Caroline Pidgeon’s First Outing

The newly-elected LibDem member of the Greater London Assembly (GLA), Caroline Pidgeon, did her first local party members’ briefing last night, when she went to Beckenham. Hailed by the Evening Standard as ‘someone to watch’, Caroline has been given the plum transport brief, which is the one that Lynne Featherstone used so effectively before moving onwards and upwards to become an MP. But as Caroline lamented, GLA members have no real power, unlike her role as deputy leader of Southwark Council. Instead, their job is to scrutinise the Mayor. There have been two Mayoral question times already, and Caroline has been pressing Boris Johnson on his pledge to bring in a Routemaster Mark II bus, as well as on trams and other issues of concern. Oddly, unlike his predecessor Ken Livingstone, Boris did not go round City Hall meeting and greeting GLA members straight after his election, and Caroline is not alone in wondering if he will get bored with all his mayoral resposibilities after a while. But as he seems to be busy appointing unelected people to do most of the real work, perhaps that won’t matter.