Running scared
This email from Gordon Thomson, the London editor of Time Out, has passed across my desk.
We were excited and proud to be able to offer you direct access to all four main candidates on one platform, which would give you an opportunity to quiz them in person on their plans for our city.
Disappointingly, Boris Johnson, who had initially confirmed his place at this hustings, has withdrawn from the event and so will NOT be attending. I’ll leave you to surmise what this says about the Tory mayoral candidate and his commitment to London.
Ken Livingstone, Brian Paddick and Sian Berry will all be there in person to answer your questions.
I look forward to welcoming you all on Wednesday to what I’m sure will be a memorable night of debate and discussion. We’re also offering a free drink to early-comers.
After having pulled out of Any Questions? on Radio Four, Boris Johnson has pulled out of a hustings being organised by Time Out at ULU on Wednesday evening. You can register to attend here - Ken Livingstone, Sian Berry and Brian Paddick will still be taking questions!
Boris Johnson’s PR team seem to be doing a good job by keeping his out of any situation where he might have to speak unprompted or face hostile questions. This suggests to me a worrying lack of confidence in Johnson by his minders about his skills in an area that I would say is important to any leading political figure and particularly to one who must promote London overseas. The risk of him committing a gaffe - as he does done in the past on many occasions - and costing London investment is real.
xD.
Update 2212: The Tory Troll beat me to it…
March 31st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I’ll leave you to surmise what this says about the Tory mayoral candidate and his commitment to London.
Maybe he’s getting on with the more serious business of preparing to run London
March 31st, 2008 at 5:24 pm
[...] Original post by The blog of Dave Cole [...]
March 31st, 2008 at 5:37 pm
You got the same email then. The Boris strategy from here on in is simple: shut up, stay shut up and hope for the best. It’s an effective strategy for now but not much use in government.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:11 pm
James,
Are you suggesting that he is so far behind in his preparations that he doesn’t have time to convince people to vote for him or that he does have the preparation done but he comes across badly?
TT,
Yes, I absolutely agree. Sorry, I didn’t realise you beat me to it!
xD.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:34 am
[...] …And another quick edit to point out that another blogger, Dave Cole, has also picked up on this. [...]
April 1st, 2008 at 8:44 am
Boris was never due to attend the event on April 2nd as he had a longstanding engagement to talk to local newspaper editors. We had hoped to take part in the hustings when it was still planned for April 3rd but unfortunately TimeOut decided to reschedule for the day before instead. We’re disappointed TimeOut has claimed Boris has withdrawn as this is simply not the case but wish them a successful event without him
April 1st, 2008 at 8:44 am
Tell me how Boris is supposed to be in two places at once?
April 1st, 2008 at 8:45 am
From what I understand of it, Boris has a longstanding engagement with newspaper editors on April 2nd. Originally I believe the TimeOut debate was due to take place on April 3rd. I’m sure that not even the mercurial talents of Boris can position himself in two places at once, especially since TimeOut changed the time of its debate - you can see his press statement on this issue on Dave Hill’s blog - http://davehill.typepad.com/london3ms/2008/03/time-out-hustin.html.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:05 am
Zach,
Jeh,
Rubbish. I find it hard to believe that no-one from Team Boris checked the date of the hustings.
Equally, the engagement with the newspaper editors could be re-arranged where the hustings cannot be rearranged as easily.
xD.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:13 am
One other thing, Zach/Ryan - you posted from the same IP address and put the same email down when you commented. Anything you’d like to tell us?
xD.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:18 am
This is rubbish. Why is it that the New Left’s united strategy for the London mayoral election seems to consist entirely of trying to discredit Boris in an increasingly shoddy crusade to prevent him from winning? I see that Sian Berry of the Green Party has joined in and that Brian Paddock, rather than trumpet his own qualities or criticise the present incumbent, prefers instead to join the chorus of bleating against Boris. This is not an election campaign it is a slur campaign and the only candidate I have so far seen outlining any realistic, pragmatic and sensible proposals to improve the life of Londoners is Boris! I have always voted Labour in the past but never again. Boris will get my vote in May and nothing the charlatans of the New Left say about him will change that intention. Now, if there were a true Labour candidate, faithful to the origins and intentions of the original party . . .
April 1st, 2008 at 9:19 am
Boris was booked long ago for April 2nd to talk to newspaper editors , and the Time Out event was planned for April 3rd. Time Out then rescheduled for April 2nd, the date of Boris’s long standing engagement.
I am sure this is just Time Out’s idea of an April Fool, because they would never descend to negative campaigning about stuff that wasn’t true and they do know the truth……..
