plus 1%. What was the July 2009 RPI? Minus 1.4%. When asked last October to justify why this January's increases - an average of 3.9% for Tube fares and a thumping 12.7% for buses - would be so much higher then the July RPI plus 1%, it was emphasised to me that this "assumption" was, you know, just an assumption. It wasn't a pricing formula, set in stone. Not sticking to it was no big deal. Settle down.Boris JohnsonLondon politicsLondonTransportTransport policyDave Hillguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Two swine flu cases are confirmed Two cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Northern Ireland, the Public Health Agency (PHA) has said. bbc.co.uk |