Ken vs. Boris: It's So On

i think the standard would find SOMEONE to run attack pieces on ken, were gilligan otherwise engaged, guys.

we got hateful zings for them too

Bring back Christopher Monckton with his "gas all proles" columns. At least you knew where you were.

Tom D - good shooting.

The defence of Gilligan that he's been beaten up by a journo misrepresenting him is hilarious. Biter bit and all that, though it remind me of a friends who made the point isn't that the media are dominated by the middle class, it's that the media are dominated by a media class who are another fucking species.

I had some sympathy for Gilliagn through this because there is stuff about the Ken regime which as a journo, it's his job to get. But he's a bitter little prick who is actually a bit dim.

As with his sexing up report, he went slightly too far than his brief which left Greg Dyke flagging in the wind having backed his journalism. Indeed, Ken was as ill-served by Jasper in the exact same way as Dyke was ill-served by Gilligan.

Very well put

I think it's less a defence and more that it would have been a better interview had Aitkenhead confronted him on the facts a bit more, rather than being wise after the event and writing around his responses. But I agree with your overall point.

A good point I think to remind everyone of plantation owner Aitkenhead's assertion that black culture isn't black culture.

Hello, Boyle!

I hope you have been campaigning for Ken with the same passion and eloquence that so moves and entertains me when I hear you talking in the boozer.

What was that time you were talking about Eagleton and T Wilson ... and socialism and Catholicism? Maybe it was a post-xmas fap? or in the GHS, or both. Good nights, anyway.

Bring back transportation

If Boris dont win. the election? will he go full time on T.V ? He is one of the best at telling jokes, His ,humour is his strongest point? very few funny men left in show business ,today hes the best.

jimadore, cardiff

Recommended by 2 people

I hope this one is a joke

The main weaknesses of London are of course Transport and Housing. The Paris model is the one to follow, first class public transport to ferry the masses in, (and most importantly) out of the City at night. We need to preserve the centre of London for the law abiding middle classes and transport the rest of the populace underground so they can serve us efficiently. Social harmony comes from housing and transporting like with like - not the crazy jealousy inspiring London model of failed mixing.

I can't bring myself to click that link.

Is that one of Boris's? After all, "he is one of the best at telling jokes"

As Mayor of London I would:

1. Demolish everything outside Zone 1 and replace it with enormous tower blocks.
2. Put all the blacks and immigrants and poor people there.
3. Watch the cars burn.

Sorry, Ed, that was one of mine.

PF - alas, I'm not a Laboour Party member, nor London resident, so my efforts have been limited to scaring colleagues and friends who do have a vote and who express neutral comments about Johnson.

I have a memory of that discussion, but not my point. I must have been tired by that time of the evening.

Deport the Scots, northerners and Welsh:

The main problem for London, and the entire South East, is chronic over population. Get rid of that and most of the other problems congestion, housing costs, airport capacity etc. would be cured overnight.

… and for those about to cry ‘immigration’ yes that is part of the problem. However most of the recent ‘immigrants’ to London have come from elsewhere in the UK. We need to encourage people to stay in their home towns and make them great instead of migrating to the big city.

Mark K, London, UK

Recommended by 14 people

'However most of the recent ‘immigrants’ to London have come from elsewhere in the UK. We need to encourage people to stay in their home towns and make them great instead of migrating to the big city.'

OTM. Keep the south soft.

Yea verily, sendeth Dick Whittington and his accursed cat back to whence they came

Getting rid of that ridiculous $25 Charge

Di, London

And he's still struggling to gain the Shropshire vote...

Most important thing in this election? Getting rid of Red Ken!

Laugh On, Shropshire, United Kingdom

Recommended by 18 people

The most important issue for me is that nobody to do with Labour gets in. End of.

PeterC, Belfast

How's the Ken/Boris vote divided in the Borough of Belfast at the moment?

Are there still no Labour candidates for anything in Northern Ireland full stop?

