All of the attention is naturally focusing on Boris Johnson's victory but we shouldn't forget the Conservatives who were elected to the Greater London Assembly.
We don't know all of the new members but Kit Malthouse is a successful businessman and writer. Richard Tracey is a former MP and we hope he'll bring some of his experience of 'the Wandsworth revolution' to London-wide government. Richard was the only member to receive more votes within his area than Boris. James Cleverly has a military background but is also a businessman. He's also a terrific communicator and will, we hope, be employed to communicate the Conservative message across the city.
It's good to see Mayoral primary candidates Andrew Boff (pictured) and Victoria Borwick elected. Both suggested good ideas as candidates - Andrew on direct democracy, Victoria on crime. We hope that they'll play full parts in Boris' plan for London.
Victoria's election ensures that there'll still be a woman within the Tory group. That had looked unlikely after Angie Bray had stood down to focus on her General Election campaign in Ealing Central and Acton.
Cllr Bob Blackman will have more time to focus on becoming MP for Harrow East - he lost the Brent and Harrow Assembly seat on Thursday night.
When Tony Blair proposed restoring the London Mayoralty back in 1997/98, William Hague
agreed but opposed the idea of having an Assembly, too. We'll be inviting the GLA members to tell us more about their work so we can understand whether the Assembly is really needed. The Adam Smith Institute believes that the Assembly should be scrapped, saving £6.6m, and should be replaced by "a London Leader’s Council (LLC), consisting of the 32 elected council leaders in Greater London".
Final word to James Cleverly (pictured), whose blog will now be even more essential reading. This is how he reflected on his first few hours as a GLA member:
"Boris' signing in speech showed the humour that we have come to expect but he also made the serious point that we need to make good on our election commitments and put political prejudice aside for the good of London. He also made it clear that he wouldn't tolerate and "dogs in the manger". On an unrelated note I noticed that Sir Iain Blair didn't clap at the end of the speech.
Seeing members of the BNP milling around the building put a downer on the day. You can thank proportional representation and the collapse of the Lib Dem for that.
UPDATE: To be fair the almost complete lack of UKIP campaign also was a contributing factor. The main culprit was PR, it is why I am so against it."
My numb fingers delivered my last crumpled and damp 'Back Bozza' flyer through the letterbox below the green 'NO JUNK MAIL WHATSOEVER!' Sign (clearly a Tory voter). Inside the occupants were squeezed together on a warm sofa, beers in hand, cheering on Chelsea's European campaign.
Outside, Boris' loyal fans in Wandsworth were on the last leg of our own London final.
Despite the appalling weather, it had not been a bad evening's leafleting - 300 delivered, only two 'canvassed' properties with Vote Ken stickers in the window, one deranged dog, three scrapped knuckles from a medieval draft excluder and four Labour leaflets retrieved and 'recycled'.
It's all about turnout now - a point reinforced by a presentation being circulated by Ipsos-MORI. The chart below shows how, according to their numbers, Livingstone's likelihood of winning increases as turnout increases.
But it's worth pausing a second to consider the difficult days that would follow a Boris win. Something not generally known about is that Ken Livingstone and his cronies have two whole days - starting from the result being announced on Friday evening - before they have to leave their offices. By way of contrast, if David Cameron wins the next General Election he would take control of the levers at 10 Downing Street the next morning and the whole process would be overseen by the cream of Britain's civil service.
So assuming there are no recounts Boris' team will have to wait until Sunday evening before getting the keys to his offices. What controls are there to prevent industrial-scale shredding of paperwork that Livingstone and his Socialist Alliance inner circle might want to keep away from the incoming administration?
We understand Boris HQ have been taking calls from GLA insiders anxious to declare themselves as allies should he win, but they are undoubtedly outnumbered by Livingstone's cronies. Estimates of the size of his "hardcore" vary from thirty to eighty employees, although the Mayor is only supposed to handpick a dozen for his personal team. Boris may face some tough decisions in identifying staffers who are nominally public servants but are, in reality, Livingstone placemen.
