It seems some people are getting very excited about Boris Johnson’s appearance in front of the Commons Transport Committee as part of their investigation into the snow falls of February 2nd but while the media focus on yet another storm in a tea cup, I’m left wondering what Boris was doing there in the first place.
The very fact that Westminster politicians, none of whom apparently represent London constituencies, think they have a right to an answer from the Mayor shows just how shallow London’s devolution settlement is.
Londoners don’t need a committee of non-London MPs to hold the Mayor to account, they just need their elected Assembly to have sufficient powers to do the job properly.
Assembly Members, who are actually elected to scrutinise the Mayor, are required to pre-submit questions to the Mayor and be satisfied with with a written response to most of them.
It seems entirely reasonable that the next time Boris is called to give evidence to a committee of Westminster careerists he point out he has a real job to do and insist on providing written answers to them as well.
By the way, can anyone explain why MPs are duplicating the excellent work of the Assembly Transport Committee report which can be found here?