I think the only mainland parties to have crossed over are (the Greens I guess and) the Tories, kind of strangely.

Some guy in Belfast was telling me that he was going to vote for them as a way of telling sectarian and/or squabbling NI politicians they could all piss off and I failed to dissuade him (felt too English-accented and not quite drunk enough for NO THEY'RE EVEN WORSE, and was kind of hoping for the conversation to end since over there I realised how much of What Does Party X Stand For is just something you gather over the years of living somewhere and will never appear on their website etc).

I think that Graham Norton is quite keen on Boris though.

i'd deport all you zone 7 parasites for sure

It's zone 10 now, unless you have a particular vendetta against those from chorleywood, rickmansworth and watford.

well yes in fact i do! death to the town that spawned geri halliwell

Chorleywood always sounds as though it should be five miles up the road from Blackpool.

Go and vote people

don't think the communist party has a candidate

But "Mayor of London" is a title not even Johnson always seems to want. One story has it that when a staff member reminded him that on Aug. 24, he would have to appear in Beijing to accept the Olympic flag on behalf of London, the host of the 2012 Summer Olympics, Johnson flipped through his calendar.

"But I'm in Tuscany that week!" he said.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,548062,00.html

Hahahahahahahha

True blue for life

We need to encourage people to stay in their home towns and make them great instead of migrating to the big city

This is true. If I'd stayed in Wallasey they'd have finished that cathedral I designed.

There's some dreadful ineffective scaremongering in G2 today, the sort of "he's not a serious candidate, he'll fuck everything up" that's reminiscent of Labour propaganda pre-Ken getting elected. When what we should really be worried about is if Boris gets in and doesn't actually fuck it up, and if he surprises people by taking to the Mayor's role well.

Above all else, I'm looking forward to being reminded what it feels like to vote with conviction and enthusiasm. It's been a long time.

Indeed. And much as I would vote against Boris no matter who the alternative, I still feel like I'm voting for Ken. Can't see that happening for a while.

As if the Guardian lot need to be scaremongered.

I have no problems voting for ken, he has done a good job as mayor.

Really? I voted this morning with a vague sense of foreboding and a stronger sense of clinging on to nurse for fear of something worse.

That has certainly fed into my conviction and enthusiasm, Dingbod.

I wonder what proportion of the electorate weren't actually in London before 2000. It's gotta be relatively high, right?

Conviction about what? Enthusiasm for what, and whom?

I'm not really prepared to vote for Hitler on the remote off chance that he might make a decent fist as Chancellor of Germany.

Matt OTM. Stopping Hitler getting elected has stoked my fires up a bit.

I'm more than a little tired of voting for the "not as evil as the Tories, erm, that's about it really" party.

Thing is, they're not as evil as the Tories and I'm afraid when push comes to shove that's what it comes down to at the end of the day football is the real winner.

Furthermore I'll bet Boris fixed that result at Stamford Bridge last night so that the blues could beat the reds.

I know and I continue to vote for them. It's some bullshit really.

Riding the wave of the feelgood factor surging throughout London as Chelsea reach the Champions League Final...............

Transport, the one thing that really effects me and the thing he has most power over has improved leaps and bounds over his 8 years in power. I don't really have any views on crime and policing because I see very little crime and a lot of police, something must be working but I'll admit my area is pretty low crime anyway.

Housing is still a big problem in London but the mayor's office has very little control over it. Healthcare in London could be better but again very little control. He is doing what he can on climate change and I approve of the LEZ and £25 congestion charge.

Do I think Gordon brown is doing a good job as PM, do I think much of the labour government in general, Fuck No. I'm not voting in a general election, I am voting for Mayor of London and I was happy to cast my vote for Ken Livingstone, Nicky Gavron and the Green list. (I'm not 100% behind the green's policies but I think they should be in the asembly and in parliament too so that they can air them).

"BLUE IS THE COLOUR" etc. (xp)

I just couldn't get excited about voting for Ken (as opposed to voting against Boris) is all.