Crikey! More Boris

Tonight’s London Evening Standard runs with a front page story reporting on how Boris Johnson has now officially announced he will stand for another term in 2012. This will likely mean a repeat of the 2008 contest, with a slightly rejuvenated Ken Livingstone odds on to be his opponent.

But away from the electoral politics, what can we say about the success of the office now a second man has taken the helm?

The public are broadly satisfied with Boris, but large numbers of Londoners don’t have an opinion either way. This is not because Boris has been unsuccessful at grabbing the limelight (it seems that hardly a day goes by when he pops up in the media somewhere or other), but because the powers of the office are unfortunately limited.

This is a shame since the public support greater local accountability, people in the Celtic fringes have accepted the new devolution settlement as better than what they had before, even if, for example, Alex Salmond’s SNP government faces an uphill task in clinging on to power next May.

Many agree that Ken’s congestion charge was necessary, and has been a success. So far Boris’s biggest achievement is his cycling scheme, and therefore he has yet to make the same policy impact as his predecessor. But both men have proved that the Mayor can deliver solutions to London’s problems and therefore I would contend that the Mayor’s powers should be increased. This is particularly pressing given that the capital’s population is due to rise by another 1.5 million over the next twenty years to 9.2 million, placing enormous pressures on housing and services. Only someone with real power and accountability can respond to this.

If you want an in-depth analysis of Boris’s recored, see the Standard here.