All right, only two candidates have a cat in hell’s chance of winning, but let’s look at the runners and riders in all their glory ‘London needs the “mayor of London” more than it actually needs a mayor of London, if that makes sense.’ Photograph: I-Wei Huang/Alamy ‘London needs the “mayor of London” more than it actually needs a mayor of London, if that makes sense.’ Photograph: I-Wei Huang/Alamy Thu 29 Apr 2021 04.00 EDT Last modified on Thu 29 Apr 2021 05.24 EDT A London mayoral election looms, then. It isn’t “important” in the usual sense of the word – being mayor of London, a position with little actual political power, basically just involves doing sad eyebrows on the news when something bad happens in the city and making unconvincingly jovial hand gestures while opening a school or bridge. But mayor of London is an important role for London itself, giving it the validation it constantly craves. Despite being the biggest city in the country by an unsustainable margin, and despite being regularly listed as among the top 10 cities in the world, it constantly needs to be reassured: “You’re not just a load of Prets and swaths of developer-erased history! You’re a good city! Hey! Stop crying!” The regular appointment of a glamorous-sounding role serves to do exactly that. London needs the “mayor of London” more than it actually needs a mayor of London, if that makes sense. For some reason, 20 entire people are in the running to do this non-job.