Ken vs. Boris: It's So On

It's this fucking war. Nobody believes a word Labour says.

silver lining, tory councilors are going to be much less media savvy and much more old school bigots so we should get a shitstorm of feet in mouths across the country as hundreds of new tory councilors speak out.

Two of the new ones in Southampton are 18 years old. Kids, it shouldn't be allowed. No, really.

Sir Clive Sinclair

Boris

"I'm not going to run Ken down because I think he's been a good Mayor, good at promoting London and a great ambassador. However, we need a fresh approach, so I'll vote for Boris."

;_;

FUCK YOU, I WISH I'D HAD A COMMODORE 64

Presenting: The Sinclair Routemaster!

NUMBER ONE PRIORITY OF THE NEXT LABOUR PARTY ELECTION MANIFESTO:
Ban Oxford.

emil.y, not sure what you mean, though I share your views.

Pashmina's graphic was quite convincing, and I agree with him too; I hope he realizes it's not 'London' that's wrong, it's just evil tossers and stupid bastards.

Mike, that's a good question ... but I can't see it happening. I wasn't good at rugby at school - you'll be surprised to hear. I don't think ACG has ever deigned to speak to me anyway. But he does deserve a comeuppance after this.

I share the feelings of those who would like to protest, march Not In My Name etc. But I'm a bit confused - not all of you took this line during the campaign, did you? Or did you, and I'm mistaken, in which case apologies - I am not trying to cause offence, as ever. I am just genuinely a bit surprised at how the tone has apparently changed. I think this thread (like ilx generally, no doubt) has been characterized by a lot of cynicism and shrugging, and when disaster finally strikes, one can see that that won't do.

I guess I could try and refine that comment - maybe it is only certain people who have set that tone; others have been clear for Ken all the way. Never mind. I don't know. ilx is not really my home now anyway, the way it has changed.

I think I'm going to visit London and go all Christie Malry on your asses

pinefox: is this the bit you meant? it's a BS johnson reference (DK got it, at least), and it's about the only thing that's raised my spirits in this entire debacle :/

Lib Dems have taken Sheffield.

xpost

also, wrt people's attitudes: look, i think the problem is that ILX is actually so fundamentally decent that it didn't think for one second that people would be fucking stupid enough to vote for tory councillors/boris for mayor!

or maybe not </perls gestalt approach ... that reminds me, i should be revising>

I guess enrique is happy this morning

i wonder how many of the london ilxors own a car (not me)

Tracer H: yes.

I haven't read the C Malry book, I'm afraid, but props to Emily for her bookish ways.

GF: well, I think people are fucking stupid enough to do anything. I was around in the 1980s, after all.

Decent round-up of all the main UK political blogs here: http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2008/05/all-the-rumours.html

It would be nice to think ilx was fundamentally decent, but I fear those days are gone. That's not the phrase that springs to mind about it now.

also, wrt people's attitudes: look, i think the problem is that ILX is actually so fundamentally decent that it didn't think for one second that people would be fucking stupid enough to vote for tory councillors/boris for mayor!

-- grimly fiendish, Friday, 2 May 2008 13:30 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

"How can Nixon have won? Nobody I knew voted for him."

i have never for one second believed pauline kael ever said that

Neither do I, but it's nice shorthand.

It's this fucking war. Nobody believes a word Labour says.

But the tories voted for the war too!

I just don't get it. People say they hate Blair/Brown/NuLab so they are going to vote for another version of it?

It would be nice to think ilx was fundamentally decent, but I fear those days are gone. That's not the phrase that springs to mind about it now

hence my "or maybe not" caveat :)

in seriousness: there's certainly a (an?) O_o-ism among people on this thread/my friends/hand-wringing liberals everywhere and of fucking course we should know better by now. still: as has been pointed out myriad times now, many of the "reasons for voting boris" are so fucking DICK-RIDDEN that, you know, i think we can be forgiven for the odd boggle of the mind.

