As the world’s great cities recover from the financial meltdown, decisions made now will define those metropolises for years to come.
That is why, whichever part of the country you live in, we need you to help us shape Greater London and our country’s future. Your support is vital to ensure that London is not dragged backwards under Ken and driven deeper into deficit by Labour.

It will not be an easy road. Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has called it ‘the most important election in the next 3 years’, while Ken, marching alongside Bob Crow and the unions bosses, is casting himself as the standard bearer for Labour’s attempted march back to No 10. There is no doubt that from now until the 3rd May 2012 Ed, Ken and their union backers will throw every resource into wresting back control of our capital.

But with your help we can stop them in their tracks. By simply picking up your phone and making a few calls to voters in London telling them of what we have achieved at City Hall you can help us drive London forward.

While there remains more to be done I am confident in our record at City Hall and proud of how far we have come since I became Mayor in 2008.

Forging a first rate team at City Hall we have fought to cement London’s position as one of the best places in the world to live and do business. We have cut waste, frozen our share of your council tax and are making savings in the cost of London Government by £2.4billion. And, we’ve done all of this while delivering critical front line services. We have put more police on the streets bringing crime down by almost 9% and making London the safest it has been for over a decade. And we haven’t stopped there. We are investing in our future with the biggest upgrade of London’s transport for 80 years, including building Crossrail.

Oh, and did I mention that we are delivering the Olympics on time and on budget? Well, we are. The eyes of the world were firmly on Britain during the royal wedding. We passed that test with flying colours and we must do the same again next year when we host the greatest show on earth.

There is indeed much to look forward to. But we must not become complacent and forget the tough economic times we face. Yes, the Olympics will be a celebratory sporting extravaganza but they are also a symbol of Britain’s growth which must span beyond the 29 days of the Games. Without them, our construction industry would have gone into cryogenic paralysis. But with them, we can continue to lead the way out of the recession by exploiting the economic power of the Games and ensuring a lasting legacy for all.

So pick up your phone and get dialing.

Take the first step by visiting my brand new website and subscribe to my email updates – it will take less time than clipping on your bike helmet.

I have a proud record as Mayor of London, delivering vital projects while freezing my share of council tax:

• We are undertaking the biggest ever upgrade of our Tube to improve reliability and increase capacity by 30%
• We are building Crossrail in full, adding 10% capacity to the entire transport system.
• We are delivering the Olympics efficiently and on budget, bringing the world to London through the 2012 Games
• By next year we will have put 1,100 more police officers on to London’s streets, driving down crime by 8.8% overall, robberies down by 20% and youth crime down by 15%. Murders are now at their lowest level since 1978.

This is in stark contrast to the London I inherited in 2008. Under the previous administration City Hall’s council tax had soared 153%, our long-neglected Tube system was creaking at capacity, the Olympic budget threatened to spiral out of control and crime was soaring, with robberies up 19.6% and 27 teenagers murdered in 2007 alone.

If we are going to win another four years, keeping council tax down, continuing to modernise our transport system, ensuring the Olympics are delivered on budget and driving down crime, then I need your help.

We must have your support, your engagement and your ideas. So log on, sign up and come on board. Visit www.backboris2012.com to find out what I have done in your area and how you can help.

Holding on to City Hall is vital to take forward the good work we have started and prevent our old foe, Ken Livingstone, taking London back to the 1970s.

With that in mind, I urge you to visit the campaign website and join us in that historic quest.

Every registered supporter, volunteer and donation strengthens our hand in guaranteeing a future for London where its government delivers: value for money, a safer community, openness and accountability, better transport, a higher quality of life and a lasting Olympic legacy.

London – for me – is the best big city on earth. Securing a second term would enable us to lengthen that lead and guarantee its rightful position in the world for another generation. And for that – I need your help.

I always said that I would think hard about this decision in the autumn of 2010. And I always said that if I felt things were going well – and if I thought my team had more to deliver for London – then it would be crazy not to put myself forward for the party to consider.

When we came to City Hall in 2008 we found a dysfunctional and spendthrift administration that was pursuing old-fashioned policies of playing one community group off against another.

Our priorities were simple: to cut crime, to protect green space in London, to improve public transport, to build more affordable housing than any previous mayoralty – and to keep London going and growing through the deepest recession in living memory.

Despite all the difficulties we have faced – and deep cuts in all Whitehall budgets – I believe we have made great progress in all these areas.

With every day that passes I have come to love and understand the complexities and challenges of this job – and I also see how much more there is to do.

With your help, I believe we have now forged a first rate team in the government of London: committed to sensible policies of reducing waste, but working flat out to make this city an ever more attractive and competitive place to live.

I will continue to work with every fibre of my being to accomplish the tasks we set ourselves in 2008.

