Tactical Voting on May 1st

[belboid]

yeah, cos there are really likely to be decent safeguards introduced by Boris, aren't there?

 

[KeyboardJockey]

just sounds like a way of cutting expenditure to me. Mucking about on the back of a bus (tory boys definition of asb being distinctly missing - shock horror) leads to poor people being made even poorer & more likely to bunk off school - cracking idea!

Lowering all council workers & contractors wages is also 'fair and balanced' in your view I assume.

You've got to deal with the quality of life problems like asbh both on public transport and in the general community. If someone willfully chooses not to earn back their permit, and who bunks off school then they have contributed to making themselves poor. Personal responsibility isn't it.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Boris may know how to hit the reactionary buttons of the timid middle classes by talking up crime, but he displays precious little idea of how and why some kids behave as they do. This just sounds like another attempt to criminalise our children.

 

[gabi]

I think if it was a situation where incidents are witnessed by bus crews and passengers and / or cctv evidence then that to my mind is an acceptable level of proof. Some kids will be alienated but this policy does have at its core the option of getting back their concession by community work which may help the young person see more options in life. The sus law thing is an issue but as long as there are safeguards then wrong decisions can be kept at a minimum.

You want Boris to run London? In all seriousness? I can understand if the tories had put up a feasible candidate then maybe turning to the dark side in order to rid London of Ken, but please. BORIS JOHNSON. MAYOR JOHNSON. Is that who you want representing us?

 

[KeyboardJockey]

yeah, cos there are really likely to be decent safeguards introduced by Boris, aren't there?

Why not? For people to have confidence in the system and for the policy to be a success then there has to be reasonable safeguards. Its in Boris's interest to do so.

One thing that I'm looking forward to if Boris wins is an opening up of the books at City Hall. I'm interested to see just how much taxpayers money has ended up in Livinstones slush funds/publicity budget.

Time to clean out the stables and have London being run for Londoners instead of being used as a vehicle for Livingstones ego.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Time to clean out the stables and have London being run for Londoners instead of being used as a vehicle for Livingstones ego.

But what does that mean, exactly?

Sounds like empty rhetoric to me.

 

[KeyboardJockey]

You want Boris to run London? In all seriousness? I can understand if the tories had put up a feasible candidate then maybe turning to the dark side in order to rid London of Ken, but please. BORIS JOHNSON. MAYOR JOHNSON. Is that who you want representing us?

Oh yes. If there was someone else who could beat Livingstone then I'd go for them but Boris has quite a few advantages. Livingstone needs to go before he gets too entrenched and even more bent than he is now. Boris may well end up as a one term mayor and he will clean out the shitheap that Livingstone has made. I'm not going to like all his policies but it is better than allowing Livingstone another opportunity shit on Londoners.

 

[untethered]

I'll give you an example of a common sense policy from Boris. When free travel is removed from someone behaving in an antisocial manner their right to travel will be removed swiftly. To balance this the young person will be given the chance to earn back their free travel concession by doing community service. Good policy decreases the time between offence and punishment and gives the person an opportunity for rehabilitation.

Seems fair and balanced to me.

A common sense policy would be to make the children walk rather than propping up youthful indolence with taxpayers' money.

They could do community service too. Not because they'd committed any crime but because it would teach them a few things about life that they're unlikely to learn in what passes for school these days.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

it is better than allowing Livingstone another opportunity shit on Londoners.

aside from the C-charge, which I know you hate, how has he done this?

 

[KeyboardJockey]

But what does that mean, exactly?

Sounds like empty rhetoric to me.

Get the books open. Clear out Livingstones cronies. Trace how much money Livingstone has spent to publicise himself and build small grouplets of support with public money.

 

[Guineveretoo]

To try and make it clear. There are three separate ballot papers on Thursday.

The one which most people are interested in is that for the Mayor and, on that one and only that one, you have the chance to vote for your first preference and your second preference. If no one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, all the candidates other than the top two are eliminated, and the second vote preferences of those eliminated are distributed for the top two. So, if you vote for Ken or Boris, the chances are your second vote will not count. If, however, you vote for Brian or Sian (or one of the myriad others), your second vote will count, and that is why it is important who these two are endorsing, and encouraging their supporters to put as their second vote.

You will also get a ballot paper for your Greater London Assembly seat (there are fewer than there are London Boroughs - 14 in total), and for this one you put a cross against the name of the person you would like to represent you, just like in any other election, for councillors or MPs. The person with the most votes is elected in each seat (first past the post).

The third paper is for the GLA List, and fills the further 11 seats, and this is where the BNP could sneak in. For this, you simply get to put one vote, but you put it against a party, and it is not first past the post. They add up all the votes and distribute the 11 seats depending on how many votes people get. Apparently, the BNP nearly got a seat last time!

I look forward to 15 hours of trying to explain the above to the voters on Thursday!

 

[littlebabyjesus]

A common sense policy would be to make the children walk rather than propping up youthful indolence with taxpayers' money.

They could do community service too. Not because they'd committed any crime but because it would teach them a few things about life that they're unlikely to learn in what passes for school these days.

lol

KBJ - you sound a bit like untethered sometimes.

 

[cockneyrebel]

KBJ if you want to support a arch right wing, old Etonian, anti-working class, racist candidate who even the BNP feel comfortable supporting then fair enough, but just be honest about what you are, and it's not left wing.

 

[KeyboardJockey]

aside from the C-charge, which I know you hate, how has he done this?

