Ever since Ken Livingstone was elected Mayor of London he has cast his eye over the capital, looking to alter a bit here and tinker with an institution there.
The Prime Minister's prediction that he would be a "disaster for London" may be too early to call, but certainly the Labour spin doctors who predicted the world would fall apart if Livingstone was elected were wrong. He has set about putting in place the foundations of an improved transport system, bringing in a US adviser - with a reputation for delivering the unthinkable - to revitalise the Tube.
Mayor Livingstone has pledged, as he promised he would during his election campaign, to introduce congestion charges. He also intends to twin London with Dublin and a host of other European and international capitals.
If he has his way, two of London's lesser known military figures, which have kept an evangelical eye over the patrons of Trafalgar Square for the past 140 years, will soon be banished to the banks of the River Thames.
In Conservative political circles, Mr Livingstone's proposal last week to remove from their plinths the statues of Maj Gen Sir Henry Havelock and Gen Sir Charles James Napier because he "hadn't got a clue" who they were, was not well received.
One could just imagine the shadow Conservative spokesman on London, Mr Bernard Jenkin, spluttering over his breakfast when he read the impish mayor's comments. Yet more Britain bashing from the left, Mr Jenkin boomed: "The politically correct left accused the word British of being racially coded. Now Livingstone is trying to erase a fundamental part of our nation's heritage from the heart of our capital city."
In its comment on the debate, the Guardian agreed that Havelock and Napier should be moved. Not because it wanted to tear down monuments of national heritage, but because the time may have come to evict them in favour of others more deserving of a spot next to Nelson's Column. "The only surprise," the Guardian observed, "is that Ken Livingstone should wish to spare their companion, George IV, from a similar fate."
Few tourists, or Londoners for that matter, really know who Havelock and Napier were and what they did in the name of the Empire. If Mayor Livingstone knew what they did, the Guardian pointed out, it was unlikely he would be better disposed towards them. Both men were prominent in the 19th century imperial march across Asia. They epitomised the evangelical "righteous soldier' of the Victorian period. They must have had their admirers as it was public subscriptions that put their bronzed statues in Trafalgar Square.
Havelock served in Burma, Afghanistan and India before dysentery ended his life in 1857. Napier was responsible for stamping out the Chartist uprising in the north of England, silencing demands for universal male suffrage and the reform of parliament.
Mayor Livingstone's point was not that the statues should be melted down - he wants the two old soldiers to be moved next to another military mogul, Gen Gordon, who carries his Bible and his cane on Victoria Embankment.
Indeed, Mr Livingstone's ignorance of Havelock and Napier's imperial past has revived a debate over national statues and whether swapping a few old ones for a few modern ones might be worth a try. The letters page of the London Evening Standard has been delightfully filled for the past few days with "angry from WC1" types telling the mayor to "keep his hands off our generals".
Just who might replace Havelock and Napier could take a long time to decide. It took years of public consultation over what to put on the spare fourth plinth on Trafalgar Square to come up with the idea of a rotating sculpture exhibition. Public suggestions ranged from fairly non-controversial figures such as the Queen Mother and Red Rum, to the plainly depressing offering of a 24ft-high pigeon.
Some journalists, including the former editor of the Independent, Andreas Whittam Smith, admitted scholarly ignorance when walking past many of London's statuary landmarks.
The fact was, he said, British people don't like putting things away. Hereditary peers were removed only a few months ago, and then not completely. And although the Privy Council had been redundant for more than 200 years, he pointed out, it was still required to meet every once in a while to rubber-stamp certain government decisions.
"As for Trafalgar Square," he wrote, "I say wait. Probably long after Mr Livingstone's time, it will become obvious what great person, unknown now, should stand alongside Nelson's Column. Meanwhile, I have a suggestion. Please make sure that all London's statues are labelled so that as we gaze at them, we can learn such lessons as they teach, and admire - or not - as the case may be."