I was delighted to see the unspeakable Ken Livingstone defeated in the London mayoral elections. He debased the office he occupied, and sent a toxic message to wealth creators. But his replacement, my namesake Boris Johnson, will have a hard task because the UK capital faces plenty of issues. It is expensive, crowded, noisy, crime-ridden and angry. And its economy is dependent on the City of London, which is facing a sharp slowdown thanks to the impact of the credit crunch on the financial services industry.

Media and tourism, the two other big sectors, cannot be relied upon to take up the slack. The mayor will need all his skills as a promoter to attract investment and retain jobs. He could do worse than study the career of Frank Wiggins, perhaps the greatest city booster of them all.