Caroline Pidgeon has been talking to the Ham and High about the qualities she would bring to the office of Mayor.
First and foremost, she uses local services so understands what they need:
Ms Pidgeon believes it is her “ordinary” quality which means she is ideally placed to become the city’s first female Mayor.
“I’m just an ordinary Londoner, I’m the one rushing to catch the tube in the morning and hoping it’s on time, and I’m the one taking my two-year-old to nursery,” she said.
She also highlights her long experience in London’s politics:
She said: “I’m a London-wide politician, and I’ve done lots up in Camden and the neighbouring boroughs, taking up issues such as HS2 and the upgrade of the Jubilee Line, when I was a vehement campaigner to get the mess sorted out.”
“I’m not running for Mayor because I want to be something, I’m there because I actually want to do something. I see this as the greatest job in the world where you can make such a difference for Londoners.
“I think it is important to have a female Mayor, to have someone who comes at things with a different perspective. . I think it’s time to have someone who knows City Hall from the inside out, and who could get on with the job from day one.
“In too many things, Boris has been obsessed with his vanity projects, like the cable car, the garden bridge, and so on”
You can read the whole interview here.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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3 Comments
Criticising Boris on the vanity projects is good, because now everyone thinks he is a bit vane because of how he has acted over the EU ref. Zac Goldsmith is an EU outer, which I can’t imagine playing well with an international city like London, and who knows what Sadiq Khan believes in? He’s gone from banker bashing to banker hugging, I honestly don’t know. But I’ve not liked some people banging on about his Muslim faith, so I think we could stick up for him there.
I know Caroline well and she would do a great job as London’s first female Mayor. She has been forensic in her questioning of Boris Johnson during the last 8 years and frankly she has a much better grasp of the detail of London administration than Boris has ever had. I think she will perform credibly in this election but she is also our lead candidate in the London-wide section of the assembly and it is crucial for the Lib Dem vote in that contest to be maximised both for Caroline’s benefit and that of the others on our list. The exposure Caroline is having as mayoral candidate needs to be used for that purpose and this requires a large measure of realism in our message to voters.
In our campaigning I think the message needs to be – “Vote first preference for Caroline – she would make an excellent Mayor and deserves your support. We know it is a very big task for her to win that contest but fortunately you have another chance to ensure you have her on your side in City Hall. To do that make sure you put your X against “Liberal Democrat” on the orange ballot paper. Caroline is the number one candidate on our list for the Assembly. If there is a Labour or Conservative Mayor you need Caroline Pidgeon there holding him to account. “
I agree with Eddie above.
A London Pidgeon for Mayor!