General breakdown of probable Boris voting reasons:

a. not Ken
b. i don't want to pay £25 a day to drive MY car.
c. i don't want to pay fuck all for anything and gas the proles if you want your Olympic money.
d. he's fit
e. so-called asylum seekers ring Jon Gaunt now
f. Evening Standard told me to vote for him
g. he's a character he's funnEEEEE hyuk hyuk choke
h. terrorists
i. time for a change
j. i voted for him as a joke SHOOT ME NOW

D) is stretching the limits of credibility a bit, unless there's a city of of Kate StClair's out there I hadn't noticed.

Lib Dems have taken Sheffield.

-- William Bloody Swygart, Friday, 2 May 2008 13:29 (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Clegg's home town. Now he gets to call last night a success for the LDs.

D) is stretching the limits of credibility a bit, unless there's a city of of Kate StClair's out there I hadn't noticed.

-- Matt DC, Friday, 2 May 2008 13:53 (33 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

The post that launched a thousand Dom Passantino/JW image searches.

Leeds stayed NOC, Lib Dems took a seat from the Tories (dunno which one, but I'm guessing it wasn't Hyde Park or Headingley)

b. i don't want to pay £25 a day to drive MY car.

^^^this

I hope he realizes it's not 'London' that's wrong, it's just evil tossers and stupid bastards.

Yes! I realise this, of course.

It would be nice to think ilx was fundamentally decent, but I fear those days are gone. That's not the phrase that springs to mind about it now.

True, but nevertheless, there are many fundamentally decent people here, still.

I don't think you can be fundamentally decent if you clutter the board with Alsatia cant and colonialisms.

as an elaboration of b., the sitting mayor is certainly being punished for the powers the mayorship no longer actually has (that the GLC did sorta kinda have) in ref unitary transport policy -- viz eg control over which roads are bein dug up when... decided borough by borough, with little or no ability to get all the many competing utility corps to liaise (or even care about same)

But Boris won't actually abolish the congestion charge or the bendy buses, will he?

I will phase out bendy buses

...in about 25 years, when they were due to be taken out of service anyway.

The Congestion Charge must be reformed. Congestion has now risen above pre-Congestion Charge levels. Ken Livingstone's £25 levy will not improve congestion or emissions

'Reformed' does not equal 'abolish' or 'cut'.

But Boris won't actually abolish the congestion charge or the bendy buses, will he?

right now people think he will, that's all that matters

Boris is a twat, but to read some of this you'd think we'd just elected Mugabe. I think London will manage, as it always has.

nothing in tory policy -- or economic philosophy* -- will impact on transport in a good way (at least not in a way that's good for what ken calls "ordinary working londoners"): i think there'll possibly be voter-sculpting high-end transport solutions for certain (richer) constituencies, which will make travel just worse for everyone else

(of course free-and-easy travel for all will begin to be massively moralised against by the posher type of greenie and eco-tory and and and)

*ie it wd need a return to "big local govt"

It's more the grim tidings of things to come, Dr C.

Just think: Where would we be if Jeffrey Arch hadn't been 'found out' until after the mayoral campaign, and won it? And THEN been found out...

Boris can't phase out all bendy buses unless he is really going to send double decker 521 routemasters into the strand underpass.

D) is stretching the limits of credibility a bit, unless there's a city of of Kate StClair's out there I hadn't noticed.

Note that Kate did NOT vote for Boris.

Nothing else to add for now (except that I do get the ph3ar when people mishear me talk about my favourite author - B.S. Johnson sounds uncomfortably like, AAGH, Boris Johnson).

Funnily enough Boris' manifesto is as full of holes as some of BS's books

Yeah I was more referring to the fact that there can't be THAT many people out there who actively fancy Boris. Although given his reputation...

i wz gnna say earlier emil.y that i ph33l our asses have JUST BEEN (very extremely) CHRISTY MALRIED :(

Doc, it's partly policy, partly the fact of this person being indulged / given victory over KL / given the spotlight and status, and status of representing me / us, for the next 4 years (or who knows, 8, 12 years). No, things in a democracy like ours are not like things in a dictatorship. But what is happening is awful.

In other words

A NATION MOURNS

... well, I wish it did - unfortunately a nation rejoices.

Man, this week must be a rollercoaster of emotion for Frank Lampard.

Yeah, Domino's introduced the new "Meatball Mayhem".

bored with waiting now :(

Any pubs gonna be showing the result?

Hope it goes to penalties