If the busiest period of Boris' working life ends in success, his most difficult challenges will only have just begun.
"It was decided, presumably by one of the advertising men who now control the Conservatives, that the only way to beat an act was with another, even better one. They certainly went to the right man."
"There were stooges when Mr Johnson was en route to be president of the Oxford Union. He has had stooges all through journalism, who did significant parts of his various jobs for him, usually with little thanks or reward. And now there are stooges in politics."
"One of Mr Johnson's failings is a belief that the public is there to serve him, not vice versa."
"Would a Johnson mayoralty be yet one more chapter in an epic of charlatanry"?
"The guiding theme of his life is the charm of doing nothing properly."
"He is pushy, he is thoughtless, he is indiscreet about his private life."
All of those attacks appear in Simon Heffer's column today. Mr Heffer criticises Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick but the bulk of his acid is retained for Boris.
Boris isn't perfect. Project Cameron isn't perfect. ConservativeHome has often been critical of the direction of the Conservative Party but, as noted before, we'd much rather have the Conservatism of Mr Cameron than that of Mr Heffer. We hope our critiques are constructive and well-timed.
Mr Heffer, in contrast, appears to be determined to undermine the Conservative Party at every opportunity.
Ken Livingstone stands for everything The Telegraph should disdain. He has raised taxes, gummed up London with bureaucracy, attacked private charity, embraced Muslim extremists and forged links with odious dictators.
We predict - with all our efforts - that Boris will win tomorrow. Despite the best efforts of Simon Heffer.
Not long now until polling day. If you are able to help get out the vote in the final stages please email [email protected] with your contact details (including post code) and you'll be put in touch with local campaign. You may end up in the telephone call centre at CCHQ. Pictured above is Graeme Archer with Boris himself.
Another way of helping is to send the ConservativeHome video to your friends. The link is http://www.themudthrower.com.
Two weeks ago there was some confusion after an unwell Kate Hoey pulled out of a Boris event but - just speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC - Boris Johnson has announced that the Labour MP for Vauxhall will serve as a non-executive Director advising Boris on sport and the Olympics.
All this depends upon Boris winning on Thursday, of course, but will Ms Hoey now keep the Labour whip? Two days before a crucial election she has given the Tory candidate a significant boost.
Mr Johnson told Nick Ferrari that Ms Hoey will boost sports facilities across London, protect school and other playing fields and ensure that ALL London's kids benefit from the Olympics. Ms Hoey was a Sports Minister for Tony Blair.
11am: Is Ms Hoey in trouble with Labour? This from Adam Boulton & Co:
"On his way out of Cabinet, Chief Whip Geoff Hoon was asked by Sky's Niall Paterson if Hoey should have the whip removed. "We'll see," was the succinct response."
One of the reasons we made our mudthrower video was that we expected Ken Livingstone to start smearing as election day neared.
We haven't been disappointed:
The Evening Standard has a copy of a Labour leaflet warning that the Freedom Pass is under threat if Boris wins. It isn't. Boris has repeatedly says that he will protect the Pass and does so again in his final broadcast.
Also in the Evening Standard we learn that a Bengali language leaflet is being circulated that says that Boris Johnson "hates Muslims" and will ban the Koran.
We also have Livingstone-backed London newspapers winning extra advertising from Transport for London. There should be a ban on such things happening during election times.
We must hope that today's YouGov poll and its 11% lead for Boris Johnson is accurate. The sooner London is rid of the low-low politics of Livingstone the better.
The race for Mayor is justn't a battle between Boris, Ken and Brian; it's a battle between MORI, Mruk Cello, ICM and YouGov. Last minute events and differential turnouts mean that polls never pretend to be accurate predictions of a result but over the next few days we'll be updating this table to compare the pollsters' final numbers.
On Friday we had what we think is MORI's final poll and that showed a victory for Ken Livingstone on second preferences by 6%.
Today a Mruk Cello poll for The Sunday Times also has Livingstone ahead on second preferences but only by 2%.
