Branding versus Substance: The London Mayoralty

Last week we saw Boris Johnson take the podium at the Conservative Party Conference. His stand-up routine aside, which by most standards would be classed as amusing; Boris positioned himself as the Mayor of London. Not a mayor, the mayor. The rhetoric and branding of Team London was very clever. A vote for Boris is a vote for London. If I’ve learned anything about London, Londoners are generally rude and complain a lot, but they’re also very proud of London. Boris’ branding has, at the moment, clinched the mayoralty.

Luckily, a lot can happen in 8 months. Ken Livingstone cannot rest on the laurels of his past performance as mayor – especially as many Londoners still remember the cronyism that marked part of his two terms in office, his links to unsavoury characters and his rather off-colour humour. He must be proactive, reclaim his achievements in office that Boris is now claiming for his own. Attack Boris’ plan to ‘put the village back into the city’ – as someone who has lived in both village and city – both can be lonely, and villages more so if you’re an ‘outsider’ such as someone with a disability or not of the main religion in the area. Villages are also dominated by petty, sectional interests of a small elite and rife with NIMBYISM. Is that what London wants?

Hardly – London needs communities. Look at the response after the riots – communities are not dead in the capital. it needs a functioning and affordable transport system. It needs more development to retain its position as a global city. London, above everything, does not need branding. London is London – always has been and always will be.

Boris is a brand. Ken is not a brand. Ken needs to stick to the substance that he has proven in the past that he has. But maintaining a message is not enough. In a society where apathy is the prevalent action;

“Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, with takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.” [Arnold Toynbee]

Ken must improve his substance and come up with an idea that goes beyond attracting Labour and the Left, and attracts the disaffected, the centrists, even those who lean to the right.

An over-arching policy that is instantaneously popular. They do exist. I don’t know what this policy should be but I do know, as do many Londoners, that neither Ken nor Boris has it. Substance can beat branding, but its substance must be amazing.