London Mayor Elections

[Dario]

Not enough stuttering.

[Stew]

Oh, for fuck's sake. Well, ENJOY IT London.

Ken Livingstone's campaign manager Tessa Jowell has said she does not think he will win the mayoral race. She told the BBC: "I think it's highly unlikely that Ken will be mayor of London after the end of this evening."

With 80% of votes counted, Tory Boris Johnson had the most first preference votes in eight constituencies. Labour's Ken Livingstone had the most in six. Second preferences have not yet been counted. London's Evening Standard says Mr Johnson will not need them to win. Ms Jowell said, while it looked like Mr Livingstone would lose, "if you look at Labour's vote in the assembly there are some unexpected surprises there that demonstrate the loyalty of the Labour vote".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7378792.stm

[Rhythm Junkie]

[LesMTS]

Originally Posted by Zooropa

From the Guardian


Boris Johnson in his own words

The wannabe mayor on race, sex and politics

On homosexuality

"Gay marriage can only ever be a ludicrous parody of the real thing."
· Daily Telegraph, 2005

"If gay marriage was OK - and I was uncertain on the issue - then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog."
· From his book, Friends, Voters, Countrymen, 2001

"We don't want our children being taught some rubbish about homosexual marriage being the same as normal marriage, and that is why I am more than happy to support Section 28."
· Daily Telegraph, 2000

"The clerics gave us [journalists] a wigging for being so mean to the Church of England ... Why did we draw attention to tricky subjects like homosexuality, aka the Pulpit Poofs issue?"
· The Spectator, 2000

"I'm not bisexual so far ... not that I would condemn myself if I later discovered I were."
· Daily Telegraph, 2008

On Africa

"No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, 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."
· In 2002, on Tony Blair's visit to the Democratic of Republic of Congo, Daily Telegraph

"Right, let's go and look at some more piccaninnies."
· Reported remark, while visiting Uganda, to Swedish Unicef workers and their black driver, the Observer, 2003

On the Commonwealth

"It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies."
· Daily Telegraph, 2002

George Bush and Iraq

"He liberated Iraq. It is good enough for me."
· Daily Telegraph, 2004

"The Americans were perfectly happy to go ahead and whack Saddam merely on the grounds that he was a bad guy, and that Iraq and the world would be better off without him; and so indeed was I."
· Daily Telegraph, 2003

On Islam

"The most viciously sectarian of all religions in its heartlessness towards unbelievers."
· The Spectator, 2005

On race

"I'm down with the ethnics. You can't out-ethnic me, Nihal ... My children are a quarter Indian, so put that in your pipe and smoke it."
· To Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Asian Network, 2008

On Liverpool

"A society that has become hooked on grief and likes to wallow in a sense of
vicarious victimhood."
· A Spectator editorial, 2004 (Johnson didn't write the editorial, but he approved it)

On stag hunting

"I remember the guts streaming, and the stag turds spilling out on to the grass from within the ventral cavity ... This hunting is best for the deer."
· From his book Lend Me Your Ears

I found a lot of that hilarious. Not as good as Prince Phillip, but good material nonetheless.

[Mwezzi]

Boris is a misogynist, racist, pro-war, Thatcherite arsehole, though if asked he'll either deny his statements or call them 'debate sparking' or other nonsense. I'm appalled that he managed to win this, or even get this far in the first place.

[Zero]

The circus begins

[Zooropa]

Originally Posted by LesMTS

I found a lot of that hilarious. Not as good as Prince Phillip, but good material nonetheless.

Unfortunately people in London seem unwilling to seperate this bumbling form of humour and capacity to be a strong and effective politician.

[Semprini]

BNP also got a seat in the Assembly,

[Zooropa]

London is daen awright

[mysterio]

I like Boris, I don't get why people ascribe his bluster and eccentricity to some kind of mental deficiency. It bothers me that if you want to hold public office you have to be a bland, identikit automaton. It reminds me of a quote by John Stuart Mill: "...Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."

Give me Boris any day over Ken Livingston, but do I think he'll make a good Mayor of London? Unlikely!

[Mwezzi]

Originally Posted by mysterio

I like Boris, I don't get why people ascribe his bluster and eccentricity to some kind of mental deficiency. It bothers me that if you want to hold public office you have to be a bland, identikit automaton. It reminds me of a quote by John Stuart Mill: "...Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."

Give me Boris any day over Ken Livingston, but do I think he'll make a good Mayor of London? Unlikely!

There's eccentric, and then there's 'hiding your disgusting opinions behind a veil of innocent foolishness'.

[Potatojunkie]

The problem's not that he's eccentric but that his politics are fucking horrible.

Also, you could hardly describe Ken as bland.

[m0nkeymafia]

Worse than Boris being mayor is that the BNP got a seat in the London Assembly.

[Mwezzi]

Originally Posted by m0nkeymafia

Worse than Boris being mayor is that the BNP got a seat in the London Assembly.

Maybe people listened to The Sun so much that they decided 'Hey, nothing could be worse than Labour, right? These guys have both red AND blue in their bunting, they must be middle-ground, let's vote for them.'

[Zooropa]

Originally Posted by Potatojunkie

The problem's not that he's eccentric but that his politics are fucking horrible.

Also, you could hardly describe Ken as bland.

Ex-fucking-zactly.

Ken was a colourful character by anyone's standards.
And he could run London a peach.