London: Mayor & More

Peter Oborne 4 Johnson

He writes:

"When I went to work for the Spectator as political editor seven years ago, the then editor Boris Johnson would ring me up once a week. The first thing I noticed about these calls was that they ran contrary to Johnson's carefully cultivated public image as a buffoon. He was chillingly efficient. I would hardly begin to clear my throat before he'd say something that showed he understood better than I did what I was trying to say. Within five minutes we had covered the landscape."

Now read on.

Big Business 4 Livingstone

From the FT:

"Ken Livingstone has won the tacit support of the City in his bid to be re-elected as London mayor, Financial Times research suggests. Leading business organisations, while stressing their apolitical nature, praise the Labour mayor's 'good track record' in running the capital. The City is not overtly hostile to Boris Johnson, but sees the Tory candidate as an untested proposition, given his lack of experience in running large organisations."

Now read on.

Opinion Poll News?

A commenter at Political Betting has claimed to have had a whisper that this morning's Standard/YouGov poll will give Johnson an eleven point lead. We'll soon know.

At Londonist

The endgame begins.

One of the few things we can be sure of about the mayoral race is that Boris and Ken in particular are knackered. But with just three full campaigning days remaining they must now run harder than ever. If the opinion polls are telling us anything it is that neither can be certain which of them will win and that every single vote – first or second preference - is precious to them.

At The Guardian: Another Week Ends

My latest end-of-week roundup.

It’s all about mobilisation now: frightening, begging, bribing, cajoling, doing whatever it takes to get people on your side and to persuade them to visit a polling station on Thursday. Nobody knows who’s going to win except that it won’t be Gerard Bratten, Lindsey German, Alan Craig, Winston McKenzie, Matt O’Connor (who’s just dropped out anyway), Sian Berry, Brian Paddick or some gay skinflick director whose name escapes me. The one thing everyone agrees on is that turnout holds the key, but even then they can’t agree on which of the two potential winners commands the deeper loyalty.

At The Guardian

On environment policies.

At the back end of February Ken Livingstone walked into a BBC Radio London studio hearing good news. The station's 9.00 a.m. bulletin reported that a study by London-based academics had found that since the introduction of the congestion charge in 2003 there had been a reduction in air pollution and that Londoners' health had benefited accordingly.

How big were these improvements? Livingstone was careful not to exaggerate. "It's a small increase in everybody's lifespan," he said. The report had calculated that the capital's seven million residents had collectively gained 1,888 extra years of living. "If you work it out," acknowledged the mayor, "it doesn't go very far. But it's better than it being the other way."

Ken, Katie, Boris, Vanessa, Pericles & Pericles

In which I report the funniest joke of the campaign so far.

This morning's debate on Vanessa Feltz's BBC London radio show was much better than last night's Question Time. At times it was very funny at others, pretty fierce.

Ken Livingstone's Open Letter To Lib Dems

Yes, Jane Merrick's story in today's Sindie - mentioned below - was bang on. The letter has now been published on the Livingstone campaign website. Here's a slice:

"The second preference votes of Lib Dem supporters are likely to be critical in deciding the outcome of this election. Both Boris Johnson and I will be campaigning to persuade Lib Dems to back us. My pitch is simple - I agree with about 90% of Lib Dem policy and I want to involve Liberal Democrats in my mayoral administration. In contrast Boris Johnson disagrees with many fundamental Lib Dem policies and has been highly disparaging of Lib Dems in the past, whom he referred to as having ‘a characteristic human psychological deformity': I do not pretend that I share every single Lib Dem policy but on 90 per cent of issues we agree and we are part of the same progressive tradition in London. And that set of shared values shines through in the many areas where we agree and where we have worked together. I am publishing examples of these areas of agreement because it highlights how we can work together."

Now read on.

The East Dulwich Forum

It's all happening on there!

Lib Dems 4 Ken?

From the Sindie:

"Ken Livingstone today launches an extraordinary appeal to Liberal Democrat voters to help him to defeat Boris Johnson in the London mayoral election. The Mayor is directly targeting supporters of Lib Dem candidate Brian Paddick with a "Lib Dems for Ken" manifesto."

Furthermore:

"Mr Livingstone holds out the prospect of jobs for Mr Paddick and other Lib Dems if he wins a third term on 1 May. An open letter from the Labour candidate pleads: 'My pitch is simple – I agree with about 90 per cent of Lib Dem policy and I want to involve Liberal Democrats in my mayoral administration. In contrast, Boris Johnson disagrees with many fundamental Lib Dem policies and has been highly disparaging of Lib Dems in the past, whom he referred to as having "a characteristic human psychological deformity"'."

Is this true? I only ask because it's a different story from the one I was hearing yesterday. I've asked Team Ken to confirm.