Ken vs. Boris: It's So On

What year is your SDP past, Mike -- 1982 or so? I think they were past their electoral peak by 15 May 1985.

am or pm?

I don't think we need to bother with the latest propaganda issued by Millbank apparatchik Toynbee.

Ah, yes, ILM's reality-challenging "Polly Toynbee is a Blairite" thing, which requires you to either a) not know who she is, b) not know who Tony Blair is, or c) be really fucking thick.

are you off your meds?

toynbee : labour :: gilligan : livingstone

lol i mean gilligan : johnson

Dr Kelly died so that Gilligan might live.

Hasn't Toynbee always been rather more of a Brownite?(Though she must have a tremendously powerful microscope)

And there is no divergence of views within the Labour party?

Is Livingstone a Blairite too?

Is John Mcdonnell (sp?) a Blairite?

xpost

She was Brown's John the Baptist, before she realized along with everyone else that Brown wasn't quite Jesus

And there is no divergence of views within the Labour party?

I borrowed Toynbee's microscope....and I saw some!

I don't recall either Livingstone or McDonnell living in a Clapham Park slum for like one night then working at United Biscuits for approx. half an hour then writing a book about the poverty of the nation with a ten-page preface about her five-storey house across the road.

It's a good job no one is required to vote for Polly Toynbee then.

For the time being.

laxalt otm

classic toynbee here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/feb/26/iraq.foreignpolicy2

I think people get her mixed up with Jackie Ashley, too.

I'm not saying you're not allowed to dislike despise her, Marcello. I'm just saying it's a little, tiny bit, er, moronic, to pretend that just because someone supports the Labour party they are a Blairite, or even a Brownite (whatever that means - microscope point well taken).

But back to Ken/Boris ... sorry.

Fuck off moron, is that good enough for you?

Is this the day to say no? No to what? Yet if not now, then when?

Is this off the new Elbow album?

This is very boring.

The first one wasn't bad though.

column after column by toynbee is as close to actual party literature as you could possibly get. she doesn't just support the party: she supports the leadership. differences between blair and brown were largely to do with power and presentation; ideologically you could barely get a rizla paper between them. as p-toyn has basically acknowledged -- that the myth of brown as 'the real deal' compared with blair built up over those years of feuding was bollocks.

xpost yes this is boring

I like Polly Toynbee. I think that she (experimentally / journalistically) lived on low wages for longer than has been suggested. She has old roots in the feminist movement. She is different from, and better than, Jackie Ashley, as I have said before. I think she is a good progressive woman.

I was thinking about what it will be, or would be, like to have BJ as mayor. Every time his name is mentioned or his face appears on TV, as it often will, I will have to turn off. Stuff bearing that face will be stuffed into my letterbox every fortnight. He will constantly pop up to speak for London. It will be difficult to bear; part of me will have to shut down to shut it out.

I like Polly Toynbee. I think that she (experimentally / journalistically) lived on low wages for longer than has been suggested.

I haven't taken her seriously since

Those old midthread blues again.

PT is a bore with a famous dad and therefore good connections. She is canting retrogression writ large.

If BJ becomes Mayor will the last person to leave London please etc.

Stuff bearing that face will be stuffed into my letterbox every fortnight.

it will be interesting to see if he does continue with those godawful and wasteful newsletters.

i think toynbee sent her kids to private school? kind of lame given her defence of the quality of education under new lab.

yeah at least abbott had the decency to keep slagging it off

I was thinking about what it will be, or would be, like to have BJ as mayor. Every time his name is mentioned or his face appears on TV, as it often will, I will have to turn off. Stuff bearing that face will be stuffed into my letterbox every fortnight. He will constantly pop up to speak for London. It will be difficult to bear; part of me will have to shut down to shut it out.

Unfortunately, that is exactly how lots of people feel about Livingstone, and why Boris is doing as well as he is.

George Orwell, that clown, I've never taken any of his books seriously since he pretended to be a tramp.

I'm not a big fan of ms toynbee, as usual though, the hateful reader comments posted after her piece make me feel more sympathetic to her, even though I don't really want to. They also make me want to emigrate.

Yes, that's really comparing like with like! (xp)

If Orwell had been Chaplin, Polly Toynbee would be

Fiona Kennedy
COMEDIAN

This is still boring.

Bring on PC Ploddick

What do you mean bring me on? Did RED KEN put you up to this? Eh? Eh?

Ok, what's the population split between the inner and outer boroughs. Assuming Johnson trounces Livingstone in the suburbs, and Ken wins convincingly in inner London, who wins?

It mathematically works out at roughly 50/50.

lol paddick is a bent copper am i right?

I agree with Pashmina about people who write posts on the Guardian site. It seems like a lot of them are scumbags, and I guess that some of them are probably part of an orchestrated right-wing campaign, though I have no evidence for that; it just seems likely. It's a pity the Guardian has opened this box; I don't now see how they can close it.

By closing, since most of their writers basically agree with them?

i liked toynbee's 'if you're going to post snark, at least use your real name and not Cockmonkey74 or whatever' rant on CIF

If Boris wins, I say we retreat and build the barricades on the bridges and above circle line. NON PASSARAN!

Bev Bevan type threats will be useless I suppose?

i couldn't find the comments on toynbee -- but one of the orchestrated right-wing campaigners on the comments box for a similar puff-piece by martin jacques raised the issue of ken's support for ian blair over menezes. they'll do anything to discredit him, the swine.

'if you're going to post snark, at least use your real name and not Cockmonkey74 or whatever so we can FIND YOU and MAKE YOU SLEEP WITH BEV BEVAN'

It mathematically works out at roughly 50/50.

But are people assuming higher turnout in the suburbs?

Does anyone live in outer London? Round my way (Harringay) we have had v little campaigning from anyone (one Ken, one Boris, two lib dem local council leaflets, presumably because it's so safe Labour, but a mate who lives in Kingston says they've been flooded with Lib Dem and Tory stuff. Why hasn't Labour been focussing on places like that, or has it, or again,are they not bothering because there is no hope?

Average outer London turnout at the last mayoral election was approx. 45% so presumably (and maybe fatally) Labour are assuming that the outcrops are not really worth bothering with.

Demographically harringey counts as 'inner-london'

lol rly?

damn london is big!

Zone 2!

That's inner, innit?