Former Tory London Mayor candidate Steve Norris is out of Ken Livingstone’s big tent! Unceremoniously dumped! Thrown off of the Board of Transport for London! Hurrah!

A radio interviewer asked me whether I thought Ken couldn’t deal with Norris’s criticism of his proposals on congestion charging and cycling and was that was the reason for Steve Norris’s forced exit? Oh please! Ken is a very big boy and I doubt whether the few paid for slings and arrows thrown by Norris were even a minor blip in the scale of criticism Ken meets on a daily basis from a whole range of foes.

Rather, Steve Norris was dumped because his position on the Transport Board had become untenable. You simply cannot take money from as many transport interests as Steve Norris did – and then speak with any credibility whatsoever on the transport issues discussed at board meetings. For example, Norris is on the board of one of the companies in the consortia bidding to take part in the Government’s part-privatisation of the Tube. How could anything he said about the future of the Tube be taken to represent London’s interest rather than those of the company set to make a nice little earner from Tube privatisation?

Another interviewer asked me what difference Norris’s departure would make to London? I think my answer was probably unprintable – suffice to say – b****r all. But what will make a difference to London – well particularly my part of London – is the Muswell Hill to Swiss Cottage bus link. I and others have been campaigning for it for a long time and we are now on the brink of success. The relevant three boroughs – Camden, Haringey and Barnet all now back the scheme, as does Transport for London. The final hurdle is Ken – all he has to do is give it final approval by granting the financial bid and we’re in business. And remember, this new route had Ken’s full backing when he was campaigning to become Mayor – that’s not something I’ll let him forget!

In fact, he recently made the mistake of sitting next to me at a lunch – far too near for me to resist a bit of a lobbying attempt – and he admitted that with all that support it must be in a good position to get the financial bid through. Feel free to deluge the Mayor and with letters of support for the new bus route – it all helps. Ken’s address is Romney House, 43 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 3PY.

So fingers crossed, we will know in December. Just think – all that school run traffic and congestion which is currently caused by the lack of a realistic public transport alternative but which the new bus route will help reduce. And also remember older people and mothers with toddlers who currently have no really choice but to use their cars, because the alternative is to face endless waits and changes. All those car journeys saved because people are given a new public transport alternative – that’s really dealing with congestion. It’s just the sort of bus route improvements we should be seeing all over London.

The other thing that will make far more difference to London than Steve Norris’s exit is Ken making sure that he has another look at some of the boundary issues around the proposed congestion charging areas.

Personally, I am convinced that a sensible congestion charging scheme is an absolute must to help tackle London’s transport problems. However, I am still concerned that the Mayor’s timetable is leaving the boroughs in some distress. I hear tales of woe about lack of discussion, high-handed decision-making by the centre and so on. Two things here: firstly the success of this scheme means that the boroughs, including Camden and Islington where the boundary splits the whole, need to be firmly on board. The Mayor needs to foster a happy relationship with them. So my advice, as it was to Ken at Mayor’s Question Time last week, is be nice to the boroughs. Whilst Steve Norris may not be your partner any more – he was totally dispensable – the boroughs are not.

In the cause of genuine rapprochement, I am hoping to bring all sides together in the near future in the form of a summit. Where angels fear to tread! It’ll be interesting to see what happens …

(c) Lynne Featherstone, 2001

If there’s one way to get up Ken’s nose, it is to suggest that he is not quite up to the Giuliani New York model of mayor-hood. So I had a real go at him at last Mayor’s Question Time. I accused him of lacking leadership and being invisible compared to New York’s Mayor who was getting out there and telling people to go to the theatres, get on with life and go back to the restaurants. I advised him to get out there too and show some leadership before all our theatres went dark and more jobs were lost.

Following my outburst, there were articles in the papers and a column from Simon Jenkins all urging much the same – and blow me – soon after Ken was seen on the news visiting rehearsals for Kiss Me Kate. Quite right too!

To my pleasant surprise, Ken ambled into my office last Friday to tell me that he was giving £500,000 to London’s theatres for free tickets. Now, whilst I am not sure that would have been my first course of action, it is good that the Mayor is finally taking a lead in saving London’s theatres and tourist industry – an industry on its knees following the September 11 atrocities. And as for the Government, they have done sweet FA as yet to help London.

They appear to be impervious to the needs of London. They haven’t yet stomped up a penny to pay for the extra policing needed at this moment in time and if they do now find some money to help the theatres, it will only be because they have been embarrassed into it.

Labour seems to have completely fallen out of love with London – not just because of Ken – but because even the emasculated form of government that is the Mayor and Assembly is another voice for London – and one they can’t control. And losing control is so not Millbank.

They screwed up Wembley. They lost us the World Athletic Championships at Pickett’s Lock. They changed the Index of Deprivation criteria to switch money away from us to other parts of the country. They’ve stuffed us with the break-up and privatisation of the Tube (although the sudden announcement last week that the PPP arrangements may fail the safety case could be the first steps in a climb down – let’s hope so).

And the latest proposal from Bob Kiley that London should have its own strategic Rail Authority following the Railtrack debacle will no doubt fall on stony ground. Yet it is an eminently sensible proposal and the best solution for London to have the power to integrate our transport policy, to fight London’s corner and deliver better transport services.

Anyway, back to the theatre, to be honest I was as guilty as the next person. I lived in London and barely used the wonderful cultural opportunities that abound. My kids moaned that I never took them to the theatre. Finally – enough with the guilt – I sat down the day after New Year’s in 2000 to fulfil my millennium New Year’s resolution and booked 6 nights out throughout the year. It worked pretty well – because it was virtually a year to get tickets for shows like Lion King and Mama Mia. We had a great year of theatre visits and I did the same this year.

So, unlike me – don’t wait for New Year’s. Get your tickets now. And right now getting tickets is the easiest it’s ever been.

(c) Lynne Featherstone, 2001