New Mayor - New Hassles
by JFC AdminI believe that most people who voted for Boris Johnson did so not because they thought he’d make a good mayor but rather they believed he was the only option to get rid of Ken. Will this be a mistake? Personally I don’t think Ken did too bad a job, he was never a brilliant mayor but was better than most other mainstream politicians.
Boris was elected on a platform of lies and unimaginative policies. The lies being the routemasters, Boris claims that he will introduce a modern version of the routemaster that combines the open platform for easy access for the able bodied and step free access for the disabled. There’s no way he’s going to introduce a bus with an open platform, health and safety law would almost certainly not approve a bus with an open platform in this day and age. The best we can expect is maybe a few extra heritage routes (short routemaster services aimed at tourists). Remember Ken Livingstone had originally said he’d save the routemaster before he got elected in 2000 but the buses were scrapped due to a combination of litigation (people suing when they’d get injured jumping off a moving bus) and disabled access. Personally I don’t think Boris even knew what a Routemaster was before he started the election campaign.
His other policies weren’t particularly innovative and are just the usual things any new politician would say but without substance. More police, ban booze on tube, weed out corruption, etc. I predict no real changes to the amount of crime in the city, higher bus and tube fares and no new routemasters.