100 days of Boris and his massive U turn on school playing fields

In the Guardian, Matthew Taylor and Dave Hill reflect on 100 days of Boris as Mayor of London.

The overall picture is "the jury is still out", that Boris is genuinely charming and:

He is bright enough to pick up anything but his attention span is short and detail bores him.

Interestingly, Tony Travers from the LSE is quoted as saying that the Ray Lewis affair may not have done Johnson any harm:

The over-riding impression is of Johnson standing by his black deputy, which helps to negate accusations of racism that were made during the campaign.

Steve Norris, now on Team Boris, says that it is too early to get a clear impression of Boris' administration is all about. One wonders why? Most administrational changes give us at least a few clues in the first 100 days.

Apparently David Cameron is making sure he doesn't get too close to Boris. If it all goes badly wrong it will be portrayed as "Boris being Boris".

I like this observation from an official:

...Johnson keeps meeting people at parties and "with little more than a slap on the back and a proclamation that 'Cripes, we could really use someone like you', offers them a job." Opponents argue this informal appointments process has led to a purge of women and ethnic minorities from the top jobs.

One hopes that a little more thought went into the appointment of Rosie Boycott as "food champion". I hope Boycott is able to follow up on some of the concerns of Councillor Alexis Rowell of Belsize Liberal Democrats, who envisages a vast network of home growers being necessary across London.

This fortnight's Rotten Boroughs in Private Eye reports that, despite pledging to to stop the sale of state school playing fields in 2004, Boris has now allowed the sale of playing fields at Holland Park Community school to make way for the building of 72 residential units with parking.

What Boris actually said on the subject in the Telegraph in 2004 was:

The trouble we have - and it is one of the few things in politics which makes me almost wild with anger - is the sale of the playing fields, above all the sale of the playing fields in state schools.

Quite a U-turn, then. One for Liberal Conspiracy's Boris Gaffopedia. I'll get onto it right away!