A Very Powerful Politician?
The question mark in the title of a Radio 4 documentary about Bristol mayor George Ferguson is telling.
Only Bristol out of 10 English cities voted for a mayor - although on a turnout of just 24 per cent - and now only Bristol has an independent mayor.
A sign that Ferguson has actually done something in his first year in office is that he is no longer solely defined by wearing red trousers (“habitually red-trousered and unchaperoned” as reporter Giles Dilnot calls it).
Rather, he is disliked by many for the swift introduction of residents parking zones across the city, ridiculed by others for promising an arena while cutting other services, and seen as having a leadership style that is patronising and arrogant.
On the same day as the programme was broadcast, Ferguson detailed sweeping budget cuts including slashing £1.5 million from children’s centres, a 33 per cent reduction in public subsidies to under-used bus services and the closure of 22 out of 23 public toilets.
Ferguson also yesterday gave the inaugural Mayor’s address at the Wills Memorial Building where he looked back on his first 12 months through the same tint of glasses as his trademark trousers.
Opposition is “the petty politics of the past” as reporter Giles Dilnot calls it, before questioning whether Bristol’s mayor can lead to more accountable politics.
Opposition includes a few anonymous vox-pops in the documentary: “He’s more for the rich people” and “I think he got in by saying very little on a gimmick” being just two criticisms.
Ferguson is typically bullish. “You will see the cranes up in my first term,” he says about the promised Bristol Arena, then claiming that he wants his legacy to be about social change rather than buildings.
‘I am voting for George Ferguson today because he is the only candidate who can deliver real change and wave goodbye to the petty party politics that has had a stranglehold on Bristol for far too long.’
M.Booth. Bristol Culture.
Slight change in attitude from the hagiographic posts prior to George’s election?
I don’t understand the point you are trying to make. Should Bristol Culture not report on a radio documentary made about Ferguson just because it contains criticisms and 12 months ago I voted for him to be mayor?
The point I am trying to make is that 12 months ago you were so incredibly pro-George Ferguson for Mayor it was astonishing. So many supportive tweets, posts etc I heard the radio programme and the snipes and criticisms in your article were not in the said programme. They simply look like cheap shots from a disappointed former fan.
You do sound a bit like a hater and less like a reporter!