A year ago today, Boris Johnson was elected Mayor of London. Happy birthday, Boris!Like many people, I wondered how Boris would take to the job. He started with a tremendous amount of goodwill from people, even many of his political opponents. He started with one or two eye catching initiatives like banning alcohol from the Tube, but headlines in his first few months were dominated by a series of resignations and sackings.
Boris made clear that his number one priority was fighting crime, and if you look at the figures he has had a good first year, despite the fact that Sir Ian Blair opposed him right from day one. But Boris flexed his political muscles and won that particular battle. Media headlines are still full of awful examples of knife crime, but figures show that it, and gun crime, are on the decline. That is in part, at least, due to Boris's concentration on this issue.
He has also scrapped the western extension to the Congestion Charge, but I remain disappointed that other aspects of Ken Livingstone's transport policy remain in place. Coordination of roadworks is a joke. I repeat what I have said all along. The culture at Transport for London will only change if the man at the top is replaced, but Boris seems blind to the fact that Peter Hendy is still implementing Livingstone's policies.
Boris has been a great ambassador for London in many ways, and he has shown himself to be an independent minded political figure in his own right. He's also shown he is not afraid to disagree with David Cameron and the national leadership. At the beginning, most pundits reckoned he would be sat on by CCHQ. They are not saying that now.
All in all, I'd give Boris 7 out of 10 for his first year. But it's year two which will determine his chances of re-election. He needs to build on his successes in the field of crime, but he should now concentrate on getting London moving.
28 comments:
He's also shown he is now afraid to disagree with David Cameron and the national leadership.
Do you mean Not afraid?
Ed.
He's done a great job in my view and if his political style could be translated to national government, I think he could be on to something. What a refreshing antidote to the self serving, career automatons, of all parties who infest our parliament!
So what if he makes the occasional gaff? So what if he upsets some people?
One key thing to note here for Dave and his chums in relation to Boris's election victory: As with the defeat of labour in scotland, the regime has played a spoiling role at every turn. Just imagine what they'll be like when they finally lose power at westminster. Perhaps the tories should be thinking and contingency planning, with regard to how to deal with what could be a very nasty and extended period of aggressive non co-operation from what's left of the labour party, not just at westminster, but in the public sector as well.
Boris' record does not stand such analysis Iain. So many mistakes. So many lost advisers. Boris HAS NOT had a good year. And he thinks he should be PM instead of Dave?!
By the way, I think that Cision list may be better than you think. The methodology of inward links, traffic, total posts, frequency of updates, plus PR nous isn't too shabby actually.
Boris has taken the Leftwing Socialist Politics out of London - He also crushed the Liberal Democrats!
Splendid job!
Killing two Birds with one Stone!
Lets hope that Cameron can have a repeat Turkey Shoot in places that Boris won like Erith and Thamesmead! Roll out a decent parliamentry majority to the Tories to banish the leftwing Socialists and LD simpathisers to the margins!
Labour LD Labour - Out Out Out!
Just heard Red Ken on Radio London.
His question to Boris was on the lines of: What have you done that will stand the test of time in 20 years time that is any better that I would of done if I'd been elected?
What kind of question is that?
I love it when politicians make those 20 year projection statements; who in the here-and-now will remember any promises made in 20 years time?
I disagree with several of Boris's lines of reasoning (the notion of allowing local authority leader to pick Met borough commanders is an awful idea), but as another commentator has stated, there is no whiff of "let's see what I can do for my friends and political colleagues".
Lets give him another 3 years before we start judging him.
Understandably it will take time to undo all the damage caused by Ken and his cronies but so far so good.
Would be nice to see more effort put into the re-phasing of traffic lights and getting the roads moving again and perhaps more of the same in weeding out the chaff from the GLA.
It took the best part of eight years for Ken to lose two of his advisers, it took Boris only eight weeks to do the same!
Boris' record and his policies don't stand up to scrutiny. Remember the brilliant Dispatches documentary?
Or the time he stormed out of a Commons Select Committee meeting?
A refusal to answer questions, a very public loss of temper, the belief that he's right and if only everyone could see that he's right everything will be OK...
He's as psychologically flawed as Gordon Brown; he just does a better job of hiding it.
Hey look. I said Boris wouldn't last five minutes.
I was wrong, wrong, wrong.
The affairs of London do not concern me, but the mere fact he is still in post impresses me. All I can assume is that he has ditched all those ethnic types who got jobs advising the mayor on the ice-cream preferences of minority sub-groups and all the gender-realignment coordinators and the Islamic re-education specialists and the tattoo removal counsellors.
If he has managed that, the lad has done good.
The greatest proof of Boris' success is how very much the lefties hate him and how very hard it is for them to actually pin anything on him of any note whatsoever.
It is a testament to the moral corruption of the Livingstone regime that appalling, incompetent, and possibly even fraudulent, Livingstone advisors were not sacked, sanctioned or even reined in by the former Mayor. So the attempt to criticise Boris for having had to let people go simply reinforces one of the many negatives about Red Ken rather than being a negative for Boris.
It is now time for him to take on the vestiges of the Socialist Action appointee cronies of Livingstone and weed out those, like Hendy, who are still trying to implement the failed policies of a failed previous Mayor.
As for the select committee matter, it is plain to everyone except the wildly biased left that it was nothing more than a last ditch attempt by Labour in Parliament to have a go at the Conservative Mayor who is not, I repeat NOT, accountable to them in any way whatsoever since he has a clear mandate from the electors of London and is only accountable to them ultimately.
