please empty your brain below

Not one of the 62%.

You mean 18% voted for Ken. I know it's late.

Number of new transport projects started under the previous Mayoral term for the unlucky next incumbent to cut the ribbons of: Zero.

Roll on 2016!

Now that's all over let's hope he keeps those transport promises, particularly concerning promoting Crossrail 2

bye bye ken we wont miss you.

Swirlythingy - haven't you forgotten the dangleway?

In my constituency 73,143 people gave a second preference vote to someone other than Boris or Ken. There is obviously a lot of confusion as to how this works. It's a good job we didn't adopt AV.

I gave my second preference to someone other than Boris or Ken deliberately, and national AV would be an excellent idea.

The superficial observing this might feel that the media have an unwarranted influence on the outcome of such elections, people just fail to grasp what is a simple process (with a degree of complexity) and those who voted for Boris really don't understand. Of course, that couldn't possibly be right.

Did you think that your second preference candidate would finish in the top 2?

Actually, what angers me about the London election is they have lumped the boroughs of Greenwich and Lewisham together, and Bexley and Bromley. Result: a rock-solid safe seat for each party. It would have made more sense to have Greenwich/Bexley and Lewisham/Bromley - two marginals where the candidates would actually have had to earn your vote.

Bad news.

Ben Thacker - surely you should have given your *first* choice to someone other than Boris or Ken if you wanted to make a difference, with your second choice going to Boris or Ken - whichever your disliked less.

timbo - That's not a transport project, it's a publicly funded tourist attraction. The only one still being built and scheduled to open before 2016 is the Overground, which will be open by the end of this year, and only because it's running late. The Croxley Rail Link might just squeak in before the election if it's lucky.

But we still have a fleet of largely pointless shiny new buses to look forward to...

If Bexley and Bromley were in Kent, Ken would have won.

If you had a wooden leg, you could keep up your sock with a drawing pin.

Both statements are true but totally irrelevant. You can always reassign hypotheticals but whats the point ?

Oh, and if Purley was in Surrey, the London Borough of Croydon would always be Labour held.

Ken Livingstone RIP

ABOUT TIME!!

If Bexley and Bromley were in Kent, Ken would have won.

Yes, obviously that's pointlessly hypothetical.

But it does offer some insight into the margin of Boris's victory, and the huge importance of the suburbs.

One of Ken's policies was going to be to ask the people of Purley (and South Croydon) whether they'd like to go back to being in Surrey. I bet they would, and I bet Ken would have been very pleased if they had.

@swirly - there is actually very little 'public' money going into Air Line, which is how it could start so quickly. Most of the funding comes from the sponsor.

@ Jay - the cost of the thing is £60m capital cost payable now. Emirates deal is £36m for 10 years worth of publicity and presence on the Tube Map. Mace, who are buidling it, also operate it for 3 years. There has been no disclosure as to what they are being paid nor is there anything that says when Emirates contribution is paid. Is it now, when it opens or phased across a number of years?

I'm afraid a net public sector contribution of *£24m* is appalling for something with no transport purpose whatsoever. I also don't call it "very little" when it could have been spent on something far more worthwhile for far more Londoners.

@ swirlything - the next Mayor will be able to toddle along to cut the ribbon for Crossrail 1. I accept that was started in Boris's first term rather than planned for his second. He might also get invited to grin and smile at the Thameslink completion too.

I'm shocked that you don't believe that Tramlink to Crystal Palace, DLR to Bromley and the Beckenham tram will all be being built over the next 4 years with the possibility of spilling over for Mayor post 2016. 8-)


Hmmm. If I didn't live in Bromley, maybe I wouldn't have voted for Boris.

But I do. And I did.

tintinhaddock
The merging of Barnet and Camden for these elections follows your wish I guess, as the former tends to be Tory and the latter Labour. In this election, there were local issues in Barnet concerning the cost of parking in the borough, which Tory candidate Brian Coleman was responsible for, and he paid the penalty

PC - You don't seem to have accounted for any revenue. I'm inclined to agree about the amount of transport use but suspect it may be a long term money winner.

@PC: One of Boris's very first acts in 2008 was to cancel, among other things, all Tramlink extensions. If he hadn't, then he would have been able to open the Crystal Palace tram (which I'm sure couldn't have cost that much more than £24m) during this term, instead of having to vaguely promise it in his second manifesto.

As for Crossrail 1, that's already been put back from 2016 to at least 2019, and I bet that's not the end of the story!

Basically, the point I'm making is that Boris is, to a large extent, the architect of the misfortunes awaiting him in his second term. He got to take the credit for an awful lot of stuff started by his predecessor in his first, but now that's almost all dried up, and the prospects up until 2016 are looking distinctly sparse after his infamous 'money-saving' cull.

Even if he does keep any transport promises made in his most recent manifesto (including some which he had previously personally cancelled), all they'll do is benefit his successor, much as Ken's projects benefited him.

It would've been a smarter move to let Ken win this one, so he could be the person having to explain why all the investment suddenly vanished!

I wish I was amused by this.
Strong cup of tea needed.

@ AC - It is impossible to take account of cable car revenue as fares and ticketing info has not been made public. The original poster was under the delusion that the private sector had paid for the cable car which they certainly have not. We also do not know whether revenue will cover costs nor do we know what share TfL will get of any "excess". I accept that there will be a level of novelty value interest but how sustained this will be is very open to question.

Boris won. And I'm pleased we didn't get a man like Ken back in to wave a flag at the Closing Ceremony.

@ swirlythingy - Yes I know Boris is the architect of his own misfortune. He doesn't understand what is needed to properly plan infrastructure projects which is why we get gimmicks with relatively short implementation timescales. I don't believe any of his manifesto "projects" will be delivered over the new four years.

I do think he will get a level of NR devolution and possibly some Overground investment from Government as that could be designed to give Bombardier a short term boost and is relatively easy to deliver. This could be announced as early as this Summer.

As I don't expect Boris to stand in 4 years time he doesn't care about there being no legacy as he won't be defending it.

@PC : believe it or not, but Europe is also coughing up for the Cable Car, hence the signs on the hoardings. I understand that single trips will cost the thick end of a fiver - a multi-trip ticket loaded onto Oyster will reduce this considerably and Oyster PAYG will also reduce standard fares.

tintinhaddock, I'm no PhD in maths, but if that's true, looking at DG's list of numbers, it means that 50% of all those voting other than Boris/Ken on second preference were in your constituency. Can that be right?

An amusing trend spotted in this and previous comment threads. By and large, it splits into Ken supporters discussing the history of the first three London mayoral terms and the achievements made in each (and consequences for the future), and Boris supporters hurling puerile insults without any pretence at scrutiny.

One might almost think they had an interest in their man not being judged on his record in office...

@swirlythingy - There are many ways to cut this pie: you could say that Ken wilfully ignored his own manifesto commitments and the voices of Londoners by raising the congestion charge and increasing its size, when Londoners affected didn't want it.

Boris on the other hand promised to consult on scrapping it, listened to the views of that part of London who asked for it to be scrapped and then scrapped it. He promised in his last manifesto to consult and deliver on a New Bus for London, and it happened. And (slowly) it is being rolled out.











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