Being the Mayor

BBC Learning EnglishLondon LifeBeing the MayorJackie:  Hello, this is London Life with me, Jackie Dalton. Today we're going tofind out about one particular life in London and that's the daily life of Ken 1 Livingstone, the city's mayor. What’s it like being in charge of one of the biggest cities in the world? Does he enjoy it? First he's going to describe how his day starts out. As you listen to him, try to answer these questions: how does he get to work and what does he do on the way?
　　Ken LivingstoneWhen I wake up, I have two small children, so the first hour of the day is revolved 2 around getting them dressed and fed and then I get off to work and I come in on the tube and so I get that 40 minutes time reading papers.
　　Jackie:  Ken goes to work on London's underground public transport system – the tube and on the way, he reads newspapers. He spoke 3 quite quickly there, so don't worry if you didn't get those answers. We'll listen to that clip 4 again.
　　Ken LivingstoneWhen I wake up, I have two small children and so the first hour of the day is revolved around getting them dressed and fed and then I get off to work and I come in on the tube and so I get that 40 minutes time reading papers.
　　Jackie:  So that's the journey to work. What about once he's in the office, what does he spend most of his time doing?
　　Ken LivingstoneOnce I get in the building, it's just wall-to-wall meetings, the meetings just go on endlessly. I get very little time to read or do anything, just people come through the door, one after the other with problems. And I only ever know what's going wrong, no- one comes to me and says 'This is all going right.'
　　Jackie:  Ken says he has wall-to-wall meetings, which means lots and lots of meetings one after another all day. He says people only ever come to see him with problems; no-one comes to tell him if everything is going well. Listen again.
　　Ken LivingstoneOnce I get in the building, it's just wall-to-wall meetings, the meetings just go on endlessly. I get very little time to read or do anything, just people come through the door, one after the other with problems. And I only ever know what's going wrong, no- one comes to me and says 'This is all going right.'
　　Jackie:  Despite the wall-to-wall meetings where he has to listen to people's problems, Ken Livingstone still thinks he's got a pretty good job. He says it’s more fun to be the mayor of a city than the leader of a country. Why is that?
　　Ken LivingstoneTo be the mayor of a great world city is one of the best jobs in the world. When I met Mayor Giuliani when he was mayor of New York, he was loving it, even when things were going wrong, it's still an amazing job. 'Cos if you're a president or prime ministerof a country, you live in a bubble, security protects you and you don't get out and about much, except in organised visits. If you're the mayor a city, you actually live in the city, you travel in the city, you understand it.
　　Jackie:  Ken Livingstone certainly does like his job! He says he thinks it's good to be the mayor of a city because you can really live in it. If you're apresident or prime minister, you're surrounded by security all the time and, Ken says, you live in a bubble, which means you don’t have real contact with the outside world. Listen again:
　　Ken LivingstoneTo be the mayor of a great world city is one of the best jobs in the world. When I met Mayor Giuliani when he was mayor of New York, he was loving it, even when things were going wrong, it's still an amazing job. 'Cos if you're a president or prime minister of a country, you live in a bubble, security protects you and you don't get out and about much, except in organised visits. If you're the mayor a city, you actually live in the city, you travel in the city, you understand it.
　　BBC Learning EnglishJackie:  What does Ken like least about his job? Listen to find out.
　　Ken LivingstoneI suppose I like least the generally negative drip, drip, drip of hostility 5 from the British media. Quite unlike the media in Europe or America or China, everything's wrong, things are only ever getting worse.
　　Jackie:  What bothers Ken most is the hostility – or aggression 6 and unfriendliness of the British media, which always makes it seem like everything isgoing wrong. Listen again to make sure you understood that.
　　Ken LivingstoneI suppose I like least the generally negative drip, drip, drip of hostility from the British media. Quite unlike the media in Europe or America or China, everything's wrong, things are only ever getting worse.
　　Jackie:  Finally, Ken is going to tell us about his proudest achievement in politics– his proudest achievement the thing he has done which he is most pleased about. What is his proudest achievement?
　　Ken LivingstoneMy proudest achievement in politics in the congestion 7 charge, because everybody thought it wouldn't work and it actually worked better than I'd hoped it would and, I mean, you always have your hopes, but you always fall short. This was the first time something actually was better than I hoped it would be.
　　Jackie:  Ken's proudest achievement is the congestion charge. This is a sum of money which drivers have to pay whenever they travel in the city centre. The aim of the congestion charge was to reduce pollution and traffic.
　　Ken thinks his project has worked well, better than expected. Listen again.
　　Ken LivingstoneMy proudest achievement in politics in the congestion charge, because everybody thought it wouldn't work and it actually worked better than I'd hoped it would and, I mean, you always have your hopes, but you always fall short. This was the first time something actually was better than I hoped it would be.
　　Jackie:  That's all for this week. Keep practising your English online with bbclearningenglish.com