Notionally a complete re-run of the 2008 election (literally: Boris Johnson vs. Ken Livingstone 'vs.' Brian Paddick again!), we've got just six months left to go until this election in May - which will thankfully be coming in before the Diamond Jubilee/Olympics, which will almost certainly be getting the Tories a standard poll boost from the feel-good effect (as they got after the Royal Wedding this year).

 

Anyway, this election will be interesting as Boris has genuinely done fuck all for London. That isn't even me being partisan - he hasn't got a single widespread achievement to his name from four years in office (anyone who cites 'Boris Bikes' will get it in the kidneys as Ken was the one behind the scheme...) aside from providing the Living Wage of £7.45 to anyone working for the GLA and having an illegal immigrant amnesty - which I can applaud - he's just been an embarrassing rent-a-quote for the worst elements of the Tory Party over the last three years: claiming in the midst of the financial crisis that the banking sector needed less regulation, screaming at every opportunity for the abolition of the 50p tax rate and predicting it would lead to the City upping sticks and leaving the country (amusingly enough numbers of professionals leaving the city decreased by 8% after the 50p tax rate was brought in), and generally being a bit of a fool as always.

 

Not only that, he's actively made things worse for most Londoners - ramming bus fares up by 20% to fund the scrapping of the western extension of the Congestion Charge (i.e. Kensington and Chelsea - those who could notionally afford it most!), taking £27m out of the cycle lanes funding scheme in 2009, getting rid of the £25 Congestion Charge for SUVs and postponing the Low Emissions Zones. Essentially, Boris has been a disaster - and that's before you even begin to compare him with Ken, who had a veritable LIST of achievements!

 

However, despite all this, Boris is still squeaking ahead in the few polls that have been commissioned thanks to the bloody charisma factor, but hopefully that'll get turned around in the next few months - Ken's been written off by pretty much everyone, but at least the way he's running the campaign so far shows he's targeting the outer boroughs as he needs to if he wants to win - take his latest ad, which has been heralded as Labour's most effective in years by a fair few sources (including Tory ones!).

 

 

So, quite wisely (given it's one of the areas where he has a brilliant reputation) Ken's focusing on transport for the next election, with a Fair Fares scheme to reduce the spiralling costs of bus and tube fares in London. Christ knows what Boris will drive for, but I think as ever we can expect him driving forward as a maverick - which certainly seems to be his tactic from how he's differentiated himself constantly from and been the thorn in the side of Cameron et al over the last year and a half. Certainly you can expect support for Boris to be hugely up compared with generic Conservative support in the capital in May next year.

 

Still, despite all this (and Ken being written off), I think it'll be a lot closer than most predict. Bearing in mind that Ken only just lost the election in 2008 by 100,000 votes despite having EVERYTHING possible going against him (Having been the mayor for eight years and people feeling they needed someone new - which could admittedly still work against him - Labour at their absolute poll doldrums mid-financial crisis and after the scrapping of the 10p tax rate, Boris having Teflon-like charisma against any criticism thrown at him, the Evening Standard going into full attack dog mode against Ken and for Boris...), I still reckon he could launch a shock.

 

Anyway, that all aside this is looking to be an interesting contest. The BNP have selected a Uruguayan immigrant who allegedly fought for Argentina in the Falklands War (you couldn't make it up!), Paddick's going to face the interesting prospect of actually having to make his own campaign rather than just saying enough to get the old default Lib Dem protest votes, UKIP are in the middle of a poll renaissance (well, they're up a couple of points :lol:) due to the Eurozone crisis and could possibly overtake the Lib Dems if everything goes right for them, and the Greens could do a lot better as a result of getting the old Lib Dem votes. In short we've got a treat of a campaign coming up despite it being in theory the most boring election we've had in a while!

 

So, where do you stand at the moment?

Oh, and for those wondering how the voting system in the London mayoral election works - you vote for two candidates, one first-preference and one second-preference. The two candidates with the most first-preference votes go into the run-off round, and all the first-preference votes that originally went to knocked out candidates get transferred to either of the top two if they got any of their second-preference votes. So if I voted for Jenny Jones first preference and Ken second, my vote would transfer to Ken if/when Jenny got knocked out. If I voted Jenny first preference and the UKIP guy second preference, when they both got knocked out my vote would no longer be counted.

 

Essentially this means there's no point in giving your second preference vote to anybody other than Ken/Boris as realistically they're the only two candidates who stand even the SLIGHTEST chance of going top two - and if you vote for either Ken/Boris first choice, voting second-preference is purely a cosmetic thing as your vote won't ever need to be transferred short of a massive shock in the results!

The fact that Boris' margin of victory last time was pretty narrow makes me fairly optimistic for a Ken win, as you said.

This is the first election I can vote in, so I'm pretty excited just for that

This is the first election I can vote in, so I'm pretty excited just for that

 

same :D (well unless you count the Alternate vote from May :P )

 

atm I'm firmly Labour as (as you said) Boris has done very little and I don't think the Conservative party are quite as popular as they were last year what with the year they've had, so I'm hoping this could ensure a closer margin

 

its great that they're focusing on transport too, since moving away, my trips home have costed me quite a bit and I'm sure many others also feel like this

 

 

 

I'll be voting for Boris and hope he wins. Top guy.

Tell me Chris, what has Boris actually done for London in his time as mayor? I know loads of 'top guys' but that doesn't make them good mayors...

Tell me Chris, what has Boris actually done for London in his time as mayor? I know loads of 'top guys' but that doesn't make them good mayors...

 

Yep, agreed... Boris has been a total disaster for London, he's frankly an embarrassment....

 

Boris is a massive joke, I'm fairly sure many people probably voted for him because it would be funny to have such a complete buffon as the mayor of London. Thats the only logical reason I can think of as to how he became mayor of London.

 

 

Pretty much anyone apart from BNP/UKIP would be better, at least Boris is too stupid to cause any real trouble.

Edited November 13, 201113 yr by Chris.

So let's look at my last experience of London. I passed through the city today on my way back from Berlin. List the following three experiences from the shortest time upwards.

 

a) The time between arriving in Berlin, buying an S-Bahn ticket, getting the S-Bahn for a few stops and walking a few hundred yards to my hotel

 

b) The time between entering the channel tunnel in France and leaving it in Engalnd

 

c) The time taken to buy ticket on one of the world's most expensive underground systems on arriving at St Pancras

 

 

So let's look at my last experience of London. I passed through the city today on my way back from Berlin. List the following three experiences from the shortest time upwards.

 

a) The time between arriving in Berlin, buying an S-Bahn ticket, getting the S-Bahn for a few stops and walking a few hundred yards to my hotel

 

b) The time between entering the channel tunnel in France and leaving it in Engalnd

 

c) The time taken to buy ticket on one of the world's most expensive underground systems on arriving at St Pancras

 

At an educated guess, I'd say the tube journey from St Pancras was the biggest nightmare... :lol: :lol:

 

At an educated guess, I'd say the tube journey from St Pancras was the biggest nightmare... :lol: :lol:

The tube journey itself was fine. The point is that it took me longer to buy a ticket than the time spent in the channel tunnel. It really is embarrassing to think that that will be some people's first experience of the UK.