Boris Johnson is back in the lead in the race for Mayor of London according to the latest YouGov poll for the Evening Standard. In the first round Boris would be ahead of Ken Livingstone by 46% to 45%. In the run off Boris would win by 51% to 49%. This is a reverse of […]
Defenders of Ken Livingstone claim that his offensive comment about the Conservative Party being "riddled" with gays was a chance remark. They claim that there is nothing to suggest homophobia in Livingstone's record. Certainly Livingstone has tried to divide society up into interest groups and part of that electoral strategy has been to win […]
An open letter to Ken Livingstone Dear Mr Livingstone This week, a group of concerned London MPs wrote to the Evening Standard raising concerns on behalf of their constituents about the level of influence that RMT boss Bob Crow has on your campaign and would have in running London's transport network if you were re-elected. […]
For those of you who haven't got hold of this week's issue of Socialist Worker yet comes the news that the Party will not be running a candidate for the Mayor of London. Apparently there seems to be some sentiment amongst these demented totalitarian outfit that the official Labour Party candidate, Ken Livingstone, would merit […]
Today has seen a huge, perhaps critical, mistake by the Ken Livingstone campaign in their response to the decision of the Mayor of London Boris Johnson to cut the Council Tax precept by 1%. They have attacked it superficially on the grounds of its modesty: Labour's London Assembly budget spokesman, John Biggs, points out that […]
Some excellent news from City Hall this morning that the Mayor of London Boris Johnson is to cut by 1% his share of the Council Tax bill paid by Londoners. This follows three years where he has frozen the precept. Under the eight years of Ken Livingstone's Mayoralty, the GLA precept rose by 152% . […]
Most commuters in London are exasperated by the strikes and greed of the tube unions. The change in the law proposed by Conservative MP Dominic Raab that strikes would only take place if a majority of employees in the unionised workforce vote for them would be useful check and it is disappointing the Government has […]
The Labour Group on the London Assembly, who include Val Shawcross, Ken Livingstone's running mate in this year's London Mayoral race, has issued a press release with the following intriguing comment: A 1 per cent increase in the City Hall share of council tax would cost the average Londoner just 26p a month. The […]
Kung Hei Fat Choy. The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has wished the Chinese community a Happy New year in a YouTube message. He says: "This is the Year of the Dragon which is associated I believe with enthusiasm, passion, dynamism, taking on challenges and actually I'm very happy that I was born in […]
Following the YouGov poll last week another Evening Standard poll has shown that Ken Livingstone is ahead of Boris Johnson by 2%. This poll is by ComRes, also conducted for LBC and ITV's London Tonight. It shows Livingstone ahead by 46% to 44% with the Lib Dem candidate Brian Paddick on just 5%. Then in […]
Ken Livingstone is fighting two election campaigns at the moment. As well as seeking election as Mayor of London he is standing for re-election to Labour's National Executive Committee. Livingstone is on the Grassroots Alliance "slate" of left wingers. This is the faction that will challenge the leadership over the acceptance of spending cuts. It […]
A YouGov poll for the Evening Standard suggests a 2% poll lead for Ken Livingstone over Boris Johnson in the election for Mayor of London. In a run off Livingstone is on 51% against 49% for Boris. So too close to call but an indication of a shift in support away from Boris. It suggests […]
The London Assembly is often criticised as a talking shop. I believe its cost of over £8 million a year should be dramatically cut. But it does have a significant bit of power – it can reject the Mayor of London's budget. A two thirds majority can secure amendments. This year Boris Johnson is proposing […]
I expect that even Ken Livingstone's own campaign team must have despaired at his performance on BBC London 94.9 yesterday where he was interviewed by Vanessa Feltz. The programme had earlier interviewed the Daily Telegraph journalist Andrew Gilligan comparing the increase in bus and tube fares under Boris Johnson to when Ken Livingstone was Mayor. […]
On Wednesday there was a BBC interview with Ken Livingstone which lasted less than four minutes but managed to include three lies. He said the crime rate has “sort of flat lined” under Boris. He claimed that he bus fares had fallen in real terms when he was Mayor and he said that in the […]