And I hope very much that I can count on your support as I seek to run for a second term as the Mayor of the greatest city on earth. I urge you to visit my website to get involved or find out more.

The real reason my predecessor, Ken Livingstone, wanted to avoid celebrating St George’s Day is because it’s quite clear that he would have been a Conservative. And why, you may ask yourself?

It’s because St George started out as a small businessman, supplying bacon to the Roman Army. So, imagine St George, trying to get ahead and expand his military supply business. Would he vote for Labour’s jobs tax? Of course not. St George would want to recruit new people, especially young people – apprentices perhaps – and do his bit to address the terrible situation of youth unemployment that Labour’s bequeathed us. Labour’s proposed increase in National Insurance would make him think twice about that. He’d definitely have signed up in support of our campaign against the jobs tax.

St George would want to be set free from the stifling bureaucracy that ties up business. Our patron saint would want government to be efficient, to provide the services we all rely on without hosing taxpayers’ money down the drain. He definitely wouldn’t have understood the argument that bearing down on waste by just one percent of government spending would somehow be “taking money out of the economy” and “endangering the recovery”.

I don’t understand that argument and neither will the voters.

We are all in this together. We need to tell the public that the only way to bring about the change that this country so dearly needs is to vote Conservative. Any other vote means there’s a danger of another five years of Gordon Brown. And almost no-one wants that.

I’ve been National Chairman of Conservative Future now for 18 months and I think my biggest achievement has been the introduction of Regional Chairmen. A typical ‘Region’ is several counties and we have Regional Chairmen who cover areas in Wales and England (Northern Ireland coming soon – CF Scotland is a separate autonomous group).

We gave them control over the regions they run and took ‘power’ away from the National Executive that I chair. So far this has been a great success.

In the North East there are now 12 active CF branches – and the team up there, under Emma Carr’s stellar leadership, have shown that the North East is not a ‘no go’ area for the Conservatives.

In Yorkshire, Philip Smith has got a great structure up and running alongside a very good working relationship with the professional staff – they work very closely and have already made a huge difference to our electoral success.

In the South West of England James Morton’s team have got branches setup in nearly every constituency of the region – these are all active and sustainable.

And in London the team under Clare Hilley’s leadership are now holding weekly sessions for CF members in the GenEVA phone centre, supporting target seats across the UK.

This shift of power has allowed each Region to gain its own identity, and I know that each one is in a better position now ahead of the upcoming General Election.

Conservative Future is at its best when led at a local level; the work our Regional, Area and Branch Chairmen do is a major credit to the Conservative Party, and will be crucial to our chances in a few months time.

Whether it’s Monday, Wednesday, or Sunday I tend to go by bike but, although it is safe and getting safer, I fully appreciate that some people find it a little daunting at first. I have succeeded in persuading many of my staff to take it up, and always watch in wonderment as they edge nervously onto Tooley Street absolutely convinced the end is nigh.

But, after a few times, they’re soon zooming past me.

In a bid to convert more Londoners to the cycling cause, today I launched Cycle Fridays. For the next few weeks, every Friday, there will be a series of bike convoys led by experienced riders who will be on hand to guide novice commuter cyclists into central London. For a full list of the routes, click here.

Those joining the rides will be greeted by ride marshals from the London Cycling Campaign and will be given a basic bike check and useful cycle maps before getting on the road. Additional drop-off points can be agreed so that riders can get as close to their destination as possible.

The first Cycle Friday will take place on Friday 14 August, and they will continue every Friday until 2 October.

So if you’ve always liked the idea of cycling to work, but never quite had the confidence to venture onto London’s roads on two wheels, then Cycle Fridays are the place to be. You’ll be part of a giant moving peloton of cyclists, and be carried along on a wave of pedal-powered paradise!

Or, more accurately, you receive the views of Londoners whether you like it or not. Forget focus groups or opinion polls, I get all I need whilst waiting at the traffic lights.

I get a whole range of opinions vented at me, and if I had to pick the most frequent issues that come up, one of them would almost certainly be bendy buses. Every day, almost every Londoner I meet asks me “When are you getting rid of them?”

Well folks, today the first bendy buses meet their Waterloo. These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rear ends round our corners for the final time. Pedestrians that leapt, cyclists that skidded and drivers that dodged from the path of these monsters will breathe easier this weekend. For tonight, the bendy buses serving route 507 will slink away into the depot for the last time. Tomorrow morning, fifteen brand new single deck buses will appear in their place. 

We’ve taken the opportunity to improve the service too. It will be the first time a weekend service has been run on the route. The new buses will also run more frequently. At peak times the frequency of route 507 will increase from a bus every five minutes (12 buses per hour) to one every three to four minutes (18 buses per hour).

