This London Mayor business...

jonny_trousers

Who should I vote for? I'm decidedly apathetic about the whole thing having experienced London with both Ken and Boris in charge and not really noticing any difference. I've been getting these Londoners on Bikes emails and they are pushing for Jenny Whatsit from the Greens as first vote and Ken as second, but is this really a worthwhile vote? Let's face it, she's not going to get in. If Boris is the anti-Christ for cyclists, as they seem to be suggesting, then shouldn't we make Ken our first choice? Londoners on Bikes couldn't be affiliated to the Greens could it?

Anyway, I've no idea which way to vote so do please feel free to persuade me one way or the other.

rick_chasey

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Who should I vote for? I'm decidedly apathetic about the whole thing having experienced London with both Ken and Boris in charge and not really noticing any difference. I've been getting these Londoners on Bikes emails and they are pushing for Jenny Whatsit from the Greens as first vote and Ken as second, but is this really a worthwhile vote? Let's face it, she's not going to get in. If Boris is the anti-Christ for cyclists, as they seem to be suggesting, then shouldn't we make Ken our first choice? Londoners on Bikes couldn't be affiliated to the Greens could it?

Anyway, I've no idea which way to vote so do please feel free to persuade me one way or the other.

Try this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/dave ... sfeed=true

Answer 10 questions - the format is which policy do you agree with the most - and they'll give you a breakdown of your answers.

iPete

I commute from too far out of London to vote but given that I doubt Jenny could win, I'd vote Ken seeing as he'd appoint Jenny as his Transport thingamabobwhatsit but I've not read enough about any of them to make an informed vote..

cyclingprop

It's a guardian link, doesn't that mean it defaults Left?

tailwindhome

Don't live in London so don't have a vote.

Are you not a bit embarassed that one of these men will be so prominent on the world stage during London 2012.

Is this the best you have?

rick_chasey

cyclingprop wrote:

It's a guardian link, doesn't that mean it defaults Left?

*shrugs* try it.

It just takes each candidate's policy on 10 issues, puts them randomly and anonymously in a grid. You pick which one of the 4 you agree with the most for each issue, and it adds how many policies from each candidate you picked at the end.

By definition, if you class Jenny Jones, Ken, and Paddick as lefties, and only Boris as right, then you're right - all other things being equal 3/4 times you'll be picking lefties - but that's the same of the election too, right?

greg66_tri_v2.0

Rick Chasey wrote:

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Who should I vote for? I'm decidedly apathetic about the whole thing having experienced London with both Ken and Boris in charge and not really noticing any difference. I've been getting these Londoners on Bikes emails and they are pushing for Jenny Whatsit from the Greens as first vote and Ken as second, but is this really a worthwhile vote? Let's face it, she's not going to get in. If Boris is the anti-Christ for cyclists, as they seem to be suggesting, then shouldn't we make Ken our first choice? Londoners on Bikes couldn't be affiliated to the Greens could it?

Anyway, I've no idea which way to vote so do please feel free to persuade me one way or the other.

Try this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/dave ... sfeed=true

Answer 10 questions - the format is which policy do you agree with the most - and they'll give you a breakdown of your answers.

I had a go at that. I was shocked and dismayed to find that I was only 60% Boris. 0% Ken was a result and a half though.

@ JT: choose a candidate that you like across all issues, not just one issue.

bigmat

TailWindHome wrote:

Don't live in London so don't have a vote.

Are you not a bit embarassed that one of these men will be so prominent on the world stage during London 2012.

Is this the best you have?

I can't recall off the top of my head whether you're Scottish or Northern Irish, but... Alex Salmond / Martin McGuinness?

edds

iPete wrote:

I commute from too far out of London to vote but given that I doubt Jenny could win, I'd vote Ken seeing as he'd appoint Jenny as his Transport thingamabobwhatsit but I've not read enough about any of them to make an informed vote..

Thats the joy of having a second vote. Even if you doubt she could win it you can still give her your first vote and Ken as your second. She either pulls a surprise out the bag or your vote just goes to Ken anyway.

rick_chasey

BigMat wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Don't live in London so don't have a vote.

Are you not a bit embarassed that one of these men will be so prominent on the world stage during London 2012.

Is this the best you have?

I can't recall off the top of my head whether you're Scottish or Northern Irish, but... Alex Salmond / Martin McGuinness?

Pretty sure Alex Salmond is widely considered to be a phenomenal politician.

How he manages to keep the SNP pulling in the same direction is barely short of a miracle.

bigmat

Rick Chasey wrote:

BigMat wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Don't live in London so don't have a vote.

Are you not a bit embarassed that one of these men will be so prominent on the world stage during London 2012.

Is this the best you have?

I can't recall off the top of my head whether you're Scottish or Northern Irish, but... Alex Salmond / Martin McGuinness?

Pretty sure Alex Salmond is widely considered to be a phenomenal politician.

How he manages to keep the SNP pulling in the same direction is barely short of a miracle.

