London Elections, 2012

[BrainGlutton]

Interesting blog/article from The Nation:

Livingstone was a genius at leveraging the minimal powers granted the office—chiefly over public transport, urban planning and police numbers. He pushed through the congestion charge, he once told The Nation, because it was his only chance for revenue that didn’t depend on Whitehall’s largesse.

But like Ed Koch, the urban politician he resembled in so many ways (apart from their actual politics, which were poles apart), his abrasiveness eventually cost him re-election. Boris Johnson, the American-born, Eton-educated Tory who replaced him four years ago had the great advantage of not being taken seriously. When Livingstone called a Jewish reporter “a concentration camp guard” you could hear the wailing from Westminster to the Upper West Side. When it emerged that Johnson had written an article describing the Queen being greeted by “flag-waving piccaninnies,” everyone just said “Oh, that’s just Boris.”

<snip>

The result has been a two-man race that has been compared, all too appropriately, with a pair of drunks at a wedding. Although only one of us can vote here, The Nation’s London bureau is divided on which would be worse—four more years of Boris braying on behalf of Britain’s oppressed bankers or four more years of Ken’s overweening arrogance. It wasn’t just the way Ken talked out of one side of his mouth about “rich bastards” who avoid paying their fair share of taxes—and then turned out to funnel his own considerable media earnings through a corporate shell. There was also his long track record of high-handed contempt for even constructive criticism—as borne out most recently, and most painfully, in his disastrous meeting with Jewish Labour supporters desperate for a few encouraging words.

[BrainGlutton]

Boris re-elected.

The Conservative victory in London came despite David Cameron’s party receiving a mauling in local elections outside of the capital.

Both Coalition parties suffered heavy losses as they were apparently blamed by voters for a series of policy blunders, including new taxes on pensioners, pasties and charity donations.

[gamerunknown]

Looking at the results, it appears that those on the right are better at tactical voting. Livingstone definitely wasn’t part of New Labour, so dissatisfaction with them fails to account for the large disparity between primary votes.

[DeptfordX]

I’ve discussed this with a number of people and we all came to the same conclusion. If labour had fielded a good candidate that wasn’t Ken Livingstone they would have won. Ken just had to much baggage and had pissed off to many labour supporters. I voted for him myself, but it was in a Well goddamit anythings better than the alternative sort of way. If i thought the liberal candidate had a chance i would have voted for him.

[nudgenudge]

@DeptfordX

I’ve discussed this with a number of people and we all came to the same conclusion. If labour had fielded a good candidate that wasn’t Ken Livingstone they would have won. Ken just had to much baggage and had pissed off to many labour supporters. I voted for him myself, but it was in a Well goddamit anythings better than the alternative sort of way. If i thought the liberal candidate had a chance i would have voted for him.

So you vote Liberal Democrat as your first preference, and Ken Livingstone as your second. The whole point of the system is that “wasted vote” is no excuse.
As it turned out, Livingstone did do better in second choice votes than he did in first preference, but not enough to make up the gap.

[BrainGlutton]

@nudgenudge

So you vote Liberal Democrat as your first preference, and Ken Livingstone as your second. The whole point of the system is that “wasted vote” is no excuse.
As it turned out, Livingstone did do better in second choice votes than he did in first preference, but not enough to make up the gap.

!!! You have instant-runoff voting in the UK?! First I’ve ever heard of that! How long has it been in place?

[PaulParkhead]

@BrainGlutton

!!! You have instant-runoff voting in the UK?! First I’ve ever heard of that! How long has it been in place?

The UK uses various systems for different elections. The London mayor is elected by supplementary vote, where all but the top two candidates are eliminated if no-one makes the quota on the first count.

The Westminster parliament is still elected by a simple first past the post system - an attempt to change this was rejected at referendum a year or so back. Other elections use alternative vote (instant run-off), mainly local elections.

[DeptfordX]

@nudgenudge

So you vote Liberal Democrat as your first preference, and Ken Livingstone as your second. The whole point of the system is that “wasted vote” is no excuse.
As it turned out, Livingstone did do better in second choice votes than he did in first preference, but not enough to make up the gap.

Except the Liberal vote was literally one-tenth of Ken and Boris’s first round votes so i’m going to go ahead and say i made the right decision.

[gamerunknown]

I was a card-carrying member of the Liberal Democrats and will never vote for them again in a general or local election after the astounding ineptitude of the coalition. I was actually disappointed they did so well in obtaining council seats. After reviewing the policies of the Greens they’re far more in accord with my views fiscally anyway and they’d make a far more interesting third party. Took a bit of a jolt for me to realise that.

Edit: I’m not sure exactly which Labour candidate would be popular enough to run against Boris. Perhaps Tom Watson?

[SirRay]

In the Telegraph article that Brain Glutton, thru-out the comments there are many accusations that supporters of Ken Livingston were using postal fraud.

In the US, newspaper on-line article comments often veer off into conspiracy theories or biased carping, and I would guess UK papers are not immune.

Is there an actual basis for this vote-fraud accusation in this particularly Mayoral election, and if so is there more in-depth discussion available on reputable sites?