Ken vs. Boris: It's So On

what kate said.

er, wait, i mean this bit about ken - Mostly I've been pretty happy with Ken. Except for the bloody stupid Olympics thing not any of the things about boris. and i'd add bendy buses. bendy buses in london and the olympics in london are both fucking stupid ideas, other than that me and ken are cool.

surely no one seriously thinks boris gives a shit about anyone other than himself?

yeah, even guiliani had a career as a firebreathing prosecutor behind him before he ran for mayor of NY

ken "can't be trusted", boris "is a laugh, he doesn't take himself too seriously". FFS.

kill them now, no judge in the land would convict you.

You know what my definition of trust is? "Would I feel comfortable if they knew the PIN for my bank account."

Yeah, I'd probably be OK with Ken having it. Wouldn't let Boris have it, even if he WOULD sleep with me.

and earnest Cuban festivals

I went to this and it was great, exactly what London parks should be used for. It also had the biggest cross section of Londoners, in terms of age and ethnicity, I've seen anywhere outside of the tube network.

Ken has been great a putting on a lot of new events and increasing the size of new ones. It feels like a european city. A lot more fun.

Plz to stop objectifying male celebrities. It is v sexist and wouldn't be acceptable the other way round.

wait.. that thing about the mosque that's BIGGER THAN WEMBLEY?!?!?!?!?

and costing only £100M?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?

I'd vote for Ken just for that if that's the case?!??! That's bargain of the century!

On time and under budget? İnşallah!

Hire them to upkeep the tube!

If there's gonna be a marked increase in "lol Boris Johnson is a legend" talk as a result of this I think I might actually murder someone

OTM, I might just join that single anti-BJ group now.

it's pretty ridiculous that that anti mega-mosque petition doesn't even mention Tablighi Jamaat

MIKE READ OUT

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mike_read/2007/07/im_backing_boris.html

"I've spoken to lots of young kids in gangs or 'crews' as they prefer to be known..."

Boris reminds me of some people I went to school with. Cunts, all (except for Chuck Tatum and a handful of others).

FWIW, I think Ken's good. Obv I don't live there no more but I like to see the place in good nick when I pop back for a visit.

My choice for mayor would be someone like JG Ballard or Neil from the "Up" series.

http://image.blingee.com/images12/content/output/2007/7/17/57467881_d5758d2c.gif
Make Your Own Glitter Graphics

lol @ toynbee calling boris a toff. i mean, seriously.

"i didn't know about the affordable housing thing either. but the £30k thin's even more bewildering - so you need a minimum salary of that to qualify? huh??

-- CharlieNo4, Tuesday, July 17, 2007 1:43 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link"

it's called 'shoring up the base' duh.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=780751356&context=pool-433899@N22&size=l

the number of pro-boris groups on facebook is terrifying. he is a tory, end of.

It's fucked. It's also fucked that a lot of normal, decent people I know are joining them.

Cameron doesn't seem to be doing too well with style over substance (particularly in ealing) so there is hope.

as we are now sold politics as 'management' and have managerial politicians, its not a surprise that 'character' politicians spur interest, and its no surprise there are pro-boris groups on facebook, how many of those people would actually vote for boris is questionable, if only because how many of those people would actually vote at all...is questionable

the number of pro-boris groups on facebook is terrifying. he is a tory, end of.

Anti-Boris facebook group

321 members in three days -- you can't front on that.

mayors have a long history of being charismatic bastards, much more so than legislators have - viz "he's OUR asshole" - i think people sort of like their city being run by some raffish rake, as long he he gets things done - the latter part is the problem for boris

Shittiest thing about Facebook - you can't even look at it unless you are a member.

um that's kind of a good thing?

My name-a Boris! I like sex! Is nice!

Opik Only One

I am not sure how I feel about the Cheeky Girls having any kind of influence on the running of Our Fair Cit-E...

And Warwick Lightfoot has an even better name...

the cheeky girls would be better than this shower.

As posted by Enrique

I am not Enrique. I suppose we all look the same to you, is that it?

who all look the same to you? what?

what about John Big Issue Bird? He is considering standing as an independent.

don't get uppity, mong guy.

Always holdin the mong guy down

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2007/07/16/nboris116.jpg
He clearly doesn't measure up for the job...

Opik not standing now...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6926020.stm

The beeb are re-using urls so if you click on 'Lembit poised to enter London race' on the right hand side you get 'Lembit declines to enter London race'.

Warwick Lightfoot is a very well known london tory. Tried to get Chelsea and Kensington whne Portillo got it and again when Rifkind got it. He must be getting pissed off with getting bumped by famous faces.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gla/story/0,,2141480,00.html

Paddick to run for Lib-Dems?

Qaradawi is like the most liberal Muslim cleric in world whose liberalism has not taken him into heresy

In an article written in October 2002, Mr Johnson described the Queen meeting "piccaninnies", adding that when the prime minister arrives in the Congo "the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird".

Make this man a symbolic figurehead for London tout se suite!

de suite bah

I would be more offende by that "big white chief" excerpt if it wasn't clearly being used as part of a scathing attack on the Prime Minister in question and presumably used with heavy irony.

I would be able to take the above defence a lot more seriously if it wasn't for the "piccaninnies" quote and, well, the fact that it's coming from Boris Johnson. Cunt.

I do wonder how much any of this will be used against him in any campaign, and more worrying, if it IS used against him, whether or not it will actually be damaging.

in a way it already is being used, just not directly. maybe mrs lawrence picked up the phone without prompting, but i wouldn't bet on it.

you can insinuate the shameful colonial history of the UK and how the PM's visit to the Congo represents a modern-day extension of it without using the words "piccaninnie" and "watermelon" and any politician with half a brain would have done so

Tracer - yeah of course, that's kind of what I was getting at.

NRW - Re Doreen Lawrence - If she didn't, would it invalidate her point?

The best thing to happen in this campaign would be a no-holds-barred dirty tricks-fest of the "grrr you hate black people", "grrr you hate Jews" variety. I doubt this will happen because both will be too concerned about playing up their respective charismatic personas to the press.

Quite how this will play at a time when charisma and charm seem to be going out of fashion in British politics in comparison to heavyweight seriousness (cf Cameron/Blair vs Brown) and I'm still claiming a plucky independent with the right cause could clean up.

The best thing to happen in this campaign would be a no-holds-barred dirty tricks-fest of the "grrr you hate black people", "grrr you hate Jews" variety

They did "grrr you hate brown people", "grrr you hate Jews" in Bethnal Green and Bow two years ago. It was shit.

"Re Doreen Lawrence - If she didn't, would it invalidate her point?"

no, but i'm just saying -- it's already so on, per the title.

Yeah the Jews lost out bigtime.

You can also read the above quote as the (hopefully used) biggest weapon against Boris that he is more interested in being a journalist and professional celebrity than he is in being a politician.