Lets say Gordon Brown went...

Say Gordon Brown went. Where would we go from there? While the Labour rebels will have won, I’m sure they’d be the first ones to admit that the list of potential candidates is far from tempting. David Miliband? Ed Balls?It doesn’t seem likely. Perhaps an old guard. Jack Straw? Too tainted. Claire Short. Not New Labour enough. Maybe, now is the time to break from the formula. Face it, New Labour is found out and dyeing. Gordon Brown has given it a layer of naked boringness that Tony Blair could hide with his charisma. The smoke screen is lifted and it’s a bit wrinkly and horrible behind it. What about turn politics on its head. Members should choose someone that no one has heard of – a good constituency MP that reflects the populous, with a forward looking out put. Someone that can win back the inner cities, and the core labour vote again.

I suggest Diane Abbott. She is a hardworking MP in a difficult borough. Unlike Jackie Smith, she is not one for scaremongering, she is Black, lively, and down to earth. I’ll admit it is a bit of a long hop. Maybe it is just my slight jealously at America about to elect their first Black president. “Britain’s more liberal!” I think to myself, feigning excitement that America will beat us to that milestone. Of course I want Obama to win. I’m just a little ‘liberal nationalistic’ about it. If we get the first Lesbian fundamentalist Muslim as our next Prime minister then we will win. In your face America! We’re more accepting. We even let foreigners manage our national teams. Now that's progress.

Unfortunately, our political system is nowhere near an election race that involves a Latino, a women and a black man (and a Mormon, a former preacher and John ‘will he really survive the four years?’ McCain). Instead we have the potential Victorian situation of have two Old Etonian’s run both London and the country. Just. Just don’t.
So, Diane Abbott. I think she is perfect. Come on, let the lefty Britons get some pride back. This curveball might just work. Okay, it won’t entice the masses back from the BNP. But, really. The reason Cameron is doing so well is that he has enticed those voters disaffected with the Labour Party, through basically being nice. And she’s nice! And women like nice! And, oh… the Party chooses John Reid? Oh well.
Good luck, Dave. Now where’s my Fag?

Boris wins

I am going to blog about this because, you know, everyone else will do. I have mixed feelings at this late point (12:56, pre-last antibiotic of the day). Ken Livingstone has done a great job. He has increased bus use by 40%, got major investment for Crossrail, got the olympics (only, he freely admits, for the chance of regeneration of the east end) and successfully implemented environmental reforms, like no other major city in the world. He has also seen crime fall by 6 percent for the last few years, and we now have a record amount of police officers on the streets of London. But, he has been accused of corruption, cronyism and sin-of-all-sins hating the evening standard.

Boris on the other hand has run a small right-wing weekly, appeared on TV, had a affair, referred to black people as piccannies and having watermelon smiles, has been homophobic (comparing a gay marriage to one of three men and a dog) and is a big fan of Thatcher. Yes, Her.

Clearly I wanted Ken to win, after all, it was only a two horse race in the end. Personally I voted Brian Paddock, the gay policeman, first, Ken second, perhaps out of some hope that a serious candidate, not a celebrity could get in. In fact, I sincerely hope that Boris Johnson offers Brian a job, and he accepts. His record is one of the best for a policeman anywhere, and that sort of experience of success would be vital. Maybe there is a bright Boris-led future. his record of past work suggests he is lazy and uncaring (he has missed more votes than is really acceptable), so his advisers could run him. More likely I think is a Boris London run similar to Ken's at first. They share many policy choices, and London is still a green, socially concious city . That clock, set ticking by Ken, will not go back.

It needs a Boris that is willing to accept the legacy of Ken and carry on the steps he has taken, making sure that we get Crossrail done on time, and that the Olympics really does transform the East End, not cutting the free travel benefits bought in by Ken. He must not pull funding from public transport. We cannot revisit the dark days of Thatherism, London is a buses and trains city now. Boris, run with it.

There are many benefits I can see Boris bringing to the job. He is a keen cyclist - a very good thing. Hopefully he can bring over Paris' exceptional bike hire scheme. This I feel I would be grinning ear to ear about. Also I like his idea for Family friendly house building. We must attempt to keep communities, in the face of the private developers, London and the success of regeneration schemes depend on it. Family homes are best for this. His unwillingness to not declare a ratio of the number of affordable homes, though, is quite worrying.

But I have to remain positive. He is clearly not a Londoner, but has some good ideas. Lets hope he ditches his Tory reins and runs London as it deserves. If he can't, then I'm afraid.