Boris Johnson answers your questions

ConservativeHome selected some of the questions you recently asked and Boris Johnson answers them below.

Liz Stevenson: Can you bring back the Routemaster? If not, what will you replace 'bendy buses' with? The money has been spent on them now and I think most 'Londoners' have moved on. Don't you think that the most pressing transport issue is over crowding on the tubes? Do you have a policy on addressing this?

We need (A) to get Crossrail built as soon as possible, since it will ferry 72,000 people East-west every day. We need (B) to move on from the Metronet fiasco and get the Tube upgraded, jettisoning all ideological posturing about the financing arrangements. We need (C) to prise the thumbs of the RMT from the neck of London's transport system, and I see no reason why we should be able to make a mobile phone the size of a credit card and not be able (D) to introduce air conditioning in the Tube. It is also vital (E) to improve the overground rail links, for instance by connecting the North London line with the South West of the city.

I do indeed intend to phase out the bendy buses and replace them with a new version of the Routemaster, a beautiful and iconic machine which would gladden the hearts of Londoners and be so popular as (F) to help further to alleviate pressure on the Tube.

We also need to make it easier for people to switch between modes of transport, so that they can take bikes on trains… but there will be much more on this and other matters if I am lucky enough to get the nomination.

Henry Mayhew: What will you do to develop London's architecture?

We have fantastic architects working in London, but when I look at some of these developments I am filled with gloom. Whatever the purpose of these buildings, you could not say they were striving for immortality.

Look at the housing now being erected, and ask yourself how it will be viewed in 50 or 70 or even 100 years' time. Will our children or our grandchildren want to conserve and restore these buildings, so as to retain their “charm” or “character”?

The disasters of the 1960s seem so profoundly to have rocked the confidence of British architects that they do not even presume to build something that will last. There is a mood of built-in obsolescence, a working assumption that the next generation will want to tear it down, just as we are being forced to tear down so many post-war tower blocks.

Of course the Mayor of London cannot legislate for taste, or impose some canon of beauty. But we should not be repeating the mistakes of the 1960s, by creating new rabbit-hutch blocks - with the smallest rooms in western Europe - in the back gardens of London's suburbs; and above all we should not be imposing these developments against the violent opposition of local communities and borough leaders.

There is huge scope for more housing in London, and for helping people to get on the property ladder. We urgently need to get on with it, rather than wasting time in a feud between the Mayor and the boroughs.

But for heaven's sake let's get it right this time, and not produce short-term solutions that posterity will regret.

Les: I think you're great and you certainly make me laugh but what can you possibly bring to the role of London Mayor which would not be better delivered by those candidates with a solid track record in local government?

I increasingly think that the single biggest disadvantage of the current incumbent is that he has already spent 40 years in London politics. What this job needs is someone who loves London, but who can also bring a fresh pair of eyes and a willingness to work with the waste-eliminating skills of the borough leaders.

Tony Makara: What is the best way to approach urban regeneration in the city, Ken Livingstone has clearly failed to clean up some of the more unsightly areas of London, what can you do to improve things?

There are a huge number of things you can do, but let's concentrate for a second on fly-tipping. It's a health-hazard; it's anti-social; it causes huge anger, and it sums up people's indifference to the streets they are living in, the entrenched apathy that causes them to pass swiftly by if they see a bike being stolen or graffiti being sprayed. Fly-tipping symbolises the absence of social responsibility and it costs London £16.5 million a year to clear up.

As Mayor, I'd like to encourage the efforts of boroughs such as Barnet where fly-tipping has almost been eradicated through a zero-tolerance approach. It's not the whole answer to clearing up the unsightly areas; we need an integrated approach to regeneration, a strategy that runs from housing to education to crime. But it's one way to make an immediate visual difference.

Peter: Do you sympathise with those who consider the government posters stamped with 'Mayor of London' all over the capital to be unBritish and more than a little Orwellian? Would you scrap them?

Yes - and I wonder how much the ad agency was paid to come up with the LondON concept. Why LondON? Why not LONdon? Or LonDON, in honour of the many academics who make this city the knowledge capital of the world? The current Mayor spends far too much money promoting himself - including the shocking publication called The Londoner which costs millions of pounds. I will scrap that, for sure.

MikeA: Do you intend to appear as a guest presenter on this Autumn's series of Have I Got News For You? Will you push for Ken to be a panelist?

It's always an honour to be asked to go on HIGNFY and I do enjoy it. But this year… I am not sure. I am deadly serious about this campaign and about the good things we could do in London and have to focus all my efforts on that.

