It looks like Boris is in.

More importantly the Tories seem to be taking over the country full stop.

Lib Dem councillor won here today and we've had a Lib Dem MP for a while now, but I worry that by the general election they'll all have been won over by Cameron.
Blah.

it's very sad and bad. a tory is bad enough, but when it's a toff, tory tosspot pretending not to be part of the old boys' network when he clearly is, i think it's even worse: sneaky and cynical and they obviously think the electorate are stupid. and they obviously are if they're voting in those wolves in sheeps' clothing.

i voted at uni this time instead of getting a postal vote, and was quite shocked this morning to wake up and find our ward voted in a bloody tory! if all the students had bothered to turn out, it would have been the nice green boy i went for, or the lib dem even, for sure. but my home village is in the labour heartlands: has always been labour, will always been labour, so that was some comfort today!

I am basing my vote on that and a lot else- I mean he swore only to stand for two terms, and then- oh look, he stood for a third term. Its a dictatorship in waiting.

I really don't mind the Western Extension, I have an alternative fuel car so I don't have to pay the congestion charge anyway and it means I can always find a space. But I object to all our money being wasted and on politicians ignoring democratic process. There are lots of things politicians could do that would make my life better, but they shouldn't if the people object to it. Otherwise why the fuck should we bother voting for someone to REPRESENT us. I mean, imagine how much richer London would be if we shot everyone who was on benefits? Still doesn't mean a politician should decide to do it, especially not when the population votes against it.

If Boris has one, I will laugh because its basically saying to Ken, even though the man is an idiot, we'd still rather an idiot to you. It kind of reminds me when we voted for candidates at university, and there was always the option to vote for "RON" (which meant Re-Open Nominations), where you disliked all the candidates so much, you wouldn't want to vote for any of them. People voting for Boris is basically RONing Ken. If there had been a RON vote, I would have voted for that.

I'm fond of Boris, for his middle name (de Pfeffel), his views on Islam ("When is someone going to get 18th century on Islam’s mediaeval ass?") and because this is a picture of his great-grandfather, Turkish liberal Ali Kemal Bey

Oh my god... London, what are you DOING?
Actually, what the hell is England doing?
Me and Matthew have been watching the news and feeling vaguely sick.
I don't want Scottish independence, and I'd say it was almost a certainty now.

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Boris won!

Bugger.

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i feel sick.

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you'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking

Everybody's going to Highbury Fields to burn their oyster cards en masse and watch the sun come up on a new dawn.

Some lovely quotes, compiled by Zoe Williams in yesterday's G2:

On homosexuality

"Gay marriage can only ever be a ludicrous parody of the real thing."
· Daily Telegraph, 2005

"If gay marriage was OK - and I was uncertain on the issue - then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog."
· From his book, Friends, Voters, Countrymen, 2001

"We don't want our children being taught some rubbish about homosexual marriage being the same as normal marriage, and that is why I am more than happy to support Section 28."
· Daily Telegraph, 2000

"The clerics gave us [journalists] a wigging for being so mean to the Church of England ... Why did we draw attention to tricky subjects like homosexuality, aka the Pulpit Poofs issue?"
· The Spectator, 2000

"I'm not bisexual so far ... not that I would condemn myself if I later discovered I were."
· Daily Telegraph, 2008

On Africa

"No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird."
· In 2002, on Tony Blair's visit to the Democratic of Republic of Congo, Daily Telegraph

"Right, let's go and look at some more piccaninnies."
· Reported remark, while visiting Uganda, to Swedish Unicef workers and their black driver, the Observer, 2003

On the Commonwealth

"It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies."
· Daily Telegraph, 2002

On failing to recognise his Filipina housekeeper

"When our housekeeper appeared on stage in her hot pink strapless number [as a finalist of the Mrs Philippines 2005 contest in London], I failed at first to recognise her, surrounded as she was by 10 other Filipina mums, each shimmering in every shade from fuchsia to Germolene ... Was that Luz, the No 6, the one with the cleavage? Or was she No 5, with the smile? Surely she wasn't No 11, the one with the legs. No: wait - that was her, with her hair up. No 8! 'We want eight,' we screamed, and waved at good old Luz, a woman who has been exposed to the full horror of the Johnson family washing and yet contrived to look little short of $1m.
· The Spectator, 2005

On his prospects

"My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive."
· The Independent, 2004

George Bush and Iraq

"He liberated Iraq. It is good enough for me."
· Daily Telegraph, 2004

"The Americans were perfectly happy to go ahead and whack Saddam merely on the grounds that he was a bad guy, and that Iraq and the world would be better off without him; and so indeed was I."
· Daily Telegraph, 2003