HAPPY APRIL FOOL DAVE DEAR!! THIS IS AS UNLIKELY AS GMTV’S APRIL FOOL ABOUT THE MAGIC SOCKS THAT MAKE YOU LOSE WEIGHT EVEN IF YOU DON’T DIET OR EXERCISE! PS. I was searching their website for the address of the product so how can I blame you?
April 1st, 2008 at 9:23 am
Graham,
I can only presume, then, that you haven’t been reading the other candidates’ campaign websites. If you’ve been hearing a lot about Boris, it’s because the Evening Standard and Andrew Gilligan are leading the cheers for him.
Angelneptunestar,
That’s an assertion. It’s an odd April Fool, because it happened before April Fool’s Day and, were it untrue, would land the editor of Time Out in rather a lot of hot water.
xD.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:52 am
Dave. Not so. I have been following the campaign closely. I have actually watched (on TV) both Sian Berry and Brian Paddock attacking Boris without a single mention of their own campaign proposals or the present incumbent’s record. Sian even urged Green Party supporters to vote for Ken as second choice to prevent Boris winning. To my mind that goes beyond campaigning on behalf of her party. Maybe I am old fashioned but I do not think that sort of contrivance worthy of her. I do not read the Evening Standard. At the end of the day the democratic process will deliver the candidate with the most votes, If the polls put Boris in the lead then that is part of the democratic process and should be respected by every true Labour supporter, regardless of how unpalatable the winner may be to us. Some Labour blogs have characterised potential Boris voters in the most outrageous, derogatory and discriminating terms. In my case I am voting for him against the habits of a lifetime because I believe he represents the best choice of all the candidates for realistic, pragmatic and sensible policies in London. I want a mayor who views London and the people of London in the round, not from the very narrow perspectives and vested interests of the other candidates. Boris fits the bill. The fact that he represents the Tories is a secondary consideration for me. What did Cromwell say? “Give me a plain speaking russet coated captain who knows what he loves and loves what he knows than any of your so-called gentlemen”.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:35 am
Graham,
We have different ideas of what makes a campaign. I have no problem with attacking the other side so long as you’re building your own side as well. I think there has been plenty of coverage of the proposals from the main candidates.
As to Sian Berry and her call to second preference Ken; I can understand if you prefer a majoritarian system to a system that is at least partly proportional. However, the system we have offers people the chance to choose their preferred candidate and vote for someone who is likely to win. Much as Sian Berry would want to win and is campaigning to win and to improve the position of her party on the Assembly, she knows that she is at the very best a long shot for Mayor. Ken, however, is relatively close to her position on some key issues, including the c-charge and the LEZ, and so she has asked Green voters to 2nd-pref Ken.
Effectively, she is saying that, as and when she is eliminated, the next best candidate is Ken. As the electoral system in London was constructed to encourage that, it’s hardly surprising that it’s happening.
There is only one poll that matters: the election. The others can indicate trends but not absolutes and, in any case, are often flawed or flat wrong.
“If the polls put Boris in the lead then that is part of the democratic process and should be respected by every true Labour supporter”
Absolutely not. If the election comes out with Boris having won, that is democracy. To suggest, as you do, that a partial sample by a commercial organisation should be treated as anything other than a partial sample is, frankly, ridiculous.
Which Labour blogs, Graham, have been discriminatory? I haven’t seen any that have attacked Boris other than for his policies, his record and his conduct.
Please look over Boris’ record. He cared not a fig for London until he decided to run for Mayor - look at his record in Parliament. He was, until recently, an openly declared, hardline Thatcherite. If you are, as you say, a Labour supporter, I suggest that you reconsider your views on Mr Johnson. He has gaps in his transport manifesto totalling £120m, has offended minority ethnic Londoners to such an extent that the New Nation published a piece with prominent black Londoners criticising him in no uncertain terms.
xD.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Now come along Dave. Sian made it quite clear that her suggestion was based mainly on the presumption that Ken would be “less disastrous” than Boris! That is negative campaigning. She made no mention of the alignment of some of her policies, which I think are extreme anyway, with Ken’s!
Regarding the blogs that is the point. On record and conduct, much of it frankly apocryphal, they have been strident; on policies less so, at times superficial, often cherrypicking on soundbites created by those opposed rather than substance.
I know about Boris’ record, much of it media creation and exaggeration. He is larger than life, eccentric and has in the past put his foot in it. He has also very publically apologised, something I have not seen Ken do for many of his less than fine moments!
