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Saturday, 3 May 2008
It was the doughnuts wot dun it.
 The papers spoke during the week of the doughnut pattern of canvassing and voting in the London mayoral elections.
Ken Livingstone concentrating on the inner London boroughs (Tower Hamlets, Brixton) where there are high concentrations of ethnic minorities and he is popular. Boris Johnson taking the trouble to visit suburban constituencies where, as one journalist put it, “They don’t always think of themselves as Londoners”. And that is just the attitude that led to Ken’s defeat.
Because many of those who live in the outer constituencies used to live in the inner boroughs. And do still consider themselves Londoners. But they don’t like what they see these days in their ancestral homelands. And this isn’t just the “white flight” the Livingstone’s sneer at because I know numerous families whose grandparents came from the West Indies or Nairobi who are very glad to get into suburbia and out of Hackney or Haringey. Their concerns are crime, the schools under pressure with so many children speaking English as a second (or third) language, the hospitals ditto, fire engines attacked by gangs of youths as they try to save lives. Not that this inner city maelstrom is confined to London of course.
Taxed to the hilt, even to the use of their cars should they wish to visit the old home. Threatened with extension of the congestion charge even to move about their present home.
Boris Johnson came to the outer London boroughs and talked to Londoners. Ken couldn’t be arsed. He has never been bothered.
And now suburbia has spoken. And he is out. Posted on 1:36 AM by Esmerelda Weatherwax
Comments
3 May 2008
Mary Jackson Ironic, isn't it, that lefties claim Boris is a toff and Ken a man of the people. Who is actually talking to the people? Ken despises the middle classes and aspirational working classes who live in the suburbs. Of course, if you're rich enough, inner-city life is fine - you can live where there's no crime and the congestion charge - or a taxi - is peanuts. Ken once took a taxi all the way to Blackpool for a conference. Not anymore, he won't. By the way, I thought Boris' speech was "magnanimous in victory". 4 May 2008
 devorgilla
I'm not a Londoner but I watched with dismay as Ken started acting like a little king during his second term, cosying up to Chavez and Quardawi. Conducting his own 'foreign policy', against the interests of the country as a whole. What on earth has that got to do with the tubes, the hospitals, the schools and the life of ordinary Londoners? He was indulging his own brand of fantasy left wing politics to boost HIS international standing as a hard left politician. He was using London as his own personal fiefdom. Maybe there will be some patronage now from Al-Jazeera? I am proud that Londoners have kicked him out and hope that this signals a mood in the country as a whole to return to one nation British secular democratic values. In Scotland though we have Alex Salmond behaving much like Ken, greeting the Iranian ambassador and cosying up to Islamists like Osama Saeed. And Muslims don't even constitute 1% of the population yet! (0.87%, according to 2001 census). Well done London! |