London Life after Ken

It is only four months since Boris Johnson became Mayor of London, but already critical appraisals are underway. This afternoon, at an (indoor) garden party hosted by Hackney Liberal Democrats, Caroline Pidgeon AM, Fiyaz Mughal and non-party political Josh Ryan-Collins (from the New Economics Foundation) gave their assessment of where the capital is now.

Caroline gave a juicy account of Boris in action at City Hall – he has plenty of broad-sweep positions and makes jokey statements, but he is weak on detail, not least on transport — while Fiyaz questioned Boris’s record on diversity, which has lacked a certain gravitas, as the Mayor prefers to make jolly remarks about his partially Turkish ancestry and the fact that his wife (daughter of veteran BBC TV journalist Charles Wheeler) is half Indian, rather than showing a great grasp of the issues. Josh looked forward to the Olympics 2012 and focussed on the reality behind the razzamatazz, notably the fact that despite promises, small businesses in Hackney (and in my own brough of Tower Hamlets) look likely to see very little direct benefit. Iindeed some have already been evicted or have had to close down. Tory Central Office is of course hoping that Boris will make no mega-gaffes between now and the European elections — Londoners’ first chance to pass their own verdict on the various political parties.