'These suggestions are options for how to deliver what I've spoken about,' he says - referring to his promise not to let 'things rest'. 'I am not going to comment favourably or unfavourably on any option like that until we are ready to do so.'

end the "cronyism" and "secrecy" at City Hall, and publish on the internet as much information "from Day One" of his mayoralty.

Strangely, Gordon Brown set out clearly a new theme and potentially popular direction for Labour in his Fabian Society speech of 2006: "People and communities should now take power from the state and that means ... a reinvention of the way we govern: the active citizen, the empowered community, open enabling government." This implied, he said, a new constitutional settlement, taking citizenship seriously, rebuilding civil society, working for integration of minorities, and to be internationalist at all times. In other words, a radical decentralisation of power. Does this have to be just good rhetoric and thoughtful mere words? He could use his office to transform politics by diminishing the centralised state and enhancing and trusting local government. Despite the craziness of trying to micro-manage a country of 50 million (England) from the centre, both major parties are nervous of local government because they are scared of the tabloid press forever trumpeting one local folly of the other side as if it were typical. We used to believe and teach that local government was the school of democracy. I once remarked to a secretary of state for education that if we could no longer speak and mean socialism, we might at least speak and mean democracy. Bernard Crick Edinburgh

They've taken one small goose step forwards but they're a long way from parking their panzers on the lawn of Buckingham Palace. We have to create a better society where social fungus like the BNP and the NF cannot take root. That means action at a grassroots level, at the ballot box and in the workplace. We need to fundamentally change society for the better. Anti-fascist leaflets make my heart sing with the light of a choir of angels, of course, but they are the bluntest of tools and we must not neglect that to rip out the roots of some problems we will have to dig down deep.