Boris v Ken: Starting pistol in Mayoral race set to fire

/ Chicken Dinner / 17 March 2008 / Leave a Comment

Boris Johnson is now just [1.6] to win the election on 1st May as Ken Livingstone's chances seem to be fading fast. Chicken Dinner take a look...

Easter is not traditionally a big occasion in the political world, there's not too much mileage to be gained from handing over the gift of dental misery to children or emerging bored from church to a sea of daffodils bent horizontal by a spring gale. This year, however, it does serve a purpose of sorts, as the starting line of the race to be next mayor of London. As starting pistols go, however, don't bother covering your ears.

Ken and Boris have both been grafting away behind the scenes, taking to the podium for gatherings of admirers and inviting the trusted along to watch them eat - a spectacle that you suspect Boris performs with greater enthusiasm than Ken, and probably gives more back, too - yet maintaining a near-invisible profile for the public on campaign issues.

So a largish feature in yesterday's Sunday Times seemed to offer hope that maybe Johnson would get an early start on outlining his policies for London. Yet Boris clearly had no wish to start thumping the vote-summoning drum. "Normally Boris Johnson can't keep his mouth shut," the piece reads. "But now he wants to be London's mayor, why is he so reluctant to speak up?"

Why indeed? The Sunday Times finds him suspicious and evasive, and his new-found seriousness implausible. The paper fails not just in its search for Johnson's policies, but is also unable to locate a reason as to why Mr Johnson wants to be mayor at all. The best they can come up with is his biographer saying "He wants people to be free to enjoy themselves." The gift of pleasure is not conventionally in the remit of elected officials.

Struggling to compile a list of key Johnson campaign planks, the paper goes with "Ugliness - Will ensure affordable homes are aesthetically pleasing," and "Gun and knife crime - Fund handheld scanners for Tube and rail stations." The only subject to which Boris really seems to warm to is his hatred of bendy buses and the urgency with which they must be replaced. Last month he promised to teach Ken Livingstone - yet to master two wheels - how to ride a bike, and that he was "willing to give free lessons - in complete safety and discretion. It is high time that, like me and every other cyclist in London, you face the full horror of trying to overtake a bendy bus".

Mayor Livingstone, who has been keeping a similarly furtive profile, also popped up last night to contribute to the transport debate by telling Porsche, the German manufacturer of luxury cars for people with mid-life crises, that they should drop their opposition to the new £25 congestion charge for super-polluters. He claimed most Londoners supported him. "Porsche should take the hint and put their energy into reducing the carbon emissions of their cars instead of pursuing pointless legal action against this ground-breaking policy," he said. So that's one voting bloc taken care of: Porsche owners will vote Boris. That just leaves the other 99.9 per cent of the capital's population up for grabs.

A glance at the Betfair market, however, reveals some significant movement from last week. Boris has shortened to [1.6] to win, in from [1.98] last Friday, while Ken has drifted out to [2.54] from [2.02]. Perhaps the strategy is to avoid all discussion of policy, and hope the other candidate botches it for themselves: Ken by becoming mired in graft charges, Boris by putting his foot in it.