The nine corruption cases that went to the police have largely turned out to be not corruption cases at all Hal, the police throwing them out, and the remaining one is pending, not tried. Politics the world over always has some corruption, ours now being widely known as little different, and in this environment Ken Livingstone is the cleanest imaginable. No-one else has gained so little personally from high office.
As you say, you dislike him and that seems to bias you as it does so many others who will him to fail.
On whether he is responsible for the improvements I've mentioned, the bald fact is this. Croydon Council have been around since the dinosaurs (some of them are related) and none of these things ever appeared. Everything has happened under the new GLC and Mayor, the only Croydon council and government contribution being the insistence on the disastrous PPP for the tram system. It failed of course as with the tube, the trams losing huge amounts, but then TfL took it over as they have with the tube reconstruction now.
And I'm betting most of the progress will halt now Ken isn't there to motivate it.
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