This London Mayor business...

Initialised

That is all.

SimonAH

@Rick Chasey,

The problem you have in understanding my (admittedly flippant) comments about Ken Livingstone is that you are about twelve years old and have only ever known the repackaged 'Cuddly Ken' that his PR team did such a good job on, whereas I lived in London under the GLC and Red Ken lunacy.

If one assumes that under the buffed and blow dried exterior shell the leopard is still fairly spotty then brace yourself if that fecker ever gets into a relatively unassailable position again.

rjsterry

SimonAH wrote:

@Rick Chasey,

The problem you have in understanding my (admittedly flippant) comments about Ken Livingstone is that you are about twelve years old and have only ever known the repackaged 'Cuddly Ken' that his PR team did such a good job on, whereas I lived in London under the GLC and Red Ken lunacy.

If one assumes that under the buffed and blow dried exterior shell the leopard is still fairly spotty then brace yourself if that fecker ever gets into a relatively unassailable position again.

No need to be quite that patronising. Quite a few of us lived in London during his first two terms as London Mayor, and it really wasn't that bad*. He's been Mayor for twice as long as he was head of the GLC, so his record as Mayor is far more relevant.

*either because or despite him, depending on your viewpoint.

SimonAH

My apologies, again I was being flippant - we really do need that 'don't take me too seriously' font!

No offense was intended I promise.

rick_chasey

*shrugs* He brought the Tour into London in 2007, and got the Olympics in London.

Why wouldn't I be keen?

MaxwellBygraves

Serious question, what's the weather up to in London today? Could potentially affect result.

rjsterry

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Serious question, what's the weather up to in London today? Could potentially affect result.

Drizzle and not very warm. Could reduce turnout a bit, which IIRC helped Ken based on previous results, but who knows. I wonder whether we'll see the kind of dead heat that we had at the General Election, with none of the main parties doing particularly well.

MaxwellBygraves

rjsterry wrote:

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Serious question, what's the weather up to in London today? Could potentially affect result.

Drizzle and not very warm. Could reduce turnout a bit, which IIRC helped Ken based on previous results, but who knows. I wonder whether we'll see the kind of dead heat that we had at the General Election, with none of the main parties doing particularly well.

Word going round is that projected turnout is as low as 30%, which is a disgrace.

rick_chasey

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Serious question, what's the weather up to in London today? Could potentially affect result.

Drizzle and not very warm. Could reduce turnout a bit, which IIRC helped Ken based on previous results, but who knows. I wonder whether we'll see the kind of dead heat that we had at the General Election, with none of the main parties doing particularly well.

Word going round is that projected turnout is as low as 30%, which is a disgrace.

I had to bail out of being a teller.

jonny_trousers

rjsterry wrote:

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Serious question, what's the weather up to in London today? Could potentially affect result.

Drizzle and not very warm. Could reduce turnout a bit, which IIRC helped Ken based on previous results, but who knows. I wonder whether we'll see the kind of dead heat that we had at the General Election, with none of the main parties doing particularly well.

Well we cycle commuters know all about drizzle and not very warm so we may end up with a cycling sympathetic mayor after all!

bigmat

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Serious question, what's the weather up to in London today? Could potentially affect result.

Drizzle and not very warm. Could reduce turnout a bit, which IIRC helped Ken based on previous results, but who knows. I wonder whether we'll see the kind of dead heat that we had at the General Election, with none of the main parties doing particularly well.

Word going round is that projected turnout is as low as 30%, which is a disgrace.

What do you expect when its the same old **** as 4 years ago? I will vote, but don't particularly feel engaged by the whole process.

veronese68

Just been to vote. How depressing was that? Hardly anybody there and none of the candidates inspire me. As Mat said "same **** as 4 years ago".

rick_chasey

Don't hate the players, hate the game people!

Year after year people moan that the system spews out poor candidates, yet they don't vote/care for a change in the system!

notsoblue

Rick Chasey wrote:

Don't hate the players, hate the game people!

Year after year people moan that the system spews out poor candidates, yet they don't vote/care for a change in the system!

pet peeve of mine.

bigmat

notsoblue wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Don't hate the players, hate the game people!

