Ken vs. Boris: It's So On

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.

I believe for every drop of rain that falls a flower grows.

YouGov has it, at final polling, as Johnson 53 Livingstone 47. Which, sadly, sounds about right.

"I believe for every drop of rain that falls someone gets wet" (Spike Milligan)

Last one to leave for Stevenage please remember to turn out the lights.

If a drop of rain falls in the middle of the forest, does it make someone wet?

I voted around 7:20am; around the same time as I did in 2004, I believe. In 2004, I don't recall seeing a soul enter/exit the place during the 100m walk up Chevening Road, while I was in there or on my way out. This time, I saw six people. So, there you go. 185% turnout.

Don't know if somebody's pondered this upthread or not: could a high-profile, blunder-strewn Boris mayorship actually dent the Tory's ratings before the next general election?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3006/2436824909_de50172c4a.jpg

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3850640.ece

could a high-profile, blunder-strewn Boris mayorship actually dent the Tory's ratings before the next general election?

Maybe, still DO NOT WANT. Reminds me of people saying that Bush beating Kerry would be a good thing in the long run cos a 2nd Bush term would be so bad, the Dems would sweep Congress in '06. Which more or less happened but we still had another term of Bush.

I considered that but it's clutching at straws really. Don't think he'd be in long enough to do major damage to a Cameron election campaign.

I think BJ is a bit like W.

One person who said that 2004 result was good: Slavoj Zizek, in a long letter to the LRB, which for some reason they felt compelled to print.

I was looking for crumbs of potential comfort, not a game plan.

I remember the day after that 11.2004 election, the sense of desolation - talking to people like it was the end of the world. I suppose I later came to feel that it wasn't. But of course it was still a terrible result, and two terms is two more than W should ever have had.

Another 110 posts and we'll have beaten the US election thread for the week.

I've been feeling a long-drawn out sense of desolation since about 6 weeks after the 1997 general election.

I think it's been established in the public mind that there's a degree of separation between the Mayor and the national party, so a Boris cock-up may not necessarily harm Cameron.

Still, I don't think Cameron will allow Boris to make a balls-up of it, and Boris will be much more beholden to Cameron than Ken has been to Blair/Brown.

I wasn't necessarily thinking of out-and-out cock-ups so much as a nice reminder to the country at large that New Conservatives aren't quite as touchy-feely as Cameron would like to paint them.

Who could possibly think he would make a good mayor? I'm honestly befuddled. It seems like such a frivolous way to vote.

Yeah, Britain's never struck me as a country in thrall to celebrity.

people = shit