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BIRD'S EYE VIEW: Keep an eye on BoJo as Tories make capital gains
Date: 13 May 2008
News that the Conservative Party will use London as a test bed for national policies means we should all keep an eye on the capital and the blonde one
So Boris Johnson, the man who made many - including me - regularly giggle on Have I Got News For You, has had the last laugh and been elected Mayor of London with a final tally of 53% of the vote compared to Ken Livingstone's 47%.
It might sound funny to non-Londoners that a man who's barely run a small magazine is now running the capital, but just because you may not live or work there, don't make the mistake of thinking you won't, in the long run, be affected by what he does next. Why? Because it's been widely reported the Conservative party will use its official London candidate to test out policies prior to the general election.
Boris's new job gives the Tories a taste of real power. Early reports suggest a bunch of good people will be put around him to make sure the management and admin side of things do not go too far wrong, because how he fares will undoubtedly colour the public perception of the overall Conservative party and its electability when the bigger battle commences. As a recent Sunday Express editorial put it: "His style of government in London will be seen as a template for Cameron's future administration."
Binning off Ken's ridiculous cliff-top cut-off CO2 emissions-related £25 congestion charge due this October will win fans across the land. And since Manchester's proposed congestion scheme took a knock in the local elections when the Labour candidate championing it lost his council seat to an independent campaigning expressly to kill it off, any Conservative policy would do well to side with Boris and avoid the sticky wicket of more road or congestion charging.
Boris's pledge to "stretch the taxpayer pound" by axing overspending at City Hall is laudable too, and it will be interesting to see if he can apply such an approach over at Transport for London - as the Mayor he controls its budget - where more than 100 TfL staff are on more than £100,000 per year.
But it's extremely early days. There's plenty of time for Boris to say something stupid and/or offensive like he did about all manner of people and places from Liverpool to Papua New Guinea and dent both his and his party's currently high ratings.
Labour has allegedly already set up a special 'gaffe-watch' unit to target Boris and the Conservatives in the run-up to the next election. Making people laugh with and inadvertently at him makes for good television but running one of the globe's most important cities is another matter. Watch this space.
