Category Archives: London

Anyone but Boris.

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No, I’m not about to say how important it is to me that Livingstone wins the London election, as I said the other day, it doesn’t really matter to me who wins the big chair, as surprising as this may be to inhabitants of London, some people do live outside it. That being said, as a UKIP member, I’d really rather quite like to see Lawrence Webb get the gig. But what is important to me is who doesn’t get the job.

It has without doubt been a terrible week for the Prime Minister, and I’ve a sneaking suspicion it is going to get a hell of a lot worse. It’ll be interesting to see how close this whole Murdoch/Hunt thing gets to him, certainly I don’t expect to see Hunt hanging around after Thursday’s elections.

As foolish as it was, and as mad as he is, this whole episode has, to an extent, vindicated Vince Cable’s declaration of war on Murdoch. There’s not much that the Limp Dims can use to lord it over Camermong but this is a nasty little needle that could hit some very tender spots.

Then there’s the the proposed 6.8% increase in the EU budget, he is a self-declared Eurosceptic, but to be honest I’d give more credence to a claim from George Galloway that he was going to train as a Rabbi. He’ll huff and puff, stamp his little foot and at the end of the day give the EU exactly what they want.

Cameron’s no idiot and neither are the EU, it’s a game, a negotiation, the figure wanted is probably closer to 5%, so that’s what they’ll settle for. What annoys me, and no doubt the Tory membership, is that he thinks we haven’t figured that out and he’ll try and sell it as a big victory for the eurosceptic PM. Bollocks.

Then there’s the House of Lords thing, Cameron is happy to let us have a referendum on the House of Lords, but I can hear the howls of frustration from within and without the Tories if he peddles a referendum there having blocked a referendum on our EU membership.

I find myself wondering how many Tories, given the botched election and everything else that has followed, wish they’d backed David Davies instead now?

And so we come to Boris. I’m firmly of the opinion that Boris was given the Conservative candidacy for the Mayor’s job in the hope that he would win just to keep him out of the way. Boris is an easy figure to lampoon but he’s a dangerous man, especially if you’re a German defensive midfielder, and there’s something about the guy that you just can’t help liking – certainly in a way that Cameron and Osborne could never be liked. There’s no amount of PR preening and spin packaging could change that, Boris just has the X factor and the party membership undoubtedly love him.

I can see Boris being welcomed with open arms by the constituency party in the first half safe seat that comes up for grabs at by-election should he lose the London election. The fact that he had lost that election wouldn’t taint him, it would all be Cameron’s fault. Once he re-entered Westminster then the sport would begin, I don’t suggest that he’d be an agitator, but the guy is a lightning rod and unusually for a modern politician, when asked an opinion he’ll give it, for good or ill.

A Conservative PM that has Boris Johnson knocking around the benches would have to pull their socks up pretty smartish, because I can see the hesitant buffoonish puffing as he flatly denies any leadership designs at all, but then the clamour becomes louder and louder, and well, people have been so kind in their praise and everyone’s gone to such a lot of trouble it seems rather ungrateful not to get the old cricket bat out and see if the ball can’t be mowed down to cow corner, doesn’t it?

Without doubt I find the prospect of Boris as PM a damn sight more appealing that Cameron, but just his mere presence could cause Cameron to adjust his game significantly.

For that reason, denizens of London, for the good of the country, vote for anyone but Boris.

A Fail of Two Cities.

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(Once again apologies for the paucity of posting, have been exceptionally busy recently).

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I don’t like the BNP. I disagree with pretty much every single policy they have, barring one. I believe (and I stand to be corrected) that they espouse withdrawing from the EU. On that policy they and I have common ground.

The fact that I don’t like the BNP should not detract from the fact that neither do I like the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems or the Greens. It isn’t a question of degrees of disliking, it is a simple formula; if the number of policies a party has that I agree with is fewer than the number of policies a party has that I disagree with, then I do not like them. For some reason it seems to be OK for me to dislike the big three as long as I dislike the BNP more. Well I don’t, I hold them all in equal disdain.

It may have escaped your notice, but I doubt it, that we are not far from the London Mayoral election. From the coverage it is getting in the national press you’d think it was an election for Mayor of the British Isles, but no, it is just for one city. Indeed tomorrow sees the election for French President. This is geographically closer to me being just over forty miles from my front door, whereas London is fifty. The two are equally important to me, that is to say not at all, I don’t have a vote and neither of the victors will be passing legislation that effects me, so Londoners can elect Pierre the Pig Farmer from Perpignan if they like and Jean Frog can elect Ken Livingstone, I don’t care.

However, here is the difference between London and Paris. The French equivalent, in as much of being certain to battle for third place, of Brian Paddick is Marine Le Pen, the leader of the ‘far right’ Front National. I don’t know if she is from the far right, she certainly seems more moderate than her father, but she is for EU withdrawal, so she’ll be branded far right whatever. So scared is Sarkozy of shipping huge amounts of his support to the FN that he has done the unthinkable (in this country) and tried to encroach on their territory by making tough noises on immigration and so forth.

In the sort of earnest political debate programmes that France specialises in, Le Pen has been given equal billing, and an equitable amount of time has been spent in examining her policies. She’s got the right amount of nominations and is therefore as legitimate as any of the other candidates for the job.

Ninety miles north of Calais and it’s a very different story. You see the candidates are pulling out of a debate on BBC London because Carlos Cortiglia is taking part. Who he? Well the man with the least British name in history is the BNP candidate for London Mayor. He has fulfilled the same criteria as every other candidate, and yet for some reason the other candidates have decided that he must not be allowed the same exposure and scrutiny as the others.

Why?

Announcing his withdrawal, Mr Livingstone said: “The far right want to destroy our democracy and stand for the elimination of our basic rights. They cannot be treated as a legitimate part of politics.

Absolutely Ken, true to form there. How can we have democracy when people are allowed to stand as an equal in an election and exercise their right to free speech? Irony, much?

Despite being so wrong that I find it startling even for him, at least Ken qualifies his stance. The Greens can’t even manage that:

A Green Party spokesman also said Ms Jones “would not share a platform or a debate” with the BNP’s candidate Carlos Cortiglia.

That’s it. No discussion. I have decided it is so. The BNP will be frozen out of the process because I say it is the right thing to do.

Meanwhile the Tories and LimpDims have decided to pretend that they weren’t sure if they were going anyway. Perhaps they were washing their hair that night?

Mr Johnson’s campaign team, meanwhile, said they were offered a debate “with all four candidates” but had not yet confirmed because of an existing “time clash”.

The BNP’s involvement was “not discussed”, a spokeswoman for the Conservative mayor said, but added: “Boris would not share a stage with the BNP.”

Lib Dem Brian Paddick has withdrawn too, but a spokesman said it was not a result of the BNP’s participation.

What are they scared of? Racism isn’t contagious and surely the best way to discredit the BNP is to listen to what they have to say and then defeat their argument. It’s a novel concept, it’s called debate. Perhaps they’re concerned because old Carlos has paid his taxes, or hasn’t been shagging people behind his wife’s back, or didn’t instruct his officers not to arrest people for committing a crime when he was Dep. Asst. Commissioner for the Met?

I find it remarkable on a weekend when people are jumping up and down about the F1 race going ahead in Bahrain because TPTB don’t allow democratic process there, that a majority of people here seem to find a legitimate political party being excluded from the democratic process to be an acceptable way to carry on.

Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it.