On a slightly pedantic note (and unrelated to the discussion about what to wear) as a left-voting Londoner, it's rather unfortunate that Boris got the acclaim for the bike scheme. The idea, the initial impetus and the political battle to get it started was all done by Ken Livingstone. In February 2008, then-mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, announced that he would be introducing a cycle-hire scheme for London, similar to the popular scheme already running in Paris. In May 2008, Boris Johnson (Conservative) replaced Livingstone (Labour) as mayor of London. In July 2010, London's cycle hire scheme was launched, and everybody started calling the new blue bicycles 'Boris Bikes', it's an easy alliteration. In other words, two years and five months was too long a delay for Ken Livingstone to get any credit for the scheme that he had initiated. Under these conditions, it's hard to blame politicians for favouring short-term wins over long-term strategy.

My wife and I came to NZ for our honeymoon in 2002 and have returned 5 times since. We love New Zealand and Mount Mauganui was where we were happiest. From the UK, we hadn't really put two and two together, and were heartbroken when we worked out that Mount Beach had been affected. We feel kind of sick and angry, and sorry for all those suffering in their various ways. Sadly this sort of misery is likely to happen more and more often.