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London Votes 2012

Who will (or would) you vote for?


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Ivo

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This coming Thursday will see London voting once again - this time, for the title of Mayor of London.

To those of you who are able to vote in this election, who will you be voting for (if anyone)? And if you aren't able to vote for whatever reason (e.g. too young; not in London), who would you vote for?

You can probably guess this but I would vote for Boris if I could. I do wish he would give up on Boris Island though!

P.S.: I didn't mean to make voters' choices public - sorry! :oops:
 
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SS4

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I'm not interested in those bloody cockneys. How about they give the rest of us some screentime in deciding whether or not to have a mayor or not?

FWIW I shall probably voting "No"
 

Schnellzug

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Great! i didn't know if was on Thursday! Well, that'll be a relief not to have to see Ken's smarmy face all over the Media as part of saturation coverage of what is after all a purely local issue. Then perhaps Boris can get on with running the place, rather than having to drop everything for this pointless gimmick about "letting the People have their say".
 

YorkshireBear

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On a personal level boris because he just makes me laugh all the time... but politically, none...
 

Oswyntail

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And there we have the arguments against electronic polling in a nutshell :oops: I, a highly computer-literate ex-professional, with strong preference for one candidate, and intense dislike of the other, thinking "not him, not him, not him", clicked "him":oops::roll:
Even for those of us in the rest of the country, I would suggest that "I'm not interested" is not a legitimate choice. The results of this poll will rebound around all of us for a long time.
 

Minilad

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As I am one of the vast majority of people on this island who doesn't live in London I couldn't give the ass of a rat. Doesn't stop the media ramming it down my throat though
 

ralphchadkirk

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I hope Boris wins, just for the comedy value!


Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk
 

EM2

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I'll almost certainly vote Green, with either Labour or Independent as my second preference.
Boris hasn't really done a lot for the average working Londoner, what with fare increases and then unnescessary vanity projects such as the cable car and the Borismaster. He scrapped the western extension of the Congestion Charge, and during the riots refused to come back from his holiday for two days.
What he has done well, such as the cycle hire scheme and the cycle highways were already planned by Livingstone.
 

SWT_USER

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Don't like Boris or Ken. I voted for Ken last time but won't do so this time - he loses more support every time he opens his mouth.

4 years ago a lot of my friends were students. It's frightening how many people voted for Boris "because he's funny".
 

Schnellzug

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If (on a Transport related note), Ken does somehow manage to scrape in, does anyone think that he would scrap the New Bus for London? Or, so much having been invested in it now (not least by Wrights), would it be too much of a waste even for Ken to contemplate, loathe Boris viscerally as he does? And what would Ken replace the NfBL with? Buses that Bend? :oops:
 

Ivo

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The NBBfL (New Bendy-Bus for London) ;)

How does it work? Its sections are only six metres long, but there are three sections instead of two.

It will have one door in each section, with wheelchair access in the middle section, and will cost £7.85 million a throw.
 

Seacook

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I don't give a flying fox which toad squats atop the dung heap of the Great Wen. I could do without all of the misplaced media hype.
 

Mojo

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Thursday is also the date of the referendum over whether to have a directly elected Mayor in a number of other English cities.

Don't be fooled though - the power of these provincial Mayors are nothing like the power held by the Mayor of London, and I doubt they'll get all the limelight either. Furthermore, they will only govern within the existing City Council boundaries; so a single authority covering the entire City sub-region (like Greater Bristol, West Midlands county, etc.) which is much-needed will not be forthcoming.
 

SS4

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Thursday is also the date of the referendum over whether to have a directly elected Mayor in a number of other English cities.

Don't be fooled though - the power of these provincial Mayors are nothing like the power held by the Mayor of London, and I doubt they'll get all the limelight either. Furthermore, they will only govern within the existing City Council boundaries; so a single authority covering the entire City sub-region (like Greater Bristol, West Midlands county, etc.) which is much-needed will not be forthcoming.

You'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise looking at the coverage
 

Clip

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Voted for Boris. I just cant believe anything Ken has to say anymore. There has been a lot of talk about how Ken achieved more in his time in power but thats because he had 8 years to see his plans come to fruition so to give Boris the same to see what comes good would be only right.
 

table38

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I'm not sure Ken even believes his own lies. In order to cut fares to win votes, he intends to plunder TfL's investment budget.

According to Ken, this alleged TfL "surplus" is £310 million.

Not convinced? Oh well, let's just pull another figure out of the air. Suddenly according to Ken, it's £729 million

Or is it? Now, according to Ken, it's £830 million

All of this from Ken, our down-to-earth man of the people, who not only managed to spend £260 on a pair of shoes, but then claim the money back!
 

Pumbaa

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I'm not sure Ken even believes his own lies. In order to cut fares to win votes, he intends to plunder TfL's investment budget.

Yes, but from the horses mouth, a TfL finance manager (ex) wrote in with his tupenny. I feel it is quite revealing:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/01/ken-livingstone-figures-add-up?INTCMP=SRCH
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
If (on a Transport related note), Ken does somehow manage to scrape in, does anyone think that he would scrap the New Bus for London? Or, so much having been invested in it now (not least by Wrights), would it be too much of a waste even for Ken to contemplate, loathe Boris viscerally as he does? And what would Ken replace the NfBL with? Buses that Bend? :oops:

No - he's said he will keep them but design custom adverts for them, letting Londoners know exactly how much it cost them.

