On Fri, 25 Apr 2008, Mizter T wrote:

The Guardian story suggests that the Mayor has in essence won over
central government. My question is thus a simple one - if Boris Johnson
is elected next week instead of Ken Livingstone, would government
ministers be at all keen to go ahead with a plan that allows TfL to
takeover - or at least have a substantial role to play in the running of
- the South London Metro routes, which would effectively hand him an
early victory, one which was basically the result of Ken Livingstone's
long-term game plan, or would they just pull the plug on it all?

I think it would be utterly unthinkable for them to derail the project out
of political spite. As Mr Farrar points out, they'd be shooting themselves
in the feet in PR terms, and it would probably be illegal, not to mention
very difficult to put over on the various rail industry quangos [1] who
are already lined up behind it.

But ...

All that depends on there already being enough momentum established to
carry the project through. If there is, ministers can't stop it without
the foot-shooting. But if this is all still in the early stage, which i
think it is, there's any amount of foot-dragging that the government can
do to stall it. Stuff that isn't obviously negative, like demanding that
TfL produce a more detailed safety/environmental/business/operational case
than they have so far, or take on more of the cost or risk (more than
they'd be willing to), or suddenly reconsidering Southern's bid, etc.
Standard political wiles that ministers could do in their sleep.

And anyway, a much better strategy is to let it go through, then scheme to
make sure it goes horribly wrong, leaving Boris looking incompetent.

tom

[1] There's a word you haven't heard in a while!

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How did i get here?