Mayor of London: A non-choice?

The election rumbles on. No, I’m not talking about the Democratic Primary Season, where the epic* battle for the nomination continues. Here in the UK (well, England. Well, London) we are coming to the end of another epic electoral duel. With a throwback to the 1940’s taking on a Stalinist piss midget. The choice is not so much substandard as downright depressing. And for all the talk of basing the contest on policy and moving away from the Celebrity Big Brother/cult of personality that so dominates society today, this contest has become about personality. And I don’t think I will be alone in casting my vote based largely on personality rather than politics. And I make no apology for doing so – increasingly we are not voting for something (an ideology etc) but rather for someone. Or, more typically, against someone.

There was once a time when people could vote on ideology (cue the sound of soft violins to evoke a haze of nostalgia). No, really, there was. In 1945 you had a choice – between the socialist Labour party, ready to nationalise everything, and the more restrained Tory party. That choice was resurrected in the 1970’s, when the Tory party lurched to the right, and the Labour party to the left. Seriously, look at the 1983 General Election. Margaret Thatcher, who wanted to slash the welfare state and kick start the economy using controversial economics, against Michael Foot – possibly the most left wing leader the Labour Party ever had. You could vote and know you were voting for something. What would happen if there was a general election today? You’d probably end up voting for Cameron, or Clegg, not because you happen to like them, but rather because they aren’t Gordon Brown. The policies are broadly the same, the personalities aren’t. So you vote for the personalities these days.

It is just the same in the London Mayoral Election. Ignoring the minor parties,** this is a straight contest between Livingstone and Johnson. And their policies are broadly the same. Sure, they will do slightly different things and finance it in slightly different ways – Ken from taxing you like a bitch, Boris from the mayor’s promotion budget (which he seems to think is bottomless) – but there is nothing radical in either of their platforms. You put their ideas together, in identical document in plain text, and I’d be surprised if you could genuinely tell them apart.

So you vote, if you want to vote for someone with even a chance of winning, based on what you perceive about the personality types of the two lead candidates. And neither bears up to a close inspection. I like Boris, but I do understand that he has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth a lot. I’m also very wary of his use of racially abusive terms, about his bumbling, and about what that says about his competence to be Mayor. On the flipside, you have Ken – once a radical alternative to Nu Labour, he is now an establishment man through and through. With Ken, there are the rumours – of drinking, of anti-Semitism. Then you have his various contacts – some of whom appear to be grossly corrupt, some of whom are extremists. To back that up, you have those whispered stories, of fights, including one that involved a pregnant woman. Sure, both Boris and Ken, being so firmly in the glare of the media, are going to have stories made up about them. But I think there are enough true incidents floating around to make you question whether either man should be Mayor of this great, cosmopolitan city. And the murky nature of the two candidates may be why the polls have narrowed – ultimately, there isn’t a great deal to help you to choose between the candidates.

But fuck it; that’s the choice we’ve got. Boris or Ken. And, unless he manages to set fire to himself at a campaign stop or joins the Ku Klux Klan or the BNP, Boris will be getting my little “x” next to his name a week on Thursday. Mainly because I find Ken so absolutely odious.

Modern British Politics: “You get my vote because you aren’t as repugnant to me as your opponent.”

*By epic I mean epic in the way The Lord Of The Rings film franchise was epic – i.e. long and a bit pointless.
**As they don’t have a chance of capturing City Hall – even the Lib Dems. Paddick has made zero impact in this contest. And I am aware of the irony of someone who is in a (very) minor party dismissing minor parties. Well, the Libertarians aren’t going to win this election. Although if they ever want a candidate for it, I’ll give it a go.