On Islam

"The most viciously sectarian of all religions in its heartlessness towards unbelievers."
· The Spectator, 2005

On race

"I'm down with the ethnics. You can't out-ethnic me, Nihal ... My children are a quarter Indian, so put that in your pipe and smoke it."
· To Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Asian Network, 2008

On cannabis

"It was jolly nice. But apparently it is very different these days. Much stronger. I've become very illiberal about it. I don't want my kids to take drugs."
· GQ, 2007

On sex

"I've slept with far fewer than 1,000."
· On whether he has slept with fewer than 30 women, like Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, Daily Telegraph, 2008

"An inverted pyramid of piffle."
· The Mail on Sunday, 2004, on allegations that he had an affair with Petronella Wyatt, later confirmed.

On obesity

"Nothing but their own fat fault."

On transport

"I don't believe [using a mobile phone at the wheel] is necessarily any more dangerous than the many other risky things that people do with their free hands while driving - nose-picking, reading the paper, studying the A-Z, beating the children, and so on."
· Daily Telegraph, 2002

"The whole county of Hampshire was lying back and opening her well-bred legs to be ravished by the Italian stallion."
· GQ, while in a Ferrari

On Liverpool

"A society that has become hooked on grief and likes to wallow in a sense of
vicarious victimhood."
· A Spectator editorial, 2004 (Johnson didn't write the editorial, but he approved it)

On his arts role

"Look, the point is ... er, what is the point? It is a tough job but somebody has got to do it."
· On being appointed Tory Arts spokesman, 2004

On stag hunting

"I remember the guts streaming, and the stag turds spilling out on to the grass from within the ventral cavity ... This hunting is best for the deer."
· From his book Lend Me Your Ears

Be very afraid: Zoe Williams on the possibility of Boris Johnson as mayor of London | Politics | The Guardian

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<<so put that in your pipe and smoke it.">>

Seriously??

Undoubtedly Boris says many idiotic things, I think he has no filter between brain and mouth, but lets not forget that Ken Livingstone had to be suspended from his job for a month after calling a Jewish reporter from the Evening Standard a german war criminal and a concentration camp guard. And then refusing to apologise. And refused to criticise China, claiming Tinnamen Square was really just like the Poll Tax riots in Trafalgar Sqaure (Poll tax riots- no deaths, Tinnamen Sqaure- an estimated 3,000 deaths).

To be honest both candidates are idiots. I can't believe they can't find anywhere out there a SINGLE decent candidate for either Party in what is really quite a high prestige job.

He didn't have anything to apologise for - he didn't call the guy a german war criminal or a concentration camp guard.

What happened, as I recall, and as the journalist did concede at the time was that Ken objected to something, either being harassed, or a question he didn't like (I don't remember that part), and told the guy off for it. The guy basically said "I'm just doing my job" and Ken responded that that's what concentration camp guards would say: Nazi war criminals would often use the excuse "I was only following orders". When really, that's a pitiful excuse for doing something horrific.

Ken's remarks were hyperbolic, but I don't know that he knew the journalist was jewish, and so I can't even condemn them as insensitive. He's a straight-talker with principles, and I absolutely don't see anything wrong with what he said.

Once he got back from his suspension, wasn't he cleared of any wrong-doing on this one?

I think it was entirely misreported.

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I think there was too much overreaction with Ken's gaffe too. He wasn't to know the reporter was Jewish, and in any case his comment would still stand.

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He did know he was Jewish, because his first comment was "You're like a German war criminal" to which the journalist replied "Well actually I am Jewish" and then he said he was like a concentration camp guard.

And personally to compare someone hassling you to be "just like" someone contributing to the torture and murder of 6 million people is a little culturally insensitive in itself. If you had to ask me which I'd prefer, someone asking annoying questions and trying to take my picture, which is something to be honest you should expect if you run for public office, or someone seperating me from my family and gassing us all after months of systematic starvation and abuse, I know which one I would go for...

But he's not comparing the actions, he's basically saying "Accept you're doing something that's not right instead of hiding behind 'just doing your job' to excuse it"

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I think when you say "You are like a concentration camp guard" when you mean, "accept some responsibility", that is going pretty OTT, especially when someone has just explained they are Jewish. Its like me comparing you to David Irving for trying to defend Ken. Maybe I am just sensitive because my grandparents had to flee Germany thanks to all that, but I imagine most people found it pretty offensive (hence the one month suspension).

And also, there is nothing "not right" about being a journalist. Its like getting angry with a parking warden for saying its their job to give you a ticket. Some people do things for a living that may annoy you but if you chose to put yourself in their way, you should be able to calmly deal with the consequences.