Who will make a decent mayor? Page 14

Quote: zooo @ May 2 2008, 9:45 PM BST

Oh they're all getting my hopes up, but it's going to be even more horrible if he doesn't win after all.

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Hah. Yeah. It's going to be pretty nail-biting. Both Boris and Ken have run good campaigns though. Certainly looks like it's swinging in Boris's favour right now.

Quote: sootyj @ May 2 2008, 10:02 PM BST

And if there's no bombings in London at the moment it's because of good, positive relationships with the Muslim community. How long before that goes out the window.

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LOL.

Quote: Barbs @ May 2 2008, 9:58 PM BST

I honestly cannot believe that anyone who has lived in London could possibly vote for that clown over Ken.

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To quote Shaggy (no, not that one) "It wasn't me". But I'm optimistic anyway. A mayor without a vision or policy won't actually do anything bad, just not do something good. And I stick by him lasting two years max. If he wins, that is - it's not over yet!

But the mayoral election wasn't really run on a natioanl Tory v Labour manifesto. It was a man with decades of experience of running London and with notable successes in many areas (and some failures) against a man with no discernable political successes in his career.

But I made an error in my previous post in saying how could people vote in Boris over Ken. Ken is an irrelevence, the incredible fact, and one that makes my faith in human nature drop through the floor, is that people could ever consider putting a cross by Boris' name.

I would be more likely to vote for Hangus the Monkey than Boris.

Quote: sootyj @ May 2 2008, 10:02 PM BST

Look forward to screwed up public transport, more homelessness, and basically every job the mayor can do, done badly.

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Be good for a laugh though won't it!

I might hang around city hall, with a new BMX, and a box of liquorice all sorts. I reckon that's all it would take to bribe him into resigning.

May be a copy of Razzle.

And Aaron why do you think London has an enviably terrorism free reputation in comparison with other Coalition countries?

Quote: David Chapman @ May 2 2008, 10:09 PM BST

Be good for a laugh though won't it!

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I predict a bumper year for satirists, as we sit on our stuck, or exploding Tube trains.

Still it'll free Ken to take over from Gordon.

Quote: Griff @ May 2 2008, 10:14 PM BST

Have you been on First Great Western recently ? How would we know if it got worse ? BTW for what it's worth, BoJo has a good track record of kicking FGW's arse and getting them to sort their act out in South Oxfordshire, which I for one am very grateful for because I live there.

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FGW is not a Mayoral responsibility. Unfortunately. The improvement in bus services under the last/current Mayor have been remarkable.

And all that lovely money we're donating to those Olympic Games we're all so looking forward to.

Quote: Griff @ May 2 2008, 10:14 PM BST

Have you been on First Great Western commuter trains in and out of London recently ? How would we know if it got worse ? BTW for what it's worth, BoJo has a good track record of kicking FGW's arse and getting them to sort their act out in South Oxfordshire, which I for one am very grateful for because I live there.

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I can't speak about SO specifically, but Christ, don't even get me started on FGW. Beyond useless.

Although they did give me a free First Class ticket upgrade!

Quote: David Chapman @ May 2 2008, 10:34 PM BST

And all that lovely money we're donating to those Olympic Games we're all so looking forward to.

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Quite!

Quote: Badge @ May 2 2008, 10:16 PM BST

FGW is not a Mayoral responsibility. Unfortunately.

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This is true. But, at least as far as Maidenhead and Heathrow, they'll be replaced by Crossrail - which will be under the Mayoralty. Who will actually be Mayor by the time they actually get around to building the f**king thing, is anyone's guess. The pace which progress has gone so far could see teleportation before the first hole is dug!

Haha, sounds heavenly! If he can do that further in, I'll be beyond happy. Our trains have three carriages (occasionally 4 or 5, at the end (!) of the rush hour mainly), and pull into platforms which could easily accommodate at least 4 times that length. And not forgetting the fact that they recently cut out a bunch of rush-hour services, so the trains are even more packed than before. It's an absolute disgrace.

