Did you see Tim Donovan's interview yesterday with Sir Simon Milton on the London bit of The Politics Show? Milton is effectively Mayor Johnson's number two, and his advocacy of his boss's first budget accords with my pet theory that Boris's biggest problem is that, for all his colourful reputation, his stewardship of City Hall is in danger of turning out a little bland.
"For the first time ever since the GLA was created we're not going to be going back to Londoners and asking to put their taxes up," Milton said, but the sums we're to be spared are very small: a few pence a week. This is dwarfed by the average six percent the rise in public transport fares already in effect. And what benefits will Boris's budget deliver? Milton again:
It's about fighting crime, giving more opportunities to young people, with a switch of resources going into young peoples' services, and particularly grassroots sports, and very big increases in quality of life programmes like the environment and getting more people cycling...we've shifted money to really deal with Boris's priorities.
Well, OK. That's what he was elected for. What, though, will the switch of resources yield? Milton pointed to Johnson's deployment of additional police at transport hubs and to suburban overground stations but also insisted that, "You need to get away from a very sterile debate about police numbers." Indeed, we all do, but until Johnson offers a really bold and coherent new policing philosophy, he's likely to have to keep talking numbers, if only because his opponents will.
Quality of life? As with transport, he's been more striking so far for what's he's stopped than what he's started: the C-charge zone western extension; the postponement of phase three of the Low Emissions Zone. His proposed cycle-hire scheme is a long way in the distance while funding for the London Cycle Network has been reduced. Policies for young people are planned to include ten new academies but, as Milton revealed, sponsors for these are yet to be found.
"It's important to signal to everyone in the public sector that we all have to look to cut waste," Milton said, claiming that £27 million is to be saved in the coming year and £55 million the year after that. But while these are large sums, what is their value beyond the signal they send? In financial terms, has anything really substantial been axed?
Milton's response to Donovan's question along these lines was to mention closing Ken Livingstone's office in Venezuela, but there was something slightly desperate about this as though the best he could manage was to hark back to a dog-whistle theme of the last election.
This isn't to rubbish an old saying: "Look after pennies and the pounds will look after themselves." Nor is it to forecast that Johnson's small(er) government instincts will leave those who voted for him unsatisfied. It is, though, to speculate that it might leave him in a position where his Labour challenger at the next mayoral election won't have much in particular to beat.
