The majority of politicians aren’t famous for their exciting lives, so it might seem completely normal that the GLA budget meetings over the past two weeks have been interesting for us Green Assembly Members (AM’s). (We take our fun where we can find it.)

The two GLA budget meetings happen at the start of the year to get plans sorted well before the new financial year. At the first meeting the Mayor presents his budget and we AM’s have a chance to put amendments. At the second we see if the Mayor has changed the budget in any way to reflect those suggestions.

During the last four years of the previous Mayor’s regime, 2004-2008, the Greens held the final two votes needed to get the Mayor’s budget through, so Darren Johnson and I had lots of opportunity to make the budget more environmentally and more socially friendly. For example, our Green Homes project helped people to save money on their energy bills, by helping them reduce their carbon footprint. That tiny glimpse of what it’s like to have power was very exhilarating, but now we’ve found that being in opposition can be just as exciting.

At the first meeting at the end of January, the Mayor’s budget had a zero increase in the council precept (the bit of the council tax that goes to the Mayor for disposal), while our green amendment had a cost of living increase of 1.2%. We wanted the allocated money moved around, for example where funding had been taken from green projects, we planned to reinstate it, and cut back on things like rephrasing traffic lights or scrapping the bendy bus.

At the second meeting, we had the opportunity to question the Mayor again, and he proved to be very competent at evading the questions. We AM’s are each hampered by strict time limits and the Mayor can waffle endlessly and take up all the time in making his own political points and not answering the AM’s question. While it often makes for entertainment, it does occasionally reduce the democratic process to farce.

During the actual budget meetings – both of them – the debate between AM’s began to get quite tedious because the only viable option on the table was the Greens’ budget amendment, which the other parties couldn’t be seen to support, and mostly said they didn’t agree with anyway.

Given that politics is basically about who gives what to whom, whether money goes to A or B is always a very political decision. So as the only Assembly Members to put an amendment to the Mayor’s budget, we found that in poring over the content of the draft budget, we were able to not only understand the direction of the Mayor’s agenda, but also put together a clear manifesto for ourselves for the next year.

If the London Assembly is going to scrutinise the Mayor effectively, we need to decrease his waffle and increase our cooperative working, regardless of party groups. Even if opposition is fun, it’s starting to look like a long three years to the next election.