Tomorrow, for the Evening Standard, we'll have YouGov's final survey - YouGov has consistently put Boris Johnson in the lead.
We are also expecting an ICM survey. We'll fill the box in as we get all of the results.
A new Ipsos-MORI poll funded by Unison has Livingstone ahead by 3% on first preferences and 6% with
second preferences. The Guardian notes
that strangely the final results include answers from people known not
to be registered voters. With this taken into account the lead
decreases to 4%.
PoliticalBetting has the story and notes that it's not yet clear whether the wording has been improved on since the last poll.
Earlier today ConservativeHome was outside City Hall to see Chris Grayling MP launch the Conservative Party's Case Against Ken Livingstone. The Case represents a comprehensive demolition of Livingstone's record on transport, transparency, crime, housing and the environment. PDF here.
Alongside him were MPs Andrew Rosindell, Stephen Hammond and John Horam; GLA candidate James Cleverly; and council leaders Stephen Greenhalgh (our taxcutter of the year) and Ian Clement (Bexley).
Chris Grayling ended his brief presentation by reminding us of his favourite Ken Livingstone quotation (from 2003):
"I will save the Routemaster. Only some ghastly, dehumanised moron would want to get rid of the Routemaster."
On the way back from the launch ConHome's outside broadcasting unit (a
bicycle) spotted Boris' most enthusiastic backer in a Citreon 2CV
emblazoned with Back Boris stickers. The photos aren't great (it was a
busy road) but you get the idea...
Here are some of the background stories featured in the video (and others too):
Mayor's BNP outburst at Phillips: London's mayor has accused the head of the UK's race watchdog of "pandering to the right" so much that "soon he'll be joining the BNP" - BBC
Mayor is suspended over Nazi jibe: London's mayor has been suspended from office on full pay for four weeks for comparing a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard - BBC
Attacked gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell: "Unburdened by diplomatic sensitivities, the mayor compared a Jewish journalist to a "Nazi concentration camp guard", called civil rights campaigner Peter Tatchell "an Islamaphobe" and admitted: "I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi royal family are swinging from lampposts." Livingstone is an arrogant bully. After so many years at the top, he is starting to breathe his own exhaust. His self-regard is becoming self-destructive. What began as a light whiff of dodgy dealings by one of his apparatchiks has rapidly developed into a stench of sleaze at City Hall." - Jeff Randall in The Telegraph
Investigative journalist attacked: After Martin Bright (a married father) had proved Ken Livingstone to be drinking alcohol at 10am, Ken Livingstone attacked Martin Bright as "like a 40-year-old virgin still living with his parents." Source: Guardian.
Attacks on Andrew Gilligan: "Livingstone would seek to divert attention from those uncomfortable facts [on alleged corruption], and those unanswerable questions, by fanning a giant dust-cloud towards his accusers. So I have been accused by the mayor of politically motivated smears, of fraud, of racism, even, quite literally at one point, of murder (of David Kelly, of course - do keep up)." - Gilligan himself writing for The Guardian's Comment is free
Whistleblower is smeared: "A former key adviser to Ken Livingstone today tells how he and others breached the strict rules governing political campaigning, including raising money from donors for the Mayor of London's election campaign. The claims have prompted a ferocious rebuttal from the mayor's office, which yesterday described Atma Singh, 47, Livingstone's policy adviser on Asian affairs between 2001 and 2007, as an 'embittered ex-employee' who was 'removed' from his job." - Observer
No answers, just smears: "There are also allegations that his
London Development Agency made grants to dubious businesses linked to
Lee Jasper, a close adviser, a charge that Mr Livingstone dismisses as
a smear." - Economist
Smearing The Evening Standard because of its investigations into Livingstone's crony, Lee Jasper: "Livingstone accuses the paper of a "dirty racist campaign" against Jasper." - Guardian
Attacked US Ambassador as a "crook": "Mr Livingstone's style also draws ire. He is truculent, calling the American ambassador to London a “chiselling little crook” for not making embassy officials pay the congestion charge." - Economist
Harassment and bullying of staff: Detailed by Atma Singh in The Times
Watch Ken Livingstone 'lose it' during a General Assembly session:
Add your own in the thread below. Please give sources or your comment may be deleted.
