Mayoral elections

Ali

<P>Beacuse I suspect that ridership on the tube is a lot higher than was budgetted by TfL  hence cash surplus against budget, I don't belive that TfL should become a bank!  </P> <P>This has been  going on for some time  <A href="http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/17623.aspx">http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/17623.aspx</A></P>;

vetski

I had no idea until just now that TFL's accounts were publically available: <a href="http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/corporate/tfl-annual-report-2010-11-final-interactive.pdf">http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/corporate/tfl-annual-report-2010-11-final-interactive.pdf</a>. Might make interesting reading if one has a spare hour or two. <div><br><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>

andy

If Labour lose today, it will be Labour's fault, not the voters.<div><br></div><div>The 25 hr per week thing is the classic 'lump of labour' fallacy. </div><div>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy</div><div><br></div><div>In summary, you don't want the world's best heart surgeon clocking off on thursday so that a chiropractor can have a go at your bypass.</div>

Papa

Don't forget that it was under Ken that the rip-off out-of-towners, tourists and old people by overcharging them for paper tickets on the tube thing came in (although Boris has not repealed this).<br><br>Also how any candidate can argue their case on transport without pushing for a system whereby you can transfer from tube to bus, or bus to bus, without paying an extra fare is beyond me.<br><br>I don't believe Ken did more for the poor when he was in - he seemed hotter on courting the City to me - and am also very suspicious about the figures on fare cuts. <br><br>It's impossible to judge the pair's records like that though really, as one ruled in the boom the other in the bust. <br><br>Also @Rainbow, 20 mins free parking would mean less cars driving around looking for a space, or avoiding stopping, thus clearer roads and less pollution and you can put a case forward for needing a car if you live in London and plan on leaving it, especially with kids.<br><br><br>

JoeV

<P> </P> <P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Neither Ken nor Boris will do anything for the poor because they can't. The Mayor of London and the London Assembly have control over transport, police and emergency services. Real power still resides with the councils and central government. That’s why it’s a contest between personalities and character.</SPAN></P>

miss annie

<p>@andy The best surgeons do precisely that. they are on the golf course from Friday afternoon onwards. It's a well known fact that you are much less likely to see a surgeon if you are admitted to hospital at the weekend.</p><p>Whether chiropractors step into the breach is undocumented.</p>

andy

In the 70s maybe

kreuzkav

Looks like posh boy Boris wins again.  I guess it's the retro-1950s jubilee let's wear silly union jack hats and eat sponge-cake factor inertia and bow down to the upper-class while they live in nice houses while the working class get poorer and poorer (unless they have a special skill, don't forget the only skill these posh boys need is to have been lucky to have been born upper middle and upper class and been given every help up the ladder possible). And please don't mention 'chip on shoulder' (under whatever alias you use), this is based on my real logic and hate. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!<div><br></div><div>P.S. Livingstone was a bad choice as rival.  The man has lost it over the years, but I'd prefer his policies than Boris (what did he do for London?  Get rid of bendy bus.. At least Ken got the ball rolling with more regular buses, cycle routes, oyster cards, more regular tubes, caught up on tube repairs after years of neglect...</div><div><br></div>

miss annie

If Labour are happy to let a person who endorses homophobia and racism represent them then they deserve to lose mightily. Stop banging on about class. It's boring and irrelevant, if only the richest people in London voted for Boris he wouldn't have enough votes to win.

kreuzkav

I agree that Ken was a bad choice, but he did a better job.<div><br></div><div>Boris is protecting his class.  Sadly, we live in a society that still looks up to toffs.  I really think people have been brainwashed to do so.  </div>

andy

<div><span style="font-size: 10pt; ">You can almost work out the "Ken discount" to the labour vote from the difference between the Ken vote and the general party-list London Assembly vote. There are some quirks here (the two-round mayor vote doesn't punish votes for smaller parties in the first round, so they will overperform) but a quick look at the london elects website suggests he dragged the vote down and Boris dragged the tory vote up. </span></div><div><br></div><div>The line I've heard more than once already is that he's the first tory to win an election since john major in 1992. This is obviously nonsense (a mayoral election is not an general election), but genius spin from someone who clearly wants a swing at No. 10 at some point.</div>

andy

@kreuzkav If they were brainwashed they would all have voted (they didn't) and they would have voted Tory for the mayor, and the constituency and the list. They didn't. It looks like they split their votes across a range of parties, reflecting preferences for party, policy and personality. By any measure that's pretty sophisticated and reflects a range of pragmatic and idealist choices. Brainwashed people wouldn't do that. You consistently give no credit to people who hold different values and beliefs to you. Calling them brainwashed is belies a lack of empathy about how and why people make choices. Who phoned you and told you you're always right?<div><br></div>

kreuzkav

@ Andy.  Not everyone has been brainwashed. Phew! Would be a scary world.  It's fairly scary that we have Boris as Mayor, but as you have said it's only London.

kreuzkav

@ Andy.  Let's take this out of the present context.  If  the majority voted for Donald Duck as PM of the UK because they'd been watching cartoons with subliminal messages (that stated 'vote for donald duck') I'd think they many people had been brainwashed, some might have resisted.  It's my humble opinion and all I do is give it.  I might be wrong.  I don't think I have perfect logic (well I think I might).  I feel I'm not so brainwashed though!  Even the most scientific brains are brainwashed by money, strict upbringing, lack of love etc.  <div><br></div><div>I might be wrong.  This is a forum. Freedom of speech.</div>

andy

It is not unreasonable to say that if everyone had been brainwashed, they would have been brainwashed.<div><br></div><div>It is helpful of you to take this statement "out of the present context", where they haven't been brainwashed.</div><div><br></div><div>But if you do that, I don't really understand the point you are making any more. </div><div><br></div><div>I will end this post with a caveat and two non sequiturs.</div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">I might be wrong.  This is a forum. Freedom of speech.</span></div>

andy

And it's too close to call on second preferences........

