Has anyone endorsed Ken enthusiastically?
James Forsyth 4:05pm
The three press endorsements of Ken Livingstone that have appeared in recent days have one overarching theme in common: a complete lack of enthusiasm for Livingstone. The Observer even urges its readers to withhold their first preference votes from Ken to send him a message. Its backing comes with heavy caveats. Indeed, one would not expect to read this kind of paragraph in an endorsement editorial: “But Ken's able choice of words is matched by an appalling choice in friends. He has let himself be wooed - and in one case bankrolled - by property developers with much to gain from access to City Hall. When faced with allegations of corruption involving Lee Jasper, one of his advisers, Mr Livingstone's response was abrasive, petulant and dishonest: he accused Mr Jasper's critics of racism.
Most damaging to Ken's credentials as leader of a cosmopolitan city, he publicly embraced Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a religious zealot and apologist for suicide bombers.” The Guardian cannot muster much more enthusiasm for the task. It declares that “the choice facing London is not a happy one” and warns that the Mayor should not take victory as “an endorsement of his efforts to turn City Hall into a personal fiefdom”. Like The Observer, The Guardian is disappointed that the Lib Dems did not field a stronger candidate.
Despite the pertinent criticisms of Livingstone made by Martin Bright, the magazine’s political editor, The New Statesman does encourage its readers to vote Livingstone. But only after criticising Livingstone for “his overpaid cronies, his lack of accountability, his disdain for the Assembly, his dalliance with radical Islam and his involvement (for which he has no electoral mandate) in Latin American politics.”
Reading these editorials, one can’t help but be reminded of the equally hedged and grudging endorsements that the Tories received prior to their 1997 drubbing. When even those who are ideologically sympathetic to you are so unenthusiastic about your candidacy then something is very wrong.
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Francesca
April 27th, 2008 5:57pm Report this commentThe endorsements of Boris in the Times and Mail are almost equally hedged.
Francesca
April 27th, 2008 5:58pm Report this commentThe endorsements of Boris in the Times and Mail are almost equally hedged.
Johnny Fiston-Hewes
April 27th, 2008 6:13pm Report this commentFrancesca is right, Mr Forsyth has has chosen not to mention that 'The Times' endorsement was almost embarrassingly apologetic. The paper remarks that 'quite how the greatest city in the world found itself with a choice between Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick to serve as mayor is a mystery', describing the man that they are backing as a 'braying shambolic Old Etonian' and pointing out that he 'has a history of letting people down'
Ringing endorsements for either candidates are few and far between. This race will be won on the basis of who is the least incompetent or risky candidate.
Yellow Submarine
April 27th, 2008 6:53pm Report this commentIf the Tories had fielded Portillo and the LD's Cable or Featherstone then it would have been a different race.
John
April 27th, 2008 7:39pm Report this commentPortillo? The man with so little intelligence that he claimed that Britain does not need a nuclear deterrent because its current enemies [sic] do not currently [sic] have a weapon with a sufficiently long range to reach it? Oh, dear. And to think that this sad excuse for a politician was in charge of our defence ... I'll grant you that he would be excellent at running a whelk stall.
Francesca
April 27th, 2008 8:02pm Report this commentEven Andrew Gimson's endorsement of Boris in the Tel yesterday has some apologetic remarks - such as that, when he was writing for the Tel, editing the Spec and being an MP, he was 'doing too much'.
Of course any conservative wants Boris to beat Ken, but there's a reason why the race is neck and neck.
David Lindsay
April 27th, 2008 8:39pm Report this commentOf course Ken Livingstone would give a job to Boris Johnson. And to Brian Paddick, I’m sure. The compliment is fulsomely returned in all directions.
Those backing Johnson should perhaps be forced to endure what they have asked for, as a miniature rehearsal of what a Cameron Government would be like, a dry run for Andrew Adonis as Education Secretary and Tony Blair attending Cabinet.
And whoever wins this election will have proved nothing except that they can win an election conducted by a system used neither for Westminster, nor for Strasbourg, nor for local councils, and that with an electorate including a sizeable number of people who cannot vote in parliamentary elections.
In Johnson’s case, a victory would also prove that a Tory could win if backed by the BNP.
But that is all.
Austin Barry
April 27th, 2008 10:16pm Report this commentNone of the three leading candidates is perfect (the snivelling Brian Paddick is surely completely mad) but you'd have to choose Boris because he has the required sense of ironic detachment and is much brighter, if slightly more aphasic, than the others. He seems. well, a good egg.
Francesca
April 28th, 2008 8:56am Report this commentI'm certain Boris seems a good egg but not so certain he seems a good mayor.
Fergus Pickering
April 28th, 2008 9:48am Report this commentSurely a good egg means a good Mayor. Or are you saying a bad egg means a good Mayor? Or are yousaying that good and bad eggedness are both irrelevant and therefore that Machiavelli rules and there is no room for morality in politics, an arguable case, but not one a Liberal Conservative like me wouldwant to espouse.
Francesca
April 28th, 2008 10:18am Report this commentPerhaps being a good egg is a necessary but not sufficient condition for being a good mayor.
Austin Barry
April 28th, 2008 11:03am Report this commentI think my message got scrambled. Boris is a good news, sunny-side-up kind of guy, while Ken with his poached eyes is clearly being coddled in the wrong kind of sauce. Brian Paddick is that vital accompaniment to eggs: toast.
B. Wright.
April 28th, 2008 11:51am Report this commentCheck out the poll here. We may all be wrong!
http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/raceformayor/mayorELA/Default.aspx
Ian C
April 28th, 2008 11:56am Report this comment8 years should be the limit in all political positions.
Michael McNab
April 28th, 2008 4:19pm Report this commentThe Observer didn't even endorse Ken first - they're endorsing Siān Berry first, with Livingstone for the second vote.
David
April 28th, 2008 9:41pm Report this comment'The Voice', has enthusiastically endorsed Ken.
They have also urged their readership not to support Boris & The BNP. As if they are somehow linked.
Apparently Ken, 'Represents a Multi-cultural London'.
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