Voted for Boris. I just cant believe anything Ken has to say anymore. There has been a lot of talk about how Ken achieved more in his time in power but thats because he had 8 years to see his plans come to fruition so to give Boris the same to see what comes good would be only right.

He did, and what Boris has unveiled in his 4 year tenure has been mostly as a a result of Ken's earlier initiative. Cable Car and NBFL are the only 2 sole-Boris advents that London has seen as far as I can recall.

Other than scrapping WEZ, refusing to debate cycle safety, downgrading the super cycle highway scheme, not allowing access to funds to redesign key cycle interchanges where many have died, and let air pollution worsen dramatically while refusing to do anything about it. He refuses to do 'proper' media interviews, ie Sunday Politics, the nearest he gets is Vanessa Feltz because he knows she won't give him a hard time. He cancelled the weekly meetings with media, squirms at the slightest sign of trouble and increasingly puts others up for him, ie Kit Malthouse last Sunday.

The NI phone-hacking - that was all 'Labour spun codswallop' apparently :|

Ken on the other hand, I appreciate is a smarmy git, but lives and breathes London. I personally feel he did far more London in Boris' 4 year term than Boris did, and Boris could remain for a further 8 years and I still don't believe he'd have done as much for London.
 
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43021HST

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Ken on the other hand, I appreciate is a smarmy git, but lives and breathes London. I personally feel he did far more London in Boris' 4 year term than Boris did, and Boris could remain for a further 8 years and I still don't believe he'd have done as much for London.

I'd prefer Ken over Boris, Mainly cos Boris is tory and resembles an english sheepdog.
 

Schnellzug

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No - he's said he will keep them but design custom adverts for them, letting Londoners know exactly how much it cost them.
.

By keep them do you mean just the prototypes, or a full production batch, since only that could surely come anywhere near to recovering the development costs. Would the compensation paid to Wrights in that case come out of Kens's personal funds?
 

Pumbaa

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By keep them do you mean just the prototypes, or a full production batch, since only that could surely come anywhere near to recovering the development costs. Would the compensation paid to Wrights in that case come out of Kens's personal funds?

I'm not sure - but TfL have paid for the majority of the development already. I think he said no more would be built but he wouldn't scrap the existing ones.
 

Schnellzug

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The joys of the never ending game of political football, eh.
This is why Democracy is frankly a waste of everyone's time. One person is elected; they have a Big Idea; a few years later someone else is elected, and reverses their predecessor's Big Idea, and so on, ad infinitum.
 

Zoe

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The joys of the never ending game of political football, eh.
This is why Democracy is frankly a waste of everyone's time. One person is elected; they have a Big Idea; a few years later someone else is elected, and reverses their predecessor's Big Idea, and so on, ad infinitum.
At least there is a choice though.
 
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Drsatan

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I don't live in London, but if I did, I'd vote for anyone other than Ken or Boris. I'd consider voting for this woman

I won't vote for Boris for several things, including making up statistics for how many cyclists were supposedly killed by bendy buses each year and replacing them with badly designed Boris Buses. He also scrapped plans to extend the DLR to Dagenham Dock, extend the Croydon Tramlink as well as plans to build the Cross River Tram.

However, I won't be voting for Ken because he's hardly a principled man. He once had his own show on Press TV, a channel controlled by the Iranian government which had its license revoked by Ofcom for broadcasting an interview with an Iranian dissident under duress (link here). He also claimed that Jews won't vote for him because they're too rich (source). You'd expect Nick Griffin to spout such garbage, not the Labour Party's candidate for Mayor of London. Finally, despite supposedly representing the poorest in London, he won't disclose how much tax he avoids paying
 

Pumbaa

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I know. Depressing isn't it. I am not really looking forward to waking up on Friday and having the prospect of another 4 years of neglect for everyone who doesn't own a car, especially as I could be moving back into London in August!
 

Schnellzug

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So Bradford, Coventry, Nottingham and Manchester, at least, have all said No, then. Boris and Ken have clearly done much for the cause of directly chosen local democracy.


:|
 
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SS4

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Boris does seem to be more of an outgoing personality than Ken could ever hope to be. Ken always reminds me of the ruling elite that once were prevalent in East Germany.

Outgoing personality does not a good mayor make and with the guardian being the only major media outlet on the left it's not surprising that Boris gets a better time of it.

So Bradford, Coventry, Nottingham and Manchester, at least, have all said No, then. Boris and Ken have clearly done much for the cause of directly chosen local democracy.


:|

Here's hoping Birmingham follows suit, the interesting result will be from Doncaster who go to the polls deciding whether or not to keep the mayor. Then again it's hardly surprising given that we weren't told what powers a mayor would or would not have (apart from a few) and since Labour have took control of our council they get to elect a leader now.

One thing we can surely all agree on is that turnout was disappointingly low
 

Mojo

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So Bradford, Coventry, Nottingham and Manchester, at least, have all said No, then. Boris and Ken have clearly done much for the cause of directly chosen local democracy.
I would hope it's more the fact that people have seen through the gloss, and that the proposed system of Mayors for English cities is nothing more than an expensive council leader.

In order to effect real change within cities, the entire sub-region needs an elected Mayor and a single body to control essential services such as planning and transport, rather than keeping things within the city limits.
 
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