Today's FT speculates that Steve Norris may become Boris Johnson's nominee to run the London Development Agency if the Tory candidate becomes Mayor next Thursday.
"Mr Norris, who fought unsuccessfully to become mayor in 2000 and 2004, said he had been given “no promises” about a job. However, he has been in close touch with Mr Johnson and would be keen to run the London Development Agency, which is responsible for driving economic growth in the capital. The agency needed a shake-up, he suggested in an interview with the Financial Times. “It is the most dysfunctional body that most of us can think of.”
Also in his interview with the FT, Mr Norris affirmed Mr Johnson's 'doughnut' strategy of targeting Tory votes in the outer suburbs. He also said that Met Chief Sir Ian Blair should resign if Boris Johnson won because he would have lost the support of Londoners.
"Boris Johnson has the energy and imagination to give this great city what it needs... A new and fresh champion for London."
This is the first time (we think) a Conservative has been endorsed by The Sun since Tony Blair won the endorsement of Britain's biggest-selling newspaper in 1997. A sign of things to come?
Congratulations must go to the media operation, Katie Perrior and others, who have worked so hard to get Boris a good press. Victory is still going to require a lot of hard work but today should bring a smile to every Conservative.
In other good news for Boris Johnson, Brian Paddick has said that he could work with Boris but not with Livingstone. The Times has the story on a crucial signal to LibDem voters as to how to use their second preference.
4pm: Photo of Boris on The Sun's battle bus:
6pm from PoliticsHome: "Tony Blair regarded it as a great coup to win the support of Rupert Murdoch's Sun at the 1997 election and Labour has always been twitchy about any sign that the mass-selling tabloid might switch back to the Tories. The PHI100 think that Gordon Brown should be anxious that The Sun is backing Boris Johnson to be Mayor of London. Seventy per cent of the panel think this is 'a serious sign' that the paper is 'leaning towards the Conservatives generally'. Only twenty one per cent believed it was merely 'a simple preference for Boris Johnson over Ken Livingstone'. One panellist thought it was ' a shot across Labour's bows'. Another observed that it was a case of 'Murdoch keeping Brown and Cameron on tenterhooks'."
It appears that Labour MP Kate Hoey was to attend an event with Boris Johnson this morning in her Vauxhall constituency but pulled out at the last minute - saying she was ill. She had told journalists she was attending but it's not clear that she would have formally endorsed the Tory candidate. Just appearing with him would have been significant however.
Backing Boris would almost certainly have resulted in her losing the Labour whip. Just attending the event would have confirmed her already semi-detached relationship with the Labour Party.
Speculation that Ms Hoey will defect to the Conservatives has been live for a long time. Does this event mean it's still likely or have the Labour whips pulled her back from the rubicon once and for all?
We know it's going to be close. But it's time to forget the polls... it's all about turning out the vote now. Next week London can elect a new Mayor and end the nasty, wasteful years of Livingstonian sleaze.
Margaret Thatcher couldn't do it. Tony Blair couldn't do it. But next Thursday Boris Johnson can defeat Ken Livingstone at the ballot box. Next Thursday Londoners can end the reign of City Hall's high-taxing, dictator-hugging Mayor.
That should be enough for every Conservative but next week isn't just about voting against Livingstone. We can vote for something positive, too. Last Thursday we sought the ten top reasons to vote FOR Boris. And this is our selection of what you contributed (with one or two of our own favourite policy ideas).
We've ranked the ten with number one as our top reason for voting for Boris Johnson:
(10) Boris wants to put a Battle of Britain hero on Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth. The BBC has more on this campaign to honour New Zealander Sir Keith Park.
(8) Boris will scrap bendy buses. Bendy buses clog junctions, crush
bicycles and are a haven for fare dodgers. They are not made for London's old, windy streets. Boris
will scrap them and replace them with a modernised, disabled-friendly version of the
Routemaster.
