And cross-dressing generally...
Boris keeps right on revving up his core vote and Ken strives to fill his big red, green and yellow tent. All very positive. But at the same time, both candidates are seeking to nullify negatives.
With Johnson successfully making youth crime a centrepiece of his campaign, Livingstone last week told LBC Radio’s saloon bar reactionary Nick Ferrari he’d be in favour of mass police raids on schools where kids were known to carry knives and called for “exemplary sentencing” by judges. Liberals fearing a Livingstone lurch to the right may be relieved to learn that on Saturday he disappointed a voter in Islington by confirming his opposition to the death penalty.More dramatic are reports that Johnson intends supporting a campaign amnesty and offer of British citizenship to failed asylum seekers and visa over-stayers. David Cameron responded at the weekend by publicly disagreeing, and it is this that’s made the news.
A bit of background puts the discordance into perspective. The issue has arisen in advance of Wednesday's Accountability Assembly of London Citizens, an alliance of community organizations including many from faith groups. Before 2,500 people in the Methodist Central Hall – the largest live audience of the contest – Johnson, Livingstone, Brian Paddick and Sian Berry will be invited to respond to four propositions, among them one endorsing the Strangers Into Citizens campaign which supports an "‘earned process of regularisation’ for long term ‘irregular’ migrants and asylum seekers."
The line from Team Boris is more hedged than this morning's reports suggest, but there among the complaints that London councils cannot cope with inflows of illegals is Johnson's "own view" that "where people have been here a long time and have no prospect of being able to be sent back then an amnesty could be considered so that they can pay taxes and legally contribute to the British economy."
This, of course, is delicate territory for Johnson. Attitudes to migrants are often read as attitudes to ethnic minorities, and last week’s ICM poll for the Guardian showed a clear lead for Livingstone among black and brown voters. Hence this tip toeing down a fine line between pleasing instinctive Tories and distancing himself from his past and from the BNP’s unwelcome suggestion that its supporters make him their second preference for mayor. The “racist” tag attached to Johnson by some of his enemies is unfair, but his record shows a failure to take racism seriously - something Livingstone could never be accused of. That's why his welcome recent apology to New Nation for past offences was politically necessary.
As for the discordance with Dave - to whom, I'm told, Boris's sudden open-mindedness on amnesties came as a genuine surprise - that will pass. Only a week week ago the Tory leader emphasised that The Blond is his own man, as it seems London mayoral candidates must be. It’s been suggested that Gordon Brown’s distance from Livingstone since their one public appearance together betrays a lack of confidence, yet this surely suits both men, what with Labour low in the polls and Ken out banning the Bomb with Tony Benn. The front runners keep insisting that the choice between them couldn't be clearer. Well, yes and no...
Also screening here.
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