Phew. Was a bit anxious for a moment that I might have chosen all Boris' policies.
I like Ken, but it's probably time for a change. But Brian Paddick is just not going to get in. What to do? *
Try the interactive quiz here.
* Hmm, maybe go here. Food for thought, thanks to Girl with a One Track Mind's link.
14 comments:
I don't like Ken much, but he is infinitely more preferable than Boris.
Personally I think we need indentikit drones standing for all parties.
I got the (huge waste of unrecycled paper) voters guide today in the post. I know it is a free country but I was still insensed that the BNP should have a voice. Their rhetoric is so auto-suggestive and slanted - they basically come across as thick. It is a shame there isn't a clear candidate - I also think this isn't helped by pap-style media coverage re-fashioning the candidates words or photographing them in such a way that infers something completely different? How are we meant to make a clear, democratic choice with all the press nonsense going on? Most of the issues they all say they are wanting to do something about - street crime, more green spaces etc are a symptom of a fucked up government that doesn't give a shit about community and nothing else.
I'm voting for Paddick. I think it's entirely self-defeating not to vote for the person you want to win because you think they probably won't win.
I'd vote for Ken again if I was still in London. I can't believe anyone is seriously contemplating voting for Boris, even as a 'get Ken out' move. It might get Ken out, but then you're left with Boris. It's not even funny.
I did get quite seriously worried on Saturday when I read an interview in the Telegraph with Hammersmith Tory candidate Shaun Bailey and realised I agreed with almost everything he said. Either this means I'm becoming a Tory (for the love of god, please, no), or politics is becoming a very strange sort of beast.
Billy, there are things he does which are outrageous and wrong but he seems more human than a lot of people in power (anti identikit drone, if you will) and he was a thorn in Tony Blair's side, which was enough to make me like him.
RoMo, I know - which is why the Love Music Hate Racism thing is quite a big deal, it's raising awareness of the real possibility that they might get a candidate in if people don't vote... see you there?
LC - yesss... if I passionately believed in him, it would make it easier though.
Patroclus - I really think most people don't like him because of the congestion charge and for no other reason. Cheapskate tightwad polluting car-drivers. I didn't read that interview (do you take the Telegraph? Who'd have thought it?) but I think the Tories are enjoying themselves - Labour are doing horrendously and they can say any old shit they like because who's going to call them on it for a good long while? You should have heard David Cameron on the 10p tax on Radio 4, I almost got out my violin...
8 Kens 3 Brians 0 Borises.
So it's Ken for me!
The Tories will get in locally as they always do but at least I get the chance to vote for a winner in the Mayoral election.
Ooh, eek, no, I don't get the Telegraph, it was lying around in the café where we sometimes have breakfast. Mind you, the week before last there was a great article about bras in the Telegraph magazine, I was quite tempted to nick it.
Geoff - local Tories? Is it posh where you are then?
Patroclus - see that's how they suck you in, one minute you're reading nice articles about bras, the next you're carrying a furled up umbrella and sporting a bowler hat. Or is that the Times?
Anyway, I'm up for a bra blog if you are. I would like it to be more attractive than my blog though.
I started to take the test, but it seemed pointless, as I could see Ken and Boris's policies a mile off.
Gawd, it's a pickle. My natural instinct is to vote for Ken, but he just seems to have become the very monster he once stood against. Boris is just ridiculous. Paddick just doesn't work for me. And the Green candidate wants to legalise drugs and prostitution, which is just lunacy.
You are bang on about the congestion charge. So I am tempted to vote for Ken just to balance out the idiocy of anyone in London who has a car. Simplistic, but there we go. May well protest vote elsewhere away from the Mayorals. The Greens often do well in Islington.
Presuming nobody's going to get more than 50%, vote Paddick; give Ken second preference. With any luck, KL will get back in by the skin of his teeth. His slump in popularity might just lead him to re-evaluate what he's been doing wrong (essentially, hanging around with people who, if their skin were lighter, he would have recognised as con men and fascists - the Jasperites, the dodgy mullahs, etc). Also, if Paddick gets a decent chunk of votes, the winner might feel obliged to give him a serious, high-profile job in the administration, which could set him up nicely for a second run at the mayorship.
As I've said before, I've met Boris, and he's obviously a clever guy pretending to be an idiot. Which I think is worse than being an idiot.
Annie - yes - I am planning on going on Sunday although I have the delicate matter of my mother's pre-70th birthday outing that I have to hastily change to Saturday in order to be free on Sunday. Is that really bad? Prioritising politics and music over family? I can't help it.
Thanks for the plug, Slaminsky
www.strategicvoter.org.uk was developed for a special brand of "strategic" anti-war anti-New Labour tactical voting for the 2005 General Election, and revived for the 2006 London Borough elections.
It's a website for all people who want to kick New Labour out of office at the next General Election, but aren't stupid enough to imagine that the Tories offer any kind of alternative.
The site gives you ward-by-ward information on how the 2004 London elections went in every ward in London - and contains surprising information about how many people oppose both New Labour and the Tories, and share the view that a better, more democratic political choice is needed. In 2004, across London, 47% of people voted for parties other than Tory or New Labour.
I think I agree with Tim. I certainly agree about Boris - I've met him too and the buffoon thing is a total act - a very unpleasant man.
*would* though. I must be insane.
However, if I can stir myself to come down to vote (I sort of feel that I shouldn't, even though I'm still paying council tax down south)I think that Paddick is by far and away the best candidate.
Christ. I've just done the quiz and I overwhelmingly agree with Boris on nearly everything and with Paddick on more or less nothing.
Ahem.
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