Year after year people moan that the system spews out poor candidates, yet they don't vote/care for a change in the system!

pet peeve of mine.

Not really valid in this case though is it? There's no real reform of the ballot system that could make any difference. The only thing that might make people like me more engaged is some fresh candidates, and we didn't get any. I did vote last time, will vote this time, but it won't change "the system".

dhope

Going to head out in 30mins to vote, are any of them pledging more tailwinds?

Initialised

BigMat wrote:

notsoblue wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Don't hate the players, hate the game people!

Year after year people moan that the system spews out poor candidates, yet they don't vote/care for a change in the system!

pet peeve of mine.

Not really valid in this case though is it? There's no real reform of the ballot system that could make any difference. The only thing that might make people like me more engaged is some fresh candidates, and we didn't get any. I did vote last time, will vote this time, but it won't change "the system".

We did get a chance to vote for a change in the system, it didn't work, to many people can't be arsed to vote. Need the Aussie system where you get fined if you don't turn up. Nothing wrong with abstaining, just get out there and do it.

I wonder if we'll get to elect a Mayor next time around.

dhope

Initialised wrote:

BigMat wrote:

notsoblue wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Don't hate the players, hate the game people!

Year after year people moan that the system spews out poor candidates, yet they don't vote/care for a change in the system!

pet peeve of mine.

Not really valid in this case though is it? There's no real reform of the ballot system that could make any difference. The only thing that might make people like me more engaged is some fresh candidates, and we didn't get any. I did vote last time, will vote this time, but it won't change "the system".

We did get a chance to vote for a change in the system, it didn't work, to many people can't be arsed to vote. Need the Aussie system where you get fined if you don't turn up. Nothing wrong with abstaining, just get out there and do it.

I wonder if we'll get to elect a Mayor next time around.

We didn't really, we got the choice of two shit systems. The yes campaign (which I voted for) deserved to lose it was so poorly orchestrated.

TheStone

Couldn't vote for either of the main two and the rest didn't do anything to turn my head.

Consider my 'no show' a protest vote. Would rather my money back than have a London mayor. I hope the turnout is that low, as for me, it's two fingers up to the whole pile of nonsense.

Applespider

dhope wrote:

We didn't really, we got the choice of two shoot systems. The yes campaign (which I voted for) deserved to lose it was so poorly orchestrated.

Agree on both counts. Proper PR - count me in. I live in an area where I generally vote against the grain so in effect, Mayoral and London Assembly pool votes aside, my votes are pointless. However, I will still do everything in my power to vote since less than a hundred years ago, women were dying so that their daughters could vote. I'm pretty sure they and the electoral reformers of the nineteenth century would be appalled by the 'can't be bothered' attitudes that mean that less than 50% generally turn out.

TheStone

Bookies seem to think Boris has won comfortably.

DonDaddyD

Could not get home to vote in time. :x

I would have voted Siobhan Benita but I would have been so stumped in choosing a second choice a tick in the UKIP box might have been up for consideration. - Part of the problem with these candidates I think, so probably best that I didn't vote.

rick_chasey

DonDaddyD wrote:

Could not get home to vote in time. :x

Did you have time to vote in the morning?

rjsterry

DonDaddyD wrote:

Could not get home to vote in time. :x

I would have voted Siobhan Benita but I would have been so stumped in choosing a second choice a tick in the UKIP box might have been up for consideration. - Part of the problem with these candidates I think, so probably best that I didn't vote.

You were still on your way home at 10pm?

Seems to have been a swing to Labour, mainly at the expense of the Conservatives across the country as a whole (local elections) but that would be a bit of a surprise if it was repeated in London given the pre-poll opinion. Of course this is being spun as a victory for Labour/just the normal mid-term disaffection depending on who you listen to.

rick_chasey

rjsterry wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Could not get home to vote in time. :x

I would have voted Siobhan Benita but I would have been so stumped in choosing a second choice a tick in the UKIP box might have been up for consideration. - Part of the problem with these candidates I think, so probably best that I didn't vote.

