Ken vs. Boris: It's So On

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

But what is happening is awful

You need to use whatever tactics you used to survive the Christian Gross years, maybe.

What, sit back in the knowledge Boris will be sacked in six weeks?

Johnson Out

Oh Ok then, not the Christian Gross strategy.

Labour gain Slough from NOC.

Across the country, Tory vote was up about 8% to 39% - short of the 'magical' 40% needed to win a General Election - with Labour on 29%.

Whoa re the RA who have (had?) four seats in slough?

http://logo.cafepress.com/3/76562.856073.jpg

Resident's association, specifically 'The independent britwellian residents'

So no hunger strikes and dirty protests for them then?

Whoa re the RA who have (had?) four seats in slough?

This is really hard to parse. WHOA, re: the RA... I'm assuming you meant 'who are' but I can't get around it.

At 1:10pm the word on the BBC website was that "22% of votes counted, Boris ahead in 10 regions, Ken ahead in 4." An hour later it's 9 vs 5.

So, at this rate, it's gonna take 'em 18 hours to count the votes (4:30am Saturday?) and, if Ken claws back one region an hour, he'll win by a landslide. Hope springs, etc.

acc R4: turnout in liverpool central <10%. i'm speechless on that one.

-- grimly fiendish, Friday, 2 May 2008 08:34

This is what happens when they're all the same

DJ laxalt

*twiddles thumbs*

Facebook status updates update:

Chris B******* thinks Ken should do 'a Mugabe'.
13 minutes ago

Terry S******* will kidnap phil collins if boris gets in.
26 minutes ago

Andrew F****** would like to point out that most of the glum reports of the mayoral election pertain to first preferences, and suggest that 2nd prefs may yet see Ken through.
52 minutes ago

Matt D'**** would like to politely inform London that it can suck a big bag of dicks.
57 minutes ago

Haha.

turnout at 45%, so even though this this has been the one and only london stroy for the past few months, over half the population still don't give a shit.

Current London running score: 27% total votes counted, Boris ahead in nine, Ken in five.

sorry to be a dummy but how does the winner actually get decided, is it outright vote total or something else?

Outright vote total including second preference votes of anyone but the lead two candidates if no one gets more than 50% of first preference votes.