Quote: Griff @ May 2 2008, 11:03 PM BST

Yep, FGW are incredibly crap. But I really don't know why they are as bad as they are.

Having seen David Hare's play The Permanent Way exploring the reasons behind the crappiness of our rail network, I'm happy to throw my hands up in the air and say I genuinely don't know whether to blame Government (of either political persuasion), private industry, nationalised industry, rail unions, fare-dodgers or the Smurfs. And I am somewhat distrustful of people who do have pat answers on the subject.

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Pretty simple really: It's our 'culture': That which we are expected to celebrate recently - ohhhh and how I wish I could find a reason! Incompetent, no sorry, laughable administration has become endemic in this Country. To effectively address that issue alone would improve all of our lives very quickly.

No wonder so few celebrate St Georges day! More of an embarassment when you look at how our neighbours achieve things. > and yet, typically, those that claim to espouse greater success for our Country are the first to criticise our so succesful EU partners.

As for tonight - I, for one, am very frightened at what it appears so many of you have done.

As Badge and Barbs said - live through it - and then you will understand - not just the clown being elected as mare but what you indicate for a future some of us have had to endure by experience.

Anyone watching these speeches? It's all quite emotional!

Boris is Mayor in case you haven't heard.

Quote: Griff @ May 2 2008, 11:03 PM BST

Yep, FGW are incredibly crap. But I really don't know why they are as bad as they are.

Having seen David Hare's play The Permanent Way exploring the reasons behind the crappiness of our rail network, I'm happy to throw my hands up in the air and say I genuinely don't know whether to blame Government (of either political persuasion), private industry, nationalised industry, rail unions, fare-dodgers or the Smurfs. And I am somewhat distrustful of people who do have pat answers on the subject.

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All of the above and more. Government (local, county and national; as institutions rather than defined by party) long ago switched their attention firmly to the road network. Without any competition, and being hindered by continual strikes and apathy from politicians, British Rail just stopped trying. A pretty badly handled privatisation let it continue, and to date there's still been no attention from governments to clean up the sorry mess. The train companies have nothing to incentivise them to improve services, so they carry on as they always have done: punctuality is poor, stock is largely mid-90s (if you're lucky), and any fines handed out by regulators are but a drop in the ocean to the operators - who then have the cheek to pass it on to us poor commuters anyway.

And no matter what the transport companies would have you believe, far-dodgers play a part in the tale so insignificant as to be not even worth a mention. Have you seen FGW's profits over the past few years?

And there are probably some typos in the above, but I'm too tired to check.

Quote: Badge @ May 3 2008, 12:04 AM BST

Anyone watching these speeches? It's all quite emotional!

Boris is Mayor in case you haven't heard.

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Missed the first few minutes, but watching at the moment. It's going to be a pretty exciting time for London, for better or worse. I for one am looking forward to it.

I run my firm out of Henley where BoJo is MP....he's far from a clown.

Boris and Ken's speeches were good, I thought.

I was going to wait and see if they showed the BNP guy's speech, but then I realised I had better things to do.

Anyway, the important question:
Does this mean that Boris won't be able to be on HIGNFY anymore?

I doubt that any of the others would really make speeches. I wouldn't even know what they looked like.

I'm bloody excited though! Going into the centre of town tomorrow, wondering what or who I might see.

Interestingly, it was reported today that Boris's team has been promised that Ken's will be marched out of City Hall "within minutes". Under the electoral rules, they have 28 hours to vacate the premises, but it's feared that they'll use the time to destory key documents. Fair enough that one candidate would be suspicious of another, but the fact that it seems to have been effectively agreed by the authorities is somewhat worrying!

Quote: zooo @ May 3 2008, 12:26 AM BST

Anyway, the important question:
Does this mean that Boris won't be able to be on HIGNFY anymore?

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Ken's been on whilst Mayor, so no, not at all!