Boris

[NiceCupOfTea]

Your views please.

What power does he have anyway and what are those outside of his control?

What is his capability of influencing the powers that he isn't in complete control of?

What immediate and long term changes can a) London and b) England and c) the Olympics look forward to (if any of them are seperate)

[sp1214]

I believe his first job will be to scrap the extended charging congestion zone. How nice, it will mean the wealthiest part of Britain not having to pay. Of course Cameron will also be exempt.

[New Judge]

The wealth of the residents in the Congestion Zone is not the issue. The residents in �the wealthiest part of Britain� only pay 10% of the charge anyway (in common with the residents in the entire zone). The issue is the cost of the charge to visitors and tradesmen who visit not only the wealthiest residents but also some of the less affluent areas.

The congestion charge (which ex-mayor Livingstone quaintly re-branded a pollution zone) affects all people, rich and poor. Like most fixed taxes, its effect on the poor is far greater than that on the rich.

The extension of the zone to the west of London was unnecessary and opposed by most of the businesses and residents � not because they would have to pay it but because it had its greatest effect on those with whom they try to do business.

[sp1214]

The poor are hardly likely to have dealing with the toffs in West London. The clients should pay an additional supplement especially as its the gateway to Heathrow airport.

[jno]

yes, the effect of extending the congestion zone was actually to make travel cheaper for the fatcats of Kensington and Chelsea: they only have to pay 10%, rather than the 100% they paid before. Boris has promised to reconsider this, but I'm not sure Chelseaites actually want him to. He has promised to do away with bendy buses and replace them with modern Routemasters. Only trouble is these don't exist. He thought it would cost �8 million to hire conductors but later admitted it was more like �100 mllion - which is a more stratospheric recalculation even than the Olympics. Like Cameron, he is full of ideas on the hoof but short on budget plans.

Anyway, this is what he promised:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a9015f2c-1260-11dd-9 b49-0000779fd2ac.html

[NiceCupOfTea]

This seems to be the least contentious winner. I actually expected more negative responses, so well done Boris, I suppose.

Excellent news for all who live in London, and no effect for the rest of us seems to be the general consensus.
.

[helpmetoo]

a big cheer all round,

who knows how johnson will perform, i suspect he is a reasonable manager, so it will depend on his appointments,

i bet he wont employ semi-literates in quasi jobs at �100K a year salaries though,

good riddance to livingstone and his politics of envy...

[New Judge]

The aspect of this that amused me most of all was the reaction of the Islington based Guardianistas when Boris was elected as mayor of �their� city.

There is no doubt that a large turnout in the outer London boroughs helped to sway the vote against Ken Livingstone. The five constituencies with the highest percentage turnout all showed a majority in favour of Boris. The five with the lowest turnout all showed a majority for Ken.

The London chattering classes have reacted badly to the fact that the vote was swung by the hard-pressed residents in outer London overwhelming their inner-city vote. They are simply not used to the residents of the suburbs which formed the mayor�s cash cow having the temerity to want a say in how their cash is spent.

Hopefully Boris will remember these voting patterns during his term in office and do a little more for the council taxpayers in outer London rather than do as his predecessor did and simply squander their hard-earned on inner city pet projects which benefitted only his chosen minorities.

[helpmetoo]

new judge

totally agree,
it was cute electoral strategy to target the 'doughnut' around kens patch,

signing working contributors up for postal votes at tube and rail stations if their busy schedule was to make voting within the allotted hours difficult was very effective,

livingstone was the expert at buying votes from his core electorate with loony and loaded 'investment',

i agree, johnson will level out the field with a few 'favours' towards his key electorate,

thats politics but it helps if there is not an obvious bias away from the potential voters of your opposition,

all most people want is a fair administration....