#VoteBike - 2012 London Mayoral elections

The turn out was down. A better candidate might have increased the turnout.

Clive, you're just being irrational. Turnout was down all over the country, not just in London. That was not a factor attributable to Livingstone alone. Labour have always struggled to get their potential voters to turn out for elections, particularly local elections. You saw a good example of that in 2010, when the general election coincided with London local elections. Labour did very well then.

As far as I can tell, the only issue that played a real role in this election was the tax stuff. The key mistake that Livingstone made was not to use different arrangements and then trying to get to Johnson on the personal level. The gap was relatively small, and accusations of hypocrisy are the worst thing that can happen to any politician. I'm certain that Livingstone would have won if it hadn't been for that.

There is so much wrong with politics today and very few people are still capable of decoding anything or most of what's happening politically (I don't include myself in that number), so that it probably comes down to simple, personal things that everybody can understand even more than before.

I've always been shocked by how election campaigns are conducted in this country, and this was another ignoble example.