(7) Boris will work with the boroughs (a common theme of his) to build 50,000 more affordable homes by 2011.His development manifesto also includes protection for the small shops that are often the lifeblood of local communities.
(6) Boris will be a great international ambassador for London, a celebrity figure who will attract tourists and investors. London will no longer be
represented by a Mayor who devotes a large part of his office to
consorting with Chavez, Castro and other dictators. Yusuf al-Qaradawi and other extremists won't be welcome at City Hall any longer.
A poll by Mruk Cello for The Sunday Times points to a very close race for the London Mayoralty. Mruk Cello, associated with polling in Scotland only until now, join MORI and ICM in pointing to a close outcome to this race. YouGov, in contrast, polling every Monday for the London Evening Standard, has suggested Boris Johnson is on course for victory on second preferences. There'll be another YouGov/ Standard poll tomorrow.
Opinion amongst political insiders has also been tightening. As poll day nears, a majority of the one hundred Westminster insiders surveyed on a weekly basis by PoliticsHome.com are still predicting a Boris victory but that majority is sharply down from 75% to 25% to just 57% to 43%.
The Boris campaign are not unhappy at the latest polls. They had been worried that complacency was creeping in to some parts of the party. They expect strongly negative advertising from Ken Livingstone in the run in to polling day and are keen to ensure that every Tory activist gets out on to the pavements to get the vote out. One member of Team Boris told us that "the polls are pretty meaningless now; this is all about turnout, turnout, turnout". On that score, at least, Mruk Cello found that Boris supporters were likeliest to vote.
We're grateful to have been given advance viewing of Boris' new election broadcast. It's very impressive.
At just under five minutes it's longer than the previous one and has good shots of him campaigning all around London - including being hugged by a bus driver, greeting a voter in French, being cheered by members of the public as he cycles past, and interrupting a TV interview with David Cameron to talk to the crowd about Heathrow...
The main quotes from the video are:
"London is the city I've spent most of my working life in, it's the city I love, but for too many Londoners, the quality of our lives is not improving - and that's why I think it's time to apply fresh thinking, and creativity, and energy to the problems that really concern Londoners."
"My trips around London have taught me what really matters to people: the nightmare of the school run, protecting our green spaces, improving recycling... and their view of us modern day politicians."
"It makes me really angry when I meet child after child who says they've either been mugged on the bus or shortly after getting off it, and that's
why I think it's vital that we put more uniformed police on the buses and drive out the so-called minor crime and disorder. Because if we crack down on minor crime and disorder we can make a real difference to the serious crime that also afflicts our city."
"I think it's time to recriminalise crime. What I mean by recriminalising crime is taking your experience of crime seriously and not endlessly downgrading thigns that happen, assaults, thefts of mobile phones, and just calling it anti-social behaviour. This is a crime!"
"One of the problems we all face is that people are so disillusioned about politics, and with Parliament now trying to clean up its act I want to go a step further by putting every penny I spend as your Mayor online available for you to consult on my website."
"I'll tell you one thing that really annoys me, it's people saying that I'm going to cancel the Freedom Pass. It's just not true,under my mayoralty the Freedom Pass will be guaranteed round-the-clock on all modes of transport."
"When I look at London I don't just see the greatest financial and cultural centre on earth. I also see a city that is fantastically open, and tolerant, and cosmopolitan, an example to the rest of the planet. But I believe London could be greater still, and when I become mayor it will be safer, more openly administrated, it will be cleaner and easier to move around in. In order to make that change it's vital that you vote for me, Boris Johnson, as mayor, and for the Conservatives for the GLA on May 1st."
Iain Martin is the new Comment Editor of The Telegraph (click here to add your opinion to our thread discussing what he should do with the newspaper's opinion pages). Iain's own Telegraph column of this morning makes the case for voting for Boris. This is his favourite initiative:
"His most interesting venture would be the building of a bully pulpit with his proposed mayor's fund, designed to attract philanthropic donations from the City which would then be forwarded to voluntary organisations engaged in all manner of good and important work. This quaint-sounding initiative carries within it the seeds of a bigger revolution in social policy which has been brewing in think-tanks and the brains of brighter Tories.
