The only tax-cutting Tory in town

Ross Clark says that we mustn’t underestimate Boris’s greatest achievement: to have frozen the GLA precept without affecting services is a triumph

It is hard to remember the horrors of the London inherited by new Mayor Boris Johnson a year ago. It was a city gridlocked with traffic, with unaffordable housing, and where you couldn’t get a table in a decent restaurant without booking six months in advance. Now, the roads run freely, property is much cheaper and a seat for this evening at London’s finest restaurants is only a phone call away.

Admittedly, these improvements are less the work of the Mayor than a consolation for the deepest recession in living memory. What a time it was to take control of the world’s unofficial financial capital! Not even Boris’s eternal optimism could have saved London’s econ-omy — was I the only one who wanted to chuck something at him when he stood up at the Tory party conference and championed the ‘masters of the universe’ in the same week millions were fretting over their savings thanks to the failures of those self-styled masters?

That gaffe aside, Boris’s first year has been remarkably free of embarrassment.