Sooo... Red Ken gone!!

[J]

A victory for

well done boris!

 

[Blueshrimper]

A man with hair like that can't be taken seriously.

 

[J]

A man with hair like that can't be taken seriously.

Red Ken's hardly got any hair ?????

 

[Beefy]

Boris = legend.

I wish I was a Londoner, today.

 

[sufcintheprem]

The guy is just not a serious candidate for a position of power. I'm quite ashamed of my fellow Londoners for being so thoughtless. Ok, so he has some good heads in his lot but there's no way Boris Johnson adds more to the stock of London as Mayor.

It almost feels like, with his blundering, it might be a vote for excommunicating Europe and the rest of the world. I have no doubt that we will learn to regret this appointment.

 

[J]

The guy is just not a serious candidate for a position of power. I'm quite ashamed of my fellow Londoners for being so thoughtless. Ok, so he has some good heads in his lot but there's no way Boris Johnson adds more to the stock of London as Mayor.

It almost feels like, with his blundering, it might be a vote for excommunicating Europe and the rest of the world. I have no doubt htat we will learn to regret this appointment.

I totally agree, the quicker we are out of Europe the better.. and let's hope Boris Yeltsen is the man to do it!

 

[canveyshrimper]

The guy is just not a serious candidate for a position of power. I'm quite ashamed of my fellow Londoners for being so thoughtless. Ok, so he has some good heads in his lot but there's no way Boris Johnson adds more to the stock of London as Mayor.

It almost feels like, with his blundering, it might be a vote for excommunicating Europe and the rest of the world. I have no doubt that we will learn to regret this appointment.

I am not advocating for Johnson or Livingstone one way or another, but feel that under our current democratic process Boris Johnson has won and deserves the chance to see what he can do. If he makes a complete Horlicks of it then he can be voted out in 4 years time.

Livingstone came close to bucking a national trend of protest against this government & Prime Minister, which is a credit to him.

This is a massive kick in the bolleaux for Brown & his cohorts, and it means now that they will stumble on from c*ck up to c*ck up, until they can go no further and call an election at the last possible moment in two years time.

 

[Uncle Leo]

I am not advocating for Johnson or Livingstone one way or another, but feel that under our current democratic process Boris Johnson has won and deserves the chance to see what he can do. If he makes a complete Horlicks of it then he can be voted out in 4 years time.

Livingstone came close to bucking a national trend of protest against this government & Prime Minister, which is a credit to him.

This is a massive kick in the bolleaux for Brown & his cohorts, and it means now that they will stumble on from c*ck up to c*ck up, until they can go no further and call an election at the last possible moment in two years time.

Exactly, give the bloke a chance. One of the first things I'd like to see him do is bring in something preventing mayors from standing for a third term. My main motivation in the election was to get Ken out. I might have voted Labour had he not been standing - eight years is long enough.

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Boris is an amazing bloke.....Do not underestimate him. He has been voted in because of his personality and I for one think this is a great result for Londoners

 

[canveyshrimper]

Exactly, give the bloke a chance. One of the first things I'd like to see him do is bring in something preventing mayors from standing for a third term. My main motivation in the election was to get Ken out. I might have voted Labour had he not been standing - eight years is long enough.

Indeed it is one of the strengths of the system in the USA where a president can only serve two terms, although this may change there if Haillary Clinton gets the Democratic nomination.

I would say there is a similar case to argue in our system where a serving PM can only serve two terms. I would say that both Thatcher & Blair achieved some great things, but after 10 years both were completely stark raving bonkers.

Having said that after less than a year is Mr Brown any less sane?

 

[canveyshrimper]

Boris is an amazing bloke.....Do not underestimate him. He has been voted in because of his personality and I for one think this is a great result for Londoners

Spot on, many label him as a buffoon, but I think he is anything but. Besides anyone who has sh*gged Petronella Wyatt gets my vote.;)

 

[fredheim_holm]

Boris is a total legend, the last clip I saw of him last night was when he was asked about what some lady had said, he turned around and said that *enter name here* can't be taken seriously! or something like that.

Top guy, lets hope he's good at his job though.

 

[loz]

I refer you all to Charlie Brooker on the highly subtle "Boris = LEGERND" argument...

Link

 

[canveyshrimper]

I refer you all to Charlie Brooker on the highly subtle "Boris = LEGERND" argument...

Link

That is quite poisonous and I'm quite pleased now that Boris won, if only to wipe the smug grins of the mugs of the likes of Brooker and that patronising witch Polly Toynbee.

 

[loz]

That is quite poisonous and I'm quite pleased now that Boris won, if only to wipe the smug grins of the mugs of the likes of Brooker and that patronising witch Polly Toynbee.

