London Elects

London braces itself for the elections for Mayor and the London Assembly on the 1st May. While there are officially 10 candidates for London Mayor (including one representing the vile BNP), realistically its really a straight head to head between the incumbent Ken Livingstone and the comedian that is Boris Johnson.

When Boris first announced his candidacy it was a bit like your mate in the pub saying he was going to compete in X-Factor or American Idol, in other words a bit of a joke. In my view this joke has gone a bit too far as all of a sudden his candidacy is being taken seriously as there is a significant percentage of Londoners who have pledged to vote for him as he has a certain 'laddish' coolness.

While I am not the greatest of fans of 'red' Ken, I think he has a genuine passion for making London a world class city. However the congestion charge has impacted upon our lives, it has significantly reduced congestion in central london and is now being used as a model to emulate in major cities across the world. London buses have improved a lot from the days when you had to wait half an hour and 4 would arrive at the same time. And its no great coincidence that London won the race for the 2012 Olympics under Ken.

I used to laugh at Boris's buffoonery myself, as he is irreverent of authority and undoubtedly very intelligent but his style of idiocy I don't need in a mayor. His comments dismissing the Macpherson report, his referal to Tory leadership disputes as like "Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing" and the "piccaninnies" comment makes him completely unelectable for anyone of colour in my book (lets also not forget he had to apologise for condoning an article that claimed black people have a lower IQ).

Make sure you vote on 1 May and enjoy the American style dig at Boris Johnson's candidacy from Youtube below.