Mayor Johnson Gets Cracking

My latest for the Guardian politics blog.

Mayor Johnson made his first appointment at the weekend: youth worker and former prison officer Ray Lewis runs the charity Eastside Young Leaders Academy where they try to put wayward young black boys back on the rails. His title is Deputy Mayor for Young People. Lewis campaigned with Johnson, most notably in Edmonton alongside David Cameron. He impressed me then and did so again today.

We met at Dagenham fire station, where New Boris came to praise the work of LIFE - the London Fire Brigade's Local Intervention Fire Education - which teaches teenagers to do what firefighters do. Plainly, the visit was to demonstrate the mayor's determination to honour his campaign pledge to foster youth provision for the disadvantaged.

I wondered, though, if the location was chosen for wider symbolic purposes too. The fire station is round the corner from where Barking and Dagenham Council sits. The BNP is the second largest party there. Mayor Johnson has insisted that his administration will embrace and reflect the capital's wide range of ethnicities. Lewis is black. Was a political message being sent or was all that in my imagination?

"I can't account for your imagination," he replied - a smart, side-step of a reply. The politics, he went on is, "slightly outside my remit," explaining that his job and his passion is helping young people. He's very calm and self-possessed with a firm-but-fair, old-school sort of authority. Best known for his work with young people of the male variety, it's easy to see why many would respond to him positively. What about females? "I also work with young ladies," he said, elaborating that his team includes the necessary expertise. Johnson later told me that Lewis would be working in concert with the boroughs. I wonder if their ethos will differ from Lewis's. It will be interesting to see what results.

As for the new mayor, he seemed thoroughly at ease. I apologised for not voting for him. He forgave me with smiling, mayoral magnanimity. It was all terribly One Nation In One City, if you see what I mean. The throwback aspects of Brand Johnson were clearly visible. It wasn't just the accent, it was the hands stuffed into the suit jacket pockets in the patrician manner, the firm handshakes with men in uniforms, the endorsement of disciplined teamwork and improving physical pursuits. Time will tell how much change Mayor Johnson and Deputy Mayor Lewis can effect. But, make no mistake, conservatism with a large "C" or a small has arrived in City Hall.

As originally published here.

Comments

[Paul]

He's also made some more appointments too:

http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=16774

One of which was as you predicted a few weeks ago, if memory serves:

http://www.bexley.gov.uk/news/2008/05/0601.html