Some of the most contentious issues of our time involve local government; housing and social care being obvious examples. There is a seductive narrative that it is failing because of ‘cuts’. And while it is true that funding has been squeezed, this easy argument glosses over the real problem: the system itself is broken.
A reminder that the impact of Boris’s fire cuts has already been reviewed by his successor
Conducted by Anthony Mayer, who headed City Hall under both Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson, the review considered the budget cuts and what they meant for the London Fire Brigade’s ability to protect London.
Reviewing London’s voting system could allow us to better represent London’s growth areas
A review of the voting system gives us an opportunity to look at the boundaries of the 14 constituency GLA seats we have in the London Assembly as some have more 500,000 constituents like City & East London and North-East London and are spread across 3 local authorities and half a dozen parliamentary seats.
Imposing First Past the Post on Londoners would be a deeply undemocratic move
Last week, Conservative sources confirmed to this site that they would seek to overturn that motion and the 1998 referendum vote in order to impose First Past the Post on the capital.
No, moving to First Past The Post won’t guarantee a procession of Tory London Mayors
Conservative plans to hold future mayoral elections under First Past The Post have, perhaps inevitably, been greeted with social media claims that the party is attempting to “rig” future elections in its favour.
