A Sad Day For London

Isn't it us Brits who are meant to be cynical? :)

i'm not cynical, I'm a realist. reality is not a nice place.

i'm not cynical, I'm a realist. reality is not a nice place.

“I reject your reality and substitute it for my own.”

you cannot seriously believe that either of them have any chance for 3 reasons, 1 they are not white men, 2 they are democrats, 3 they are either another Clinton, or they don't wear a flag pin.

welcome to middle America, we go to church, we vote, we don't think.

4 neither of them served in the military.
we are so fucked.

I find this really odd... I have heard lot of bad things about boris .. and many people clearly don't like him... How the Fxxk did he win the election??

In the words of Charlie Brooker

"Fast-forward to now. On May 1 London chooses its mayor, and I've got a horrible feeling it might pick Boris Johnson for similar reasons. Johnson - or to give him his full name, Boris LOL!!!! what a legernd!! Johnson!!! - is a TV character loved by millions for his cheeky, bumbling persona. Unlike the cartoon MP, he's magnetically prone to scandal, but this somehow only makes him more adorable each time. Tee hee! Boris has had an affair! Arf! Now he's offended the whole of Liverpool! Crumbs! He used the word "picaninnies"! Yuk yuk! He's been caught on tape agreeing to give the address of a reporter to a friend who wants him beaten up! Ho ho! Look at his funny blond hair! HA HA BORIS LOL!!!! WHAT A LEGERND!!!!!! LOL OMFG!!!! BORIS DONE A GUFF!!!! ROFL!!!!!!! THE MAN IS A LEGERND I TELL YOU LOL!!!!! I CARNT WAIT 2 SEE HIM RUNNING THE INTIRE CITTY!!! BORRIS 4 KING!!! LOL!!! LOL!!! LOLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

whats the deal with the congestion charge (4x4's)?

I think he's going to fuck up pretty badly. He just doesn't strike me as a man who has any focus, application or indeed competence. And if he does fuck up, then that is going to be seriously bad news for Cameron.

yep, and cameron knows it too. he'll be all over johnson like stink on doo-doo.

The only possible benefit i can foresee is a vote of no confidence in Broon.

next time someone sees him on his bike in London, just give him a little nudge, or let his tyres down!!Or you can all move to the South of France and forget about him!!

next time someone sees him on his bike in London, just give him a little nudge, or let his tyres down!!Or you can all move to the South of France and forget about him!!

Which is going to cause me most trouble, Boris as Mayor or the hills in Nice?

whats the deal with the congestion charge (4x4's)?

Boris prob won't scrap the whole thing, but he has promised to hold a referendum on the western extension, and the £25 charge for large vehicles.

To lose the western extension would be a shame, but the £25 thing was ok, except for the part allowing small engined vehicles an exemption.

To be a little heretical, the one-off tax probably encouraged some people to drive more once they had paid.

It's actually hard to make out what Boris is going to do:

he made some very disapproving noises about the Low Emissions Zone, but has since recanted

he also has talked about rephasing the lights to make traffic 'flow faster' and lifting the 20 mph speed limits (which he actually won't have control over - the local councils and national govt do) but we will have to wait and see because he wasn't specific.

There will definitely be some cuts in services, but it's likely to be on the buses more than anywhere else I would have thought.

Oh, and he gets to be in charge of Olympics! Ha ha ha! A poisoned chalice if ever there was one.

^^ that could be the main part of his downfall. Too many nations and too many people he could potentially offend. Lots of his manifesto is actually beyond the powers of the Mayor (CC, policing etc.) but I wouldn't want to be working for the GLA / GOL / London Councils on Monday.

i still don't think it matters

That's because you have no perspective, and no grasp of how important decent public transport is. Ken's biggest achievement was making the bus the king of the road in London. That shit really matters, and if you are too obtuse to see that then I suggest that you really haven't bothered to inform yourself about integrated transport policy.

If Boris really does dismantle all the good work that was done to reduce road casualties in London, then hundreds of lives will ruined as a result. That matters.

Your 'cynicism' seems to be a front for apathy and ignorance.

I now wish I had done what I used to do at elections: followed the old anarchist slogan 'vote early, vote often'.

^^ that could be the main part of his downfall. Too many nations and too many people he could potentially offend. Lots of his manifesto is actually beyond the powers of the Mayor (CC, policing etc.) but I wouldn't want to be working for the GLA / GOL / London Councils on Monday.

+1

If Boris really does dismantle all the good work that was done to reduce road casualties in London, then hundreds of lives will ruined as a result. That matters.

Very good point.

I'm trying to look on the bright side, and then keep remembering that the BNP won an assembly place. WTF.

cheers bill...
on a scale of 1-10 how fucked are Londoners?*
*if thats possible.

” while Portsmouth is “full of drugs, obesity, underachievement and Labour MPs”

Whoever said 'downward spiral' is probably right, tories'll probably romp home in the next election... I'll definitely leave the UK if that happens, lived through too many years under tory rule and I don't wanna go through that again...
I can only hope Boris's dick or stupid fat mouth gets him into some kinda untenable position...
This really sucks... :(

However right or wrong you may view it Ken f@@cked himself with the western extension - i think the majority of people round here viewed it as a class tax, and it mobilised them to vote for Boris. EDIT: I live in fulham and work in Chelsea

I couldnt stand Ken the person, but irrespective of that you could tell he cared deeply about London and being the mayor, but he also began to see himself as 'president' of London - who knows what Boris will do, i think the bureaucracy is too big for him to unwind the good things Ken has done, and who knows he might do some good, especially if Cameron gives him a good gang of advisors.

To discount him for being an Eton and Oxford toff is as bad as the people who voted Ken out for being a communist peasant - a sentiment often heard round the bars of chelsea clapham and fulham

To discount him for being an Eton and Oxford toff is as bad as the people who voted Ken out for being a communist peasant....

No, communist peasants are better than Eton toffs. They'd kick the shit out of them in a fight!

^^ that could be the main part of his downfall. Too many nations and too many people he could potentially offend. Lots of his manifesto is actually beyond the powers of the Mayor (CC, policing etc.) but I wouldn't want to be working for the GLA / GOL / London Councils on Monday.

particularly as - for the rest of the country - it's a bank holiday.