Adam has already had some fun with Boris's latest message to his fans. I particularly liked this bit:
I was angry and disappointed to learn that my former deputy had made some very serious errors of judgement when it came to expenses. He rightly stepped down and we must now move on. I won't gloss over my own issue with expenses. Despite being a fanatical cyclist, I have had to use taxis over the past year to travel to official functions as Mayor. To be honest, I always prefer using the bike, even to very posh functions. However, sometimes using a taxi is unavoidable.
Yes, but that's also avoiding the real issues, which are whether his taxi use was excessive or broke GLA rules. The matter seems likely to be addressed by the Audit Panel on 16 July and by the BMAC five days later. Before both comes the next Mayor's Question Time. That could be lively.
Meanwhile, as promised, I've now had a look at those parts of Ken Livingstone's record of taxi use drawn to my attention by Boris's office on Friday. These show that he lived larger in taxi terms than Boris in 2001/02, topping the £5,000 mark (pdf), and also kept the till busy in 2000/01 (£3,690) and 2002/03 (£2,748). He only passed the grand-and-half mark in 2003/04 though (add together his account and "other" taxi expenses), and - moving on to the years Boris's office didn't draw my attention too - his total annual taxi expenses only went into four figures once after that, in 2005/06.
In 2004/05, 2006/07 and 2007/08 Livingstone's numbers stayed in the hundreds. So unless I'm missing something here (entirely possible), Ken's cab consumption showed a marked downward trend over the course of his eight years in power. Boris would be wise to tail him.
Update, 14:42 More on cabs, Boris and Coleman at Cif.
