Do Britons Need Mayors?

Aside from his passing resemblance to Winston Churchill (or maybe it’s Alfred Hitchcock), Joe Anderson doesn’t look like an historic figure. Yet he is—if not quite on a Churchillian scale. As Liverpool’s first-ever directly elected mayor, he’s the “most powerful elected official outside London,” claims Greg Clark, Britain’s minister for cities. It’s a label Anderson is proud to wear. “When people want to know who speaks for Liverpool, they’ll know it’s me,” he says. “They can come directly to me and see the whites of my eyes—see the ambition—and know we have the power to get things done.” Clark insists Anderson’s May 3 election is a critical moment in “turning around the relationship between central government and local government.”