Maybe It's Because I'm A...

By Craigie_B Last edited 190 months ago
Maybe It's Because I'm A...
GlowingTree120508.jpg

As one of a fair few carefully-calibrated measures in his first 100 days, new Mayor Boris announced today that, as promised, he would end publication of The Londoner, the Mayor's tabloid-style London free-sheet.

If you never saw a copy, it felt a bit like a local newspaper. Only it was London-wide and not news at all - it was produced monthly by the Greater London Authority itself, not journalists, with adverts mostly coming from London agencies under the aegis of the GLA.

(Go have a flick through the last issue, but don't come running to us if the X-factor competition isn't on any more.)

At the same time, Boris announced he would dedicate the savings (presumably after redundancies, contract breaks with printers/publishers/designers etc) to planting 10,000 extra trees.

See what he did there? He enacted a promise he made during the campaign, to cancel a publication he derided as Ken's "ludicrous Pyongyang-style newspaper". But at the same time he turned it into a positive announcement, and linked it to an environmental issue - in short: Save paper, Save money, and Plant trees.

It may not be rocket science, but it's certainly deft-footed politics. His first 'spending' announcement comes explicitly linked to a 'saving' elsewhere, rather than 'doling out more of our money'. And with Ken widely considered a leading global figure against climate change, Boris has perhaps begun to steal his thunder. And his Londoner.

Glowing Tree Pic humanely recycled from JPhilipson's Flickrstream.

Last Updated 13 May 2008