London: Mayor & More

SuitWatch

Boris misses some things. The Tory Troll misses nothing.

At The Guardian: More On The New Assembly

Fresh and live at the politics blog:

The new London Assembly line-up met this morning for the first time. There was much bum-shuffling and some uncertainty as the 25 Assembly Members adjusted to new roles and cross-party alignments. Twenty-four of them were united in adjusting to the presence of the twenty-fifth, Richard Barnbrook of the BNP. As a result he has his own special kind of adjusting to do: to institutional unpopularity. One thing hadn't changed in City Hall, though: the presence of Ken Livingstone. While his Tory nemesis entertained his New York counterpart elsewhere, the now ex-London mayor had taken a seat in the front row of the public gallery and watched the proceedings closely. As his article in today's Guardian shows, he's looking on the bright side of Labour's defeat in London and betrays no sign of retiring quietly. He's still got that nasty cough, by the way.

Just Back From City Hall

The new Assembly sat together for the first time this morning. Jennette Arnold AM was elected chair, the voting seemingly setting the mould for a new opposition configuration. She won the support of the eight Labour, two Green and three Liberal Democrat AMs. The eleven Tories backed their own Roger Evans. Richard Barnbrook of the BNP abstained. I'll be writing more about the proceedings for the Guardian later. But let me mention in passing that ex-Mayor Livingstone sat in the public seats throughout. He's also written in the Guardian today:

"As I can testify, May 1 was a bad day for Labour...We lost in London. But in the context of very bad national results, Labour's results in London were the best for any major area of the country. What lessons can be drawn nationally, and what to do next in London? Following May 1 some people are posing the choice as between moving 'to the left' or 'to the right'. This is not the right question. Labour must place itself at the centre of a progressive alliance that can solve the problems facing the country. What are the key elements of this?"

He hasn't gone away, you know. Now read on.

Pink News Reports

Bit suggestive aren't we?