Ten reasons to vote for Boris Johnson

We know it's going to be close.  But it's time to forget the polls... it's all about turning out the vote now.  Next week London can elect a new Mayor and end the nasty, wasteful years of Livingstonian sleaze.

Margaret Thatcher couldn't do it.  Tony Blair couldn't do it.  But next Thursday Boris Johnson can defeat Ken Livingstone at the ballot box.  Next Thursday Londoners can end the reign of City Hall's high-taxing, dictator-hugging Mayor. 

That should be enough for every Conservative but next week isn't just about voting against Livingstone.  We can vote for something positive, too.  Last Thursday we sought the ten top reasons to vote FOR Boris.  And this is our selection of what you contributed (with one or two of our own favourite policy ideas).

We've ranked the ten with number one as our top reason for voting for Boris Johnson:

(10) Boris wants to put a Battle of Britain hero on Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth.  The BBC has more on this campaign to honour New Zealander Sir Keith Park.

(9) 10,000 'street trees' for the London neighbourhoods that need them most. No more garden-grabbing.  Also popular with many Londoners is Boris' opposition to a third runway at Heathrow.

(8) Boris will scrap bendy buses. Bendy buses clog junctions, crush bicycles and are a haven for fare dodgers.  They are not made for London's old, windy streets.  Boris will scrap them and replace them with a modernised, disabled-friendly version of the Routemaster.

(7) Boris will work with the boroughs (a common theme of his) to build 50,000 more affordable homes by 2011.  His development manifesto also includes protection for the small shops that are often the lifeblood of local communities.

(6) Boris will be a great international ambassador for London, a celebrity figure who will attract tourists and investors.  London will no longer be represented by a Mayor who devotes a large part of his office to consorting with Chavez, Castro and other dictators.  Yusuf al-Qaradawi and other extremists won't be welcome at City Hall any longer.

(5) Boris will campaign for a fairer share of the UK's wealth to be spent on London. London gets a raw deal from the Treasury although London has huge problems of poverty.  Boris has complained at  Livingstone's silence about Brown-Darling's unfair funding of London.  With Boris as Mayor, London's poorest communities will have a champion.

(4) Boris will spend less on PR and more on police officers.  We recently learnt that Livingstone's image doesn't come cheap.  He spends three time as much on PR as 10 Downing Street.  Boris will divert much of this spin funding into extra policing of buses.  He'll reallocate taxpayers' money to recruit 440 new Police Community Support Officers for London's most rowdy bus routes.

(3) Boris will establish a Mayor's fund that will encourage the richest people in London to give to the poorest Londoners. Britain does not have America's tradition of philanthropy but London's Mayor could put the biggest givers on the map by honouring them and encouraging others.

(2) Boris will introduce a Cabinet system of government for London. London will no longer be run by a socialist and his cronies.  It will be run by a diversity of people who are recruited from the Assembly, from the boroughs, from leading poverty-fighting organisations and from business.  London government will be transparent with all expenditure published on a website.

(1) Boris will introduce crime mapping for London. Boris has made fighting crime his number one priority and insofar as he promotes social entrepreneurs like Ray Lewis then he deserves to succeed.  But of all of his anti-crime policies, the crime mapping policy is the stand out initiative.  The police and the bureaucrats at Scotland Yard will no longer be able to hide from accountability.  Publicly-reported crime level data and crime trends will be weapons in the hands of every Londoner to get better, New York-style policing from borough Commanders and other policing chiefs.

So what are you waiting for?  Go to BackBoris.com to offer help.  No excuses!  Even readers outside of London can donate time or money to the campaign.

PS The promised bottle of champagne will go to MikeC who alerted us to the fourth plinth campaign - which was news to us.  Please get in touch Mike.

Comments

[Tony Makara]

(2) Boris will introduce a Cabinet system of government for London. London will no longer be run by a socialist and his cronies. It will be run by a diversity of people who are recruited from the Assembly, from the boroughs, from leading poverty-fighting organisations and from business

This is exactly the sort of corporate government that the Conservative party should engage in. I hope we will see this replicated at national level. If we are to build a Britain that goes beyond failed political tribalism we need to bring in the best thinkers and innovators from all branches of society. Ken Livingstone's brand of closed-shop politics has nothing to maatch this. Superb initiative from Boris.

[David (One of many)]

I think that Yasmin Alibhai Brown not voting for Boris would make a welcome (11)...

[Duncan]

(5) Boris will campaign for a fairer share of the UK's wealth to be spent on London.

I imagine a change in public funding to prefer London could only come at the expense of the regions and would damage the Tories at the next general election.

[Angelo Basu]

I don't think there would be a lot of damage if the change in public funding was a reduction in the subsidy to Scotland...

[David Moore]

Boris May I ask why this question, why is this goverment putting the olympic shooting venue at woolwich arsenal at a price of £28,000000 and two weeks after the games are finished knocking it down at a price of £6,000000 when there is a permanent shooting venue already in place at Dartford , this cannot fit in with what lord Coe said when, and I q1uote " the games will be a legacy for future generations ". also when Debbie Evans,David Lukes head of sport competition assosiate was asked why Woolwich said I will throw as much money as I like to make sure the shooting goes there, of course its not her monie it is public money. The police have also raised concern by saying publicly that it will be almost impossible to secure, and Dartford would be there ideal location. Also the clean up operation of lead shot will be to the tune of £3,000000 ect. and when the shooting is taking place people will have to be removed from their houses because of the possibility of hit by projectiles and sustaining injury or worse. Please can anybody explain this absolute madness. It would seem to me that there is a massive financial reward for whoever gets the job to build this white elephant.
David Moore

[Phil Taylor]

Last week Balls and the Mayor were slagging off Boris' Mayors' Fund as being 19th century charity. It does at least hold out the hope that new money will be bought into London to provide benefits to London's young people. The Mayor's approach is to rape London's economic developmnent pot. He has already taken £20 million out of the LDA to augment a central government programme so that he can rebrand it as his own "London Youth Offer" without spending any GLA cash whatsoever - nice trick.

http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=13752

He has now promised to fund another two years of this programme entirely from the LDA. He hasn't explained what programmes will be cut to fund this.

