Why Gordon and Boris are in trouble
What do Gordon Brown and Boris Johnson have in common? The answer is that both are currently getting a beating in the media.
And I think this is central to answering to points: (1) Can a new Labour leader help the Labour party? (2) What’s going wrong with Boris Johnson?
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Another Boris deputy jumps ship!
Boris Johnson lost yet another top advisor today as his ‘First Deputy Mayor’ Tim Parker made a shock resignation.
Parker, who was appointed by Boris to be ‘Chief Executive of the GLA Group’ as well as Chair Transport for London had previously vigorously defended the extent of his powers.
But in a surprise move, he has now conceded that it is ‘not appropriate’ for him to undertake so much of the Mayor’s role.
“I have concluded…. that it would not be appropriate for an unelected official to chair a body which is responsible for most of the money and a large part of the brief of an elected Mayor. I also agree with the Mayor that my position as adviser does not justify my full time and exclusive commitment to the Greater London Authority, or the title of First Deputy Mayor. We have therefore decided to adjust the management structure and abolish that position.”
We need a new paper for London
The Evening Standard has something close to a monopolistic position on London news. My objections are not because it is right-wing, obsessed with Ken or a bit tabloid.
Rather, it is that they are unchallenged in their position. My objection to the newspaper market in London is that it leaves great swathes of GLA and borough politics untouched.
Despite its attempts to move upmarket, ES’s news coverage is pretty poor. It doesn’t cover borough politics and only lightly covers the Mayor and GLA. There is room and need for competition for the broader (rather than just middle market tabloid) London news market. But the Evening Standard has singularly failed to capitalise on its online activities.
I believe that better news coverage and debate about London – effectively the fifth home nation – would be a good thing. The question is how.
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Veronica’s crony
We were assuredly told by someone who writes for the Evening Standard that the prospect of Ken Livingstone running again in 2012 is hilarious, the best thing that could possibly happen to Mayor Johnson four years from now.
So why can’t “London’s Quality Newspaper” stop fighting the 2008 election? Haven’t they noticed that their boy won? Or are they, perhaps, secretly worried that Livingstone might yet present a threat to him?
I ask this only because they’ve seen fit to make the redundancy payments of Livingstone’s former advisers their front page story. Er, scoop. Needless to say Veronica’s Cat – who only ever deals in facts, you understand – manages to describe these people as “fanatically loyal” and “current or former senior members of Trotskyite group Socialist Action”, just in case there was any doubt in our minds that the severance sums are undeserved.
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An open primary for London
In the past few months, we’ve heard a lot about what Barack Obama’s presidential campaign could teach British progressives (indeed, I’ve been more guilty of that than most), but too much has been vague hypothesising and rueful ‘what ifs’, rather than a practical sense of how to get started.
So I think Sunder Katwala’s support for an open primary to choose the next Labour candidate for Mayor of London is a really positive first step.
There’s much in the mechanics of the Obama campaign (and the US netroots in general) that we can admire and wish to transplant into British politics, but as none of it has ever been tried before, we’ve no idea whether it would work in a country that appears to have a more cynical, less involved approach to politics than you’ll find in America.
At the very least, having an open primary in London would give us the opportunity to road-test methods like online fundraising, organising and building a movement that tries to reach as many people as possible (ie, not just Labour activists) and bring them into the tent.
If it doesn’t show any signs of success in Britain’s biggest city, then there’s not much hope for the rest of the country. However, if progressives do find some positive signs from the attempt, there’s hope that the process of choosing mayoral & parliamentary candidates could one day be more open, inclusive and, yes, democratic.
If Ken stands for Mayor, the left is in deep trouble
Sunder Katwala’s cautious note on Ken’s desire to run for London Mayor again doesn’t go far enough. I think it will be a disaster for the left (but not the Libdems).
