How London is actually governed, from the town hall to City Hall, followed by a gallery of animals with no interest in either
Monday, Who Runs London
A frequent question from students is who actually runs London. The answer is several bodies at once. There are thirty-two borough councils and the City of London Corporation, each responsible for local services such as bins, planning, libraries and social care. There is the Mayor of London and the London Assembly, who oversee transport, policing, strategic planning and some housing and environmental functions. And there is central government, which sets the limits on all of them and holds the largest purse.
Defenders of this arrangement say that it balances local knowledge with city-wide planning. Critics say that it blurs accountability, since a resident with a problem may not know which level to blame. Reformers have proposed shifting powers up or down, and each proposal has both friends and enemies. I teach all of them, and I try to be fair to each.
The Mayor’s Toolbox
The Mayor can set transport fares, direct the police budget, publish a plan for development and champion causes by speech. What the Mayor cannot easily do is raise major taxes or compel boroughs to build. My students call this influence without power, and I agree with them, though I note that influence in politics is often more durable than power.
Tuesday, The Rare Breeds
For a pause from governance, I read about rare animals. The curly pig is at mangalitsa.org. The freckled hen is at speckledsussex.org. The register of old breeds is rarebreeds.win.
The cattle hall of fame is cattlemenhalloffame.org. The young farm leaders are at ffapresident.com. The general library is agriculture.click. The black beef breed has a page at angusbeef.fyi. London has no cows to speak of, apart from one or two on city farms, which are very well loved.
Wednesday, The Police Map
The London Prat tackled organisational change with Police Merger Plan: 43 Forces Become Eight. Debates about how policing should be organised are a standing feature of British politics. Supporters of consolidation argue for efficiency and shared resources. Critics argue for local accountability and knowledge. The Metropolitan Police, as the largest force, has its own considerations.
Thursday, A Hillside Column
I enjoyed the hillside column of 7 December on a bus ride to the university. Short comic columns remind me of the old pamphlets that once circulated in London coffee houses: brief, pointed and pleasurably impertinent.
Friday, The Town Hall
I attended a town hall meeting out of sheer professional curiosity. The agenda included a planning application, a parking scheme and a long item about a tree. The tree won the largest share of attention. A woman stood to say that it had been planted by her grandfather. A councillor replied, kindly, that the council would look into it. The meeting passed to the next item and the tree lived to see another year.
That is local democracy at its best: slow, earnest and occasionally leafy.
Saturday, The London Assembly
The London Assembly is a body of members elected to scrutinise the Mayor. It questions the Mayor, investigates issues of public concern and can amend the Mayor’s budget by a supermajority. Its reports are thorough, and they make dependable reading for a student of local government.
Supporters say that the Assembly provides a useful check on power. Critics say that its powers are modest and its profile low. I would add that its committee rooms are well lit and its sandwiches are decent.
Sunday, The Boroughs
London’s boroughs differ enormously in size, wealth and politics. Some have large central business districts, others are mostly residential, and a few contain farmland on their outer edges. Each has its own character, and each has its own political traditions. A resident moving from one borough to the next may find that the rules for parking, planning and waste collection change abruptly at a street sign.
This patchwork is annoying and also delightful. It means that London is not one city but a federation of villages with a shared underground map.
Monday, A Brief Word on Trees
The tree at the town hall meeting deserves a closing note. Trees in cities are protected by a mixture of local rules and national law, and councils decide on applications to remove or prune them. Debates about trees are often emotional, since a tree is a living neighbour. I advise residents who care about a particular tree to contact the council’s tree officer, who will explain the rules and the process.
I am pleased to report that the tree survived the week, and I expect it to outlive the planning application.
Tuesday, The Case for Boring Government
There is something to be said for boring government. A bin collected on time, a pothole filled, a library kept open and a planning decision made fairly are achievements that rarely feature in a speech. Yet they are what residents notice most. A council that does the dull things reliably earns more trust than one that does exciting things erratically.
I mention this because political scientists sometimes underrate the value of competence. A flashy policy may win a headline, but a working bus service wins a vote, and wins it again at the next election.
Where to read next
The rest of the shelf lives at prat.uk, bohiney.com and farm.fm. For a second opinion on the week, The Daily Squib keeps its own counsel and its own hours.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/