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The London mayoral election 2012
This will be taking place on 3 May. Although AFAIK I'm the only London resident who posts here, I thought others might be interested because the Mayor of London is about the only job in English local government that has something of the power and profile of a US state governor or the chief minister of a province/state in other federal states.
Also, the two main candidates are both colourful and controversial figures, as you can tell from the length of their wikipedia pages. Boris Johnson is the Conservative incumbent and Ken Livingstone is his Labour challenger and the ex-mayor from 2000-2008. Livingstone has been one of the best-known figures in Labour since the 1980s, despite endless media attacks over allegations of (at different times) leftist extremism, anti-Semitism, cronyism, tax avoidance, excessive drinking and keeping newts as pets (he doesn't deny the last one). It's kind of a last hurrah for him, as he's 66 and unlikely to have the chance to run again if he loses.
Johnson, meanwhile, became famous as a journalist and for appearing on TV comedy panel shows where he acted like a stereotypical upper class buffoon. It remains fiercely debated whether he did this because he is a clever man who sometimes pretends to be stupid for his own purposes or because he is, in fact, an upper class buffoon. So far the two of them have spent most of the campaign arguing about which of them is the bigger tax dodger and whether Livingstone has actually magically found a stash of money in the city coffers that he can spend on improving public transport.
Also running are Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrat and gay ex-policeman), a man born in Uruguay (British National Party), an Independent who no one's ever heard of and a Green Party candidate. Any comments can go here.
Comments
Mayoral candidates are affiliated with political parties over there? I find that odd for some reason.
Nyktos - Actually, directly elected mayors that actually run things are pretty unusual here. In most towns, the local council chooses one of its members as mayor and the job is basically an honorary one. But, yes, most of the candidates here are party nominees.
Necro'd to complete the story.
Boris Johnson won, narrowly (just over a million votes to 900,000-and-some for Livingstone). It was against the trend of the other local elections being held on the same day, where generally Labour made gains from the other parties.
I voted for the Green candidate in the end, with Livingstone as second choice.