[Londoner]

Well I'm glad reasons 1 to 9 were stronger than reason 10. You cannot be serious that who goes on a plinth in Trafalgar Sq is more important than all his other policies not mentioned in nos 1 to 9 !!

I'd even put "Showing politics is safe for toffs again" as a better reason than your No 10 or, alternatively, "having a Mayor who can take sides in the Boat Race".

But I agree wholeheartedly with your nos 1 to 9 of course, and am now off to do some more leaflet delivery for him.

[Pisaboy]

Crime-mapping is a good one but it's easily rivalled by the proposal to put all GLA spending into an online searchable database - surely that merits a top ten slot?

[C Powell]

The best reason for voting for Boris is to get Ken out; the second best reason is that it will scare Labour witless; the third reason is that we have to hope that he will bring an end to the community/identity politics so loved by the Left. Look at the comments on Alibhai-Brown's article in the Independent today or the endless pro-Ken articles in the Guardian: the vitriol expressed against Ken and Labour is quite amazing. People want a change and, even if not Tories, are prepared to vote for Boris just to get it. "Time for a change" is a powerful argument.

[Jill, London]

Phil Taylor - There is an update on Comrade Livingstone's attitude to "19th century charity" indicating his theme tune has become "The Thieving Magpie".

Unbelievably - after denouncing Boris's Mayor's Fund for London plan - Comrade Livingstone has now shamelessly stolen it!

Courtesy of "The Evening Standard":

"He said on Friday: "Boris Johnson's plan that our young people should have to depend on charitable handouts from the City of London for the investment they need is a throwback to Charles Dickens's 19th-century world and would be doomed to fail and disappoint them and the local community organisations who need support."

"Yet by Saturday he had changed his mind, saying the idea would provide a "useful sum" but only if it was run by him. He added "I'll steal any good idea that Boris has got."

Link:http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23479499-details/%27Desperate%27+Ken+plunders+another+Johnson+policy/article.do

[Matt Carter]

Boris couldn't run the proverbial p***-up in a brewery, never mind something like this. Why did he name that banker? Oh yes, because everyone already knows this.

He had better name some real executives soon, there is no chance that Londoners are actually going to let him in without some real assurances that professional people who know what they are doing and are capable of delivering will be in charge.

[Neil Harding]

10 - who cares about some guy Londoners have never heard of? The people of London wanted Mandela and the Tories including Boris did their best to stop it (oh until the election and they pretend otherwise)

9- Ken already plants more than this - it'd be nice if you actually bothered checking your facts.

8 - Or maybe not. What is it going to cost £100m, £200m, who knows? What we do know is that bendy buses are on the busiest routes and even Boris admits they are disabled friendly. The routemaster won't happen or if it does will be so expensive it stops funding for far more important hybrid low emission buses.

7 - You mean the Nimby Tory Boroughs that block house building. Finally the Mayor has the power to force them to build housing. Boris is a Tory who wants to scrap building affordable housing - it is in his manifesto, try reading it.

6 - Is this a joke? Boris has deeply offended Liverpool, Portsmouth, Islam and black people with his casual remarks. His minders might be able to partly shut him up for a few months but not for 4 years.

5 - Ken has won real money for London, Boris didn't even turn up in parliament to vote for Crossrail.

4 - Boris will spend less on police officers because the Tories want to reduce the Mayor precept - over 80% of which is spent on paying police wages.

3 - Charity raise 1% of what taxes do. This was tried with the poor laws in last century - some of us remember how Thatcherism tripled poverty and yet you still have the same policies. Why does Labour have a 20% lead amongst the poorest 20%? - Because people know the Tories are for the rich - they cut their taxes at the expense of the rest of us.

2 - A cabinet system is a step backward. What we need is a leader not a joker.

1 - What good will that do when we have less police and less spending on youth services. The Tories talk tough but have policies that doubled crime when they were in. It is the callous neglect of youth under the Tories that has given us so many dysfunctional welfare whores - the Tories cynically encouraged people onto incapacity benefits to hide the scale of their unemployment in the Eighties.

Boris is not fit to run a whelk store!

[LondonLX]

@"Neil Harding" ... even though you're in brighton you should know how bad ken is for London.
Being a labour guy you may be too predudiced to like Boris but are you really pro-ken? really?! is he paying you?!

Ken wouldn't even vote for himself if he read the papers - but he's too ignorant to even notice how bad he is!

This is a good read:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23478875-details/Who's+the+real+joker+-+Boris+or+the+Mayor/article.do

[Mr Routemaster]

It must be noted that Bendy Buses only replaced a couple of Routemaster operated routes. Routemaster routes were mostly replaced by standard off the shelf double-deckers.

If Boris is going to replace only Bendy Bus routes with new Routemasters, this is a disappointment. He should aim to make most existing routes in London (Bendy Bus or otherwise) take on the new disabled friendly Routemaster.