"All those ethnic types"
What century are you living in?
"Remember that brilliant Dispatches documentary?"
Well you won't because there never was any such thing. Not about Boris anyway, although there are others which have been excellent.
The Boris one was such a pathetic, unmistakably partisan, smear (the Guppy and Shirley Porter bits beyond parody) that it passed virtually unmentioned.
Normally the media are happy to publish anything that can get 'Boris' in the headline. The fact that no journalist followed up the 'allegations' in the programme proved just how piss poor it was.
"The greatest proof of Boris' success is how very much the lefties hate him and how very hard it is for them to actually pin anything on him of any note whatsoever."
Yup! It must be maddening to them...
*chortle*
The main thing I remember Boris for during the last year was that his first instinct was not to cut taxes, sack bureaucrats from the overstaffed London Assembly or TFL, fix the traffic lights or re-introduce the Blackwall Tunnel contraflow as promised. The first thing he did was impose a ban on booze on the underground. As if we haven't had enough bans from New Labour.
His first instinct was authoritarian, imposing yet another petty rule. I won't vote for him again.
Boris for PM!
Iain, as someone who lives in London I'm afraid I have to disagree. I don't think Boris's election has been all smiles. What on earth, for instance, is he doing on the issue of buses? He promised to scrap the bendy buses but they're still all over the place. Crime is still sky-high, especially violent crime and muggings. The traffic is terrible. You mention roadworks, but there's the issue of traffic lights as well.
Add a few resignations and dodgy select committee appearances into the pot and I don't think Boris has had a great year. Rather he's had a merciful honeymoon. I voted for Boris and hope to do so next time, but he needs to pull his finger out.
Here's a simple policy for roadworks.
If you are doing roadworks on a red route, you have to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week.
It's immoral to fine people for stopping for a couple of minutes on one hand, and yet allow people to dig the road up and work a 35 hour week
nick
“He [Boris] started with a tremendous amount of goodwill from people, even many of his political opponents.”
You do labour under some of the most extraordinary delusions sometimes, you know.
Johnson's a muppet. The congestion charge is the best thing ever and every city should have one. It also make sense to charge the most for the most polluting cars but he stopped that as well. As a result he ended up paying £400k public money to Porsche, the world's most profitable car company. Who the hell wants to drive a Porsche in London anyway?
And I think crime is dropping everywhere, I don't think Johnson can claim much credit for that. If you include the huge number of assaults and mass false imprisonments carried out by the Mte just recently I suspect the figures would actually have gone up.
Essentially he's a novelty act.
Watching Boris in action during a televised Assembly session amazed me.His grasp of facts belies that airy vapid exterior. And he certainly dealt with the loaded questions quite brilliantly. Some easily wafted or turned back, others answered with detail even the questioner was unaware of.
Boris has benefitted because it is much easier to look competent when Brown is Prime Minister.
'What on earth, for instance, is he doing on the issue of buses? He promised to scrap the bendy buses but they're still all over the place?'
The bendies are being phased out as they reach the end of their individual contracts. Thank Ken for stitching up the contracts with huge get-out clauses.
(Mind you newt did the same with the disastrous c-charge system and ended up having to put the toll up to £8 because at £5 he made 25p per car per day. Believe me, I went through the accounts).
'The congestion charge is the best thing ever and every city should have one. It also make sense to charge the most for the most polluting cars but he stopped that as well'
Well aside from the fact that the system is so poor that it's being replaced this autumn (and only then because Lenin stitched himself up with an unbreakable 5-year contract, as I've already said) any positive effects of the charge were lost when Lenin ordered TFL to narrow the roads. Which is why traffic speeds are back down to 2001 levels.
As for pollution....words fail me. I realise everyone on the left has no scientific sense at all, but health damaging pollution (3000 premature deaths in GTR London in 2005) comes from diesel engines.
Co2 is NOT pollution. EU laws limit soot and nitrogen oxides NOT Co2.
Here's a simple scientific fact you might understand. Replace the 21,000 black cabs with 21,000 petrol-powered Porsche SUVs and central London's air quality would improve hugely overnight.
"I realise everyone on the left has no scientific sense at all"
I'm sorry, but are you 14 years old?
The issue with diesels is that they emit 'particulates' and they are nasty stuff. They are actually easy to solve by fitting particulate filters although I doubt that many (any?) black cabs have them fitted. Its true that as an issue they have rather been overshadowed by the CO2 issue but thats probably because particulates are very much a local problem whereas global warming is a global problem.
"Co2 is NOT pollution"
Er, what? Agreed, its not the only form of pollution but its the one thats going to get us in the end if we don't act quickly. You're not one of those cranky, head in the sand, climate change deniers are you?
"EU laws limit soot and nitrogen oxides NOT Co2."
You'll have missed this one then.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/transport/co2/co2_home.htm
"Here's a simple scientific fact you might understand. Replace the 21,000 black cabs with 21,000 petrol-powered Porsche SUVs and central London's air quality would improve hugely overnight."
Yep. Definitely 14 years old. Other than particulates the other localised air quality problem in cities is photochemical smog. This is caused by, among other things, nitrous oxides emitted by engines, both petrol and diesel.
Catalytic converters do reduce these nitrous oxide emissions but they need to warm up and are therefore not so good over short journeys ie the sort of journeys you get in cities. At least the black cabs do lots of short journeys back to back so their catalytic converters will be up to speed.
So while your masterplan may have a positive effect on particulates it will probably have a negative effect on smog production, not to mention tripling CO2 emissions.
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