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...

Fitfox - I must have missed something (not hard with a 4 and 8 year old around). What did Margaret Hodge do/say?

I'm with you missyhissey. I can see why there are question marks around Boris, but with Livingstone's cult of personality, only someone with a bit of stardust would have stood a chance. A lot of commentators have said that Boris is not really a details man - but he is likely to surround himself with good people which is paramount - one person can't do it all alone now matter how good they are (One of the commentators said that Gordon Brown is a details man, but look at the hash he is making). Ken is corrupt and now surrounded by his cronies and I think the good things he did do for London, he did in his first term (although I agree with larry5 - he introduced the c-charge at half term, when there's no traffic anyway, and has totally cocked up the roads with rerouting an d rephasing lights, and as for doing things well - the congestion charge barely makes a profit, so much is paid to Capita etc to run the thing). In his second term he has let things go and has been more about personal crusades against certain sections of the city's population and kickbacks than doing what's best for London. I firmly believe that nobody should be allowed a third term anyway, so I'm glad we are seeing the back of him whoever is taking his place.
The real tragedy is that 69,000 voted for that BNP scum as mayor and they now have a seat on the GLA.

Why didn't Brian Paddick congratulate Boris on his victory? I found that really odd, oversight I hope.

I keep asking why Mumsnet is so unrepresentative of the electorate? But a Boris supporter posting on this thread would be a bit like a breastfeeder posting on a pro formula feeding thread. I'd be interested to hear from people who voted for Boris Johnson.

I still want to know what the deal was with Paddick's second preference and why it mattered so much to the BBC.

Unquiet Dad- it's probably because Paddick refused to say who he though Lib Dem voters should give their second preferences to during the campaign.

I remain a Ken supporter, but I echo Slinkie and SWC's sentiments on the the BNP. How horrendous that 69,700 voted for him for Mayor and 130,000 (horror) voted for him for the London Assembley.

Did Ken and Boris indicate who they thought second prefs should go to?

Sorry for the error in terminology over STV. It was late. It is about how democracy is implemented, though.

What's the evidence for Boris being racist, by the way? (He has mixed-race children so I find it a bit strange. Not necessarily saying this precludes anyone from being racist, but it would make it a bit odd.)

NQGU - Ms Hodge was giving a talk a couple of months ago and said that there was a problem with too many immigrants coming into Barking and Dagenham and that's why peopl vote BNP - she more or less legitamised the BNP vote by saying it is the fault of the immigrants

Presumably she can trace her own roots back to Anglo Saxon England or something....

Mind you, given the choice voting for any candidate asociated with Margaret Hodge or the BNP - must be quite difficult to choose between them really. They are both as equally offensive as each other.

Do you vote for the "facist and proud of it" guy, or the woman who allowed peadophiles to abuse children in care when she was Leader of Islington Council?

Unquiet Dad, I think it was his reference to the people of Papua New Guinea being "sheep slaughterers" or something

There may be other "evidence" - that is the only thing I am aware of

Boris and Ken' second preferences were irrelevant, because they would have voted for themselves. They were both bound to go through to the second round so their second preferences weren't ever going to count anyway.

@fitfox- Margaret Hodge wasn't running for either the Mayor or the London Assembley so I don't really get your point.

Margaret Hodge is the MP for Barking.

The man who has won a seat on the London Assembley for the BNP is a BNP councilor for Barking and Dagenham.

When a Labour MP and former cabinet minister says that immigrants are pushing local people down the social housing list, do you think the BNP need to bother campaigning?

The man who is now representing the BNP on the London Assembley tried to dend her flowers after her comments.

Well the question for me is - why would anyone vote for the BNP?! I'm far more concerned about that than about BoJo.

I do hope that the main parties will now LISTEN to the electorate and start thinking about why so many are going down that evil route.

V good, I'm going to call him Bojo from now on!

Effie - et al - I know this thread has been anti-Boris, but this isn't the BBC you know. There's no obligation to be balanced.

mercy - pinched that from last night's Have I Got News For You ;)

Balanced? The BBC? (hollow laughter)

The BBC wouldn't know balanced if it bit them on the bum.

That Nick Robinson, eh? He's so pro-Labour it's untrue. Oh and Evan Davis, you can tell he's right up Gordon's arse. And John Humphrys, he's famous for giving the government an easy ride. The World at One is renowned for being a bit lefty isn't it? And of course the whole Hutton affair showed just how far the BBC is prepared to go to follow through on its umbilical attachment to Labour.

Hang on, I don't appear to have thought this through.

Well if you mean left-liberal in terms of pro-gay marriage, pro-multiculturalism, prepareed to at least pay lip-service to environmental concerns... that sort of thing, then that's a societal shift - one that Cameron has made as much hay from as anyone.

I completely agree with you that MN as a whole is well to the left of the political centre (and well to the left of the Labour Party). That's one of the reasons why I spend so much time here.

The site doesn't have a political bias afaik - members might do.

swc, I'm a proper frothing red-green fundamentalist. Believe me, where political life in this country is concerned, I don't have a comfort zone.

Can you give me some examples of the sorts of things you mean wrt the BBC? Because I am struggling a bit. You do hear anti-green and anti-multicultural standpoints expressed quite regularly on R4. I'd guess that you don't much on BBC1, but that's because its entire output is designed for thickies who would probably fart with surprise if someone replaced Holby City with a meaty political debate.

But - forgive me, this might be wrong - if the BBC had acted as a cheerleader for the war (which would also have been entirely inappropriate), wouldn't you have been accusing it of pro-Labour bias? As far as I'm aware, there really weren't any 'good news' stories coming out of Iraq at that time - it was all still a massive disaster.

The lies that Labour told around the decision to go to war were a very proper subject for a news organisation. As you say, Gilligan (irony of ironies) let his mouth run ahead of his evidence, but as I understand it he was acting in a maverick fashion, not with the backing of the upper echelons of BBC News.

And please don't take from this that I am anti-war - like Nick Cohen, I think that there were some good reasons for going into Iraq, just not in the way that we did.

Anyway, I'm willing to concede that there are a lot of culturally liberal people at the BBC, and maybe it ought to take more care to express some more marginalised points of view - anti-immigration views maybe, white working classes (although was it the BBC that did a white working class season recently or was that C4?)