Yogi: How do you plan to galvanise the anti Livingstone vote and the waverers and get the vote out? I am sure as a journalist you are well aware of the power of the media and how Livingstone is capable of manipulating and his power of patronage. So, will you roll up your sleeves and are you prepared for a very dirty campaign?

Hmmm. I think I will leave the dirty fighting to the other side. They have been trying all sorts of bollocks in the last few weeks, and as far as I can see it has been completely unsuccessful.

Joseph Brayson: If you are accepted as the Conservative nominee, would you consider resigning your seat as MP for Henley, so you could devote your campaigning full time.

No, though you may recall that the present mayor remained MP for Brent long AFTER he had won. That is not a precedent I intend to follow.

Justin Hinchcliffe: Do you think there should be an area in central London dedicated to the former pigeons of Trafalgar Square? They're a huge tourist attraction, are nice little creatures and, above all, the animal welfare vote in London is massive!

Interesting idea, though I am not sure how we would explain to the pigeons where their reservation was. Unless you are proposing that we teach them to read?

James Burdett: Though I'm not a Londoner, I commute in on a daily basis. Whoever wins the election next year will be responsible for transport in London in the major part of the build-up to the 2012 Olympics. How are you going to ensure that London's transport infrastructure is sufficient to cope with the continued daily demand of the commute plus a larger than normal tourist influx?

See answer above. It is really worrying that the Central Line may not be ready in time. We MUST push ahead with these repairs to the Tube (which are in themselves barely adequate to the scale of the problem), and we need urgently to extend the DLR and the East London line. The tragedy is that ten years of dithering means that Crossrail will be nowhere near ready in time.

Comments

[David Boothroyd]

Justin, you must be mad. The pigeons are not nice, they despoil Trafalgar Square and are a considerable health hazard. When Westminster Council debated them, we only needed to listen to a presentation from the 'save the pigeons' group before every single member voted to ban feeding them.

[chrisblore]

Come on Boris, we know you have some solid ideas but resorting to language like "dirty bollocks" only serves to fuel the image created by our opponents. As it happens, I agree with you, but please lets' try and keep this professional.

[Patrick Ratnaraja]

Do you think you will listen to the concerns of all communities living in London or ignore some like my community (100,000 Tamils)like the other Tories do?

[Angelo Basu]

I disagree, in his usual pithy way, Boris has summed up the dirty tactics as the bollocks that they are in language that any Londoner will understand.

[justin Hinchcliffe]

Well, there's hope for the pigeons as Boris has not ruled out finding them a new home. To answer hBoris' question, they will flock to where the food is.

For more info, go to http://www.savethepigeons.org/index.html where I am the Tory rep.

[Tony Makara]

Very interesting comments from Boris. I see the Labour conference were busy attacking Boris again this morning with their inverted snobbery. Such hypocracy from the same people who spend more on hiring lifestyle guru's than most people earn in a week. Very Animal Farm. Boris for Mayor!

[Stephen]

Talking about Livingstone and advertising, someone should find out how much Livingstone WASTED on those TV ads for the tube. The most egregious waste of taxpayers money. What was the purpose of advertising the tube to Londoners, it's not as if we don't know it's there.

[Colin]

...and the congestion charge? Londoner asked about what it is you would replace it with.

[Mr Angry]

Boris believe it or not there is more to transport policy than bikes you know, especially for all those too old, disabled, dignified or lazy to want to cycle 7 miles from outer London to zone 1. Get real, Crossrail will take many years to build and we have a genuine crisis in transport in London right now so let's hear some detail from you on transport better than vague comments about the relative size of mobile phone please.Oh and try not to forget that motorists are voters too, a continuation of Livingstones visceral hatred against the motor car is not going to get you very far.

[Clive]

Bus lanes are the biggest cause of traffic congestion in London. Long queues of traffic stopping and starting while a bus lane remains, for the most part, empty are a common sight throughout London. Bus lanes are certainly no solution to congestion in a city like London and, due to the latter scenario, help to add considerably to traffic pollution fumes. What are your thoughts on this?

[Clive]

The proposed £25 congestion charge has made Ken Livingstone look like a fanatical idiot and his further suggestion of a 20 mph speed limit throughout London has just re-enforced that image. What about the problem of roadworks, a constant headache for ALL road users, that has not yet been properly addressed? Might I suggest that we name and shame those companies responsible for road works by making them display company signs prominently at every road works site so that we all know the cause of our misery.