Mirandola

This is getting interesting. <br>

kreuzkav

@ Andy.  Good point.  This is why I love this forum.  I  think that people have been brainwashed to look up to the toffs because of songs 'like land of hope and glory', the proms, jubilee street parties, celeb PR (william and what's her name), the sun, the mail.  

checkski

I feel bitter and depressed about this morning's result. It wasn't necessary.I don't like Ken much either, as it happens.I don't like like Boris either. So what?  Much of the rest of the country seemed to understand the never-changing choice between Conservative and Labour, and vote acording to their interests. Kreuzkav is repetitious but right: the wealthy nearly always vote for their own kind. But so is Andy: there aren't THAT many of them. What percentage, I wonder is below the average wage? 25% percent of the young are unemployed, for starters. 1 in 4! This is outrageous. Those of you who witter on about good olives, knitting, the WI, and who virtuously put in a few hours at shelters for the homeless, and who didn't vote Labour, becuse they don't like the candidate, should be ashamed. Because of your action, we can now be SURE that fares will go through the stratosphere, instead of merely through the roof; that, without the EMA, the young will give up on education, and earn their living the only way they can, through crime and the drug industry. And even the educated young can look forward to paying half their income in rents, if they are not aready doing so. Under Ken, there would have been a chance that the worst of all this could have been avoided, and the silent majority, who don't feature on these boards, would at least have had a mayor who was fighting back. Oh well. Too late now. Back to the really important topics on SG.org, of cafes, coffee, food, pubs, etc etc.

checkski

<P>Michael Meacher's letter in the Guardian today gives a statistical context to my rant. Sickening. I urge you all to read it. I hope I have got this link thing right.</P> <P><A href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=378887438824105&set=a.378887435490772.87919.100001085552689&type=1&theater#">http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=378887438824105&set=a.378887435490772.87919.100001085552689&type=1&theater#</A></P>; <P> </P>

andy

Do stop blaming voters. It sounds like whining. Labour should take this on the chin. They won everywhere - everywhere else. They chose Ken because they bottled it, too scared that he would run as an independent and split the vote. Their fault. But chin up, in the grand scheme, the mayor is not a powerful job. Big decisions get made elsewhere. Pitching EMA as a solution to youth unemployment is like prescribing an sticking plaster for an aneurysm

checkski

<P>Where am I? Is this<EM> after</EM> your post, Andy? If so, you won't have seen my last. Can you make the link blue for me? I put <> round it, it went blue in the box, but now it isn't. </P> <P>How did you vote, by the way?</P>

checkski

<P>And what do you think of Meacherr's letter?</P> <P>Whining. Several meanings, in my Chambers. 'To speak in a thin, ingratiating or servile tone'? Surely not! But I'll settle for 'to complain peevishly', and consider it appropriate to do precisely that, on the morning after.</P> <P>The EMA wasn't much, but it was better than nothing at all.</P>

andy

Sorry, i'm on my sickeningly bourgeois blackberry, so can't edit links. I would tell you who i voted for, but it's the least engaged vote i ever cast. And i voted in the AV referendum and for MEPs.

gardener-joe

Yadi yadi yah .. but what about the Assembly result? It is not all about the Mayor!

checkski

<P>Oh. I see. That would be Siobhan whatshername, then . No comment.</P> <P>I think the link works, actually.</P>

checkski

OK, Joe. Good point - and over to you. I haven't heard the Assembly results yet. If there is a 'progressive' majority (Labour + Greens), can they overrule Boris? There might be some hope, if so. What's your opinion about all this?

andy

There may well be a budget-blocking coalition in the Assembly. Which suggest the electorate has subtly made its point.

gardener-joe

London Assembly elections, results: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17811895

miss annie

<p>Checkski, I don't want to 'overshare' but I earn just over minimum wage in the bookshop and pay over half in rent as I don't want to give up the lovely flat I started renting when I was paid a lot more money.</p><p>I still like olives but I buy them less often (and from Ash where they are lovely and affordable), I don't patronise the coffee shops as they aren't really in the budget and I'm not obsessed with coffee.</p><p>I founded Stroud Green W.I. The WI plays a unique role in providing women with educational opportunities and the chance to build new skills, to take part in a wide variety of activities and to campaign on issues that matter to them and their communities. This has nothing to do with how much you earn (membership is £31.50 a year - about the cost of one tube ride per month),</p><p>So far we have had a talk about local history and Bruce Castle Museum, a talk about The Legal Aid Bill and how we can support victims of domestic violence from Vera Baird Q.C. (former Labour MP Redcar), learned a bit of sewing and knitting, eaten a lot of cakes and had a lot of fun, laughter and made valuable new friends. We have the oceanographer from Frozen Planet talking to us this month.</p><p>Some of us are getting involved with 'Let's Cook Local'  which targets young, disadvantaged parents across England and provides courses in practical cookery over six weekly sessions using locally produced or sourced ingredients and leftovers to produce basic, healthy, cheap family meals. <a href="http://www.thewi.org.uk/what-we-do/food-and-cooking/lets-cook-local">http://www.thewi.org.uk/what-we-do/food-and-cooking/lets-cook-local</a>. </p><p>We have a wide mix of educational backgrounds, political and religious beliefs, and financial circumstances. I think that the W.I. is a force for good and I strongly object to you lumping what we do under the same heading as 'wittering about coffee, olives and knitting'</p>