Red Box - Times Online's Westminster blog

What do the Mayor teams do now - party

It's all over. Polling stations close now and the agony begins. For the Mayoral teams, the pain is prolonged for another 18 hours. Counting at the four stations around London does not start until tomorrow morning, and processing ballot papers - even automatically - is not expected to finish until the evening. The BBC hopes to have a result for the 6pm news, but this isn't guaranteed.

The bad news for both camps is that if it's too close to call in London - or if there is electronic meltdown - it will go to a manual recount. And, with approximately 6 million ballot papers to process, that wont be quick.

So there's nothing for the campaign teams to do but go to the pub this evening. Both Team Boris and Team Ken will be celebrating this evening, though I'm assured BJ will not get too inebriated this evening despite ending his alcohol ban. Ken hasn't had any such restrictions.

Update: A Frenchman Writes: As an interested frenchman I find it a bit strange that it takes 20 hours to get the results. Here when polls take place in Paris they close at 8pm and the official results are in by 12pm, with early estimates for insiders as early as 6pm and reasonable figures by 9pm. I'm curious to see who will get elected and will be back tomorrow!

London's Rainbow coalition

As seen on Have I Got News for You, the London Mayor contest repackaged for kids. For those who thought it was a grown up contest in the first place.

And below the fold, click to see a video about Hilary Clinton by the same group

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... read today's leading article on the London Mayor race....

The dark world of the London mayoral race

"This election is not Celebrity Big Brother," Ken Livingstone said on day one proper of the mayoral campaign. He may be wrong about that. First name branding ("Re-elect Ken" vs "Back Boris", just like CBB). Aggressive use of race (just like CBB). No mention of their respective political parties. Much dog-whistling on both sides. Even Channel 4 viewers will be wincing by May 1.

For Livingstone's launch, he packed activists into the Royal Festival Hall and delivered a Stalinist and at times rambling speech on his achievements and plans. Some of the blows were aimed quite low. For instance: "Racist attacks are down by over half, when elsewhere they are up. But in contrast Boris Johnson's campaign uses the right wing dog-whistle politics that attack political correctness." Livingstone's will be an openly very negative campaign.

Then it was over to County Hall to hear Boris. Lynton Crosby, the Australian political strategist who has been accused of running 'inflamatory' past campaigns, was very much on show. Already Crosby-style slogans are coming out of Boris's mouth, although they sound incongruous. "Too many people in London are affected by disorder and criminality. I want to lead the fight back," Boris told the room. The campaign has identified the issues, but today Boris was far from sure footed on his plans to solve them. Asked how, he suggested handheld scanners to detect knives, "live" CCTV and "taking personal responsibility for getting police to do what they wanted to do".

44 days out, both sides believe that there is all to play for. Yesterday an opinion poll by YouGov for the Evening Standard put Boris 12 points ahead (Ken on 37, Boris on 49, Paddick on 12). CCHQ briefers were cock-a-hoop, drawing journalists' attention to it.

In stark contrast, the Boris campaign, and Crosby himself, were this morning rubbishing it. They say that it is a nonsense poll for various reasons. First, they say, there is no way Brian Paddick, the Lib Dem candidate, would remain on 12 per cent when the Liberal Democrats are in the low 20s nationally. It also fails to take account of second preferences. Few have made their mind up whether to vote and who to vote for and vast differences in turnout will decide the election. They do not believe that it is anything close to being in the bag.

All the signs are that we are in for a relentlessly negative time.

Brian Paddick's team pushes autobiography to mayor campaign supporters

The first extracts of Brian Paddick's autobiography have been serialised by the Mail on Sunday today. This has been judged a suitable point by his campaign team to send out an e-mail to everyone signed-up to support him suggesting that they pre-order a copy. Surely Paddick is not using the London mayor campaign to push his book?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark Pack <M.Pack@libdems.org.uk>
Date: 2 Mar 2008 15:27
Subject: [Brian Paddick update] Britain's most controversial policeman
reveals what's wrong with policing
To: brianpaddick@lists.libdems.org.uk


Today's Mail on Sunday has exclusive extracts from Brian's forthcoming memoirs of his time as a policeman - packaged with a suitable tabloid newspaper headline!

The piece is packed full of fascinating insights on what it's really been like to serve as a

Boris Johnson: domestic flights are "a sin"

To the first London mayoral debate of many, hosted by the Green Alliance on the environment.

A personal verdict: Ken Livingstone was in command on the detail but sounded weary, Boris Johnson got laughs but skated lightly over topics, Brian Paddick had some of the best anti-Ken attack lines. I thought Ken won on points and there was a strong performance from Brian, but my neighbour - from a green campaign - handed a notional victory at half time to Boris. Sian Berry, the highly credible green candidate, demonstrated how the Green Party has been edging Ken into ever more environmentally-friendly positions.

In summary:

Most surprising quote: "Everybody who cares about the environment knows that the mayor has done some good things and some wise things" - Boris

Most disputable quote: (You can force 4X4s off the road) "only when you have a good alternative - which is what public transport is in this city and you've also got the draconian measures to force people to make that change" - Ken

Slam dunk moment: Boris Johnson's pre-prepared salvo on the "Mayor's garden grab" in which he called for Ken to stop building over people's gardens. Ken replied it was a planning matter for the boroughs and he would do all he could to oppose building on back gardens in the next London plan. If there was a comeback to Ken's point, Boris didn't deploy it. Appeared like a tactical loss.

