by John Kennedy.

Well let’s start at the beginning, it was a New Year that offered much change for Londoners and the Back Boris team got off to a flying start. Boris did what any decent politician has to do to gain power and that is too press the flesh of all voters and meet, greet, laugh, joke and certainly highlight the problems that hardworking Londoners were feeling and experiencing.

Within the first couple of months of the year polls were certainly showing we had a contest on but it was still  surprising to find Ken Livingstone and his team not really taking the conservative candidate very seriously, in fact this smacked of a arrogance that was surely to slap the Red Leader well and truly in the face. Now the finally month of campaigning came so quickly and I’ll declare a interest here, I stood on the Kingsway, High Holborn, Fleet St, Cannon Street and leafleted my colleagues in the taxi industry and Londoners heading home from work. What was interesting was the amount of people who refused to take a leaflet on the basis they would be backing Boris.....!

Well the day of May the 4th came and the polls finally closed and all but the bbc failed to call the result in favour of Boris Johnson, a well organised campaign sending the present Mayor on whirlwind tours across the capital made the difference with Ken Livingstone very rarely venturing into the suburbs he was doomed to fail, for the working, and all politicians should take note, the WORKING men and women decided to vote for change. With the deaths of young men continuing to rise, a Police commissioner failing to get a grip at street level, a proposed increase in the congestion charge for those with family cars, council taxes rising, scandal at city hall with one of the Livingstone’s key aides and a Olympic budget out of control it was probably no surprise that the Red Leader lost power. For on May the 4th  over 1.1 million Londoners voted for change and Boris Johnson was elected Mayor of the world’s greatest city.

It is always pleasing to back a winner but a lot of people didn’t take Boris seriously, I’ve always liked him and since he sat in the house of commons have always shouted a hello to him when seeing him cycle around Westminster, you see Boris would always say hello back. Manners and your public persona are so important because the web may well let us communicate quickly but the word of mouth carries equal weight and certainly travels far. Now it didn’t take long before the odd mistake was made but not by Boris but by the odd aide or deputy Mayor, two left office very quickly one a for a inappropriate comment and the one that hit the headlines was the Ray Lewis affair, he resigned after pressure from the media and allegations of past misconduct.

But Boris still new to the job steadied the ship and like a good captain of a cricket team kept on playing that oh so important straight bat, for Londoners need a sensible Mayor, the Government need London to succeed and the conservatives have at last a holder of high political office who can demonstrate what they can deliver if they were to win the next general election. 

With a promised consultation on the western extension of the congestion charge delivering a massive no, Boris Johnson announced this  was to be scrapped next year, his support for the City of London and all the wealth and jobs this industry creates is vitally important for the future prospects of London, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair stood down last week and this was a victory for the Mayor, a master stroke in fact a six into and over the pavilion. The bendy bus is finally looking for a airport car park scheme for safety, maybe a few of the left wingers at Windsor house could hop on board when they finally leave the streets of London. Plus the scrapping of the mid-year inspection and finally representation to the board of transport for London for the taxi industry,  Boris’s administration really has started to take shape over the last three months.

My only slight worry is the recent actions  by Westminster City council and the Public Carriage Office, the former believes it is a transport authority and the later doesn’t seem to realise it is a regulator of London’s Taxi –cabs and it must understand that to interpret the 1998 Private hire act in the manner and way it is may leave them and ultimately transport for London open to legal challenge by me and my fellow taxi-cab drivers, what’s the new mantra in the UK, Compensation, Compensation, Compensation, the three C’s, however I’m sure when the mayor of London is in receipt of all the facts he may well realise that there is a need to split the PCO in two and keep the world’s best taxi service going for another three hundred years.

So after looking briefly over the first seven months of the new Mayor Boris Johnson’s term of office, I would like to offer my congratulations on winning and certainly I’m proud to work in a city run by a man who really does cross the all the classes and different cultures within the capital. Oh and just out of interest I’ve conducted my own unofficial poll of Londoners within my the taxi-cab and it would appear 8 out of 10 voters really do prefer Boris Johnson to the old out of date Red Leader, Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year, like the London Taxi-cab driver this great city of ours “will prevail and prosper