Letter: Mayor of London? No thanks

MODESTY prevents me saying who was the obvious omission from your list of likely candidates ("Who'd be the first elected mayor of London?", 24 March).

However, can I caution you? It is vital to define the mayor's function, sources of funding and overall purpose. I am sure that 32 London boroughs are not eager to devolve power to a supremo. He (or she) will need to be more than good on Question Time to deal with the vested interests of over 4,000 London quangos created after the GLC. The population of Greater London is now about 6.9 million. In eight years it will be 7.3 million, or twice that of Northern Ireland.

To be a representative democrat, "the mayor" will have to deal with this, and a complicated demography. London is an aging urban structure which has been strapped of public social capital for nearly 20 years. Who knows the name of the chairman of London Transport? Not me. Finally, no one on your list is black or working class.

Illtyd Harrington

Former chairman of the GLC

London W1