Ken vs. Boris: It's So On

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.

Actually, I have no views on Nicky Gavron so a vote for gher was a tactical anti tory vote in camden and barnet.

Of course it's bullshit but "not as evil as the Tories" takes on some serious added bite when its the first election in 16 years that they might conceivably win.

I'm not voting in London tho Matt. Obviously I want BJ to Not Win, but beyond that election day is a depressing thing as far as the actual politics is concerned. The part of me that enjoys it as sport still gets excited every time the Beeb wheel out David Dimbleby.

Peter Snow forever.

Yeah but he's the Flav to Dimbleby's Chuck D.

Dimbleby and Snow - be still, my throbbing swingometer.

Does anyone have a link to where you can find out candidates' voting records/policies etc? The London Elects site just lists who's standing. (Re London Assembly candidates obv - I'm definitely voting Ken for Mayor)

I'm probably going to vote Jennette Arnold (Labour) anyway, but I figured I may as well vote with some kind of information behind it.

From the Eveny Stannit website:

"Vote Ken Livingstone, get Socialist Action."

mmmm...

"We really hate our former ES Magazine restaurant critic!"

"Jol out"

"bring back Ashton"

"... and Gardner and Dyke"

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

If you believe Cilla Black, Liverpool have always been the Protestant/Conservative club on Merseyside! (It's rubbish, obv.)

So Cilla is a Liverpool fan then?

I am extremely dubious about this since top Tory DJ Ed "Stewpot" Stewart is a well-known Everton fan.

From comments on the Standard editorial yesterday...

Ken did well, but I wont put him 1st or 2nd on my ballot paper now. House of Lords mate, and well done, but Give us Boris and some energy

- John Ellis, London UK

When people who think you'be done well vote against you you're in trouble.

Didn't thatcher get in with nothing more than a "it's time for a change" type reasoning?

I suspect the people who voted for her were not thinking "yeah Labour's done well but let's try this bird, what the hell".

"No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin."
http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2008/04/01a_28_Borisfront_415x275.jpg
Not only that - they look like a pair of gormless sixth formers.

I just went out to vote. The streets made me think of the GLC, of the passing years, of all that has happened, the municipal and suburban world I have known. The polling station with its quiet responsibility, its temporary moral seriousness. The sense of civic virtue in those who staff it. I took my time making the crosses, fearful of somehow getting it wrong. I placed a cross next to Ken Livingstone's name - then had to check repeatedly that I had got it right, as though constantly checking I hadn't left my keys behind. I voted Green second, because I like her and them; I know it won't count, but hope that they will know how many second votes they got. For London member, Green; for local member, Labour.

... It all moved me, voting. And I looked around the streets and thought, everyone else is doing it too - people in London surely care about this election. Perhaps this is, in some technical sense, Ken Livingstone's last day as Mayor - or perhaps that has even already gone. I am grateful to him, for his political efforts since I was a little boy.

I suspect the people who voted for her were not thinking "yeah Labour's done well but let's try this bird, what the hell".

-- Matt DC

why can't that work with sian berry

Just saw Mike on the Wallasey Cathedral. Bafflingly brilliant, as always.

friends voting for boris is the worst :(

"No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin."

Of course, Bevan's opinion of Labour in power was only one step above the Tory party.

people in London surely care about this election

I wasn't exactly fighting thru the crowds on my way to the polling station this morning.

Have you, or anyone outside South Africa post-apartheid, ever fought through crowds to get to a polling station?

I believe that people in London care.

Though I wish more of them felt the way I do.