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Boris Johnson could be forgiven any annoyance at being attacked as a "do-little mayor" by Stephan Shakespeare, the man behind the pollster YouGov and the ConservativeHome website.
As Boris's team points out, Shakespeare may not have an infallible grasp of the capital's needs: his last dabble in London politics was as mayoral campaign manager for one Jeffrey Archer.
The sole public piece of hard evidence about Boris's performance, from Shakespeare's own polling company, is rather encouraging for the Mayor.
In May, a Standard/YouGov poll gave Johnson a satisfaction rating of plus 25 per cent - putting him among the most popular politicians in Britain.
This must raise some doubt as to whether Londoners actually want their politicians to "do things". Has New Labour's endless busy-ness made us any happier? Don't demands for mayoral "narratives" and "big ideas" come more from commentators than the public?
Aren't the Mayor's powers over anything that really matters (tax, public services, the environment) too limited or too high-level to make much difference to our daily lives - and aren't Londoners, recognising that, simply happy to have changed to a Mayor who is likeable, amusing and unsleazy?
If we needed reminding about the importance of that change, Ken Livingstone and chums are, as ever, on hand to provide it.
A certain Lee Jasper clanked his chains at the weekend, claiming to have been "cleared" by two recent official reports - which in fact found his behaviour to have been "entirely inappropriate" and "improper" and to have fallen "below the standards expected" of a GLA officer. Nice try, Lee!
Livingstone himself continues his efforts to look as bitter and silly as possible, this week explicitly blaming Boris for the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests. It can be only a matter of time before Ken holds the Mayor responsible for swine flu, world poverty and the demise of Shergar.
Yet Shakespeare's criticisms of Boris - that he had delivered "no notable achievement, no sense that anything important will change" - are finding support, both in Tory ranks and in our poll, which was not quite as good as it looked. Although 46 per cent were satisfied with Boris, and 21 per cent dissatisfied, a very high number - 29 per cent - were neither.
These weren't "don't knows". They were reserving judgment on the Mayor - a reflection of the fact that there is as yet relatively little to judge him on.
True, Boris is only a quarter through his term. One member of the inner circle says: "We are going to have another 18 months of people saying we haven't done anything, after which a narrative and vision will become much more obvious."
And true, Ken's main achievements, the congestion charge and extra buses, did not happen until nearly three years after his election.
Not until his second term did his vision of London take full shape.
Yet Livingstone did always, for instance, have the congestion charge as an objective. And while Boris's critics are guilty of impatience, the Mayor has not yet convinced me that he has so clear a policy goal or that he fully appreciates the scale of his task.
Tony Blair's greatest regret was not Iraq. It was failing to do more, early on, to improve unreformed public services.
The GLA is almost completely unreformed. If the "GLA family" (City Hall itself, TfL, the LDA, the Metropolitan Police Authority) were a real family, it would be under the close attention of social services.
Boris must not become the equivalent of a Haringey manager, wondering where the next scandal will hit.
City Hall thinks of itself as modern, progressive and efficient - but every successive crisis from Jasper, to the Olympic black hole at the LDA, to the MPA's pathetic performance over de Menezes, to Ian Clement's expenses, reveals it to be a mess.
My immersion in the LDA, and to a lesser extent in TfL, left me with the deep belief that these were organisations where the spending of money was an end in itself, with no real attempt to connect that spending to outcomes or to value for taxpayers.
TfL is about to spend £98 million on step-free access at a single Tube station, Green Park, involving vast and disruptive new tunnels in the earth.
The project will deliver level access only to the platforms; actually boarding any train will still involve a step insurmountable to wheelchairs.
It would literally be cheaper, as well as far more useful, to give every disabled person in the Green Park area a free car and chauffeur for the rest of their lives.
Asked to justify the lunacy, the head of London Underground, Richard Parry, told me it was "symbolic". But it's symbolism we can no longer afford.
I am sure that London will be different, and better, after four years of Boris. It is already. But I am equally sure that the Mayor could make a bigger difference. I am still waiting to hear, for instance, what he wants to do with the Met.
Paris is converting some Metro lines to automatic operation, to weaken its greedy, bolshy, constantly-striking rail unions. Isn't that something we should consider? Berlin is planning free, energy-saving loft insulation for all homes.
Could London do the same? TfL is trying to block plans for a Tube-style river service. Shouldn't Boris tell it to take a hike?
Popularity now may not translate into popularity in future. The Mayor needs to give people something they will like, that will capture their imaginations, then say: "I did that."
And he does need a theme. Livingstone's policies - rabbit-hutch flats, tall towers, unchecked spending, crush-load bendy buses - were all about quantity. My suggestion for Boris is that his theme should be quality - quality of expenditure, and quality of life.
