Red and Redder

A guest post from John Ward of Medway...

There is an important post for all Londoners, at CyberBoris, where AngelNeptuneStar has put together some hard facts that, when seen in that light, tell of much that those voting in the 2012 London mayoral election need to know.

Here are her three crucial facts about Ken Livingstone and his 'running mate' Val Shawcross, and I've also 'borrowed' her picture (Val is at the far left - where else?!) to illustrate the point:

1. On 7 December Ken Livingstone selected Val Shawcross as his “Deputy Mayoral Running Mate” against Boris Johnson.
2. Just eight days later on 15 December Val Shawcross was “caught on camera” picketing with Tube Unions the RMT and TSSA in support of the wave of tube strikes that have caused so much misery to Londoners.
3. Until just days ago, Ken Livingstone ran his campaign to be the Labour candidate for Mayor of London from the HQ of the Tube Union TSSA.

Do follow the link and keep reading what Angel has written, as it is now obvious what the plan is and why; and it certainly won't be fun for commuting Londoners next year!

Boris ahead already

An interesting result from a poll by ComRes that was conducted during the Labour party conference, and had Labour three points ahead in the national "voting intention" figures (not surprising with all the media coverage they were getting), is highlighted by Andrew Gilligan in today's Telegraph.

This was apparently the first London Mayoral preference question for the next mayoral election in nineteen months' time, asked of Londoners in a poll for three media outfits for London, and overall it put Boris Johnson ahead of Ken Livingstone by a full nine percentage points, at 44% to 35%.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this is that Boris was ahead in all age groups, even among the youngest of those eligible to vote.

Typically one finds that this age band (18 to 24) favours Labour and/or the left in general. The theory goes that at that age many people are idealistic but inexperienced and are easily persuaded that Labour/left politics are "fairer" and "for the poor". It takes many years to fully learn the truth, which probably explains why the Conservative party has so many older folk within its membership(!)


Whatever the reason, this is a good indication that Boris has made a positive impact on Londoners and that they have in many cases realised that he is the better choice. He's not perfect, but by golly he has been far, far better than his predecessor as London Mayor, and that seems to be widely recognised within the Capital, at all ages of voters.