The London elections

Ever since I obtained the right to vote at the age of 18 – almost 42 years ago – I have never failed to vote in an election and I have never failed to vote Labour. This may make me predictable and old-fashioned but, if (as I do) one supports a fairer and more equal redistribution of power and wealth in our society, I don’t see that one needs to change one’s vote from election to election.
Today I voted four times: my first choice for Mayor of London, my second choice for Mayor, my choice of constituency candidate for the Greater London Assembly, and my choice of political party for the GLA.
It seems to be touch and go whether the new Mayor will be the incumbent Ken Livingstone for Labour or the main challenger Boris Johnson for the Conservatives. I have long believed that essentially there are only two election slogans: one is “It’s experience that counts” (used by the incumbent or Establishment figure) or “It’s time for change” (used by the challenger or outsider). So it has proved in the London Mayoral election.
I believe that Livingstone is a flawed candidate who supports some odd causes and places too much faith and power in his friends, but he has helped to make London effectively the capital of the world, he has been brave and right in introducing the congestion charge, and he has by far the best policies for our multicultural and dynamic capital.
However, I believe that he has made a mistake is attempting to portray Johnson as a buffoon and a fool. Johnson is certainly colourful and idiosyncratic, but he is intelligent and shrewd and he has run a disciplined and effective campaign. It would have been better for Livingstone to treat Johnson with more respect and focus on the weaknesses of his polices compared to those of the Labour leader.
We’ll see soon what the electors of London have decided …

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 1:11 pm and is filed under British current affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Comments

  • Sharon Rowe
    May 1st, 2008 at 2:51 pm

    I’m the same Roger, of course I haven’t voted as many times as you though 😉 I have a real issue with women who don’t vote, when we had to fight so hard and indeed die for the ability to vote. I had a bit of a tricky time of it for my second choice of Mayor though! You will be glad to know that I also took David’s postal vote with me.
    Today, whilst running around Richmond Park, I spotted a woman wearing a “Vote Boris” t-shirt. Whilst I like him on “Have I Got News For You”, I do not want him to be Mayor (not least because he is a Tory!). I look forward to the result.

  • Aaron
    May 2nd, 2008 at 1:30 pm

    Sorry Roger, I cast my vote for Boris yesterday. I think Red Ken underestimated him and I hope he wins it. Funny how Brown is now pinning his hopes on Ken winning to put some positive spin on what has been a total disaster for Labour.