Boris of course, sedulously avoids controversy and keeps a low profile wherever he goes. What tommy rot.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/can-he-be-serious-janet-streetporter-vs-boris-johnson-802610.html

starting with “Has anyone ever said no to you?”)

I think one of the previous Mayor’s biggest strengths was a very detailed understanding of the exact remit of the Mayor and how best to make use of every last bit of statutory power to achieve whatever goals he wanted. Of course he could also complain about lacking any extra powers he would have liked – I certainly heard him say on a number of occasions that he’d've liked to have the powers to raise taxes on the City to redistribute wealth to the poor, for instance – but these complaints tended to be offered in direct answer to related questions and weren’t, as far as we can infer from Ken’s fairly decent (some complain too cosy) working relationship with City bosses, used as a stick to beat anyone or an impediment to getting on with tasks the Mayor *was* statutorily able to do.

Another strength was working with the system to negotiate extra powers for the Mayor, some of which have come in in time for Boris to benefit, such as enhanced control over aspects of education in London (since the spring) and now the ability of the Mayor to chair the MPA, which came in on Wednesday.

In typical Boris petulant schoolboy style, he has simply mouthed off a few times about wanting to be able to hire and fire the Commissioner, and then when this didn’t result in him getting his own way instantly, as he’s been accustomed to for much of his life, he simply threw his toys out of the pram and did what he wanted to do anyway.

When even those equally keen to see the back of Blair are doubtful that this power should be handed to the Mayor, it’s clear that this is a bigger issue than Boris just doing the popular thing and so getting away with it. In such a sensitive and controversial area, I don’t think any ends can justify tearing up the means’ rulebook.

Indeed, which is why I’ve started asking ‘what next?’. There are plenty of ways central government can make Boris’s life more difficult.

People are purposingfully conflating the concept of Blair going and the Mayor of London refusing to work with him. Two different subjects IMO.

You can think somebody should leave office, and be glad when they do, but that doesn’t excuse the how and why if it was nefarious.

I haven’t seen much evidence of this strong opinion against the move that you mention.

Most of the reaction to the decision itself that I have seen has been of the opinion that it’s been a long time coming. Falling crime is an important metric, but it’s not the only thing to consider and there’s a catalogue of issues surrounding Blair’s leadership of the Met. It should be possible to find someone carry on the positive aspects of his tenure whilst restoring better leadership to the organisation.

Regarding the processology of it all, the nuts and bolts of it is that the Mayor, once becoming chair of the MPA, let it be known that he didn’t have confidence in Blair to offer the leadership the Met required. Should he not have an opinion on this subject or is only allowed to have an opinion if he supports him? The last Mayor buttressed Blair’s position with his unremitting support. I don’t see the current Mayor’ s actions as being any more controversial than that.

The job of Mayor is still relatively new and there was always going to come a day when a Mayor and the Met Chief were at odds. That day has come and the power of the Mayor has become a bit more clearly defined as a result, although I think it would be a good thing to have that power formalised.

“Good on you Boris, you have kicked out another of Ken’s cronies. Let’s hope this is just the start of a new phase of Boris’s mayoralty, where he finally kicks back against TfL (Trotskyites for London) and all the other remnants of Ken’s loony administration and shows them the enlightened way forward, scrapping bendy buses and the Congestion Charge Western Extension within weeks. Don’t worry about all the red tape – ‘due process’ as the Stalinists might put it – any more, like you didn’t in this case either: just get on with making the difference Londoners elected you to make!”

Blimey, Gilligan’s job is really easy isn’t it? I wonder how you apply to do his holiday cover. Mind you, I don’t think he ever takes a holiday from ranting against Ken so I suppose there isn’t a vacancy.