Boris: 2009 can be year of hope

BORIS Johnson will tonight tell partying Londoners to look forward to the end of the recession.

A 200ft-high image of the Mayor will be projected onto a South Bank building as he addresses hundreds of thousands of revellers and tells them: "This recession is going to end."

His upbeat message will be shown just before fireworks mark the arrival of 2009 - and end a year of economic misery. Mr Johnson will say: "There are those who say we should look ahead to 2009 with foreboding. I want to quote Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now when he says 'Someday captain, this war is going to end', and someday, this recession is going to end.

"We can speed the demise of this recession if we all help the poorest in our community and if we make the vital investment that we need in our mass transit system and in fighting crime, so that London emerges at the end better placed to compete and entrenched in its position as the greatest city on earth. We are going to be working flat out at City Hall to achieve that. Let's go forward into 2009 with enthusiasm and purpose. I wish you a very happy New Year."

But his message came amid more signs of the downturn, with the FTSE-100 index losing 32 per cent of its value in a year, an all-time record. It currently stands more than 2060 points lower than its opening mark of 6456.9 for 2008. The pound also slumped to a new low against the euro, at just below €1.02.