The policy picture
London elections 08: Transport has been Ken Livingstone's greatest area of control and innovation. So how do Boris Johnson's policies compare?
A London mayor sets the Met's budget and can influence strategy, but he can't tell the police what to do. He can intervene in planning decisions, but can't control the housing market. He can plant trees and bed in anti-pollution schemes, but the environment is bigger than he is. He can, though, make the bus service better. He can improve the Tube and train services. He can do something to restrain traffic flows. These are the areas where Ken Livingstone has been the can-do mayor and Boris Johnson is his hasn't-done challenger.
If there's one field of policy where Livingstone has won the campaign by a clear margin, it's that of transport. The Blond came a cropper early on. The damage done by his mistaken assertion, made at the end of February, that he could equip the capital's busy bendy bus routes with conductors, for £8 million, has never been repaired.
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