The new buses will also be greener than their predecessors. They will emit less CO2, and harmful particulates. 

Bendy buses on other routes are on borrowed time and, to answer the question I am most often asked, I can confirm they will all have gone by 2011. Engineers will now scrape all traces of the capital from these first nine buses and next week they will be sent back to their spiritual home, an airfield in the midlands.

At the beginning of my first week, I sank into my chair and was very quickly rendered comatose by the presentation on efficient management structures.

Unluckily for me, I was given my instructions just as the Sandman worked his magic and my head lolled a little too obviously. We parted company at the end of that week.

Ever since, I’ve much preferred being in charge (albeit now with 7 million bosses). Indeed, it is that same desire to be your own boss that drives many people to start their own small business. Despite the odds being stacked against you, the risk is neatly balanced with the rewards of creating and sustaining something unique.

Watching the hoards stream over London Bridge each morning makes one think that everyone in London is employed by large city corporations. As it happens, 40% of Londoners are employed by small businesses. The vast majority of economic activity in our city is undertaken by small businesses. Therefore, any policy that has a negative impact on small businesses strikes at the very heart of our city’s economy.

So imagine my disbelief when I hear that the Labour Government is planning a 10% hike in business rates for London before inflation, over the next five years. Most other regions in the U.K. can look forward to reductions.

London already pays over £400m a year more to the Government in business rates than it gets back in grants to fund local services. If these proposals are implemented it would add £565 million to the costs of the capital’s businesses by 2015, resulting in London subsidising services in the regions to the tune of nearly £1 billion a year.

London, it seems, is being punished for its success. In their infinite wisdom, the Government decided to revalue rates based on property valuations in April 2008. That’s a bit like pricing bubble gum based on it’s mass – at the point just before it bursts all over your face.

Now that property values in London have gone south, many small businesses will be hit with extremely unfair rate hikes.

This action directly contradicts all the mighty rhetoric spewing from Gordon Brown about helping the country through the recession. I am calling on the Government to think again about this rate hike before they make their final decision in the autumn, because it is just madness to hit our small businesses when they are the key to getting London out of the recession.

You can have your say too, by sending your views to the Government and asking them to think again.

Think where the world would be without those who aspire to build new and exciting enterprises from nothing. A recession shouldn’t prevent that from happening – don’t forget the likes of Microsoft and MTV were both founded in recessions. Our job, as politicians (and failed management consultants) is to support the future titans in their infancy and protect small businesses in every way we can.

Short of holding a glass up against the wall, you mute the T.V and try to make out what is being argued about. However much you strain to hear- you can’t make out a single word. All you know for sure is there’s an argument. A big one.

So it is with the current row over public spending. Dave and Gordon slug it out each week, I throw my toast at the radio every morning as yet another Labour Minister trots out the fiction that they will increase spending indefinitely. But the words behind that noise are rather important.

However much the Government try to block out the truth, everyone knows one thing- the country is damn near bust and anyone who thinks they can continue spending money that doesn’t exist is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Well, Londoners, now it’s time to smash that wall down and absorb the subsequent clarity.

It turns out that our city is being stung to fund another one of Brown’s attempts to persuade us that his credit is good. He recently announced a load of cash for affordable housing. Great, you may think. Except he has raided our budget by £22 million, money that was there to help small businesses and the unemployed.

And no, he didn’t ask me first.

So that is money (scarce as it is) that could have been spent on getting London through the recession. Instead, it’s going into the Keep Gordon In Power fund.

I’m now keeping a closer eye on my other budgets, and tracking Peter Mandleson’s Oyster card just in case. (Ok, I can’t really do that and nor would I want to- civil libertarians be assured)

The truth is that London is going to come under severe pressure from any Government, red or blue. We’ve got a fair wedge of cash, but the point I’ll be making to everyone (including Dave) is that we need it. Here’s why.

London generates a minimum of £8 billion more cash for the country than it receives in public spending. So, investing in things like Crossrail will mean we have the capacity for more office space, more companies moving to London and more jobs as a result. More money floods into the economy, and thus helps restore health to the national finances.

I won’t startle you with a Brownian stat attack, but here’s one set of figures I want you to take away. The budget for Crossrail is £15.9 billion. Excessive, some might protest. But our figures show that the benefits to the U.K economy exceed £36 billion, with tax revenues that will pay for the scheme in the long run. Now that is bang for your buck and that is why investment in the things that will get our country through the recession must be protected.

Everyone knows times will be tough. We all have to prepare for spending cuts, regardless of who is in government. It’s no longer ideological- it’s reality. So instead of spraying money everywhere, you need to fire short sharp bursts in the right places. That place, my friends, is London. Like a dog with a bone, they’ll have to do some fairly rigorous wresting before I allow a single penny to be relinquished.