Yeah, maybe a bit harsh on Salmond. I'm probably predisposed to be anti his PoV so he tends to come across badly to me. I think TWH is Northern Irish though, so my point stands - we all get politicians we struggle to be proud of. Ken v Boris was dreadful last time round and doubly depressing now, but I still sense Ken is the best overall option. Would try the Guardian thing but can't get it to work

iPete

edds wrote:

iPete wrote:

I commute from too far out of London to vote but given that I doubt Jenny could win, I'd vote Ken seeing as he'd appoint Jenny as his Transport thingamabobwhatsit but I've not read enough about any of them to make an informed vote..

Thats the joy of having a second vote. Even if you doubt she could win it you can still give her your first vote and Ken as your second. She either pulls a surprise out the bag or your vote just goes to Ken anyway.

Nice :idea:

Well according to the guardian I couldn't be more undecided if I tried

30% Brian Paddick
30% Jenny Jones
20% Boris Johnson
20% Ken Livingstone

cyclingprop

Rick Chasey wrote:

cyclingprop wrote:

It's a guardian link, doesn't that mean it defaults Left?

*shrugs* try it.

It just takes each candidate's policy on 10 issues, puts them randomly and anonymously in a grid. You pick which one of the 4 you agree with the most for each issue, and it adds how many policies from each candidate you picked at the end.

By definition, if you class Jenny Jones, Ken, and Paddick as lefties, and only Boris as right, then you're right - all other things being equal 3/4 times you'll be picking lefties - but that's the same of the election too, right?

I tried. It didn't load. Therefore I can assume politics is inherently broken.

notsoblue

Rick Chasey wrote:

Try this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/dave ... sfeed=true

Answer 10 questions - the format is which policy do you agree with the most - and they'll give you a breakdown of your answers.

60% Jenny Jones
20% Ken Livingstone
10% Boris Johnson
10% Brian Paddick

Hmmmmmmm

rick_chasey

I was 40% Paddick, 30% Ken, 20% Jones, 10% Boris.

Of course, at this point they should ask you which 3 issues of the 10 you consider more important, and ask whether you want to weight those 3 double or triple.

bigmat

OK, so:

40% Paddick
30% Jones
20% Livingstone
10% Johnson

Interesting. I must say, for a lot of the questions there was no obvious choice, just seemed like a range of options to deal with a problem which without considering in context any one of which could be good / bad / indifferent. Like, how do we deal with pollution? Seemed to be a few reasonable options, but difficult to say whether we should go for electric buses without knowing how practical that is etc. Still, Boris came last so it must be reasonably accurate!

For the cycling question, whose policy is option C? As its clearly the best one!

phy2sll2

50% Brian, 30% Jenny.

Not what I was expecting and it may have influenced my vote!

rick_chasey

notsoblue wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Try this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/dave ... sfeed=true

Answer 10 questions - the format is which policy do you agree with the most - and they'll give you a breakdown of your answers.

60% Jenny Jones
20% Ken Livingstone
10% Boris Johnson
10% Brian Paddick

Hmmmmmmm

Hippy.

jejv

I thought Labour were trying to say that the choice was between Boris and - umm - Labour.

So, Hold your nose.
He's got a beautiful dog.
I'm sure his tax returns will be out soon.

jonginge

Brian Paddick thinks Cavendish will win the Tour de France*

*according to Cycling Weekly the other week

tailwindhome

Rick Chasey wrote:

BigMat wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Don't live in London so don't have a vote.

Are you not a bit embarassed that one of these men will be so prominent on the world stage during London 2012.

Is this the best you have?

I can't recall off the top of my head whether you're Scottish or Northern Irish, but... Alex Salmond / Martin McGuinness?

Pretty sure Alex Salmond is widely considered to be a phenomenal politician.

How he manages to keep the SNP pulling in the same direction is barely short of a miracle.

While his background is always 'suspect' and he bears more than a passing resemblance to Art Garfunkel, Martin McGuinness is a very highly regarded political strategist bringing Sinn Fein from nowhere to being close to the number one party in the NI assembly, was instrumental in ending a 600 year old conflict and is regarded as having a similar ability to 'work a room' as Bill Clinton*


* insert your own jokes

jonny_trousers

Rick Chasey wrote:

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Who should I vote for? I'm decidedly apathetic about the whole thing having experienced London with both Ken and Boris in charge and not really noticing any difference. I've been getting these Londoners on Bikes emails and they are pushing for Jenny Whatsit from the Greens as first vote and Ken as second, but is this really a worthwhile vote? Let's face it, she's not going to get in. If Boris is the anti-Christ for cyclists, as they seem to be suggesting, then shouldn't we make Ken our first choice? Londoners on Bikes couldn't be affiliated to the Greens could it?

Anyway, I've no idea which way to vote so do please feel free to persuade me one way or the other.

Try this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/dave ... sfeed=true

Answer 10 questions - the format is which policy do you agree with the most - and they'll give you a breakdown of your answers.

Cheers!

