Ken vs. Boris: It's So On

Yeah I acknowledged that Cable thing in the following post, Dr C.

Oh yes, sorry. But I just wanted to set the recd straight wrt this mythical Tory heartland of SW London!

One of the candidates turned up at our front door to get us to sign a form allowing him to run - he needed something like 30 signatures from each London Borough.

I have to combat Chingford I guess.

Can't persuade you to put Ken second for the sake of stopping boris?

xpost to dr C?

Feel sad for people who have to vote for Ploddick, I think he's the worst candidate for political office i've seen since Bobby Gillespie's dad

Ed - maybe.

Well, what will it take, Doc? A gold plectrum?

Much, much more than that...

Yeah, I know what you mean Tom, and my heart says Left List as second preference but my STOP BORIS ESPECIALLY IN PHIL N' KIRSTIE FRIENDLY FULHAM says Ploddick.

my "STOP BORIS etc." head that should be.

Everyone does realise that this election is london wide for mayor, it doesn't matter how each candidate does on a constituency basis it is the number of votes in total across london. So voting for Ploddick will not stop boris (by all means vote tactically for assembly members)

Equally there's surely no point in voting LibDem and making a tactical second-place vote for the Greens, when Siam Berry will almost certainly have been eliminated before Paddick?

Sian Berry, even.

2nd-choice votes for anyone outside the top two are simply disregarded (well, they'll be tallied and prove reassuring reading for people concerned that the lovely Sian came in 5th behind the BeeEnPee, cos she'd have been a comfortable 4th, perhaps better, with 2nd-choice votes).

Yes, but I can't bring myself to put an X next to either Ken or Boris's name.

Mike seems to have an aversion for typing the letters B, N and P ... and actually, I think I know how he feels.

Doc: ... no. I don't know what to say. You will, of course, do what you want to do.

pinefox, do you feel that any of the criticisms made of ken amount to anything? do you find his personal style appealing?

don't know why you guys are so afraid of a bank

I do find his personal style appealing. And I don't really care about criticisms of him, in the present context.

I remember taking a load of euros out of the BNP in the Quartier Latin last May, with dear old RJG of all people: slightly odd experience.

Used to be, if you saw B'n'P tags you were duty-bound to alter these to BANGLADESHI NATIONAL PARTY.

What is this "left list" thing? Is it Respect?

And various others

respect, in an unusual move for a left organisation, have split

They suck.

How many preferences do you indicate? Just the first two? Or can you make a point of putting them last?

Just the first 2

a split in the unity coalition. the full story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_List

Here's hoping they get no votes whatsoever

They certainly seem like a bright bunch.

So vote for whoever you like, just put Livingstone second, and we'll be alright.

xpost

It was a pretty inherently unstable coalition anyway, although shades of Kilroy-Silk &c.

Respect Renewal candidates will be standing under the name 'Respect (George Galloway)'

I most certainly will not.

Do not vote for this man:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/82/207283646_f19a907e42.jpg

I quite like his beard

There is no non-shit left-wing party to put 2nd is there?

Stress balls at the ready

I'd vote for Lindsey German if i were allowed to vote.

SWP ugh

OTM

I'd rather vote Boris

So vote for whoever you like, just put Livingstone second, and we'll be alright.

There is the nightmare scenario that lots of anti-Boris but can't-really-vote-for-Ken-again people go Green or Lib Dem or Left List or whatever and put KL down as their #2 and then Boris nudges over 50%. Game over. Unlikely, I know.

Works both ways

Mike, can one ask for whom you intend to vote? Are you reluctant to vote for Ken Livingstone?

Look I figure the SWP are experts at ineffectually haranguing people in cramped function rooms, which is about 90% of the mayor's job if I understand correctly

And even more practiced at anti-Semitism than Ken

Mike, can one ask for whom you intend to vote? Are you reluctant to vote for Ken Livingstone?

Lab/Green or Green/Lab. Misgivings about Ken, but no great reluctance, especially in the face of the alternative.

Another Green/Lab World.

xpost:
Strange, all these anti-semitic allegations flying around. I don't, god knows, want to get into a barney about this with anyone, anywhere, let alone a Barney Everyone Everywhere. But a) I don't believe that Ken Livingstone is anti-semitic, b) I don't believe that most members of the SWP are. In the latter case, at least, I can only guess that hostility to Israel as a political force is being confused or conflated with anti-semitism -- which is, of course, a different thing. The most vehement critic of Israel I know (including the Dirty Vicar) is Jewish. Probably that goes for a lot of people.

This is a dreadfully volcanic issue so I guess one should try to say no more about it - it is probably pointless to get embroiled in it, one way or another. But it is quite an allegation to make, about anyone. I knew lots of people in the SWP as a student and none of them were racist or anti-semitic in the least. Does any Jewish person actually feel threatened, as a Jew, by British socialists or Ken Livingstone? I doubt it.

Incidentally I don't really think BJ is a racist either.

agreed

BJ racist no; idiot yes

SWP pain in the arse cause hijackers.

I sensed some anti-Semitism when I was on that first anti-Iraq War match, organised by this "Left List" mob - I think it was the Star of David = Swastika banners; the chants about driving Israel into the sea; and the blokes wandering about with fake suicide bomb belts that did it. Maybe I'm being a bit over-sensitive.