The End of a London Era, Welcome To The Circus

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson of the Conservative Party is the new Mayor of London. This is somewhat disappointing because I didn't vote for him, but it was not entirely unexpected. Perhaps the statistics can prove me wrong (pappubahry?) but usually when there's a record electoral turnout (45%), people want change. And that is exactly what the world's greatest city will get, though one must commend the Tory joker for his kind words directed at his predecessor, the irrepressible "Red" Ken Livingstone. For his part, Ken accepted his defeat graciously while Brian Paddick (who was my first choice vote) described Ken as "an amazing mayor" while indicating he would not be interested in working with Mr Johnson. It will be interesting to see how Boris will "show the Tories had changed into a party that can be trusted after 30 years with the greatest, most cosmopolitan, multi-racial generous hearted city on earth."

In the actual numbers, neither of the top two candidates garnered a majority to win outright after the first preference votes had been counted. But even then, Boris de Pfeffel was more than 145,000 votes ahead of Labour's Red Ken. With the additional second preference votes, Boris secured an additional 124,000+ votes that were sufficient to claim London's top political prize. Not surprisingly, Brian Paddick finished a distant third while Siân Berry of the Green Party finished an even further fourth. Rather worryingly, though not entirely surprisingly, Richard Barnbrook of the fascist British National Party finish fifth with as many as 69,710 votes. London may be a thriving global city, but there are nearly 70,000 idiots who feel extremely threatened by this terrible state of affairs.

In my own London Assembly Constituency (Enfield & Haringey), Ken received the most first preference votes (66,683) followed by Boris with 60,239 and Brian Paddick (my vote) with 15,622. Siân Berry and Richard Barnbrook finished fourth and fifth respectively with 5,729 and 3,293 votes each. Somewhy, the Beeb doesn't have the figures for the second preference vote. I wonder if Ken still won.

Meawhile, Labour's Joanne McCartney held her Enfield & Haringey London Assembly seat by defeating her Tory rival, Matthew Laban in a closely fought contest by 52,665 votes to 51,263 votes. Monica Whyte of the Lib Dems (whom I voted for) finished a distant third with 23,550 votes. Before the election I contemplated voting for McCartney because a) I figured it would be a tight result and b) she is an Enfield resident with a long record of good and interesting work compared to Whyte who is a Haringey resident. In the end I decided to throw my weight entirely behind the Liberal Democrats which is something I'm gonna review before the next General Election!

The overall results encapsulate the worst defeat Labour has experienced at local (or municipal, if you're North American) elections for at least 40 years. The Tories have made the most gains while the Lib Dems have made sufficient though minimal gains to push Labour to an embarassing third position in the total votes. (Labour still won more councils and councillors than the Lib Dems). At the other end of the voting spectrum and in an unsurprising though disturbing turn of events, the British National Party won their first-ever London Assembly seat by getting the minimum 5% of votes. Their assembly candidate, Richard Barnbrook, was also their mayoral candidate and he will join the 24 other London Assembly councillors in City Hall for the next four years. (Note to self: Do not under any circumstances live in BNP-areas). The remaining 24 constituents are made up of 11 Tories, 8 Labourites, 3 Lib Dems and 2 Greens. 14 constituents are directly elected by the 14 London Assembly Constituencies. The other 11 are determined by a proportional London-wide vote. I voted Lib Dem for both.

So there we are. Change is in the air and it will be interesting to see how Labour deal with these results. Boris has already offered a solution: "The smart thing for Labour to do would be to quietly remove Gordon Brown and install David Miliband, but I don't think they'll do it."

Why Are Food Prices Going Up? Trust Dubya To Explain It And Cause Havoc Halfway Across The World...

President Bush has raised a storm in India by attributing rising food prices to the growth of India's middle class. He was quoted as saying:

"So, for example, just as an interesting thought for you, there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That's bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population. And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up." [Source]
Not surprisingly, the Indian political establishment is up in arms with this claim and lashing out at Dubya. Though all the three major political parties have responded angrily, they have each done so differently. The party leading the government, The Congress, have said that the major reason for spiralling global food prices was the diversion of land producing foodcrops to biofuel production in America. The Commies who prop up the government (with outside support) have gone for the time-tested "neoliberal economic policies imposed on India by the Bush administration" approach while the opposition BJP have blamed Bush's statement on the government's failure to control inflation. Other commentators are pointing out that India is a net exporter of rice, not importer. Really, who cares? Indian politics. It never fails to amuse.