Least green moment: "The mayor's latest initiative on gas guzzlers. I think anyone who has studied it will know it is politically very interesting but environmentally marginal" - Boris

Most forceful class war moment: "There is no excuse for driving a 4x4 or a gas guzzling in this city and if they chose to do that they must be prepared to pay the £6,000 a year in order to compensate for the damage they are doing to the environment" - Ken

Cheapest anti-politician point:" I'm not going to make a very good politician because I can't say anything I don't believe in". - Brian

Best personal green credentials: "I don't own a car. I walk most places. It's 10 minutes to where I work and about 20 minutes walk to central London... I have had the heating on for 45 minutes this winter because my flat is so well insulated" - Brian Paddick

Least deliverable pledge : It's really possible to get as many people living as close as possible to where they work - Brian

Unashamed dog whistle politics: "Awful lot of spin doctors employed by the White House to undermine the consensus on climate change - and they have had some success" - Ken Livingstone

Best attack line: Ken's low emission zone will put Portobello Road fruit and vegetable market out of business. "(The traders) don't have the £3,000 to £5,000 to change their vehicles. Ken is driving small businesses out of business and that will result in less markets available for local people" - Brian

Biggest laugh: Boris promises to scrap The Londoner, which he said promotes Pyongyang "pap" and use the money to plant £500-a-go trees.

Most ingenious argument (about why the Congestion Charge is not good enough for the environment): "If climate change is an absolutely priority, why do you encourage people off public transport into private car by exempting band a and b cars from the congestion zone. You are playing politics with the planet" - Brian

Most aggressive moment: "We have had decades of complete lies by the British Airports Authorities. We are in a desperate race with Charles de Gaul and Schipol. We are so far ahead in the size of our airport there is no serious threat of being overtaken" - Ken

Biggest policy disagreement: Boris is proposing a new airport in the Thames Estuary. Ken said: "We are coming up to turn Romney Marsh it in the biggest bird sanctuary in Western Europe." Boris's comeback: "I hear what you say about the dangers to birds, Ken, I don't think that is a debate we can possible ignore. Think what the Hong Kong Chinese had to do". Sian Berry, the Green candidate called the idea: "a crazy Bond fantasy"

Comment with the most potential ramifications: "Domestic flights in this country are a crime, they are a sin. You will not find, under a Johnson mayoralty, 381 officials taking flights within this country. That's absolutely criminal" - Boris

Most interesting idea: Ban adverts for big cars and cheap flights on the tube and bus. "That's when we're at our most vulnerable" - Sian Berry, the green candidate

The joke you'll be hearing over and over: Boris to Ken: "You should even at this stage show initiative and learn to ride a bike, and I am willing to give you free lessons in completely safety. I think it would be high time like you experience the full horror of trying to overtake a bendy bus."

Best facts to emerge from the debate:

We have lost gardens 22 times the size of Hyde Park - Boris

The carbon emissions of London match those of Switzerland - Boris

Air quality is so bad in this city it takes 8 months off the lives of the average Londoner - Ken

A band 'b' car driving from Brighton to central London emits four times the pollution a Chelsea tractor does from Chelsea to Charing Cross - Brian

New pledges:

New £10 congestion charge for greater London zone - Brian

Education programme to give advice on most environmentally friendly products - Ken

Plant more street trees with the money for the Londoner - Boris Johnson

Ban 4X4 adverts on the tube - Sian Berry

Mayoral flip flopping

So it emerges that Brian Paddick, the Lib Dem candidate for London mayor, had a meeting with the Conservatives about standing for them last spring. The former Met deputy assistant commissioner discussed running as the Tory candidate with Francis Maude, then the Tory party chairman. The discussions were amicable but went nowhere.

So much for being a lifelong Lib Dem, then. When he was selected, Paddick told reporters that his police job precluded party membership, but he had always been an "undercover" Lib Dem. Not so Lib Dem that he didn't consider flipping sides, though.

The trigger for the meeting appears, hilariously, to be an ITV London news item a few weeks before, which suggested that the Conservatives were interested in Paddick (Tories say the TV news got it wrong). Paddick saw it and e-mailed David Cameron via Webcameron to ask: “Is there something you want to tell me?” The correspondence got bounced to Maude, who called Paddick on his mobile and arranged a meeting. The rest is sub-prime history.

Boris the clown is back

Those hoping the new year would bring out Boris Johnson's statesmanlike qualities (remember D Cameron: "Inside Boris there is a serious, ambitious politician fighting to get out") will have to hang on a little longer. Asked by Time magazine whether he considers himself a conviction politician, he gave a response that seems likely to grate in Millbank tower. He replied: "I certainly have a range of convictions. Not for anything serious. God. I don't have convictions, actually, by the way. No, no, no. Sorry, I don't have any convictions in a court of law, apart from speeding when I was very young. But I have plenty of political convictions. Can you rescue me? God."