Shane Greer

News has just reached me that a bulk order of Kleenex has just arrived at downing street…
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[Hat-tip: Guido}

I’ll be on Sky News this evening between 7.30 and 8.  What will I be doing?  I’ve given it some thought, and I think it’s fair to say I’ll be sticking it to Labour.  Joking aside it should be an interesting discussion as I’m on with Jag Singh who’s an absolute legend (expect some heated exchange) and Jo Christie-Smith for the Lib Dems. 

The projections put Labour in third place in terms of vote share. The question is, how much is Tony Blair giggling himself silly with thoughts of Gordon Brown’s inadequacy?
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Election nights are always great fun and tonight promises to be no exception (even if the mayoral result won’t be in until tomorrow).  Despite that though I’ll be at City Hall for the BBC party; I like to think of it as an opportunity to drink other people’s license fee! 

Earlier this week I argued that David Miliband is posturing for a leadership challenge and that Jack Straw will take over as a caretaker leader post-Brown. If Mary Ann Sieghart is to be believed, and there’s little reason to doubt her, Brown may be around for less time then even the most critical might dare to suggest.

Most telling of all though was her final paragraph:

“But it is clear that Mr Brown is not remotely enjoying the job he spent the whole of his life trying to win. I bumped into him last week, and his face was grey, cast in a rictus of tension. Rather like John Major circa 1995, in fact.“

Almost makes you feel sorry for him…

In what can only be described as a disgraceful example of intellectual snobbery Steve Richards of the Independent would like people to believe that not voting for Ken makes them stupid:

"Amidst the frenzy, it is easy to forget that neither Brown nor Cameron is standing in the capital. Whatever happens today in London and elsewhere, Brown will be Prime Minister tomorrow and Cameron the leader of the opposition. Voters will fail the test if they make their judgements on the basis of national politics alone.

Instead, sensible voters must stand back and attempt to make those connections. Evidently, this is a challenging task. If it were easier to recognise a link between the noisy din of high politics and the lives of voters, there would be more interest in political issues. There might even be as much interest, say, as there is in the fortunes of the England football team.

The failure of voters to make connections is the only reason why Ken Livingstone might lose today. As I have written before, many elections present difficult choices. Today’s contest in London is not one of them. Livingstone has been an extraordinarily successful Mayor under difficult circumstances. Presumably some voters have complacently forgotten what the city was like before he got the job, queuing for tickets to go on a hopeless underground service, waiting for buses that never came, no hope of a new Crossrail linking parts of this unwieldy capital…

…Apparently some voters living in the suburbs of London are incapable of such recognition. Polls suggest that in the outer parts of the capital, voters will turn out in large numbers to support Boris Johnson. Presumably those striding to the polling stations seething with misjudged fury at Livingstone, and hailing Johnson as a decent chap, have decided that it is a coincidence that their teenage kids are now able to get around the city relatively smoothly on the buses. Perhaps those over 60 who travel for nothing believe that their free access is a gift from God. The voters in the outer suburbs have most reasons to feel grateful to Livingstone. He has made the centre more accessible.

Those who do not see this fail to meet the test, so sheltered in their disconnected, atomised lives that they assume things happen around them without reason, no buses one year, lots the next, cheaper houses one year and none the next…

…But today it is the voters, not the political leaders, who face a series of tests. I wonder how many of them will pass."

What utter rubbish.  Still, given the article is in the Independent it’s not like Steve’s reaching anyone who isn’t already in agreement with him. 

My feeling is that the mayoral is going to be tight, with only a few points in it.  Every vote really will count. 

If Boris wins London will finally be rid of a man who sees London as his personal fiefdom, a man who holds the taxpayer in contempt, and who believes absolutely in the tired socialist ideas of the past.  Perhaps more importantly though a victory for Boris will see the final nails being put Gordon Brown’s political coffin. 

A vote for Boris is the first vote to remove Labour from power and get the country back on track. 

I’ll be debating Christian Wolmar on Radio 5 Live this evening on the topic of railway privatisation.  Needless to say I think privatisation is good, Christian thinks it’s bad.  Should be an interesting (and perhaps heated) discussion, so if you’re still up tune in…

On the tube to Waterloo last night (raining so didn’t fancy the walk) I found myself surrounded by four Ken supporters, each wearing a vote Ken t-shirt. Needless to say they were chatting about the evening ahead, how they were sure Ken was going to win and bashing Boris. Amusingly though when conversation turned to how best to hand out their leaflets at Waterloo and one suggested they take an entrance each, the others looked looked rather alarmed and remained silent for a few moments. Then in a voice of concern one of the three piped up: “shouldn’t we stick together?”.

Safety in numbers… I wonder why that might be?
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