So, it looks like Boris is going to win.....

[JeremyVile]

Boris Johnson.
How the feck did that happen??

Hoping the BBC are just joshing with us...

Hey battie- let's have a drink.
I am devastated

weer al duuumed.

Let's wait and see how an over-privileged, under-educated gourmand works with a recessionary London in which huge rifts - particularly cultural and religious ones - are already developing, and which is about to be put to the greatest test it has faced in 2012.

If it is universally acknowledgeedd that BJ is an idle buffoon, then who, I wonder (with genuine anxiety) will be making the decisions?

Led, I don't either, that's why it will be so entertaining for me ? no personal risk! (Although I voted against Ken when I lived in London and have persuaded at least one person to vote against him this time.)

cheers mrsR. Absolutely fucking gutted.

You;ll all be sorry.

Watch the fucking RMT go for it now.

We are in for the summer and winter and spring of discontent, and we'll deserve it.

GOD I'm fucked off.

People have forgotten what Tories fucking are, that's the problem. But they'll soon remember.

I don't want old etonians running this city...I may move

where are you mrsr? Seem to remember east but might be making it up>?

Apologies for repeating what I said in the other Boris thread, but it may be more relevant here.

He's probably a bright guy who knows his limitations. And so he will be surrounded by advisers who make sure he puts the right people in the right jobs to get stuff done. That's the way I see it anyway.

Vivienne Westwood in the Grauniad said that a Boris win would "expose democracy as a sham." Eh? Run that past me again, Viv. I think the drugs have got to your old brain. Democracy's a sham if the result doesn't go the way you want?....

I also didn't understand a) why anyone was interested about what Brian Paddick's second preference might have been (did anyone ask Ken or Boris this?), b) why anyone was bothered, as the BBC reporter seemed to be, that he might be lying when he said it was Left List, and c) what Brian would have to gain from saying he gave a second preference to Left List when he didn't.

We need a [baffled] emoticon here.

Londoners flee city!

Desperate-to-move Londoners sell houses for something that seems like reasonable prices to people from the North!

No?

Worth a go.

As one who has expressed doubts about democracy in this context, UQD, I can explain that these latent feelings are brought to the fore when a comedy candidate is involved.

When they're all dull and grey (and clever), then democracy somehow rights itself. When one of them is waggling his ears and farting, I suspect that there is a proportion of voters who would not have voted were waggling and farting not involved. They vote for the waggling farting tosser.

All that experience of the GLC and the GLA, at a point when London most needs experience, thrown away for a waggling farter.

Voting for a waggling farting tosser is still democracy, I'm afraid!

at 1AM precisely, please may I say will the last one to bed please turn out the lights.

Unquiet, errr, still no, but thanks. I love the idea that a thick bloke knows his limitations & will bow to the knowledge of his elders & betters. When did that Ever happen?? Not even in Shakespeare, methinks, but as I said before, good luck. Do you think in 2012 Boris will requistion properties in the North as housing for 'Russian' athletes? And Liverpool for those he considers less house trained? The man's a buffoon & I think the rest of the UK might well look on with glee, or that might just be me, sorree... It's on a par with the good people of Hartlepool electing Hangum, the Monkey. Enjoy.

Hmmm. thanks for that insight.

Indeed it is UQD. Which is why I express my doubts about it as a political system.

oh fuck (and that's about as eloquent as I can get at the moment )

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Winston Churchill

boris is talking about people who hovered before putting an x in his box.

And I'm too disheartened to make a snurky double entendre.

Things are bad indeed.

Luckily Winston Churchill is the statesman I least admire.

it does reveal the utter inadequacy of democracy as a political offering.

We are brought up to respect this 'system'...and this system produces a result like this, a major for one of the worlds greatest cities.

Crumbs.

PoP, wno were you thanking for which insight?

I think Boris is actually clever. Since you can't hear me say that the emphasis is on clever

I'm not quite so sure GLA/GLC experience is very useful anymore

Red Ken did promise he wouldn't run for a third term didn't he?
DOesn't anyone care about the corruption? Is it all lies?

really not sure..Bendi.

There are different variations on democracy, of course. I find STV marginally preferable to first-past-the-post.

Oh dh adn I have just been discussing whether Boris will decide to end the hold the RMT has on London (a la Thatcher and the miners) we decided one August would be the best time.
FWIW I do really understand that Boris is truely clever and the impression is just that something for a quiet life/a bit of fun!