Like the rest of Labour under Gordon “Shakedown” Brown, Ken was more interested in raising taxes that weren’t actually being used to improve the quality of life in London, and embracing Islamist thugs, than taking care of issues that actually affected his constituency, like crime and making London an affordable place to live.

@MrBaliHai: I’ll drink a Zombie the day you’ll praise a leftish politician or journalist.

I always liked the congestion charge, which certainly wasn’t perfect either. But at least he did something to improve the life of Londoners.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_congestion_charge

And London was never a cheap place.

Orange, I hate all politicians, not just the leftish ones, but I especially hate politicians who tell me they’re going to make my life better by taking my money…:-)

And exactly what good did the congestion charge do? Even the Wikipedia article you linked to says that its effect hasn’t been clear.

I’ve spent a lot more time in London and it’s surrounding areas than you have over the past couple of years, and it’s turned into a real shithole. Aggressive drunks, garbage everywhere, unaffordable public transport, surveillance cameras everywhere, ridiculously high food and housing costs. This all happened on Labour’s watch, and they’re now being held responsible by the voters. That’s how politics works.

@MrBaliHate: Ha, good to hear you an equal opportunity hater - so am I.

Let me scrape together some aspects of the whole affair you just mentioned:

The Major of London has VERY limited powers - one of them is transportation and police. Others like social services and immigration are not under his control. London once again has experienced a huge wave of immigration - this time from Poland. That is why many local resources in the boroughs of London are stretched to the limits.

Red Ken could very little about that - very different to the Transvestites powers in New York City.

Britain still has that binge drinking problem and it hasn’t ben brought under control. All Labours social “conformity” laws didn’t help either.

The idea of the congestion charge was to reduce the amount of traffic in inner London - and it seems to have helped a bit. As you know from experience London isn’t exactly a car city like many of your American ones - so the smallest traffic jam can bring the city to a stand still.