Between Ken Livingstone and a clown, it's no contest (The Times)
I have a piece in today's Times on the London mayoral election. This is the gist of it:
Four years ago I committed the only political act of which I am thoroughly ashamed. I shudder with self-loathing when I look back at how blinkered and wrongheaded I was. I voted for Ken Livingstone to remain Mayor of London....So when I read David Aaronovitch in The Times last week, the full horror of my actions came flooding back. “Ken,” he wrote, “wrong on all the things that don’t matter in a London mayor, has been right on almost all the things that do.” The mayor, he concluded, should be re-elected on May 1.
...Four years ago I decided that there was one overriding issue in the election: the congestion charge. Steve Norris opposed it. Ken Livingstone had introduced it. QED, as a supporter of the charge and of the mayor’s emphasis on renewing public transport, I should vote for Ken.
How could I have been so blinkered? It’s obvious to me now, after four more years of Ken Livingstone, that such a calculation is positively idiotic. The things that you say don’t matter in a London mayor – such as the invitations to the Muslim cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who supports suicide bombing and the stoning of homosexuals; the hero-worshipping of tyrants such as Fidel Castro; the shady deals with Hugo Chávez; the smear campaigns against opponents such as Trevor Phillips; and the City Hall fiefdom of incompetents and leeches on the taxpayer – do matter. A lot. They go to the heart of what it means to be mayor of a cosmopolitan, vibrant city.
...A vote for Ken is not simply a vote for better transport. It is, and can only be, an endorsement of Ken Livingstone in all his guises.
In choosing a buffoon such as Boris Johnson as its candidate, the Conservative Party has revealed its own contempt for the electorate. But like it or not, the next mayor will be one of these two. And the idea of re-electing a man who defends clerics who want to stone homosexuals surely means that there is only one option.
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Lee Jakeman
March 17th, 2008 6:55amYou describe Boris as a "buffoon" - but he at least has intelligence. Matt O'Connor, the English Demograts candidate, has intelligence too. Maybe we should all stop voting for the greta Lib / Lab / Con conspiracy.
Water
March 17th, 2008 7:36amAbsolutely spot on there is only one option I couldn't agree more.
Ray
March 17th, 2008 8:37amBetter a serious politician who self-effacingly acts the fool (Boris), than a knavish fool who would have us believe he's a serious politician (Ken).
Joshua
March 17th, 2008 9:43amFrom a piece in the European Jewish press: "Paris Mayor greets 'miracle' of the creation of Israel". Now that's something you're not likely to hear from London's current mayor.
Tom
March 17th, 2008 10:34amNot upto your usual standard Steven - and no, I'm not just disappointed that you voted for Ken! You normally pull out from just repeating lazy Guardian/Independent taglines (i.e. in this case, Boris 'the clown').
Tara
March 17th, 2008 2:40pmYes, it's to do with character and integrity. You're not accountable for everything somebody else says or does but when the picture of the company you keep just becomes more and more disreputable, people are entitled to draw conclusions. To my shame I voted for Livingstone, too. Not again. I think London gets Boris far more than a lot of commentators seem to realise. We have read his books, seen his TV shows (the academic and the light stuff) and we can see the intellect underneath all this. Whether it works in office, I don't know. But I'm livid with the status quo. How on earth Livingstone thought he would be re-elected after hugging - yes hugging - someone like Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is beyond me. Shame on me for votong for him.
Mike Kaye
March 17th, 2008 4:51pmPollard! And Aaronovich! Two cut from the same tacky cloth. Not only was Borish Johnson a brilliant editor of the Spectator, but he will be a great Mayor of London. The only buffoon's around are those that voted for Livingstone in the first place. Sucker's!
Verity
March 17th, 2008 7:44pmMike Kaye, Johnson was a dire editor of The Speccie, and this was especially evident when comparing him with his immediate predecessor, the witty and wordly Frank Johnson. I cannot, in any event, how you are qualified to judge editorial work given that you don't know the difference between the plural and the possessive. And given your approval of Boris Johnson, I assume that you calling him Borish was a joke?
J. Isaacs
March 18th, 2008 6:30pmVerity - surely it is "witty and wordy" or else "witty and worldly", but not "witty and wordly", or, perhaps, this spelling is also a joke.
Verity
March 18th, 2008 7:42pmJ Isaacs - Typo. Obviously. How clever of you to spot it.