Boris is a brave politician. It was brave of him to run for the Mayoralty in mid-2007, when both Gordon and Ken looked invincible.
It is brave of him now to stand up for those necessary but unfashionable people, hedge fund operatives and bankers. But he does need some braver policies.
Reader views (13)
With Tory Members resigning like flies over expenses signed off by Boris, it is amazing that you describe him as unsleazy. I appreciate that peoples reactions to the Mayor are dependent on the Press he gets and so the love that the Standard gives Boris will mislead many, but one Assistant Mayor under Police Scrutiny and another forced to resign does not suggest a lack of sleaze.
- R Race, Ealing England
Anyone who claims that Lee Jasper has been cleared (of anything he was actually accused of) is lying. The relevant reports are available online for all to see and make very uncomfortable reading for Mr Jasper.
- Alexandra Healey, London
The story about Green Park defies imagination. Where do you find out that £98 million pounds is about to be spent to make green Park Station Disability Friendly? And still not have wheelchair access to the Tube? What makes Green Park so special. Across the Park there is St James's on the Circle Line..... why not make that Disability Friendly and have dedicated DF routes to major attractions. Greenpark is a rabbit warren caused by the shot-gun crossover of the Picadilly Line and the Victoria Line 30 years ago (or so?) All projects involving expenditure of more than .... say £50m should be put out to the London Electorate for a view?
- Sam Dickins, London
nice try andrew, lee jasper was cleared of any wrong doing
- Jude, london
Get a grip Andrew. Boris has spent the last year or so showing us exactly what he is made of i.e. not a lot.
- John, East Grinstead, UK
He's made of money, like all those puffy pink Tories.
- The Masked Avenger, hammersmith
EDITED by admin @ 15.37 on July 16 2009
Personal Abuse
- Mike, London
He's not my Mayor, he's a national embarrassment.
- Stefan Isendahl, London, UK
Boris, not doing anything, don't think so, he's doing a lot for Coleman.
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/4492050.Mayor_of_Barnet_wined_and_dined_by_contract_winning_firm/
- David, london uk
I do not want a Mayor who is "likeable, amusing and unsleazy". Boris is doing nothing for London. He has cancelled so many things that would have been great for London e.g. The Thames Gateway bridge; Cross river tram; Parliament Square pedestrianisation; etc) All Boris has done is stop drinking on the tube and that is being ignored with no prosecutions. We need a Mayor who will keep London moving forward, not sitting still and stagnating like Boris is doing
- Chris, London
He is the do little mayor. He was agianst tall buildings unlike Ken - but gave city hall's backing to a scheme for 2 42 storey towers above Clapham Junction station.
I'm sure TFL is wastefull, but look at Vauxhall bus station it has revolutionised travel there. We now have the start of an orbital overground network - admittedly not great at the moment but is better than when Silverlink ran it and better still next year with new trains.
If we were to go back to Boris's idea of local boroughs, it would be far more wasteful and chaotic anyone who lived in London in 80's could tell you that.
The most daming thing of Boris, he just doesn't care about London the job is about his political ambtions - good luck to him - but go and be ineffectual somewhere else.
"Livingstone himself continues his efforts to look as bitter and silly as possible" - you are doing a fair impression yourself.
- Bob, london
Ken has a point about Boris's disgusting behaviour prior to the G20 Protest. Before the protest, Boris wrote:
"In student bedsits and in terrace Kensington houses, the alienated children of the middle classes are planning to subvert the G20 summit. Across the desolate wastes of the Leftie internet, their wrathful campfires are already burning, and when April dawns they will surge like the orcs of Mordor in the general direction of the Bank of England. They will taunt the police. They will paralyse traffic. They will do their utmost to spoil your day; and when they have been sufficiently whipped up by the oratory of Tony Benn, and when Billy Bragg has finished his ditties..."
Lovely stuff. So, the protestors were all nicely caricatured beforehand, at Boris’s usual £5 a word he gets for this rubbish. To Boris and the people he writes for, the protestors were the ones who were going to ’spoil your day’ and, classily compared to orcs, are therefore natural baton fodder for Boris’s blue-coated paladins. And then Ian Tomlinson died, and Boris went very quiet.
- Simon Cobb, London E7
Green Park station is a major, if not THE major, Tube interchange station in London. It is used as an access point to several of the top ten tourist attractions in the capital. Improved disabled access to the station is therefore not just for local residents as Mr Gilligan claims, but for the many hundred of thousands, if not millions, of Londoners and visitors to our capital city.
It would cost far more than £98 million to provide those people with taxis.
- Nick, London