I take no notice of past political affiliations. If I did I would be even more worried about Ken, Sian or even Brian who hails from the very narrow and clannish culture of the police. The past ten years have seen a significant sea change in the Labour movement, away from the party’s original ideals to a stance that seeks to hold power at any price, pander to interests inherently alien to traditional Labour activists and manifests some illiberal or repressive policies more often associated with the far right. Throughout this change Labour traditionalists have remained mostly acquiescent, or protested in very small voices at the wholesale hi-jacking of their party. Recently the voices have risen in tone but nowhere is there a leader worthy of the Labour heritage, either in parliament or the London mayoral elections.
Many on the Left disenchanted with or disenfranchised by New Labour seem to have chosen instead to adopt the posture of just attacking the right, or the perceived right, rather than facing up to the monumental shift in the Labour movement itself. We cling to totems that do not truly represent us whilst struggling desperately with the internal conflicts they bring upon us. No one can doubt that Labour Party morale is seriously, perhaps irrevocably damaged.
After years of this and watching my country degenerate I have had enough. I have stopped pointing to the bogeymen of the Tories, or looking where others point to them and have come to realise that politics has changed so much that what we thought we believed in, or what happened before 1997 is now redundant as any basis for informed decision.
Whilst I still do not how I might vote in the next general election, I will vote for Boris in May. If you were to be cynical you might characterise it as a vote against Ken, Sian, Brian and the others. Subconsciously it probably is.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I forgot to mention. The number crunching can so easily be manipulated that it means little. I found some pretty big gaps in Sian’s economic reasoning too, but that has received little or no attention. Her right on stridency seems to belong to another age, post Labour movement idealism and pre-Blair. Some of Ken’s economic machinations beggar belief; he is a good fund raiser but I venture too reckless in the distribution and spending of much of that bounty. Watching his performances before the London Assembly recently I have been appalled at his behaviour, cavalier attitude to accountability and dissrespect for governance.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Oh, yes, and you took me to task for suggesting democratic process in polling, rightly so. I did not mean that. I meant that the polling showing Boris in the lead represents a predicted outcome predicated on the democratic process. In other words people are entitled to their opinions and entitled to express their voting preferences, whether or not the sampling proves to be accurate. The reaction to Boris’ popular polling has sometimes bordered on the hysterical and seems to have become the focus of attention for the other candidates, rather than promoting their own policies and persuading us why we should vote for them. That is all I meant.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
As a parting but not Parthian shot, allow me to raise additional concern about Brian Paddock, as a counter to the focus on Boris. Personally I feel strongly that the police and politics should not mix. I get uncomfortable at the spectacle of a serving policeman publicly espousing political views and am little comforted when the espousal is being made by an ex-policeman.
The police form such a critical part of the delivery of social solutions in London that the idea that an ex-policeman should become mayor and oversee the process fills me with concern.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Graham,
I will reply to you at greater length later. However, I’d like to ask for some evidence to back up some of your assertions.
Firstly, what are the gaps in Sian’s economic reasoning?
Secondly, please give examples of those shrill blogs.
Thirdly, when has Boris apologised for the Darius Guppy/Stuart Collier incident?
You said:
“Many on the Left disenchanted with or disenfranchised by New Labour seem to have chosen instead to adopt the posture of just attacking the right, or the perceived right, rather than facing up to the monumental shift in the Labour movement itself. We cling to totems that do not truly represent us whilst struggling desperately with the internal conflicts they bring upon us.”
So were you on the ‘left’? Are you now?
xD.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Re your post at 19, I disagree. That would mean that no-one who’d had any senior position would be able to run. Police officers do have political views; are you seriously saying that they should not be able to comment on stop and search, for instance? Party political, no, but political, yes.
xD.
April 1st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Time Out fight back:
http://davehill.typepad.com/london3ms/2008/04/boris-johnson-t.html?cid=108999364#comments
Thought you might want to know
btw ‘zach/ryan’ has been spotted all over the place today. I wonder if we will see him again.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:21 pm
“The risk of him committing a gaffe - as he does done in the past on many occasions - and costing London investment is real”.
Didn’t he once compare a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard or something?
April 1st, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Mike,
It’s true, and that was not Ken’s finest moment. However, it was not an anti-Semitic remark, just an ill-chosen one and he had just been doorstepped.
xD.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:33 am
TT @ 22,
Sorry, you’re comment was caught up in the spam filter.
There does seem to be some astroturf being laid…
xD.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
[...] Hill has a statement from Team Boris on his London: Mayor & more blog further to this story about Boris pulling out of a hustings: “Boris was never due to attend the event on April 2nd as [...]
April 9th, 2008 at 9:06 am
[...] mean using people to pretend to be the grass roots. Someone from the same IP address commented on this post of mine under two different names; while that is not proof anything, it is suspicious when the two names [...]