Keeping Boris in check will be a tough task for Dee
May 24, 2009 11:00 AM
In Irish Post
In Irish Post
LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson will receive an unexpected lesson in Irishness in his City Hall home over the coming year, according to the newly-appointed chair of the London Assembly, Liberal Democrat Dee Doocey.
Mrs Doocey officially took up the title - won by 14 votes from her fellow Assembly Members - earlier this month.
In her acceptance speech the Dublin-born mother-of-one was quick to announce her particular pride in being the first Irish native to take up the role.
The Irish Post spoke to Mrs Doocey soon after her election. "Boris is utterly charming," said Doocey, who has been a London Assembly member since 2004.
She admitted: "He is very similar to Ken [Livingstone] actually; they are like two peas in a pod. Both hugely charismatic, both slippery as eels and both could charm the birds off the trees. The power of oratory is not dead when you watch those two."
She added: "But I will be seeing through that when chairing Mayor's Question Time, although it won't be an easy job. Boris is good enough to just be able to answer the questions put to him, but he does play to the gallery a bit too much in my view.
"You want a little bit of that so it's not tedious and boring, but not too much."
Taming Boris may well be the hardest task that Mrs Doocey will face in the role which has numerous responsibilities attached to it.
Within its civic duties, Mrs Doocey will represent the city at official events or occasions, she will also continue to sit on the various committees she has been involved in for years.
But most important to the new head of the Assembly is the opportunity it brings to do something for the causes she feels most passionately about. "I have been on the Assembly for six years now," Mrs Doocey explained.
"I have been chair of the Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee and was then appointed to the Metropolitan Police Authority. "I was then chair of the Met Olympics Committee and later sat on the Home Office Olympic Security Board.
"So I sort of felt when I stood for this role that I had achieved most of the things that I wished to achieve, and the one thing that I hadn't done was to be the chair of the Assembly."
She added: "I also thought there are two things I feel really passionate about - children from deprived communities, living in poverty and people with disabilities and, if I was chair of the Assembly, I could do something more to raise awareness and money for these causes as well.
"I didn't want to do it to be the chair, to have a badge - I am not interested in things like that. I did it to do something rather than to be somebody."
Doocey was born an O'Keefe in Drumcondra, Dublin to artistic parents - her mother an actress and singer and father a musician. Dee moved to London at the age of 17.
Four years later, she married her husband, Jim, from Mountrath in Co. Laois, had a son and set about carving a successful career in business and as a key financial advisor to the Liberal Democrat Party.
But her Irish roots have never been far from her heart and will be a key feature in her work over the next year.
"The Irish population in London is huge," she said. "So I do think it is very important to have the community represented on the London Assembly.
"I like the idea of communities coming together, and during my year as chair one of the things I want to do is to have an event for Irish people in City Hall. Ken [Livingstone] was very very pro-Irish; he didn't have to be persuaded, but I think Boris is not aware rather than anything else.
"If people are anti you can do something about it, but if it is not on their horizon it is much more difficult. So I might try to give him a lesson or two in the culture."
The breath of fresh Irish air that has just wafted into the chair is clearly one that will benefit London and its Irish contingent. Whether it is powerful enough to see Boris don his dancing shoes remains to be seen.
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