Boris Watch

Obviously, the Mayoral campaign Boris ran was infested with a certain amount of alarmist tabloid nonsense.  Obviously, a lot of Tories and their cheerleaders have a bee in their bonnet about ‘political correctness’ and other imaginary nonsense, demanding that funding to various blameless volunteer groups be slashed, taking the anti-racism out of anti-racist festivals, etc.  Obviously, a key bellwether of Boris getting a grip is when he jettisons these in favour of evidence based policy.

There are two indicators this week that this process is underway.  First, as Dave Hill reports, the Pride festival reception was treated to the following mea culpa from the Mayor, distancing himself from the Ken-bashing anti-PC bigot wing of the Tory Party and aligning himself with what sounds suspiciously like the post-Livingstone London centre ground:

We have to be honest and say that 30 years on that carnival vision of London as a place of generosity is more or less what we see around us, and I think that is a great achievement…and it’s something I intend to stick up for as long as I am mayor.

Good for him, although obviously we’ll be watching for, amongst other things, the return of anti-racism to next year’s Rise festival, please, as an admission of the clumsy way it was removed this year.  Again, this shows that Johnson’s instincts are a lot more in tune with London than his various external advisors and think tank wonks, which is why we’re so keen on working out whether he’s actually running the place or not.

Next, the hot issue of knife crime, on which Boris (and Kit Malthouse, who as a man from the boroughs is probably more inclined to the reality-based community by definition) has been addressing the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.  The background is obvious, generally falling crime in London (acknowledged by Boris already in a previous fling with reality), minor fluctuations across the country but a rise in some areas and a definite and worrying fall in the age of victims and assailants.  This is quite apart from the fantasy world of the tabloids where ‘WE’RE ALL GOING TO GET STABBED!  THEY’RE OUT TO GET YOU’.  A few snippets from the ball-by-ball on the Guardian’s website:

Boris says overall knife attacks have not gone up. But the numbers of young people being stabbed has risen.

…

Labour’s Karen Buck says that 98% of violent crimes take place in areas, or involve people from areas, of extreme deprivation. Will Boris continue with Ken Livingstone’s policy of addressing deprivation issues?

Absolutely, says Boris. It won’t deliver immediate results, but in “five or six years” it could.

…

On stop and search, Buck says that lots of young people “stash” knives where they can get them quickly, rather than carry them.

“The short answer is ‘yes’,” Boris says.

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The Metropolitan commissioner is jointly accountable to the mayor and the home secretary. Boris says he and Jacqui Smith are working well together.

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Labour’s Margaret Moran says Boris was committed to increasing the number of rape crisis centres in his campaign. So why is he reducing the budget for domestic violence?

Boris says that that is not his policy.

Moran say she understands he has “reduced, downgraded” the GLA’s domestic violence strategy.

Boris, again, refuses to accept this. Malthouse intervenes to help him out.

…

Tory MP Patrick Mercer asks what impact the publicity given to the latest allegations of racism in the Met might have on recruiting.

Boris says he hopes the answer will be “none whatsoever”. It is important for London to be policed by an ethnically diverse police force.

The Guardian’s man, Andrew Sparrow, summed things up:

Boris sounded far less alarmist about knife crime than he did during the mayoral campaign. He acknowledged that overall attacks are not going up, but that the problem is the increasing number of attacks on young people.

So what do we see?  A bit of rhetoric about restorative justice and stop and search aside, there’s a refreshing lack of the shallow tabloid lock-em-up populism act David Cameron is doing in TV studios the length of London.  Instead we see recognition that the problem is localised, linked to deprivation (rather than, as the tabloids would have it, lax penal policy and soft leftie do-gooders) and he’s even aware that people are smart enough to get round police stop-and-search by stashing knives.

It’s an important insight into the problem to assume at the outset that you’re dealing with rational human beings taking a conscious decision to carry a knife rather than the subhuman monsters beloved of the tabloids.  There’s a lot of research on the way humans behave out there that is a far better guide than the Daily Mail editorial.  In tabloid world you just search every black man under 20, lock up the ones carrying knives for ever and the problem is solved.  Someone appears to have told Boris that this is cloud cuckoo land, possibly Malthouse, who others have reported is quite impressive in his grasp of detail.

However, this wouldn’t be Boris Watch without pointing out another inconsistency - Boris is apparently unaware of changes to the GLA’s domestic violence strategy - I have absolutely no doubt that he’s genuine on this, and it’s possibly another indication of early decisions made by advisors without consulting the boss.  After all, Ken’s domestic violence strategy consists partly of handing out grants to ‘wimmin’s organisations of exactly the type the anti-PC bigots have attacked for 30 years (and given the figures on reductions in domestic homicide, this policy is quite possibly largely responsible for the fall in the murder rate since 2002).  Perhaps they thought that London would be right behind slashing the budget for a few do-gooding lefties?  Perhaps we’ll find out when he answers this question:

Joanne McCartney: The current, very successful, London Domestic Violence Strategy ends in September. Do you intend to commission and produce another updated strategy, and if so, what resources will you be allocating to this important area of work?

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