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