Boris or Ken - ramblings of a undecided voter - please help

[K20]

I want to vote for Ken (despite him being the labour candidate) again as I think he has worked hard to give London a modern identity and increase tourism, promoting London with good advertising and events.

Why should Boris the Buffoon ride his coat tails and be given all Kens good work to flag wave as his own? Crime, Environment, Housing, Greenbelt etc, obviously whoever is chosen will do their best for London - its all hot air to win votes, these type of changes will be made by whoever is London Mayor.

I feel I voted Ken in with gusto a few years ago on a wave of London Pride (not the beer) and that I should give him the job again. He's fearless of Government and will not be dictated to unlike ......

opinions please

I had to queue to vote yesterday, such was the turnout round here.

Think we have a lot of Boris/Brian voters - in fact, I heard quite a few people say they were voting Boris not because they are necessarily Tory but because they know it's the only way to get Ken out!

I'm in west London, just outside the extended congestion charge zone and I know that a LOT of people would have voted Boris because he says he will abolish the CC extension....
(just didn't do it for me...)

that extension was ridiculous (I thought) - the whole one-sidedness of it

What irritated me about it was the tax payers money spent on a lengthy expensive consultation process.... the results of which was then totally ignored as it didn't tell Ken what he wanted to hear.
Why bother to consult then!
(will not go into giant rant...)

(results WERE, sorry, typing without brain fully engaged...)

please do go into a giant rant

the libdems have gone done seriously in my estimation after they did a HUGE consult here (about parking) where the percentage NO result was 61% and then they just manipulated the results to show some positive percentage and have gone ahead and are putting parking controls in. I was furious about it all. And of course, like you say, we paid for the blardy consultation.

It just makes you think megalomaniac I'm afraid and that West London extension was just another 'oh let's tax this side of London a bit more'.

Foxinsocks - what do you mean by the whole one-sidedness of the extension of the congestion zone?

You have to admit that that part of West London is v.v.overcrowded a lot of the time.

and SE/E London isn't? Believe me, I've lived off the Old Kent Road and lived in W London and traffic is bad in both places.

Actually, I think we are obsessed with traffic in London. Over half term, we went to visit the inlaws in Oxford and friends in Bath and I can quite honestly, HAND ON HEART, say I have NEVER experienced traffic like I did in both those cities. It made a car journey around London look like a pleasant Sunday morning stroll.

The congestion charge must be working then

ha! no congestion charge round here .

Boris will be a disaster for London. London is a world class city, he is a world class idiot. Ill thought out comments about Liverpool etc. His minders have spent most of the campaign trying to shut him down due to his woeful inability to self edit. Bad hair, dubious remarks, ridiculous affairs is what he is known for. Can anyone name any serious policy initatives that Boris has been involved in?

If London wants to be a leading city on the world stage it needs a mayor of substance, insight and leadership. Woefully lacking in all of the candidates except perhaps Ken. Let Boris jape around in his 50's posho throwback style in Henley. Even if you think Ken is far from perfect at least he has the credentials and credibility to do the job. Don't do the city a disservice by voting for the comedy candidate.

It's interesting that Mumsnet is wholly unrepresentative of the electorate. I'd estimate that this Mumsnet Poll gives Ken a very very clear lead - with about 80% of the vote. Brian Paddick is in second place with 17% of the vote. Two Mumsnetters are undecided 2% of the vote. The Blonde has come out for Boris who has 1% of the vote. Yet a Ugov poll I saw puts Boris clearly out in front.

Why is this do you think?

wholly so unrepresentative

i voted Boris.

i live in SW London. Ken does nothing for us except spend all our council tax on east and SE London.

his expenses, publicity budget and chronyism are out of control.

west london congestion charge extension was just to get more money out of west londoners and those who would never vote for him anyway. The traffic/congestion is way lower in west london than in south and SE london.

and as for heathrow. Ken supports third runway and further expansion. Has he tried to travel out of heathrow recently? has he tried to GET to heathrow recently. what a joke.

need i go on?

interesting question swedes....

(btw, did you have me down as one of the undecideds?)

because we all CLEVER and Londoners are all THICK

it's the only explanation

read the thread again Swedes, your estimates are v odd imo.

I didn't actually add them all up! But you get my drift - the thread is heavily supporting Ken - contrary to the mood in London at large.

Mourningpaper - "because we all CLEVER and Londoners are all THICK
it's the only explanation"

You have to be a Londener to vote.

Think Boris is a complete embarrassment.

But mostly am confused about why people on Mumsnet are so pro-Routemaster. They had a few left when I had my first baby. I couldn't drive, the tube is hell with a buggy and I completely relied on buses. Routemasters were a nightmare, icon or no icon - no way of getting a pushchair on at all, except by removing baby, changing bag, shopping, and folding, all while perched on tiny, terrifying open platform while bus moving and being jostled by other passengers. No thank you.

New buses are progress (though recognise issues with bendies).

About the only real power the Mayor has is over transport and I think it's got much much better.....

"i live in SW London. Ken does nothing for us except spend all our council tax on east and SE London."

if you live in SW London (yah!) you deserve your council tax to be tripled and given to the less fortunate.

Guess where I live? Incidentally, Ken was the ONLY candidate to put anything through my door - is my vote that undesirable?

btw, I voted Ken, Ken and Ken. Boris talks tosh and the Lib Dem man is so forgettable I can't remember his name...poor chap. But I did vote Lib Dem for the Assembly.

Very saddened to learn that Boris the Baffoon may be Mayor of this fine city. How can someone who has some extremely dubious opinions run such a huge, diverse and brilliant city such as ours?

Ken and Sian, all the way!!

Swedes, there was a thread a couple of weeks ago about which paper posters read, and about 80 per cent of the respondents said that they read the Guardian.

I'd really, really like to live in MN land.

yup, that's right you see Merry because only people who have money live in W/SW London, right?

that sort of Ken like opinion (and his congestion charging extension to the west for the fun of it) is exactly what has put people off voting for him round here!