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

[mrsruffallo]

I have warmed to Boris and cooled towards Ken personally.

[hocuspontas]

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

[MrsSquirrel]

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

I wish Labour had nominated Oona King.

[Orwellian]

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.

[Bossybritches22]

Islamist facists,homophobes and murderers Orwellian !

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

[EverybodysSnowyEyed]

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

[UntamedShrew]

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

[UntamedShrew]

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

[Gillg57]

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.

[slug]

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

[longfingernails]

I don't like Boris that much. Boris opposes the £400 a week housing benefit cap, has only cut council tax by a tiny amount, and hasn't stood up to the RMT bullies at all. He isn't much of a Tory, really.

On the other hand, I detest Ken. His thinly veiled homophobic dog-whistles, his support of Lutfur Rahman, Sheikh Qaradawi and Hugo Chavez, his tax-dodging, his nasty hypocrisy.

I will vote for Boris.

[merrymouse]

Surely there must be another novelty politician who could be mayor. I think it's a sign of Labour's general lethargy that they are allowing Ken to stand again.

[EverybodysSnowyEyed]

Isn't it depressing that they only put forward novelty/clown politicians!

[andisa]

How about the lib. Dem. candidate? The ex-cop. Washisname?

Got problem with Ken when he slated Neil Kinnock in the Daily Mail after election. The two paired together Ken/Daily Mail are a particularly venomous combination.

Boris is to full of himself. Sorry, I sound so negative but none inspire!

[urbanist]

The actual cost of the (albeit beautiful) new routemaster bus has put a huge amount onto the cost of public transport which we now have to pay.
And the so called 'Boris bikes' were conceived and planned by Ken - Boris just didn't cut the funding when he came in.
My vote is for KEN

[ButHeNeverDid]

Ken's tax avoidance has disgusted me.

So Boris for me.

[marshmallowpies]

I'd never vote Tory, ever, and I loathe Labour too, cause of the war and Blair and all that, but Ken is the only Labour politician I've ever voted for.

I was living in London before the Mayoral elections started and since, mainly in South London, and the thing that Ken improved immeasurably in that time is the transport links - the East London Line extension, improved bus routes, night buses that run all night instead of 1 an hour, and he kept the bus fares at an affordable level.

The bendy buses were crap but everything else Ken did for transport I pretty much agree with. Boris got rid of the western Congestion Charge zone to please the Notting Hill brigade but then puts up fares for the rest of us mere mortals :(

On a personal level, I find them both fairly repellent, due to their philandering ways, but Ken at least has been honest about acknowledging his children from various relationships and plays a part in their lives. Boris's behaviour on the other hand I would find fairly hard to forgive.

That shouldn't affect my opinion of their abilities to do their jobs, of course, but I wish there was a candidate I could vote for whose personal lives didn't leave me slightly disappointed in them. I'm not going to vote Lib Dem again, ever, after the wretched Coalition & Clegg caving in over everything from tuition fees and the NHS, so I suspect my second preference vote will go to the Greens.

[Mellousol]

There are 9 other candidates - what about ditching Boris AND Ken?? Can't stand Ken- like Boris but what about a change?

Why not vote for a Mum??? www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/23/london-mayoral-election-siobhan-benita

Or is it too risky? At least with Boris/Ken you pretty much know whats going to happen next! (ps Alos love the new Routemaster - wish they'd never got rid of the origials!! We had an original one as our Wedding guest transport in 2009!

[Soutty]

Definitely Boris.

Ken is a hypocrite. Sounding off about people who use legal tax avoidance loopholes is fair enough as long as you aren't doing it yourself. Similarly moaning about Boris earning money from journalism - all the funds in the company Ken set up to avoid paying the top rate of tax have come from money earned from journalism.

For those (including Ken) who are calling the people who brought this to light "smearers" Ken only has to produce his tax returns and other evidence showing that Silveta Limited (directors Ken and Ken's wife) has some other purpose than to avoid paying full income tax and it will all go away. For some reason, Ken doesn't seem to want to do this. Make of that what you will.

Boris has kept most of his promises, Ken broke half of his when he was in office. The promise he is making about reducing tube fares hasn't been costed and I don't think it amounts to any more than a bribe personally.

[Soutty]

In fact all Ken's said is that he will close down Silveta Limited if he wins. In other words he will only stop tax avoiding if he becomes mayor again. There's principles for you.

[LydiaWickham]

If the choice is Boris or Ken, then Boris every time, but as I voted in the last Mayoral election, it was a vote against Ken not really for Boris.

It's rather sad that he is such a vote loser and yet is still considered the best that the Labour party could russle up. One of these days the Labour party will realise that it doesn't matter how exciting your policies are, if no one trusts the person you're putting forward enough to vote for them, then you won't to do anything useful. Having Ken as the candidate is like saying "we can't be arsed actually running London."

And he's a tax dodger. Who slags off others for doing the same thing. (Just on a bigger scale.)

[dinkystinkyandveryverybored]

In the ideal world: Bin Boris. Kick out Ken. Let some new blood in to do the job.

In real life: go for Ken.

[orangina]

I'm not a great fan of Boris (couldn't bring myself to vote for him last time....), but I cannot BEAR Ken, he is sleaze personified.

Can't see the point of voting for anyone OTHER than one of those two, so it will have to be Boris.

(sigh)

Like LydiaWickham, it is a vote against Ken, rather than a vote for Boris....

[Cheeseandbiscuits]

Definately Boris here. I can't stand Ken, I don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth. He is evading tax and won't stop unless he is elected Mayor!

[marshmallowpies]

Agree Dinky - just to make clear, I'd never willingly vote Labour now, my vote for Ken will be a strategic 'get Boris out' vote.

In any given circumstance, if there was a chance of kicking a Tory out, I'd vote for the candidate most likely to de-seat the Tory, unless it was UKIP or BNP, in which case I'd probably move somewhere else....