Livingstone and his kind require a highly bureaucratic, statist model, because it guarantees a lock on patronage and spending, which in turn delivers a client constituency, control and power in perpetuity. Encouraging free institutions to work in concert, convincing them they need not be the creatures of government, is a condition for the overdue regeneration of our civic society."
We're pretty keen on that initiative too. The philanthropic spirit in Britain is very weak compared to the US. If Boris can make charitable giving fashionable in our country he could have an impact over many generations.
We also like Mr Johnson's commitment to crime mapping. This will mean that the police will no longer be able to hide very different levels of crime and performance in different parts of London. Those blighted by high crime will have the information they need to pressure the authorities for better policing. Over time we'll also see which borough commanders are performing best. Mapping was at the heart of New York's zero tolerance revolution.
Please use the thread below to state your favourite reason for voting for Boris. A bottle of champagne for the best suggestion. And not just any champagne - M&S champagne!
We'll then publish The Top Ten Reasons For Backing Boris tomorrow.
That's the headline that Londoners will see as they pick up their Evening Standard tonight.
The Standard really is throwing the kitchen sink at Ken Livingstone. Day after day they have been exposing the sleaze that characterises Livingstone's Mayoralty. If Livingstone is ousted on 1st May it won't be ridiculous for the newspaper's editor, Veronica Wadley to say that "It was the Standard wot won it".
Today's p1 splash focuses on the fact that Muslims4Ken - an effort to mobilise 200,000 Muslim Londoners for the Qaradawi-hugging Mayor - is led by a man who backs suicide bombing. Azzam Tamimi is a supporter of Hamas and has said that he would volunteer for a suicide mission in Palestine.
Also in today's Standard is news that Paddick regards Ken Livingstone as a "nasty little man". The Standard reports:
"Mr Paddick said he was not "equidistant" between his Labour and Conservative opponents and confirmed he seriously considered an approach from David Cameron to be the party's candidate. "I didn't say I was equidistant between the two of them. It is very difficult to gauge where I am between the other two candidates because it is like comparing chalk and cheese. "I seriously considered, for a few hours, the approach from the Conservatives. But on principle I couldn't stand for what the Conservatives stand for. I am a Liberal Democrat, that's where my heart lies."
In the crucial battle for second preferences this could lead to good news for Boris.
We learn today that contrary to Brown's promises about ending the culture of spin at No.10, he has been hiring a new adviser every week. The annual wage bill of his SpAds now reaches £1.75m - roughly the same level it was under Blair.
Not to be outdone though, Mayor Livingstone has not only matched the Prime Minister with his number of press officers (24) but has hired almost three times the number (70)! In addition to that, he has 105 media staff at TfL and the LDA to promote his policies, although in fairness his record probably needs that many people to put a positive spin on it.
Livingstone has also spent:
£8m of taxpayers' money on opposing nuclear power
£2.8m pa on Pravda The Londoner newspaper
£2.2m on promoting home insulation scheme worth £300k in grants
£793k on promoting a Oyster card giveaway
£517k hosting a leftie event attended by Che Guevara's daughter,
Gerry Adams and George Galloway
£4750 of taxpayers' money to Chinese torch-bearer former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq in exchange for appearing alongside him at a press conference
£4,088 for a rebuttal file
answering claims that he should not have met the extremist cleric Yusuf
al-Qaradawi
Boris, who has pledged to put 440 police community support officers on
buses and another 50 PCs on station platforms using money from Livingstone's £3.4m "propaganda budget", said:
"This is a man who has more press officers at his disposal than the
Prime Minister. Year on year he ups his publicity
budget at taxpayers' expense. London needs a value-for-money mayor. I would spend this propaganda money on worthwhile projects that will actually benefit Londoners, not massage egos."
Update: Phil Taylor sends in some other reminders...
