Morning:
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On the face of it, our YouGov poll today - rather astonishingly, the first proper test of Londoners' opinions on the mayoralty since last year's election - is great news for Boris Johnson. But interred in the detail are some glimmers of trouble.
Let us start, however, with the finding Boris will probably be putting under his pillow tonight: if that election were repeated now, the six-point victory margin he achieved over Ken Livingstone would increase to 16 points. (YouGov's question was not quite the same as that in the election proper, since our poll offered no other party choices. But the results are still comparable because under the mayoral voting system all candidates save Boris and Ken were eliminated in the first round.)
The stretching of Boris's lead is partly a reflection on Ken as well as on the Mayor: political London still marvels at quite how badly the ex-King Newt has handled defeat.
On a dozen blogs, Ken and chums blame Boris for every crack in the pavement, accept no failings of their own, and rant endlessly about how the capital is Going To The Dogs. They remind me of a failed, Lefty version of the Daily Mail.
Yet though Ken's chances of moving back into City Hall are plainly hopeless, our poll does show that the right candidate could beat Boris. And that must have something to do with another of YouGov's findings: that although 46 per cent of Londoners are satisfied with the Mayor, and only 21 per cent dissatisfied, there is a substantial bloc - 29 per cent - in the middle who are neither.
These are not "don't knows". They are voters on whom Boris - perhaps surprisingly, given his huge personality - has made no impact. They underline what could be his key weakness - not that he is, or will be, a disaster, a fascist or a joke, but that we will get to 2012 and ask ourselves: "Well, that was fun, but what does he stand for and what has he done?"
By the time he sought re-election in 2004, Livingstone had two big achievements - the congestion charge, and more buses. Boris may need something of similar weight to show as his. So far, however, all his projects seem small or medium-sized.
It's not yet clear, either, just how far Boris really marks a break from the dismal failures of the past. His new Met Commissioner was Ian Blair's deputy. The Crossrail chairmanship has gone to Terry Morgan, chief executive of PPP contractor Tube Lines.
Boris is slimming the fat, dysfunctional and now simply unaffordable "GLA family". Particular progress is being made at the LDA; TfL vanity projects have been canned. But many remain, and the amounts saved are still relatively trivial. If he does want anything big, he will need lots more cuts to pay for it.
It has only been a year. Already, London is better in a dozen ways. Sleaze, arrogance, and routine lying have, at least for now, been banished from the mayoral landscape. There's an atmosphere of public approval around the mayoralty that's absent from any other part of politics.
Many of the criticisms of Boris amount to the complaint that he is a Tory. Reducing imposts on motorists and small businesspeople, however, is what Londoners had the bad taste to vote for, much though the liberal classes might disapprove.
The more relevant charge might be that for all his activist-pleasing rhetoric on higher-rate taxes, Boris is still not quite Tory enough, still a little too concerned with triangulating between the wishes of his voters and the demands of London's bien-pensant establishment.
But as he gains in experience, so too has he gained in confidence. Further boldness will be needed if those "neither approve nor disapprove" Londoners, the key to his political future, are to be won.
An Olympian achievement
As I mixed with the marathon runners in Greenwich Park yesterday, I thought about the differences between this magnificent event and a certain other sporting occasion which will also use the park.
The Marathon is democratic: it is the people dressed as bananas we care about, not the manufactured elite athletes at the front.
The Marathon makes no promises it cannot keep. The Marathon manages to be one of the greatest sporting spectacles in the world without doing any damage to anything and without costing any taxpayer a single penny. If only the Olympics could be like the Marathon.
Save me from the priggish Pret
I like the food at Pret a Manger but I really despise the chain's priggishness (typical notice at my local branch: "We've always banned smoking in our shops, but now it's against the law too — probably no bad thing!")
So it was deeply gratifying to discover from Which? magazine that this bastion of All That's Righteous sells a sandwich containing 23g of fat, about the same as a Big Mac and more than a woman's entire recommended daily allowance.
A Pret PR responded: "Pret customers are savvy and well-educated; they understand that good quality ingredients are nutritionally far superior to anything chemically engineered."
Translation: If we stick some rocket on top, maybe they won't notice they're giving themselves a coronary.
Reader views (11)
Gillighan is hilarious. How about some proper scrutiny? just can't forgive labour eh? guilty conscience methinks.
- Arena, East London
So you want Boris to make additional spending cuts, and to be 'bolder'.
Why don't you specify where you want the cuts to fall, and explain what sort of 'bold' actions you are talking about?
Without specifics, the urge to 'be bolder' comes across as rather sinister.
I doubt moving to the right, as you suggest, would be a good political strategy for Boris if he wants to be re-elected. Elections are generally won in the centre, and London is to the left of the country as a whole. Although of course if the ES is right in thinking Boris is not planning to seek re-election, he may be more interested in impressing fellow Tories.
- Kev, Bromley
Toby, last time I checked, in the UK we are allowed to criticise our elected politicians in this country..besides Sally is right anyway.
- James, Vauxhall
No Toby, it sounds like someone with an opinion. The horror!
- Michael, Surrey
Dare I say that Ms Pearhouse, who has left two virulently anti-Johnson comments here, sounds like somebody with an axe to grind?
- Toby Webster, Ongar, England
Boris is a liar. He was sacked twice for it.
Boris is gratuitously offensive. He has had to apologise over & over to various communities for some of the ridiculously thoughtless and racist things he has said or published.
You may have a different opinion on this, but I believe the many occasions on which he has said something 'ironic' add up to a display of an underlying attitude. The mayor of the most ethnically diverse city in Europe calling black people "picaninnies?" Come on!
And, no, I intensely dislike Livingstone and didn't vote for him.
- Sally Pearsehouse, Bethnal Green
If Boris spends 4 years ironing out things like road works, police attitudes and traffic light re-phasing then I suspect he will achieve a lot more than if he spent his time and effort of vanity projects such as Livingstone’s congestion charge which does nothing but create huge wealth for the private sector company which runs it.
- St, London
I disagree that that Mayor has not been bold enough. He has shown vision in proposing the Thames estuary airport. If this was ever delivered it would be a significant achievement. However like many good ideas committees could take this down a cul-de-sack and strangle it!
His other ideas on electric car charging posts and encouraging utilitie companies to recognise and reduce the congestion caused by unnecessary delays are welcome. However as anyone who uses the west end will know the most remarkable thing about the utilities is that there never seems to be any workers at the sites of roads being dug up!.
More significant is reaching agreement on the East London Line which will complete the orbital rail link and proposals to improve river services, including being able to use Oyster cards.
Politics is the art of the possible and delivery is everything.
- Damien Vaugh, London,UK
Thank you Sally, I do have a sneaking suspicion you may be one of the Livingstone supporters who Andrew Gilligan referred to as 'Ken and chums blame Boris for every crack in the pavement, accept no failings of their own, and rant endlessly about how the capital is Going To The Dogs' I may be wrong, but, think, probably not!
- Kevin Sullivan, Roehampton, London.
Keep going Agent Boris, you're doing great. (signed The Labour Party)
- Barry L Smith, London
'Sleaze, arrogance, and routine lying have, at least for now, been banished from the mayoral landscape. '
Excuse me? Boris's lies about bendy buses slaughtering cyclists? His broken promises about rape crisis centres? The resignations of four aides? Johnson's habit of responding to awkward questions with 'Blah blah blah!"?
Ken held press conferences every week and stayed till all questions were answered. Boris has scrapped these and is virtually unaccountable. Those of us who predicted disaster when Boris got elected derive no pleasure from being proved right so soon.
- Sally Pearsehouse, Bethnal Green