In an article for CIF just before the mayoral elections I said this:
Even if Ken Livingstone loses on May 1, it cannot be denied that he stood firm in the face of media and New Labour hostility and pushed through an agenda that will continue to shape London for decades to come. He did so by realising that the rules that applied to other parts of England didn’t apply in London. He stared down Paul Dacre and went ahead with his leftist policies. Even Gordon Brown can’t claim that. And that’s probably why, despite all his faults, I will vote for Ken Livingstone.
So I realise what he symbolises for the left. Granted, as Sunder pointed out, he has name recognition and will be a popular choice among many. But I think he will lose us the election and we need to think this through with our heads not hearts.
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Ken Livingstone’s 30 year itch
Ken Livingstone has effectively begun a four year campaign to be London’s next Mayor, having turned himself into a one-man unofficial scrutiny committee of the new Johnson regime. He says that he will confirm his decision to run once Labour opens the nomination process in 2010 (though he has shown before that this might not be his only possible route to City Hall).
It is not difficult to see why running again appeals to Ken. It offers not the prospect of avenging his defeat to Boris Johnson and being back in office for the 2012 Olympics too. Were Livingstone to win the Mayoralty again, it would demonstrate political stamina and bounce-backability which might well be unparalleled in democratic politics.
But there’s the rub for Labour. Livingstone may now have his sights set on outlasting both Thatcherism and New Labour. But will the party want to run a candidate in 2012 who would not just be re-fighting the election of four years before, but who first held the leadership of the Greater London Council more than three full decades before?
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Journalism of denial
Naturally, “London’s Quality Paper” highlighted the bits that could be used to vindicate its dismal conduct during the election campaign and ignored any that didn’t. Predictably, the chief offenders seized on the report as an opportunity to attack Ken Livingstone again rather the face the fact that even this profoundly partial “audit” acknowledged that in many respects the LDA has done good work.
Never let reality get in the way of a good persecution, especially when you’ve invested so much of your collapsing credibility in it.
For the record, I’ve long been perfectly persuaded that the relationship between mayoral advisers and the LDA needs to be clarified. Indeed, it was the Standard that persuaded me. I’m also quite satisfied that Lee Jasper displayed poor judgment over some LDA grants and in one case hid from the consequences. He wouldn’t be my choice for equalities adviser either (though even his enemies applaud his work with the police.) But these were never grounds for a hard-right newspaper to smear the individual and an entire Labour administration, which is what the Standard and its political assassins did.
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Ken won’t be helping Patience Wheatcroft then
My dear little news story arising from Tim Parker’s Politics Show interview yesterday mentions that Mayor Johnson’s Forensic Audit Panel will be publishing its final report shortly in advance of Mayor’s Question Time on Wednesday morning.
It also mentions that Ken Livingstone was formally invited to meet the panel to help them with their work. There had already been an informal approach, rebuffed by Livingstone in clear terms. But last Tuesday Patience Wheatcroft wrote him this note:
Dear Mr Livingstone,
You will be aware that the current Mayor asked me to chair a Forensic Audit Panel looking into the operations of the GLA and the LDA. During the course of our work we have interviewed many members of the Assembly, LDA board and executives and GLA executives. It would be helpful if we were also able to talk with you. I know that an informal invitation to you has been extended and rejected but I would now like to issue a formal invitation to you to meet with the panel.
Livingstone has sent this reply:
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Investigation launched into Boris’s team
After two months of bungled appointments, lost salaries, and enforced resignations, the London Assembly have decided to launch a formal investigation into the way Boris Johnson has appointed people at City Hall.
The decision to launch an investigation came after the assembly were told that the current appointment procedures were ‘adequate’ by Boris Johnson’s First Deputy Mayor.
Lewis’ resignation raises deeper questions
Ray Lewis intends to clear his name. But – while I am not entering into any discussion of the particular allegations against Lewis – this episode highlights some potentialy important challenges to the Cameron project.