What about the £3.3 million spent on Low Emission Zone and Emissions Related Congestion Charging consultations (which were basically just ad campaigns designed to make the Mayor look green)
On its own the Met was spending £8.6 million in 2006/7, a 42% increase on the previous year
Central government spent £328 million on advertising through the Central Office of Information on big campaigns in 2006/7 and spent £552 billion overall in 2006/7 - so advertising was 0.06%. Livingstone spends £100 million on advertising out of a total budget in the order of £11 billion - so 0.91%. Livingstone spends 15 times as much as even the Labour government.
No progress has been made in reducing the number of children in poverty in London since 2000. Over a quarter of all children in London are living below the poverty line, and after housing costs a massive four in ten children live in poverty. In Inner London, this rises to half of all children.
This is just one of the many startling statistics uncovered by the Centre for Social Justice in its Breakdown London report released today. Other key findings include:
A baby boy born in Islington has a life expectancy more than eight years lower than one in Kensington & Chelsea.
In the last seven years there has been a 17.5% increase in offences involving violence against the person.
In the last seven years there has been a 128.5% increase in drug offences.
In the last four years there has been a 33% increase in youth unemployment.
A fifth of adult Londoners (one million) are hazardous or harmful users of alcohol.
Despite being an economic powerhouse London has the worst working age employment rate of any area in the UK and a rate of economic inactivity 16% higher than the national average.
Nearly half of all families with dependent children in London are headed by a lone parent, 65% higher than the national average for England and Wales.
An estimated 1.68 million working days are lost every year in London because of alcohol, at a cost to the London economy of £294m and to the NHS of £52m.
Livingstone hasn't dissented from any of the government's failed approaches. Boris Johnson believes a lack of focus from the
Mayor's office has contributed to "Breakdown London". One of the proposals he has already made in this area is the establishment of a Mayors Fund - a match-funded pot of cash that will be made up of
investments from the City, Film Industry etc. This fund will manage the whole process for people wanting to give something back to the city.
We hope that he takes a serious look at the approaches advocated by the CSJ such as an expansion of abstinence-based drug treatment and more relationship/parenting support. More widely, a radical agenda of empowering the voluntary sector in London (not in a politically correct, vote-chasing, corrupt Lee Jasper way!) would do wonders for the city.
In the meantime PoliticsHome.com has just published a poll of one hundred political insiders and their responses to what Boris Johnson should do next. The panel's key conclusions were:
"Keep focus away from the candidate himself by primarily presenting Boris as the anti-Ken option and the face of a cabinet-style of government, supported by professionals
Keep up the attacks on Ken as both enmeshed in corruption and cronyism and a tired figure of the past
Maximise chances of winning the second-preference vote by focusing on the environment and social exclusion
Above all, focus on combatting the impression that Boris is an unserious candidate who has never run anything substantial
Do not ‘let Boris be Boris'. In order to avoid losing his lead, Mr Johnson must contain the eccentricities of his personality and try to present a more conventionally serious image."
Earlier this week an Ipsos MORI poll had Livingstone ahead of Boris by 51% to 49% on second preferences had been taken into account. A new Ipsos MORI poll suggests that Boris is now ahead of Livingstone by 51% to 49% on second preferences. We don't yet have first preference voting intentions.
The survey also says that 4 out of 10 Londoners think the city is dangerous and 6 out of 10 think it is congested.
We got a taste of it yesterday when Ken Livingstone accused Boris Johnson of smearing Islam.
The final three weeks of the Mayoral campaign look set to get nasty. Ken Livingstone is in a corner, fighting for his political life and we can expect him to fight dirty.
He attacks politicians who hold him to account, he attacks journalists who investigate his cronyism and he attempts to discredit former employees who ask tough questions about corruption at City Hall.
Please get in touch if you'd like to help us make a short video that reminds voters of 'Nasty Ken'. We're looking for people with video making skills and for reminders of other times that Ken Livingstone has turned nasty to save his political skin.
Also please use the thread below to suggest ways of bringing the theme alive within a short YouTube-style video
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