''The Londoner'' was a newsletter in the style of a

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

published by the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current m ...

, and delivered free to most households in Greater London,

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. In the words of the Mayor of London's office, it was "a newsletter for Londoners from the Mayor of London. It provided information about the policies and services delivered by the Greater London Authority, and key issues affecting life in the capital, and encouraged participation in current debates and consultation." According to the Mayor's Annual Report 2005/06, the budget for ''The Londoner'' was £2,882,000, of which £632,000 came directly from the GLA precept portion of

council tax Council Tax is a local taxation system used in England, Scotland and Wales. It is a tax on domestic property, which was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, replacing the short-lived Community Charge, which in turn re ...

paid by householders in London.''Mayor's Annual Report 2005/06''

retrieved May 4, 2008 Most of the remaining £2,250,000 came from advertising and editorial material, paid for by Transport for London and the

Metropolitan Police Authority The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) (2000–2012) was the local police authority responsible for scrutinising and supporting the work of the Metropolitan Police Service, the police force for Greater London (excluding the City of London Polic ...

Criticism

Costing £2.8 million a year to fund, many stated that the publication was "expensive propaganda". It became the topic of many heated

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

articles, particularly those who criticised mayor Ken Livingstone. Those targeting the Londoner attacked what they saw as political bias; for example, putting the Flag of Venezuela on an advertisement for bus travel. The succeeding

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

scrapped ''The Londoner'' by May 2008, as part of his mayoral manifesto pledge, describing it as "the Mayor's ludicrous

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

style newspaper".''Boris Johnson: The Cost of Livingstone''BackBoris.com
retrieved May 4, 2008 Johnson pledged to use up to £1 million of the saved money to plant 10,000 trees.''Mayor scraps paper for trees plan''
retrieved May 13, 2008

References

External links

The Londoner Official Website - archive from web.archive.orgBBC Politics Show article about The Londoner
{{DEFAULTSORT:Londoner Local mass media in London Local government in London Publications disestablished in 2008