Fair enough for calling them out as smug, they evidently are. I still don't think finding someone amusing is a good reason to elect them mayor of a major city, and it from a lot of Boris voters I've spoken to it seems like that is precisely what has happened. If he does a good job, I will be pleasantly surprised and will give him credit where it's due.

 

[canveyshrimper]

Fair enough for calling them out as smug, they evidently are. I still don't think finding someone amusing is a good reason to elect them mayor of a major city, and it from a lot of Boris voters I've spoken to it seems like that is precisely what has happened. If he does a good job, I will be pleasantly surprised and will give him credit where it's due.

As I said earlier in this thread I am not advocating for Johnson or Livingstone, I will say in Johnson's favour he is anything but a bumbling buffoon, he is as sharp as a tack. Whether that translates to be a successful mayor remains to be seen. It amuses me that Livingstone is surrounded by his corrupt cronies, and can't keep his pr*ck in his pants, yet he is lauded by the likes of Brooker & Toynbee. It would appear to them that New Labour sleaze is fine yet Tory sleaze is not.

 

[Uncle Leo]

It amuses me that Livingstone is surrounded by his corrupt cronies, and can't keep his pr*ck in his pants, yet he is lauded by the likes of Brooker & Toynbee. It would appear to them that New Labour sleaze is fine yet Tory sleaze is not.

I always found it amusing that John Prescott was one of the most vocal about Tory sleaze in the 1990s when it eventually turned out he was as bad as the rest of the b@stards!

Tell you what, though, if Ian Hislop ever misbehaves he'll have some hell to pay after all his smugness on HIGNFY over the years. He must be clean as a whistle...

 

[SUFC Forever]

Ken got what he deserved I feel and this comes from somebody who has been a Labour voter all my life.

He became arrogant and paid the price. He has done away with all the old London landmarks, red busses, pigeons in Trafalgar Square, brought in astronomical congestion charges while not sorting out the problem that people really care about - street crime and London's violent streets.

Time for a change - whether Boris will be the man to sort things out time will tell but I think that Ken's time had come and obviously London's voters thought that too by dumping him yesterday.

 

[loz]

I didn't see any lauding of Ken in that article, to be fair. He has let himself down over the past four years though it's true, getting involved in a series of personal vendettas that took the shine off of the acheivements of his first term. Hopefully (as I think canveyshrimper alluded to earlier) he'll be remembered primarily for taking on Tony Blair in the height of his pre-Iraq pomp, and winning.

 

[sufcintheprem]

Ken got what he deserved I feel and this comes from somebody who has been a Labour voter all my life.

He became arrogant and paid the price. He has done away with all the old London landmarks, red busses, pigeons in Trafalgar Square, brought in astronomical congestion charges while not sorting out the problem that people really care about - street crime and London's violent streets.

Time for a change - whether Boris will be the man to sort things out time will tell but I think that Ken's time had come and obviously London's voters thought that too by dumping him yesterday.

Red buses still run in London. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're all red. I certainly don't remember getting one of a different colour. The bus system in London is actually very good and underused IMO. Can't say I'm bothered about the rats with wings being discouraged but there's still loads of them if people want to see them and they're still flying in my effing face!

Congestion was and still is a problem in London. Perhaps traders should be given better treatment but apart from that, I don't see what the problem is. Granted the tube is busrting at the seams at rush hour (and inconveniently for me, today) but this is a different matter. How much would car users have to be charged before they stop using cars unnecessarily and acknowledge the impact on both the environment and the population as a whole?

I actually think Livingstone would have reacted to a close election and taken a few of the ideas from Johnson on board. To be honest, I think the real issues that I want the mayor to address are racial integration and overcrowding on the underground.

The increase in patrolling police officers has been noticable in West London where I live and North London where I'm often out. This seems to be doing a good job as a deterrent for both violent crime and roaming gangs which have certianly been problematic in the past.

I think I was slightly harsh in the message I don't even remember writing but seem to have done quite a good job of spelling. I appreciate that Boris Johnson has more intellect than people give him credit for and he is good at ingratiating the right people. I just can't see what he's going to add as mayor. Few of his policies were specific or direct enough to appear to have any impact and the remainder were extensions of half-hearted Livingstone projects which, as mentioned earlier, would have probably been brought in by Livingstone anyway.

The other concern is that Livingstone has almost run London as a state within a state with his international relations and IMO, this has suited the city really well giving it distance from the Labour government. I just can't see those relations being maintained by Johnson although if he will headbutt German politicians in the balls then I will have a tough decision on whether to laugh or cry.

Anyway, he is mayor, and I will watch on with keen interest as to how he imposes his image ont he city. He's the mayor of the city and I'll support him in that role but I don't have high expectations.