Why I WON'T be voting for Ken Livingstone.

On May 1st this year there will be elections for the next Mayor of London. Things have changed alot since I left school and moved out of London (first to university in Durham and then onto Japan) and the mayoral system is one of them. The Mayor of London system was introduced in 2000 and according to Wikipedia:

"The Mayor of London is an elected politician in London. The role, created in 2000, was the first directly-elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The Mayor of London is also referred to as the London Mayor, a form which helps to avoid confusion with the Lord Mayor of London, the ancient and now mainly ceremonial role in the City of London. The Mayor of London is mayor of Greater London, which has a population of over 7.5 million while the City of London is only a small part of the modern city centre and has a population of less than 10,000. The first, and current, elected Mayor of London is Ken Livingstone, who was re-elected in 2004.

Role:
The Mayor is responsible for budgeting and strategic planning of some governmental functions across the whole of the London region. The plans of the mayor are scrutinised by the London Assembly and actioned by the Greater London Authority. Responsibilities include transport, the police, fire and emergency services, cultural strategy and economic development.

Additional powers

The Department for Communities and Local Government announced its final proposals for new powers for the Mayor on Thursday 13th July 2006.[1] These provide for a strengthened role over planning in the capital; and additional strategic powers in a wide range of policy areas including waste, culture and sport, health, climate change and appointments to the boards of the functional bodies."

So all in all, the role of the London Mayor is a very important one and that is why the three main candidates have been in and out of the newspapers over the past few months. The 3 main candidates (main being those perceived as having the highest chance of winning) are Ken Livingstone (current mayor and representative of the Labour party), Boris Johnson (Conservative) and Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrat) On Thursday I had the pleasure of seeing the three of them debating at the Ecobuild exhibition I attended. It was very interesting to see a political debate for the first time in many years and I was intrigued to see how they would come across in real life as opposed to televised press snippets/ news programmes. The debate started off with each candidate giving a small speech about their thoughts/ environmental policy and then it was opened up to questions from the floor. The chair had great control and it was alot of fun watching Ken and Boris sparring with each other.

I have been impressed with a couple of the changes that have taken place in London while I have been away. An increase in the number of cycle lanes and a huge increase in the number of people who actually use them is a big thing.  Buses also seem to run more efficiently than they used to. When I was at school/university, it was normal to leave at least 30-40 minutes than I needed to for any journey involving me getting the bus into Wanstead as despite  timetables that suggested that the bus would be there every 15 minutes, this almost NEVER happened and when the bus did turn up, there were usually 3/4 in a line. I think the term "men are like buses" was coined in London!! ;-) Since moving back to London in June I have been quite surprised that buses do seem to run more frequently than before. In the mornings they are even often on time and I think this is a good thing. (as it was unheard of when I lived in London before) There are still MANY things that could be better about the transport system in London but this small thing has made things a bit better in my eyes. The problems on the tube system actually end up obliterating any good feelings I have about the buses but that is something for later!! LOL!

I hadn't really thought too deeply about who I was going to vote for in May until the debate on Thursday. I kind of assumed it would be Boris Johnson  because I am not a big fan of Ken Livingstone or the current Labour government. (Although the two things are unrelated.)  After Thursday I have come to the conclusion that I am probably going to vote for Brian Paddick. Obviously this is subject to change but I am even more convinced that there is NO WAY I will be voting for Ken Livingstone. During the debate someone asked him a question about problems that continue to exist with safety on buses/ at bus stops and the terrible service in various areas of the London transport system and what he proposed to do to change this if given a 3 term as London Mayor. Rather than deal with the question properly, he proceeded to blather on as to why the system had improved immensely. The kicker was when he turned round to the person who asked the question (just a normal Londoner) and said "and if you are unable to accept that there have been immense changes in the system since I took over as Mayor, then YOU are clearly on something." I was really shocked by this as the poor girl asking the question didn't deserve to be attacked in what was as it was just an open floor discussion. She asked a valid question but as he was unable to answer it, Ken was obviously trying to be funny but it didn't work and left a bitter taste in the mouth of alot of the people at the debate. Brian Paddick did a very good job of winning a few votes on the other hand by pointing out that this was just typical of Ken and his administration as they have never been willing to listen to what average Londoners have to say. 

Seeing the live debate did a good job of convincing me that Ken Livingstone is a bit of a megalomaniac, Boris Johnson is a bit of a public school educated plonker and Brian Paddick is a decent bloke who genuinely seems to want to improve things for the average person in London. I also have alot of respect for him as until he embarked on a life in politics, he was the highest ranking openly gay police officer in the Met police force. My time in Japan has made me have alot of respect for people who come out despite what it might do to their career/ what their families/society might think so that makes me like him even more. The fact he is the most attractive candidate of the three has nothing to do with anything!! LOL!

Whoever the next mayor is, they will have a BIG job as they will be in charge of our fair city in the lead-up to the 2012 London Olympics. Given all the problems with crime, pollution and public transport at the moment, it will be interesting to see if they can turn everything around to make London the type of city that people can enjoy when they come to see the games!

Comments

[Mark Pack]

Glad to hear you were impressed by Brian! If you want to find out more or help his campaign, his website is at http://www.brianpaddick.org