Driving back from Dover from holiday, we decided to let the satnav do the job of getting us round London. Yes, I know – you just head north on the M25, but we'd heard it was jammed because of the Olympics. Anyway, the satnav lady, in her digital wisdom, decided to take us straight into central London on the A2 and, before we knew it, we were in the middle of the Olympic Games complex and panicking in case we never got out again. But we did. In fact, we sailed through central London with uncanny speed because there was practically nothing on the roads. I have never seen London so quiet. It was like the sequel to 28 Days.
What has this got to do with the political prospects of Boris Johnson, who added to his buffoonish reputation yesterday by being left dangling from a zip wire during a photo-opportunity in London's Victoria park? Well, the success of London's traffic management during the Games is being seen as both another feather in the cap of the London Mayor and another nail in the coffin of David Cameron. The lack ot traffic congestion in central London, though an administrative achievement, is apparently helping to plunge Britain into what is being called a “triple dip recession”, presumably because economic activity has been damaged by people staying at home and watching British athletes failing to win anything. And Cameron will get the blame.
