Loz - some good knowledge there, i wasn't aware of that.
This all seems highly politicised.
The Government set out what they wanted as part of their bailout (i.e. Govt made the decision over increases to Congestion Charge as a condition to the congestion charge) and the Mayor had no choice to accept as no other bailouts were possible.
The Government have clearly: (i) given him a choice that they know will be unpopular; and (ii) publicised and smashed him in the press with this.
I don't know how much is normal to spend on "art" each year. The Tube regularly commission posters, poems etc. As well as its textiles for new carriages/new lines - its all designed. It's part of the fabric of the Tube and I've quite liked it over the years. It certainly makes our Tube network a nicer place to be then say the Metro in Paris. If he's spent double what is normal, then fair enough. I just don't know what normal is, and whether this year there were additional items that required spending money on.
Sadiq hasn't seemed to be making the expensive or embarrassing trips abroad that Red-Ken/Boris had made.
I preferred him massively to Zac Goldsmith who I thought to be a trust-fund lunatic and entirely detached from reality. I doubt he'd ever been on a tube, or got to grips with the variety of cultures that make up London.
I still think Sadiq will still win when the next election. Although the person the Tories have put up against Sadiq seems to be the antithesis to Z.Goldsmith (as Goldsmith did so badly), he also seems entirely useless at public speaking and no-one has ever heard of him. If you look up Shaun Bailey on YouTube, I doubt you would find him impressive.