We have set up this site to showcase, debate and develop bold, ambitious ideas for London’s next Mayor from you: London’s citizens and friends.Why?The London mayor has the UK’s largest directly elected mandate. We, the electorate in London, should expect more from the post and support candidates with a vision and a programme that matches the scale of the opportunity; fair, deliverable and ambitiously bold.Other mayors around the world have shown that with the right leadership cities can achieve things which national governments and local authorities struggle to accomplish; rejuvenate economies, create jobs, tackle poverty, lead change.How?
Over the winter of 2013/14 Londoners submitted almost 150 blog posts packed with ideas for our city.
We’re pulled these ideas together into a series of London Papers and ultimately a book – Changing London: a rough guide for the next London mayor – to inform and influence the debate about the mayoralty and ultimately, to help lift the ambitions of the next mayor.
Join in
This is not a political blog about the personalities, Westminster rumours or the latest twists in the selection saga. It’s a blog about the big ideas that could shape our city for decades to come. We hope politicians will pick them up and if they don’t we will try to persuade them.
Disagree with our suggestions by all means but don’t sit still. Having the debate and sparking new thinking is the purpose of the project. Send us your ideas. Comment on others’. Ignite a new kind of politics and light the slow fuse of the possible.
Who we are
I’m a community worker and a father of three living and working in east London. I’m a lifelong member of the Labour party. I think about the future from this perspective. For me Changing London isn’t about discussing or supporting individual candidates. It is about doing what I’ve done all my life – trying to develop and deliver the best policy from the ground up.
Will has worked as a researcher and campaigner for charities including Oxfam and Community Links, and this year went back to university to study political economy. He can occasionally be found on twitter (@willhorwitz).
Photo courtesy of Wheelzwheeler
Nb the photos on this site are almost all from Flickr, shared by nice people using Creative Commons. If you have great photos of London that we could use please add them to our group Changing London, and we’ll give you a mention too.