Ken and Boris radio analysis

It may be selfish of me as a Londoner to suspect that this programme will be of interest to those who live outside the capital, but I think that the office of London Mayor is politically significant for AS students. The new London governing arrangements (in place since 2000) can be assessed alongside Labour’s other devolution measures in terms of their positive and negative impact. There is also some scope here to analyse their impact in terms of whether City Hall helps to close the democratic deficit in the UK.

The blurb from the BBC states:

“Ken and Boris. If you’re in the UK, you almost certainly know who I am referring to and what they have in common.

That is one example of the impact having a Mayor of London has made in the eight years since the job was established. But Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson were certainly not who Tony Blair had in mind when he was converted to the idea of directly-elected mayors.

I can remember preparing for an interview with Mr Blair when he was giving a speech on the subject early in his premiership.

Who should slip in to see him, but Richard Branson.

He was much closer to Mr Blair’s ideal; a successful entrepreneur, unencumbered by the tribalism of party politics.

Instead, the job has been held by two maverick partisans.”

BBC Radio 4 on 8 January 2009. I will try to post details of the podcast if there is one.