Asteroids and Segways for London?

Lembit Öpik hasn't gone away you know. Now he thinks he's the man to be Mayor of London.

Just one moment while I finish my shock.

This one has been floated before - see Is London doomed? - but Öpik declared "The only issue is my constituency is 205 miles away", a potential killer. Now that the voters of Montgomeryshire have relieved themselves of Öpik he is of course free of that drawback.

Opinion on Liberal Democrat Voice is heavily negative - see Should Lembit Opik be the Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor?, especially for comments like "He can stand for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party" - from a peer of the realm. But who knows if Liberal Democrat Voice commenters speak for the London membership?

So far the Liberal Democrats have run for Mayor the Invisible Woman, Simon "Straight Choice" Hughes and the Cannabis Commander. In that line-up is an Öpik candidature really that out of the ordinary?

His policies will no doubt be as follows:

1. Install an anti-asteroid shield for London.
2. Make conditions much better for Segway users.
3. Erm...
4. That's it.

Lib Dem activists don't like their negativity!

An internal Liberal Democrat report into the London Mayoral election has leaked. And the findings are damning for the Liberal Democrat method of campaigning. (Evening Standard: Paddick was a turn-off for voters, say Lib-Dems) Highlights of the coverage include:

...activists were so upset with "negative campaigning" that they refused to deliver lealfets...

And the report itself says:

The present system often appears to incentivise candidates to promote themselves above all else... Many candidates have too often come across almost as if they were independents...

It's not just referring to Brian Paddick but to Liberal Democrat candidates in general. One of the most devious campaign tactics some have adopted is to basically run against their own Liberal Democrat run council where necessary.

If Nick Clegg, or whoever's the Lib Dem leader next week, really does believe in "a new type of politics", "an end to tribalism" and all the other stuff they usually spout then they could do no worse that actually clamping down on their local campaign organisers who are addicted to negativity. Every Conservative and Labour activist has a stock of stories of negative Lib Dem campaigning to trade and despises the Lib Dems precisely because of this two-facedness. If Clegg wants to make any impact as all as leader he could do no worse than make this a priority.

The end of Ken?

The Evening Standard have commissioned another poll about the forthcoming Mayoral election and it's not looking good for Ken Livingstone. (Evening Standard: Boris races ahead in mayor poll) And it never looked good for Brian Paddick, whilst Siân Berry's attempts to pretend she's a serious challenger have been met not by not even placing in the results! So with further adieu, here are the figures:

London Mayor: Neck-Neck-Toe

I missed this the other day but YouGov have done a comprehensive poll for the London Mayoral election, with the results showing that the race is very close. (Evening Standard: Mayor race: Livingstone and Boris too close to call) And it also shows how time and votes can be wasted - Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat, is nowhere.

So for all those Liberal Democrats out there, here's a special one just for you. I don't know much about how to create images, but here are the figures in one of those bar charts your leaflets usually use:

As you can see:

*IT'S A TWO HORSE RACE!
*LIB DEMS CAN'T WIN HERE!
*A VOTE FOR PADDICK IS A VOTE FOR LIVINGSTONE!

...and all the other usual slogans.

Now I know what some of you are going to say - the Mayoral election is by Supplementary Vote. But this only gives the voter two options. So if the Liberal Democrats go chasing second preferences, particularly from people planning to vote Green or any other smaller party, they will merely be wasting votes and giving the election to Livingstone.

Only Boris can beat Livingstone.