On Jul 4, 4:05*pm, wrote:
In article ,

(David Cantrell) wrote:
On Tue, Jul 03, 2012 at 07:54:10PM -0500,
wrote:
In article ,
(Charles Ellson) wrote:
Devolution (including the London Assembly & Mayor)
That isn't devolution, that is a jumped-up county council.
A bit more than that. It also controls a transport system carrying
half the nation's passengers.

That's pretty much *all* it is. *The mayor has no significant powers
over anything else that people care about. *And I'm not sure what powers
the assembly has at all.

The mayor has rather more planning powers than any county council. The
assembly is purely a scrutiny body. A bit like parliament.

The whole concept is nonsense. Cities have mayors, not counties. The
UK does not otherwise directly elect heads of authorities. UK voters
elect party members; the leader of the party with most elected
assembly members becomes head of the authority. The title clashes
with Lord Mayer of (the City of) London.

A smaller GLA would be better (Middlesex). I do not favor a Judge/
Chief Executive (As elected in Kentucky Counties). A board of
supervizors like California and Nevada would be a little better. But,
why not have a County Authority with extra powers?