Creation
The Labour party adopted a policy of a single, directly elected Mayor (a policy first suggested by Tony Banks in 1990), together with an elected Assembly watching over the Mayor; this model, based on American cities, was partly aimed at making sure the new body resembles the erstwhile GLC as little as possible. After the Labour party won the 1997 general election, the policy was outlined in a White paper entitled A Mayor and Assembly for London (March 1998).
Simultaneously with the elections to the London Borough councils, a referendum was held on the establishment of the GLA in May 1998, which was approved with 72% of the vote. The Greater London Authority Act 1999 passed through Parliament, receiving the Royal Assent in October 1999. In a controversial election campaign, the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, attempted to block Livingstone's nomination and imposed his own candidate. In reaction, Livingstone stood as an independent candidate, resulting in his expulsion from the Labour Party and in March 2000, was elected as Mayor of London. Following an interim period in which the Mayor and Assembly had been elected but had no powers, the GLA was formally established on 3 July 2000.
Read more about this topic: Greater London Authority
Famous quotes containing the word creation:
“A fact is the end or last issue of spirit. The visible creation is the terminus or the circumference of the invisible world.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The creation of a world view is the work of a generation rather than of an individual, but we each of us, for better or for worse, add our brick to the edifice.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)