This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davehillblog/2013/feb/11/boris-johnson-budget-scrutiny-stephen-greenhalgh
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Boris Johnson: budget time at City Hall zoo | Boris Johnson: budget time at City Hall zoo |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Recent national media coverage of Boris Johnson has focussed on a prank call he made to Nick Clegg on a radio phone-in - terrific jape, what? - and, still going strong, his previously unsuspected expert knowledge of urban foxes. According to the great naturalist of City Hall they look cuddly (do they?), but they're a dangerous menace. "Oh, the irony Boris," tweeted Brixtonite, "the irony." Yes indeed, although this newly-disclosed wealth of wisdom seems oddly apt given the mayoral team's increasing resemblance to a madcap menagerie. Reporting the activities of Mayor Jolly Goodfun's regime is fast becoming a job for David Attenborough. | Recent national media coverage of Boris Johnson has focussed on a prank call he made to Nick Clegg on a radio phone-in - terrific jape, what? - and, still going strong, his previously unsuspected expert knowledge of urban foxes. According to the great naturalist of City Hall they look cuddly (do they?), but they're a dangerous menace. "Oh, the irony Boris," tweeted Brixtonite, "the irony." Yes indeed, although this newly-disclosed wealth of wisdom seems oddly apt given the mayoral team's increasing resemblance to a madcap menagerie. Reporting the activities of Mayor Jolly Goodfun's regime is fast becoming a job for David Attenborough. |
| Meanwhile, in the dreary, barely-newsworthy world of Greater London strategic government, with its (yawn) £17bn budget and (snore) executive powers over housing, transport and policing, the unbridled "Good old Boris" continues setting out his stall to those Conservative MPs who are zealously of the economic right, deep-dyed Eurosceptic or just potentially desperate enough to consider backing him in a future Conservative Party leadership contest. | Meanwhile, in the dreary, barely-newsworthy world of Greater London strategic government, with its (yawn) £17bn budget and (snore) executive powers over housing, transport and policing, the unbridled "Good old Boris" continues setting out his stall to those Conservative MPs who are zealously of the economic right, deep-dyed Eurosceptic or just potentially desperate enough to consider backing him in a future Conservative Party leadership contest. |
| That unspectacular first Johnson term, with its necessarily centre-ish tone and continuations of projects bequeathed to him by Ken Livingstone, looks like a model of One City government compared with the carnival of public relations, populism and worse unleashed on the capital last May. The budget Johnson has proposed for the GLA Group for 2013/14 captures the flavour of proceedings rather well. | That unspectacular first Johnson term, with its necessarily centre-ish tone and continuations of projects bequeathed to him by Ken Livingstone, looks like a model of One City government compared with the carnival of public relations, populism and worse unleashed on the capital last May. The budget Johnson has proposed for the GLA Group for 2013/14 captures the flavour of proceedings rather well. |
| Last week he listed for the London Assembly the "key deliverables" he claims the draft document will support. His achievements over the remainder of his mayoralty will include, he declared, creating 200,000 jobs, maintaining police numbers "at or around 32,000," improving Tube reliability, securing "regeneration" of the Olympic Park and its surroundings and "freezing our share of the council tax." | Last week he listed for the London Assembly the "key deliverables" he claims the draft document will support. His achievements over the remainder of his mayoralty will include, he declared, creating 200,000 jobs, maintaining police numbers "at or around 32,000," improving Tube reliability, securing "regeneration" of the Olympic Park and its surroundings and "freezing our share of the council tax." |
| This final item seemed surprising, given that the budget actually proposes a cut in the mayor's council tax precept, amounting to the life-transforming sum of £3.72 a year for the average London household. Perhaps we ought to be indulgent - a saving so very puny must be easy to forget when a chap is terribly busy with more important mayoral matters, such as "dropping in" to whatever summit or soiree Rupert Murdoch requires his attendance at. | This final item seemed surprising, given that the budget actually proposes a cut in the mayor's council tax precept, amounting to the life-transforming sum of £3.72 a year for the average London household. Perhaps we ought to be indulgent - a saving so very puny must be easy to forget when a chap is terribly busy with more important mayoral matters, such as "dropping in" to whatever summit or soiree Rupert Murdoch requires his attendance at. |
| As for the rest, Johnson's job creation pledges have a history of being debunked as exercises in quadruple counting, while his policing plan's flagship mantra has already been condemned as an exercise in headline-seeking. | As for the rest, Johnson's job creation pledges have a history of being debunked as exercises in quadruple counting, while his policing plan's flagship mantra has already been condemned as an exercise in headline-seeking. |
| Johnson's chief of staff Sir Edward Lister yesterday stressed to the London section of The Sunday Politics that the public clamours for more police officers on the street. That's perfectly true, yet the mayor's draft policing plan - which blazes the trail for the rest of the country - glibly assumes that more "bobbies on the beat" automatically mean less crime, while its assertion that their increased presence will strengthen public confidence ignores the aspects of police performance where more confidence is most urgently required. | Johnson's chief of staff Sir Edward Lister yesterday stressed to the London section of The Sunday Politics that the public clamours for more police officers on the street. That's perfectly true, yet the mayor's draft policing plan - which blazes the trail for the rest of the country - glibly assumes that more "bobbies on the beat" automatically mean less crime, while its assertion that their increased presence will strengthen public confidence ignores the aspects of police performance where more confidence is most urgently required. |
| The confidence shortage is catching, it seems. A kerfuffle over incorrect figures for police number figures published on the GLA website during the ongoing public consultation on the plan has done nothing to improve the Assembly's confidence in Johnson's policing deputy Stephen Greenhalgh, who heads the powerful Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime - and that's just his fellow Conservatives, I'm told. | The confidence shortage is catching, it seems. A kerfuffle over incorrect figures for police number figures published on the GLA website during the ongoing public consultation on the plan has done nothing to improve the Assembly's confidence in Johnson's policing deputy Stephen Greenhalgh, who heads the powerful Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime - and that's just his fellow Conservatives, I'm told. |
| One Tory AM was so appalled by his debut under scrutiny in the role last summer that she was moved to rebuke him publicly. A complaint about Greenhalgh relating to his time as leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council is currently being examined by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. | One Tory AM was so appalled by his debut under scrutiny in the role last summer that she was moved to rebuke him publicly. A complaint about Greenhalgh relating to his time as leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council is currently being examined by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. |
| Greenhalgh has dismissed the complaint as "politically motivated." This is like accusing a herring of being a fish, but will surely not influence the IPCC's deliberations. Should the watchdog decide that the complaint merits investigation, the days of the able but impulsive Greenhalgh as MOPAC chief may well be numbered. Some suspect that they are anyway. | Greenhalgh has dismissed the complaint as "politically motivated." This is like accusing a herring of being a fish, but will surely not influence the IPCC's deliberations. Should the watchdog decide that the complaint merits investigation, the days of the able but impulsive Greenhalgh as MOPAC chief may well be numbered. Some suspect that they are anyway. |
| Johnson's big second term need is to allay Tory concerns that he's all celebrity and no substance. When he eventually returns to the House of Commons and starts in earnest on the task of elbowing rivals for the party leadership out of his way he'll want to be able list some big London achievements - jobs, growth, transport infrastructure gains - not least because the capital declined to swing as far behind David Cameron as the country in general did in 2010. The plan looks sound on paper, but will it go awry if the City Hall zoo gets out control? |