Congratulations to Boris Johnson for successfully overcoming the incumbent Ken Livingstone by 139,772 votes. Boris polled 53% (1,168,738 votes) to Ken’s 47% (1,028,966) of 1st and 2nd preference votes.
Boris has been likened to Marmite. You either love him, or hate him. You either see him as a highly intelligent, capable man; or you see him as a bumbling buffoon who makes more gaffes than Gordon Brown. I personally believe him to be the former, and as such admire him greatly. People have always made grand comments such as “Boris for PM”, and “I would vote for the Conservatives if Boris was leading them”. This is now so much closer to being a reality than ever before.
How has this come about then? Boris has been known for years mainly because of appearance on Have I Got News For You (HIGNFY), as well as for the repercussions of many statements made in his articles. Liverpool and piccaninnies ring a bell? But I believe it is his ambition that has driven him on. He gave up his position as editor of The Spectator to take his place on the Shadow Cabinet. This shows the direction he wanted to take his career.
He set about the task of running for Mayor with a seriousness that took a lot of people by surprise; implementing policy idea after policy idea. Now that he is in office he needs to establish himself and consolidate himself in the minds of Londoners as a serious heavyweight in both Local, National and International politics. I have no doubt that he will do this with the animated enthusiasm that he always shows.
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Boris; The new Mayor of London
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3 comments:
Boris is indeed a legend, but I would rather he had the courage to undo some of Red Ken's appalling reforms. For example, he'd do well to reduce the cost of Tube tickets from the outrageous £4 single and stop penalising people who don't have Oyster cards. He should also abolish the Congestion Charge, which was never about reducing congestion but always about persecuting motorists.
He is at least abolishing the ridiculous £25 congestion charge for "Gas Guzzlers". That really was Ken living in Cuckoo Land!
Boris is doing a good job sor far, by proposing new policies such as banning alcohol on the tube.
I wish him good luck and as far as transports are concerned, he would do well by pushing Crossrail and a new Chelsea-Hackey tube line forward.
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