You were still on your way home at 10pm?

Seems to have been a swing to Labour, mainly at the expense of the Conservatives across the country as a whole (local elections) but that would be a bit of a surprise if it was repeated in London given the pre-poll opinion. Of course this is being spun as a victory for Labour/just the normal mid-term disaffection depending on who you listen to.

Lib Dems have done worse than the Tories proportionally.

It's pretty heavy for the Tories - if it carries on at this rate it's a worse defeat than Brown had during his mid-terms.

Boris looks set for Mayor - London's usually a Labour city so the party will spin it as they hated Ken, not the party.

Now you can see why they picked Ken...!

rjsterry

Rick Chasey wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Could not get home to vote in time. :x

I would have voted Siobhan Benita but I would have been so stumped in choosing a second choice a tick in the UKIP box might have been up for consideration. - Part of the problem with these candidates I think, so probably best that I didn't vote.

You were still on your way home at 10pm?

Seems to have been a swing to Labour, mainly at the expense of the Conservatives across the country as a whole (local elections) but that would be a bit of a surprise if it was repeated in London given the pre-poll opinion. Of course this is being spun as a victory for Labour/just the normal mid-term disaffection depending on who you listen to.

Lib Dems have done worse than the Tories proportionally.

It's pretty heavy for the Tories - if it carries on at this rate it's a worse defeat than Brown had during his mid-terms.

Boris looks set for Mayor - London's usually a Labour city so the party will spin it as they hated Ken, not the party.

Now you can see why they picked Ken...!

If that's true, it's a pretty bonkers strategy unless they are throwing away this round to just get Ken out of the way for good.

EDIT: Just had a look at the results - not exactly the whole country is it? Not even evenly spread across the country, by a long way.

DonDaddyD

Country is still torn.

All this indicates is that Labour still need to do better against an opposition who may as well hang themselves given the decisions they have and have had to make.

The Country (generalise) knows that Tories have to make hard decisions and dislike them for it. The Country has not yet forgiven Labour for the crazy spending.

The Tories need to get rid of the coalition it's holding them back from truly pleasing and connecting with the Conservative faithful.

Labour (Miliband) needs to publicly distance the party from the Brown years, get rid of Balls (not least of which he resembles Brown and he evokes memories of a spend happy loon).

Lib Dems need rid of Clegg.

If Boris wins then I think Labour would lose a general election.

rick_chasey

rjsterry wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

Could not get home to vote in time. :x

I would have voted Siobhan Benita but I would have been so stumped in choosing a second choice a tick in the UKIP box might have been up for consideration. - Part of the problem with these candidates I think, so probably best that I didn't vote.

You were still on your way home at 10pm?

Seems to have been a swing to Labour, mainly at the expense of the Conservatives across the country as a whole (local elections) but that would be a bit of a surprise if it was repeated in London given the pre-poll opinion. Of course this is being spun as a victory for Labour/just the normal mid-term disaffection depending on who you listen to.

Lib Dems have done worse than the Tories proportionally.

It's pretty heavy for the Tories - if it carries on at this rate it's a worse defeat than Brown had during his mid-terms.

Boris looks set for Mayor - London's usually a Labour city so the party will spin it as they hated Ken, not the party.

Now you can see why they picked Ken...!

If that's true, it's a pretty bonkers strategy unless they are throwing away this round to just get Ken out of the way for good.

EDIT: Just had a look at the results - not exactly the whole country is it? Not even evenly spread across the country, by a long way.

No for sure.

S'not surprising given that they're local elections and a particularly low turn out.

rjsterry

In fact, the more I think about it, the less these elections tell us about anything. Depressing that even in times when you think people might have something to motivate them to vote, if only in protest, and at a time when elsewhere in the world people are fighting for that right, and paying with their lives, that they still can't be ar$ed. 32% was it? So more than 2/3 of people couldn't give a f***.

roger_merriman

DonDaddyD wrote:

If Boris wins then I think Labour would lose a general election.

I don't partially see Boris or Ken for that matter as tied to the party, ie not voting for labour vs tory, It is and was Boris vs Ken.