London calling

A friend and colleague of mine has alerted me to this article about how Boris Johnson has been criticised for letting down disabled Londoners by dropping all mention of disability hate crime from his equality framework. This is particularly saddening as I worked with David Morris for Ken Livingstone to pull together Another Planet which highlighted amongst other things that 50% of disabled Londoners experienced harassment or bullying in the community (so excluding work based bullying) on a frequent basis.

This article reminded me of something the gypsy and travellers were saying yesterday - that a few years ago there was a lot more innovative projects and work happening but none of it has been followed up on. I can't help but wonder if my work for the previous Mayor of London will have the lasting legacy it seemed destined to have.

We worked hard to get 100% of buses accessible. I certainly can travel more independently now that most buses (and trains) have audio announcements on them. I can't express what freedom that gives me to travel to unfamiliar places at night. But recently there have been calls by a Tory politician for less audio announcements because they interrupt his commuter snooze!

Now we find that good evidence from disabled Londoners and the Met Police is being ignored and forgotten.

I'm not surprised by this but still saddened.