The resignation has already generated increased scrutiny of whether the Conservatives are ready to govern. Boris Johnson and David Cameron may suggest they were unlucky: that they took a risk which backfired. But could this episode also cast the spotlight on what David Cameron’s ‘big idea’ of social responsibility adds up to?
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Ray Lewis resigns
Boris Johnson’s deputy mayor Ray Lewis has resigned, BBC News is reporting. More: The Telegraph and BorisWatch.
Boris Johnson: a list of gaffes and controversies
[Editor's note: It has barely been two full months and Boris Johnson has already been involved in a long list of gaffes and controversies. Below, we want to keep an updated list of of mis-steps so far and record his flip-flops because we can guarantee you certain newspapers won’t.]
This list will be updated regularly. (Last updated 19/8/08, 22.30.)
Help us build it up into a comprehensive Gaffopædia by submitting suggestions for additions and improvements in the comments below (or by ).
Boris Johnson’s cronies – to the rescue of cronyism
Last week Boris Johnson called for a two-term limit as part of his fight to “protect Londoner’s from cronyism”.
But as Boris’s own band of ‘forensic’ cronies release their interim report on waste at City Hall, it is worth remembering that it is not just time itself that leads to these problems, but the people who are chosen to set the clocks.
Because when Boris ran for Mayor, he did so off the back of a series of claims from the Evening Standard which centred around Ken Livingstone and his supposedly socialist cabal in City Hall. Boris deliberately never got himself involved with the detail of these claims, but instead positioned himself as the new broom that would sweep the old dirt clean.
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Half a million for the transition team
From Beau Bo D’or
Cost cutting Boris’ “transition team” alone costs half a million. Also now at: BorisWatch, Bob Piper and Dave Hill. Where art thou, Andrew Gilligan?
My ten question for Boris
He’s holding his first press conference today morning. I doubt I’ll get the chance to ask more than a couple of these, so here’s my full list for his and your consideration.
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The tube drinking ban won’t work
My contract of employment obliges me to point out whenever I express an opinion about the Tube that these opinions are my own, and should in no way be taken to represent those of London Underground or TfL. So now you know.
A century ago, there were feminists who called for alcohol to be banned because they blamed it for domestic violence. Their view was understandable, as women took regular beatings from men who came home drunk, then as now. It took Prohibition to change their minds, as booze was banned but domestic violence continued.
In 2008, Boris Johnson thinks that banning booze will prevent, or at least reduce, bad behaviour on London’s transport. He too is mistaken, and his motives may not be as worthy or understandable as the early twentieth century feminists. He was on a yacht when the booze ban came into force on Saturday night, which, being neither in London nor a form of public transport, was exempted.
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Welcome to disappointment politics
The Tories at CentreRight are severely disappointed that Boris Johnson has let them down on a key promise: fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square to commemorate a RAF hero. Heh.
Exposed: Boris’s key adviser’s links with extreme group!
Just joking!
I’m out of town at the moment, visiting my mum, hence the recent paucity of posts. My time in the tiny internet shop I presently share with three Warcraft junkies and their loud crunchy sweets is mercifully short.
But I’ve had a quick read of this Evening Standard piece pointing out the misalignment between Mayor Johnson’s Tube booze ban and those of the Manifesto Club, which his culture director Munira Mirza was a found member of.
Imagine if she had been Ken Livingstone’s adviser.
Far from being a mere news story this information would have been seized on by a member of the Standard’s Get-Ken squad – especially the “lefties” among them – and inflated into a massive, oversold expose of a “key associate” having “links” with a “front organisation” for a “secretive libertarian cult” with roots in the far-Left Revolutionary Communist Party which supported Serb extremists during the Balkan wars and whose, erm, “shadowy leaders” have a 40 year history of assuming false identities and engaging in subversive political activities in an attempt to undermine the British state.
In fact, it would all be true, but not really terribly important – which is, ironically, what the Manifesto Club clique is so terrifically anxious to be.
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