40% Paddick
30% Ken Livingstone
20% Jenny Jones
10% Boris J

So, who should I vote for?

rick_chasey

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Who should I vote for? I'm decidedly apathetic about the whole thing having experienced London with both Ken and Boris in charge and not really noticing any difference. I've been getting these Londoners on Bikes emails and they are pushing for Jenny Whatsit from the Greens as first vote and Ken as second, but is this really a worthwhile vote? Let's face it, she's not going to get in. If Boris is the anti-Christ for cyclists, as they seem to be suggesting, then shouldn't we make Ken our first choice? Londoners on Bikes couldn't be affiliated to the Greens could it?

Anyway, I've no idea which way to vote so do please feel free to persuade me one way or the other.

Try this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/dave ... sfeed=true

Answer 10 questions - the format is which policy do you agree with the most - and they'll give you a breakdown of your answers.

Cheers!

40% Paddick
30% Ken Livingstone
20% Jenny Jones
10% Boris J

So, who should I vote for?

Same breakdown as me.

I'm voting:
#1: Paddick
#2: Ken.

rjsterry

Agree that some of the questions are a bit "what's your favourite colour", with all answers looking like reasonable suggestions, but not clearly differentiated. Found myself playing spot the policy.

rick_chasey

rjsterry wrote:

Agree that some of the questions are a bit "what's your favourite colour", with all answers looking like reasonable suggestions, but not clearly differentiated. Found myself playing spot the policy.

Indeed. Shows how little is in the policy though. The policies I recognised were lifted straight from the official literature.

I also like to think it shoes more often than not Lib Dem policy, taken on its own is often pretty good. But then I would say that, so feel free to ignore .

northstar

Happy with this....

Your mayor is...

50% Jenny Jones
30% Ken Livingstone
20% Brian Paddick

jonny_trousers

Rick Chasey wrote:

I also like to think it shoes more often than not Lib Dem policy, taken on its own is often pretty good. But then I would say that, so feel free to ignore .

Yeah, I've always thought that about the Lib-Dems, but, with the current voting system, I can't see them ever being in a position of useful governance. I'll probably keep putting my little X in their boxes and sighing as I step away for some years to come, however.

prj45

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Let's face it, she's not going to get in. If Boris is the anti-Christ for cyclists, as they seem to be suggesting, then shouldn't we make Ken our first choice? Londoners on Bikes couldn't be affiliated to the Greens could it?

Anyway, I've no idea which way to vote so do please feel free to persuade me one way or the other.

Just because a candidate is not going to win does not mean you shouldn't vote for them, you should vote for whoever you feel best voting for. A vote is never a wasted vote, other candidates will look at the votes made other their competitors and if support for a given competitor is strong in one area that will influence the winners policies.

Anyway, Jenny first, Ken second, no cyclist should be voting for Boris Johnson IMO, he's the worst thing to happen to cycling in I don't know how long (if anything good ever happened for us).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic ... lobby.html

rjsterry

Rick Chasey wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

Agree that some of the questions are a bit "what's your favourite colour", with all answers looking like reasonable suggestions, but not clearly differentiated. Found myself playing spot the policy.

Indeed. Shows how little is in the policy though. The policies I recognised were lifted straight from the official literature.

I also like to think it shoes more often than not Lib Dem policy, taken on its own is often pretty good. But then I would say that, so feel free to ignore .

Well, a four line summary of the policy anyway. For example the one on policing was effectively "Do you want to see more police, more police, more police, or more police" The subtleties of Safer Neighbourhood Teams, Special Constables and so on are impossible to deduce from those statements. It's inevitable that mainstream political parties are various flavours of centrist, and therefor have very similar policies, but it would be nice if there was a bit less trying to be all things to all people.

shouldbeinbed

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

I also like to think it shoes more often than not Lib Dem policy, taken on its own is often pretty good. But then I would say that, so feel free to ignore .

Yeah, I've always thought that about the Lib-Dems, but, with the current voting system, I can't see them ever being in a position of useful governance. I'll probably keep putting my little X in their boxes and sighing as I step away for some years to come, however.

Isn't it more that the Lib Dem policy can afford to look good on its own because there's never a hope in hell of them ever having to implement it. They could be the party of free Blowjobs and a Ferrari for everyone and they wouldn't have to make good on the deal. Even the talk of them being the moderation of the Tories currently, hmmmm, not seeing much of it in truly liberal/soft left terms TBH.

the main pair have to at least make a nod towards what they will be measured against when the pass the country between themselves - albeit they either take credit for the work started by the other side (Major did a hell of a lot of groundwork for Blair) or wriggle out of pretty much everything with the 'would you look at what we got left with' spiel (a-la the current mantra)

il_principe

I'm torn. Can't vote for Ken though as his fare cuts promise is just ludicrous. Love or loathe our PT, it needs investment, taking money out of TFL to pay for fare cuts is only going to cause pain in the long-term. Channel 4's Fact Check blog looked into this a while back and their conclusion was damming: http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/can-ken-livingstone-deliver-a-fare-deal-for-london Basically Ken is just saying this as a shameless vote winner, it suggests to me that he only cares about winning 4 years of power, and doesn't give a damn about the long-term.

On the whole, I'd rather have a Mayor who stands a chance of winning concessions from the Government than one who'll simply antagonise them. Ken's cosying up to dictators, anti-semitic rantings and penchant for cronyism and wastage doesn't really appeal.