/ Chicken Dinner / 19 March 2008 /

With less than six weeks until election day, Chicken Dinner look at the 'finer' points of the Boris v Ken battle...

Hair

Just 43 days to go then, before the ballot box coughs up the next mayor of London. That's 43 days for Boris Johnson to try and keep his signature unruly hair under control; the new, disciplined thatch being a symbol of Boris' newfound desire to be taken seriously. And not considered an imbecile.

So far, Boris' strategy seems to be working. A YouGov survey commissioned by the Evening Standard gives Bojo the support of 49 per cent of voters, with Ken Livingstone trailing on 37 per cent. This translates into prices of [1.62] for Boris to win on Betfair, [2.52] for Ken to be returned for a third term and see the Olympic project through.

Both candidates officially launched their campaigns yesterday, both by the river, perhaps as a nod to each other as to how similar their campaign pledges are. Ken may have said that the election is not "an electoral Celebrity Big Brother," but voters are going to have to make decisions on personality if they can't sort the candidates out on policy. A case in point: the early obsession with bendy buses.

Buses

Boris has said that the instant the chain of office is placed around his neck, he will slay one of the greatest threats to safety in the capital: the bendy bus. They cause more accidents than regular buses, they encourage fare dodging and as a cyclist he probably harbours some deep seated resentment of having to share the road with anything that size.

His overground alternative is to reintroduce the beloved Routemaster, the bus that permitted the dangerous thrill of being able to jump on and off at will. And at speed. The last Routemaster was put to sleep by Ken a little over two years ago. This gambit of Bojo's led to Ken announcing at the weekend that he too was on the side of London against the tyranny of the articulated bus, and that he would not be ordering any more. Presumably they'll get round to looking at the lesser issues of knife crime, public drunkenness and safety on the streets at night once the more pressing concern of identifying the right bus for Londoners has been settled.

Ken's new pals

In other news, the Green party has decided to throw its weight behind Ken Livingstone, and is encouraging supporters to give him their second preference vote. Previously it told followers not to give a second preference to anyone, and is suspicious of Livingstone's fondness for the City and all its eco-hostile skyscrapers and greedy ventures. The underlying reason for this lukewarm alliance is probably the Green Party's allergy to all things Boris. "Boris Johnson has a real contempt for Londoners," said their leader Sian Berry. "I cannot bear the idea of living under Boris Johnson."

This was a theme Ken could warm to. Boris Johnson, he said, was a dangerous right-winger who would turn back the clock for London. "If a man is tired of London, he slopes off to Henley," he claimed, in reference to Bojo's posh Oxfordshire constituency. Probably not too much kerfuffle over bendy buses there.

Betfair Politics Zone

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