As a lefty, I am required to register indignation at this. But, when it comes down to it, I believe that whoever is voted into a position of power is just another human being who is going to screw a certain proportion of things up and get another proportion of things right by dumb luck. On average, it really doesn't make much of a difference who's in, as long as they don't stay in for too long.

The next Mayoral election is May 3, 2012, and the Olympics start July 27. So probably not Boris.

The 29 not being a bendy bus is going to suck.

Yeah, I don't really know what to think. Going back through some MeFi threads (this is where it all started), he, somehow, seems to have gone from "we tories need someone, let's put Boris up as a joke" to a vaguely credible candidate. Well, I say vaguely, but he won the thing. Was Ken really that bad? And now I don't really know what to think. I think I'm intrigued and nervous. I can completely believe the reports I heard the other day that Cameron is coming up with ways to distance himself from Johnson.

For the Americans out there - Boris is the chubby, blonde upper class twit. Yes, really, he is now the mayor of London.

I'm going to bed.

I like Ken and I really believed he would win it. This came as quite a surprise to me tonight.

Mildly disappointed. Johnson's never been as dumb as he pretended though, so maybe he'll do a decent job. His biggest practical problem is inexperience at running anything significant.

I think he will effectively have less power than Ken. The mayor's actual power is fairly limited. Ken was a supreme political operator who was able to manipulate the assembly and run rings round the central government. Johnson hasn't had his long years in local governent and I don't think will be as successful at that.

What annoys me is that I strongly suspect this is mainly a protest vote against Gordon Brown, with not much to do with policy or competence or London. This is pretty ironic considering Ken's clashes with the Labour leadership and the Parliamentary Labour Party, even being expelled from the Party and defeating them as an independent.

WTF London? was my first thought. I assumed Brown would get an electoral kicking in the councils but the London election is surely more about the personalities of the candidates? I thought Livingstone was popular! Oh well, here's hoping Johnson doesn't screw up too badly.

this is very, very bad news

I thought Livingstone was popular!

He was popular. But he hasn't been able to deliver visible enough transport improvements during his two terms (stuff he negotiated is still up to 10 years away). Essentially he failed by being quietly competent without keeping an eye on how things played with the electorate. It doesn't help that he's very visibly backed quite a few controversial moves (congestion charging - especially the western extension, bendy buses, Ian Blair, the Venezuela nonsense, etc), which has made it very easy to dislike him.

Damn.