Met at a junction

Members of the late Ian Tomlinson's family were poignantly present at yesterday's public meeting in City Hall about the policing of April's G20 demonstrations. The event was held by the newly-formed Civil Liberties Panel of the Metropolitan Police Authority. Its purpose was to gather concerns and testimonies relating to the protests at which Tomlinson died shortly after appearing to be struck by a member of the Met's Territorial Support Group - an incident famously captured on video by a passing member of the public and published by The Guardian.

Paul Lewis, who has led the Guardian's Tomlinson coverage, asked the chair of the panel, Victoria Borwick, if it would be looking into the family's claims that the Met attempted to cover up what had gone on. As Paul later reported, Borwick told him after the meeting that legal advice is being sought on the matter. Perhaps that's just a wise precaution, but it may seem a little odd if a panel whose remit includes exploring concerns about poor communication fails to address questions about why the Met seemed reluctant to publicly acknowledge that there could be a problem with the TSG officer's conduct until the video clip turned up, or why a misleading press release was issued.

As someone pointed out yesterday, were it not for what emerged about Tomlinson's death the Met might still be claiming that its control of the events was a success. Indeed, without those revelations the official scrutiny of police action on that day would be nothing like as extensive as it's become. I hope the Civil Liberties Panel does what the Tomlinson family wants it to. Its membership is impressive and would, I'm sure, do the most thorough job possible.

Crossing Oxford Circus
On Monday the Mayor opened Oxford Circus's new X-shaped "pedestrian scramble" crossing by banging a large Japanese gong "in hommage to its Far Eastern inspiration." Reaction has been varied. The Guardian wrote an approving editorial, but Adam Bienkov directed readers of his blog to what he termed the Near South - meaning Balham. Pedestrians have been scrambling at the Tube station down there since 2005 as local Wandsworth Councillor James Cousins pointed out. Writing at Comment is Free, Charles Nevin wondered if it was "right for us." Yesterday, I tried the crossing myself. I liked the roominess round the edges but was less relaxed when walking the new, diagonal pathway across the mighty junction. When four lines of speeding pedestrian traffic converge on one spot - the very middle of the Circus - it isn't clear who has right of way. Perhaps some traffic lights would help.

Cycle tribes
Susan Greenwood has made a podcast about the bicycle sub-cultures of South London. We meet Brixton BMX-ers, bike polo players in Newington Gardens and habituees of the century-old Herne Hill velodrome. A courier says she's "hooked on the endorphines." Look here. Listen here.

London blogosphere
The Mayor's crime policies attract mixed reviews, but he's enjoyed unanimous raves for responding to a woman's cry for help when it seems she was about to be mugged by a group of adolescent girls - or, as it turns out, boys. Camden resident Franny Armstrong is, deliciously, a prominent climate change campaigner, director of the film The Age of Stupid and not a fan of Boris's stance on the environment. Even so, she gratefully described him as her "knight on a shining bicycle". Londonist solicited suggestions for a name for the new, urban superhero. "The Blond Enforcer", "Boris Bronson" and "Biker Boris - He Peddles Justice" (groan) were among the friendly suggestions. "Fibman" belonged in another category. Later, on my blog, commenter robertneumark supplied an ode. But my favourite blogosphere reaction was generated far from the capital. A self-styled "leftie-lib marooned in Palmerston North, New Zealand" composed a brilliant send-up of the hostile spin a particularly desperate sort of leftie-lib might try to put on the episode. Lovely.

Coming up
The Mayor and the Met will be asked to account for any misdeeds at an Assembly Plenary on Wednesday. As Jonathan Glancey reported, the Royal Institute of British Architects is presently running a series of celebrated films featuring imagined cities. See those at the BFI Southbank, and see a statue of Battle of Britain hero Keith Park newly installed on Traflagar Square's fourth plinth after a bit of a political struggle. I'll be blogging. Keep in touch.