Boris for Mayor...
When it was announced that Boris Johnson was standing as the Conservative candidate for London Mayor people laughed... including me, but now we laugh no longer: Boris is Mayor!
Instead of focusing on Ken Livingstone and his downfall I thought I would take a different tact and concentrate on our new London Mayor.
So how did Boris go from joke candidate to the first Conservative to wield any serious power since John Major in 1997? There wasn't one defining factor, people were disillusioned with Ken Livingstone and many people I know voted for Boris just so they could get Ken out. It wasn't all down to this though, Boris did have some polices, for example he wanted to phase out the bendy buses that have become a real pain for commuters across London.
Since becoming Mayor he's come out and said he wants to tackle the gang culture which has effected the youth of London so badly and to tackle this problem he's appointed Ray Lewis as Deputy Mayor for Young People. Ray has considerable experience of working with young people as the Director of EastSide Young Leaders Academy, which seems like a very positive step for young people in London.
Boris seems to be racing out of the blocks and at the Vaisakhi celebrations in Trafalgar Square last weekend he spoke about being a 'Mayor for all of London' – Is this just PR spiel or genuine enthusiasm and understanding of the cultural and religious diversity that is London?...I guess only time will tell.
Not everyone is convinced though, Diane Abbot MP for Hackney North called Boris an “accident waiting to happen”, but I guess there were a lot of people sceptical of the Labour party when they came to power. To me this is just another leap into the unknown and although I'm not a big fan of Boris (in the political sense), I am exited to see how things will go. We're stuck with him for the next four years so maybe we shouldn't be knocking the guy before he's started. Shouldn't we just give him a chance?
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