You have to be careful what you say by e-mail these days. Telling your future daughter in law that she should have better manners might seem like a good idea at the time, but not when it’s gone viral and millions of people have read it. Similarly, Manchester City needed a new chief executive after a stray e-mail message.
Thankfully, it seems that Boris’ e-mail account contains no such blunders. Details of the Mayor’s e-mails have been made public under Freedom of Information rules and it seems that Bozza’s office takes all requests pretty seriously.
For example, on 10th September 2010 the Mayor responded to a request for accredited buskers to be allowed to sell CDs and other merchandise in Tube stations, saying that London Underground was “unlikely” to allow the move. He also responded to a request for additional Boris bike docking stations for district nurses in Islington, reassured a homeowner that Transport for London had stopped a CCTV camera from filming their house and even responded to a request asking for the Mayor’s favourite recipe.
Particularly interesting is the personal feedback that Bozza receives by e-mail, which can be, er, ‘mixed’.
One correspondent e-mailed to say that a visiting German exchange student was “VERY impressed” by a trip to London because “everywhere was clean, no rubbish, there were no drunks on the Tube, there were no homeless people sleeping in the streets or doorways”.
However, in the same same month a critic wrote to the Mayor: “Dear Boris, please resign. You (are) clever and funny and that, but to be honest, it ain’t enough. You are a bad Mayor and should leave quickly… All the best in your new job (so long as it doesn’t involve power or the UK)…”