Backed the olympics
Shown gross errors of judgement (Qaradawi and Lee Jasper)
Has no interest in investing in or supporting Londons small industrial and precision industrial sector.
Has spent vast sums on publicity for his own office
Has presided over a mess on the underground
Has indulged in dividing community from community with funding allocations

Thats just for starters. Broad headings.

 

[mango5]

What has Boris the racist Johson got to offer the majority of Londoners?

Do we Londoners really desire:

1. A deregulated public transport system
2. A public transport overseeing body (TfL) without teeth; unable to curb the excesses of deregulated buses, tube and overhead trains
3. The selling off of anything that isn’t bolted down to Johnson’s toff mates
4. A racist chairing the Met
5. A racist speaking on behalf of our diverse city
6. Our calendar of cultural events sold off to Johnson’s toff mates
7. A racist agenda for London that will only prove divisive
8. A poxy Thatcherite running our great city into the ground

Good summary.
Sounds fair and balanced to KBJ?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Backed the olympics
Shown gross errors of judgement (Qaradawi and Lee Jasper)
Has no interest in investing in or supporting Londons small industrial and precision industrial sector.
Has spent vast sums on publicity for his own office
Has presided over a mess on the underground
Has indulged in dividing community from community with funding allocations

Thats just for starters. Broad headings.

Ok, I disagree about the underground.

I'm not a fan of the Olympics, but what Mayor wouldn't back their city's bid for it?

Agree about Jasper.

Can't comment on the others as I'd need to see the figures.

I'm not a big fan of Ken - the Greens would be my preferred choice - but that doesn't mean I think Boris is an acceptable alternative.

 

[KeyboardJockey]

Good summary.
Sounds fair and balanced to KBJ?

I don't think you'd get that with Boris. He might be a bit foot in mouth but at least he doesn't embrace racists and homophobes.

I think there will be a necessary trimming of the fat at City Hall (KL's cronies) and in the mayoral publicity budget / slush fund. But I reckon that services will be managed well by the professionals who do the management. Boris's policy of gaining more power for the assembly will make the authority much more democratic in the long run.

 

[KeyboardJockey]

Ok, I disagree about the underground.

I'm not a fan of the Olympics, but what Mayor wouldn't back their city's bid for it?

Agree about Jasper.

Can't comment on the others as I'd need to see the figures.

I'm not a big fan of Ken - the Greens would be my preferred choice - but that doesn't mean I think Boris is an acceptable alternative.

Thing is voting Green won't shift Livingstone so you've got to vote for the most likely candidate who can unseat Livingstone who isn't a total loon like Respect or BNP.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Thing is voting Green won't shift Livingstone so you've got to vote for the most likely candidate who can unseat Livingstone who isn't a total loon like Respect or BNP.

No. I would prefer Ken the git over Boris the wanker, thanks.

 

[belboid]

made a mess of he underground??!! So you are gonna vote for someone who thinks he can get a no-strike agreement with the RMT!! You are taking the piss, aren't you? I mean non one[/i could be that fucking thick.

As for the rest, you seem(wilfully) ignorant of what the mayor actually gets to spend personally - its fuck all.

There is an issue with cronyism, but that is down overhwlmingly to the way the post is set up - the Mayor has it all, with a toothless and largely pointless Assembly. The notion that Johnson would be any less cronyistic is sheer fantasy - and you can only imagine the shits he's gonna bring in. It'll make Jasper look like Jesus.

 

[kabbes]

As the French put it when somehow Le Pen ended up as the alternative to Chirac -- "Vote for the crook, not the racist!"

 

[belboid]

I don't think you'd get that with Boris. He might be a bit foot in mouth but at least he doesn't embrace racists and homophobes.

he IS a racist and a homophobe.

but that doesn't matter, apparently

Labour's appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools, and all the rest of it.’

If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog.

What a good guy

 

[mango5]

I don't think you'd get that with Boris. He might be a bit foot in mouth but at least he doesn't embrace racists and homophobes.

 

[belboid]

I think the end of that sentence must have got cut off - 'except when he's shagging them'

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I think the end of that sentence must have got cut off - 'except when he's shagging them'

or... he just publishes their racist and homophobic thoughts in his magazines [eg Taki].

 

[KeyboardJockey]

or... he just publishes their racist and homophobic thoughts in his magazines [eg Taki].

Taki is just mindless entertainment for some can't really take Taki seriously.

 

[belboid]

but you can Boris? What a load of cock!

Fuck it tho, he might be a racist and a homophobe, but you can't take him seriously, so it doesn't count????

 

[KeyboardJockey]

but you can Boris? What a load of cock!

Fuck it tho, he might be a racist and a homophobe, but you can't take him seriously, so it doesn't count????

Taki is just entertainment for idiots written by a powerless arsehole. Qaradawi has power. I know who I consider worse.

 

[belboid]

Qaradawi has sweet fuck all power in this country. If mayor, Johnson, who we note you do not deny is actually a racist and a homophobe himself, would have.

You are voting for a racist and a homophobe. Come on, admit it!

 

[KeyboardJockey]

Qaradawi has sweet fuck all power in this country. If mayor, Johnson, who we note you do not deny is actually a racist and a homophobe himself, would have.

You are voting for a racist and a homophobe. Come on, admit it!

Johnson has said some idiotic things but I'd rather have someone who has been stupid and learned from it than someone who like Livingstone talks the talk.

I don't vote for racists and homophobes and I was impressed by Boris's promise that he wouldn't invite to city hall any guest who was sexist racist or homophobic.