Offramp wrote:
The media keep describing him as the first muslim mayor, but there have
only been two others!


Rather more than that. He's the first Moslem mayor of *any* Western capital
city, not just London.

He's also the Brit with the largest-ever personal mandate:
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2016-...tical-history/

In message
-sept
ember.org, at 08:59:56 on Sun, 8 May 2016, Recliner
remarked:
He's also the Brit with the largest-ever personal mandate:
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2016-...tical-history/

1.3m votes (including second preference) from a City of 8.5m people only
5.5m have registered to vote is not that big of an endorsement.

But as an out-of-London person, I'll be doing my best to keep him to his
very clear promise not to increase TfL fares for the next four years.

Not a big bus user currently, but his promise of transferable fares for
an hour is also something which might well make me use them more.
--
Roland Perry

On 08/05/2016 14:21, Roland Perry wrote:

In message
-sept
ember.org, at 08:59:56 on Sun, 8 May 2016, Recliner
remarked:
He's also the Brit with the largest-ever personal mandate:
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2016-05-07/new-london-mayor-sadiq-khan-receives-the-biggest-personal-mandate-in-british-political-history/


1.3m votes (including second preference) from a City of 8.5m people only
5.5m have registered to vote is not that big of an endorsement.

Much the same can be said of the votes accrued to any one political
party in a general election.

The point of that article is just that (lots of) people voted directly
for him, which is explained by his position (Mayor) being highly unusual
in British terms given the size of the electorate. Though in future
further metro Mayors are on their way (e.g. Greater Manchester).


But as an out-of-London person, I'll be doing my best to keep him to his
very clear promise not to increase TfL fares for the next four years.

Amongst other things, worth bearing in mind that the Travelcard is a
joint TfL+NR product, and so the new Mayor won't be able to unilaterally
freeze the prices of it - though IIRC he will be able to insist on it
only increasing by inflation/RPI (the rule is that any above-RPI
increases need to be agreed by both the London TOCs and TfL - the TOCs
will basically always agree to that, meanwhile what TfL agrees to
depends on the Mayor's policy).

He also has no power to freeze NR Oyster/contactless PAYG fares (and
UIVMM part of the Crossrail concession deal between TfL and central
government is that Crossrail/Betty line fares are on the NR fare scale).


Not a big bus user currently, but his promise of transferable fares for
an hour is also something which might well make me use them more.

You can enjoy one of Boris's legacies, the Roastmaster bus, which has
come out to play in the recent hot weather!