Boris should ask his voters to make Paddick their second choice

TGF UKIP

James, given that Johnson plainly is a liberal Tory (no such party (yet) as Liberal Conservative and a liberal Conservative is a complete oxymoron,) who speaks or represents the no doubt millions of native Londoners who aren't liberals or leftists?

Dennis

James

The problem with your wheeze is that by stooping to such an empty gesture, Boris would be throwing away his hard-won reputation for being a no-bullshit kinda guy.

The commentariat would expose it in five minutes.

Besides, Paddick doesn't deserve it after his opportunistic attempt to make a character issue out of Boris's private life during the Question Time hustings. He really did come across as a loathsome reptile.

The message from here on in has to be: any vote for Paddick is a wasted vote. If you want Ken out, you have to get behind Boris 100%, whether you're a Tory Tory, a liberal Tory, a Liberal Democrat, disillusioned Labour or just plain fed up.

Jon

Completely agree with Dennis - Paddick doesn't deserve any kind of endorsement.

As an underdog, I was sympathetic to Paddick as a candidate, but he has shown himself to be plain unpleasant with his comments about Boris' private life.

Paddick told Time Out, "The more people know about me, the more they love me". It turns out is the exact opposite of reality.

Fergus Pickering

Whaddya mean TGIF? I am a Liberal Conservative. Pish! Tush!

Oscar Miller

Dennis - completely agree with you. No suport for the abominable Paddick - he was a disgrace on QT. For Ken to go you have to back Boris 100%. Talking of which - excellent article by Matt in this week's Speccie.

eugene

Gee, after his performance on Question Time, I think Boris will lose loads of votes if he named Paddick as his second choice...I would rate Mr Burns from the Simpsons far above Paddick- same slime but Mr Burns at least is attractive in his deviousness.

TGF UKIP

Fergus Pickering, congratulations on your foundation (with James, of course) of a new party - The Liberal Conservatives. You obviously are the typical arch politician - trying to have it both ways. I own up to being simply a conservative.

salieri

I would dearly love to know why "a liberal Conservative" is an oxymoron (you can't have a complete oxynmoron, TGF, it's tautologous - either it is or it isn't), not least because I think I am one and there are lots more out there. Are you perhaps using "liberal" in the discredited modern sense, which does actually mean the opposite of what it should?

Augustus

The Paddick 'first choicers' will probably either be green nutters or devolution nutters, and those second choices won't matter to Boris. As already stated, the best strategy is for a monumental turnout for the Conservative vote.

Fergus Pickering

Churchill was, presumably, a Liberal Conservative because he was in both parties, though not simultaneously I do agree. I also confess to a rather guilty liking for Lloyd George

David Lindsay

The fact that the three main candidates are Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick proves that it is essentially a non-job. None of those three could be elected to a Parish Council. I do not mean that as any sort of joke.

There is nowhere else in Britain like London. There is nowhere else on earth like London apart from New York, a very important point in the debate on non-domiciles, many of whom have nowhere else to go in order to enjoy the specific lifestyle that they want, since they would never be let into the United States.

So winning the position of Mayor of London proves nothing at all about a party’s chances of being elected in the country at large.

What is more, all EU citizens resident in this country can vote in local elections, whereas only British and Irish citizens can vote in parliamentary ones.

This country’s resident non-British, non-Irish EU citizens are largely, if not predominantly, in London, again making the mayoral election incomparable, not only to any election outside London, but also to any parliamentary election even there.

Tomaso Q

I find it hard to believe that anyone who lives in and loves London is going to vote for Boris Johnson. Ken might have his faults, but he's delivered for Londoners and I'm sure he'll continue to do so.
Boris? Get real!

Familiar Clown

Tomaso - Does Q stand for Quisling?

TGF UKIP

Ferus Pickering and Salieri, "liberal" (and "conservative" too) can be one of those usefully obfuscatory words which can be applied and interpreted quite differently. Thus I note that it appears frequently in The Henry Jackson Society's Statement of Principles yet the neo-cons are certainly no Guardianista liberals. In short I guess the context dictates the interpretation and the context in this case was Boris Johnson who is currently identified as being a liberal(in Salieri's "discredited modern sense") Tory. Or to put it another way a disciple of the soggy, green, politically correct, SocDem, Cameron Tory Party. Now from most of your posts, Fergus Pickering, and not just those declaiming the virtues of Kent's Grammar schools, I would have assumed you to be a rather more robust conservative than that. Salieri, I accept your strictures on "complete oxymoron" and am duly chastened.

John

I am with Saliery and Fergus. TGF needs to concentrate, then maybe he'll get it.

Liberal means, for example, that Boris should shout from the rooftops that Livingstone is a Stalinist anti-liberal.

Have you heard about the dedicated Olympic car lanes for VIPs, which 'ordinary' plebs would be fined 5000 quid (yes: five thousand quid!!!) for daring to use? This is supposed to be a 'Labour' government? What a crock. It's Stalinist Fascist by any sane definition. It thinks it's running North Korea or China, not Britain. Why do the voters stand for these Stalinist (and probably illegal) methods applied by this government?

Augustus

TGF - Ferus is Latin for wild, cruel. Pickering? Surely, you didn't...

salieri

TGF, the first time you used a small 'l' for liberal, the second upper case. It may well be that the context matters but if you believe "liberal" (small 'l') to mean "soggy, green, politically correct and SocDem" you surely go too far. There are vast numbers of voters who are naturally conservative in the sense of holding old-fashioned values, and liberal in the sense that one of these values is a profound belief in freedom from governmental interference, manipulation and regulation, without having the slightest regard for either the LibDems or David Cameron. Don't tar us all with the same brush.

And by whom, pray, is Johnson 'currently identified' as a SocDem disciple - apart from you?

Oberon Houston

Mmm, turning this round for a second... Paddick has refused to name who his second preference is. Given the knife edge things are on, and that Paddick could hold the key for either one of the two front-runners, what's the bet that there is a lot of shady back-room deal making going on. Paddick holds just one card, but its an ace. He'll surely make one of them pay for it?