Londoners- would you keep Boris or give Ken another go?

I really wish Ken had not been selected as the Labour candidate.

Boris promised much but has actually delivered very little. The new routemaster is probably the most he has delivered and it works out at around £20,000 per seat so hardly the mark of a man interested in budget. More the mark of a man who woke up one day and realised that he kept losing Deputies he had appointed (in dodgy circumstances) and didn't have much to sing about. The bikes are not Boris bikes they are more like Ken cycles as he started the ball rolling. Boris increased police numbers as promised but then wants to put them down again. Something he keeps quiet about since the riots. On balance I believe Ken did deliver much more of what he promised. He completely transformed London buses so that you no longer have to routinely wait half an hour for one to turn up. I don't have a problem with him talking to the unions. Better to find a resolution through discussion than strike action. A lesson LT management may also wish to learn. Don't forget safety standards would plummit without the unions bringing things to our attention. Buying oil direct from Chavez would have lowered our transpoprt costs. And as for the person critical of him inviting IRA leaders to London. It may have been unpalatable but I think in fairness if it wasn't for people like him encouraging them down the path of talk not bullets we wouldn't have the had the building blocks that have led to peace in NI and removed the threat on the mainland. I would have liked to see a new face for Labour but his running mate is very good and both of them really have Londoners at the heart of their decision making. So it will have to be Ken and Valerie for me.

Isn't there a female independent candidate standing? Sure I saw her in a magazine.

I'm not sure I can even be bothered to vote but I will drag my exhausted self and 3 DCs along just for fun and to cancel out DH's vote for that arseface Boris

Well Ken did his buddy buddy deal with Chavez

And Boris, he's really irritating! But having read through the thread I'm not sure there is an alternative.

Is Ken a feminist? More an opportunist! I thought he was a pretty bad husband? (making him equal not worse than Boris in that sense)

Agree Squirrel - a woman would have been great and I quite like Oona King. Couldn't possibly have a woman in such a powerful position though could we

Islamist facists,homophobes and murderers Orwellian !

Boris may be an arse but I don't think he completely lies down with wolves.

Neither of them. They are 2 sides of the same coin. Ken will promise a lot (private rent reform, travel reform, support for the "vulnerable" etc etc but doesn't have the power to do it and probably has his fingers crossed behind his back when he pledges these things anyway). Boris is just a rich clown who seems to think (and reality seems to suggest) that acting the buffoon will get him re-elected. So on one side we have red Ken, friend of Islamist fascists and homophobes and on the other side we have Boris, friend of the rich and greedy. Not much of a choice.

I can't stand either of them. Don't know what I will do.

I wish Labour had nominated Oona King.

Ken's a feminist. Boris is a philanderer. No contest AFAIC.

Keep Boris. I loathe Ken. Nasty piece of work

but none of them are, southwest - present Cabinet not excepted

Because Ken IS a hypocritical twat possibly Ponders ?

There is a way of using tax avoidance that efficiently uses legitimate rules to claim legitimate expenses and reduce your tax bill.

Then there are those like Ken who set up whole companies to explicitly evade paying what the rest of us hoi-polloi do every day.

It may be legitimate but on a grand scale that he has been doing ( and yes other business do too) ESPECIALLY when one is in high office spouting about socialism and castigating "fat cats" is foolish at best and downright wrong at worst.

The man is a nasty piece of work that should not be allowed back in power.

Ponders we like people who are in a position to tell us what to do to be squeaky clean though don't we?

I think the personal liability company thing should really be stopped, far too may people I know use it and if you are in PAYE it is not an option to you so it just sticks in my throat (especially when those people are the same ones squealing about public sector pensions etc etc)

& looking at other blog entries, Gilligan clearly has a big problem with Ken - I wonder why

well it's "avoidance", not evasion (the latter is illegal)

& all the attacking seems to be coming from Andrew Gilligan

plenty of comments in support of Ken from readers under \link{http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100140482/ken-livingstone-tax-avoidance-red-ken-caught-red-handed-says-pm/\Gilligan's Telegraph blog}

eg "I can see you are having a lot of fun accusing Ken of "hypocrisy". But in doing so you are attacking (and misrepresenting) a way of doing business that is used quite legitimately by tens of thousands of freelance workers, consultants, contractors, etc. (Including Red Ken as far as I can see)."

Hasn't 'red' Ken just been pulled up for £50,000 tax evasion? Obviously his right to do that, but surely if you really are left wing you shouldn't be evading tax as it should be in your principal to pay as much as possible?

I'm not particularly a Boris fan but I lived in London under Red Ken & will never forgive him for inviting IRA leaders to London.

The timing was spectacularly bad given the bombings and murders of many both in & out of London.

"A man is know by the company he keeps"

getting wet under the shower, turning it off, soaping up and then washing off with the shower

is that really a mad idea? it's what I do - washing under the water seems to defeat the object...mind you I'm the same generation as Ken (a bit younger), brought up with adults who had to make do & mend during the war, saving brown paper bags & bits of string, 5" of water in the bath. it rubs off

Oh and lemon I think Brian is just a non starter far too bland in the face of such personalities

Boris all the way for me, you can't in all serious call him an idiot he has a degree in classics from Oxford!!!!!

I was all for red ken (now were showing our age) originally but he did some really nonsense things (bendy buses) kowtowed to the tube unions which has given them an unjustified sense of power plus some unbelievable T&C and salary plus there is all that stuff about his taxi expenses plus there was loads of other stuff I've forgotten about

I agree Boris made some unfortunate deputy choices, I do wonder why it doesn't sit well with his intellect?

Boris has done other good stuff with cycle networks and does seem verbally at least to stand up for London

WE WANT KEN!! WE WANT KEN!!

Fuckin hate Boris and everything he stands for. A waste of a huge space.

Boris. Can't stand whiney Ken.

Ken - although I did hate his bendy buses.

Boris.