Some people would still vote Boris if Ken could cure cancer. Ken is a controversial figure, someone people find excuses to dislike. Ken spent decades campaigning for gay rights, only to be denounced as a homophobe for meeting with a controversial cleric, while Boris appears to have gotten away with comparing gay marriage to that between “three men and a dog”.
Livingstone undeniably has a knack for causing offence and expresses anger with a directness unusual for a politician. But this is an election for a mayor not a pope; we want good policy, not a friendly personality. In a time of deep social crisis, Boris is a Thatcherite without any understanding of or interest in the problems of poorer Londoners.
The centerpiece of Ken’s transport policy is the 7% cut in fares followed by a fare freeze. In these tough financial times Boris’ decision to allow fares to rise above inflation would empty the pockets of poorer Londoners for the sake of long term investment that can easily wait until rosier days. Even Boris’ most famous transport move – his eponymous bikes – were the result of a policy inherited from Ken.
Boris claims to have cut crime which is, strictly speaking, true, but only if you ignore the disturbing increase in violent youth crime in the past four years. Last summer London went to hell and Boris refused to cut short his holiday. Ken proposes tackling gang warfare with carefully targeted multi-agency plans, as well as implementing an acti
on plan for disenfranchised youths. Boris has nothing more than a neighborhood watch scheme. Boris scrapped Ken’s target to make 50% of new homes affordable during a crippling housing crisis and, at the same time, backed borough plans to demolish swathes of social housing through regeneration schemes. Boris’ policies are creating a divided London and exacerbating what is fast becoming an epidemic of homelessness. Ken plans to create a “London letting agency’ to give cheaper rates to the poorest, whom Boris would abandon to the whims of the market.
Putting a friendly, ‘eccentric’ face on London isn’t enough. The reality is that London is a grim place to live in for many of its residents, and we need a mayor with serious plans for affordable housing and good policing. We need someone who is willing to delay investment so that Londoners who have been hit hard by recession can have more cash in their pockets. We need Ken.
