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| What mayors say matters less than what they do | What mayors say matters less than what they do |
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| People can’t be blamed if they’ve got the wrong idea about London mayors. As Boris Johnson drifts towards the end of his time at City Hall, electors can look back on eight years of national media coverage dotingly obsessed with his noise, novelty and designs on Downing Street to the frequent exclusion of his control of an annual budget upwards of £15bn and use of powers that have shaped how the capital has evolved. | |
| Fifteen years after the mayoralty came into being, the reach of those powers remains poorly explained. Though greater than they were, these remain uneven and constrained yet they are still wrongly dismissed as merely fiddling with bus fares and hogging limelight. In reality they entail holding the nation’s largest police service to account, controlling the massive transport networks of an urban economy that helps fund the rest of the country, haggling with the Treasury over sums that add up to more than the Home Office receives, and wielding a defining influence over the sorts of homes, shops and offices that get built on some of the most expensive real estate in the world. | Fifteen years after the mayoralty came into being, the reach of those powers remains poorly explained. Though greater than they were, these remain uneven and constrained yet they are still wrongly dismissed as merely fiddling with bus fares and hogging limelight. In reality they entail holding the nation’s largest police service to account, controlling the massive transport networks of an urban economy that helps fund the rest of the country, haggling with the Treasury over sums that add up to more than the Home Office receives, and wielding a defining influence over the sorts of homes, shops and offices that get built on some of the most expensive real estate in the world. |
| The outgoing incumbent may have comedy appeal, but this is no joke job. Located at the interface between Britain and the rest of the globe, it is as coveted as any in British politics outside the major offices of state. Within the next few weeks, Londoners will know who is to compete to be Johnson’s successor from next May. Many have already cast votes in selection contests, many others will do soon. Do they know enough about what the mayoral hopefuls would actually be able - and unable - to do? Are they properly equipped to separate soaring rhetoric from substance and sober practicalities? | The outgoing incumbent may have comedy appeal, but this is no joke job. Located at the interface between Britain and the rest of the globe, it is as coveted as any in British politics outside the major offices of state. Within the next few weeks, Londoners will know who is to compete to be Johnson’s successor from next May. Many have already cast votes in selection contests, many others will do soon. Do they know enough about what the mayoral hopefuls would actually be able - and unable - to do? Are they properly equipped to separate soaring rhetoric from substance and sober practicalities? |
| The Labour candidate race has been the most illuminating on this score. Corbynmania has induced a bout of “left positioning”, with most of the six contenders frantically flagging past and present alignments with the bearded wonder of Islington North on everything from spending cuts to foreign conflicts in the hope that those who’ve signed up to march the parliamentary road to socialism will take a shine to them too. Loud backing has been declared for policy measures that mayors have zero capacity to introduce: down with right to buy, up with rent control! Yes, these things can be campaigned for from the big public platform that mayors enjoy, but the chances of securing them from the present national government look rather less than zilch. | The Labour candidate race has been the most illuminating on this score. Corbynmania has induced a bout of “left positioning”, with most of the six contenders frantically flagging past and present alignments with the bearded wonder of Islington North on everything from spending cuts to foreign conflicts in the hope that those who’ve signed up to march the parliamentary road to socialism will take a shine to them too. Loud backing has been declared for policy measures that mayors have zero capacity to introduce: down with right to buy, up with rent control! Yes, these things can be campaigned for from the big public platform that mayors enjoy, but the chances of securing them from the present national government look rather less than zilch. |
| Meanwhile, the Conservative battle, now formally underway, has fuelled new angles on airports. The long-standing opposition of hot favourite Zac Goldsmith to Heathrow expansion has got Westminster Villagers in a state of high excitement at the prospect of another Tory mayor being at odds with Tories in government on the issue. But so what? Mayors don’t decide where major airport runways go and recent history suggests that their influence on such decisions may be inversely related to the amount of noise they make trying to exert some. Johnson began publicly campaigning for his “Boris island” idea just months after first getting elected in 2008. Six years, millions of pounds and mountains of press coverage later, Howard Davies sank it almost without trace. | |
| This is not to say that London mayors shouldn’t “call for” things they’re unlikely to get, seek to steer public debate, lobby for bolder devolution settlements or generally bang the big Londonist drum. Indeed, it’s very much part of the job. It is not, however, the most important part. Their financial dependence on a mean old Chancellor severely limits their room for manoeuvre - not to mention their scope for giving policy expression to ideological convictions - but they do have serious transport muscle, cash for delivering significant housing and other development schemes and hefty “call in” powers over large planning decisions. | |
| Where they really make a difference is in the way they pull the levers available to them and, importantly, how productively this is done in collaboration with others. These crucially include London’s 33 local authorities (which in some ways have more clout than the mayor), large private business interest and, to some extent, the third sector. | Where they really make a difference is in the way they pull the levers available to them and, importantly, how productively this is done in collaboration with others. These crucially include London’s 33 local authorities (which in some ways have more clout than the mayor), large private business interest and, to some extent, the third sector. |
| Potential mayors are right to paint big pictures of the capital they’d like to build, the ways they want it to change, the ideals they’d like it to exemplify and represent. But the heart of their task is not selling visions, it’s getting difficult things done. That requires a grasp of detail, a capacity for graft, a talent for negotiation and knack for finding ways to win through compromise. As somebody once said: “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable - the art of the next best.” London mayors are not exempt. | Potential mayors are right to paint big pictures of the capital they’d like to build, the ways they want it to change, the ideals they’d like it to exemplify and represent. But the heart of their task is not selling visions, it’s getting difficult things done. That requires a grasp of detail, a capacity for graft, a talent for negotiation and knack for finding ways to win through compromise. As somebody once said: “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable - the art of the next best.” London mayors are not exempt. |