Not only does Boris Johnson not seem that keen on doing the job of London Mayor, what with appointing a plethora of deputy Mayors, but he also seems to be getting into rather a habit of breaking his pre-election promises. I’ve previously blogged about fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square – before the election he said one thing, after the election he’s doing the opposite – and now I’ve noticed that the recent announcement about the MPA (Metropolitan Policing Authority) means there’s another promise he’s broken.
It’s been announced that Boris Johnson will take over as chair of the MPA in six months time. He could have taken over straight away, but decided not to. What’s the problem with that? Well, it flatly contradicts his manifesto promise: [UPDATE: As pointed out in the comments, my mistake as the legal change made in 2007 does not come into force until the autumn. That does make his promise to become MPA chair "as soon as I become Mayor" a rather careless choice of words - I guess his grasp of what the law allowed on this point was as good as mine 
- but granted, that is a different point]
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5 Comments
So he said he’ll take over the chairmanship of the MPA and, er, he will.
If the Libs had spent as much time scrutinising every jot and tittle of what Livingstone did in his time of Mayor, scrutiny might have been greater, Liberal AM profile might have been higher, and your vote might have been up.
Mark, I wish you were right on this one, but sadly you’re not.
The GLA Act 1999 gives the mayor the power to appoint the chair of the MPA but not to be the chair. The GLA Act 2007 amended that to allow the mayor to be chair, but that provision does not come into force until later this year, hence the delay.
If you want to look for broken promises, try his claim that he would have all advisers’ salaries on the GLA website from day one. Only the deputy mayors and directors’ are, not the ‘interim’ advisers.
I don’t think this would have been very interesting even had it been true. After election all leaders find that some things that they promised just aren’t possible – as no doubt Boris has found here. I am sure Brian would have found something similar with one of his pledges(and as Mark has now done). Now if Boris does something that is not at all consistent with what he promised (like buys more bendy buses) that is a broken promise. This is simply a promise that is taking a bit longer to implement. He won the election fair and square, and we should judge him on his record. But give him a chance to learn what he can do and what he can’t – he deserves that, like any new MP or new govt.
Mark, could you explain to me your objection to Boris appointing deputy mayors with expertise in various areas? Are you suggesting that Paddick would not have hired any deputies and would have tried to run all these areas himself?? And he criticised Boris for never having run a big organisation (with all the delegation that necessarily entails)… crazy stuff.
And you might as well strike out your claims on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth since it was not, unlike the way you describe it, an “election pledge”.
I think voters would actually be more interested in what the LibDems think should be done with the fourth plinth than this usual Punch and Judy politics the LibDems are obsessed with.
So what do the LibDems want done with the fourth plinth?