Hello Ken

W

hen they vote, those who have lost their jobs, or have seen their student fees soar, can protest at the actions of the Tory-led government. But a campaign of protest votes is not enough.

Just for a bit of balance, did you recommend a campaign of protest votes when labour were overspending?

Ken, if you had bothered to say anything whilst New Labour were killing the UK, then perhaps I would listen to you now.

As it is, however, I know that all you're interested in is your own wealth and power.

Give it up, Ken. You are nearly as toxic as the other lot.

Come the next mayoral election a new, more credible, Labour alternative (if such a thing exists) would be welcome.

When I hear that Boris Johnson is double figure ahead in the poll, I gringe. What has he done for Londoners since he came power? Bicycle!!

Excellent article.

If Tories win they will claim they have a mid-term mandate for further cuts. We can already see these aren't working and a new recession seems likely.

Ken's policies mean that all the burden of ths crisis doesn't fall on ordinary people - and those least able to afford it.

Lets hope the Guardian is not going to make a fatal error again this time rooting for the Lib Dem.

You're fighting the last war, Ken. Which is easily done from an armchair.

It's all very well promising fare cuts, but what are you going to use for money? More business rates? More Council tax? Levied on the people who have run out of money and who are, as you say, 10% unemployed? The well is dry.

Let's see some concrete proposals about what Labour is willing to cut in an era where, probably permanently, there's less money around to do it all.

Tax and spend is so last year.

Ken is right.

As a student, lied to by the Liberals, and facing another fare hike as I buy my Oyster card tomorrow , with the price of food sky-rocketing , I'm very hacked off.

Especially as I voted Liberal. ( I know, I know....)

Not this time.

Ken has a reputation for putting Londoners at the sharp nasty end of the economy first for help and that's what we need right now.

We don't need a braying Bullingdon Buffoon or his privileged, little England codswallop waffle spewed at us any more

Ken

during the eighties, the GLC - under your leadership - played a leading role in opposing the moral bankruptcy of Thatcherism. Thatcher's response was to banish the GLC. (The typical tory response to losing a debate is to ban the debate.)

London needs a Mayor who will represent the interest of everyone who lifves and works in the capital rather than just the sqaure mile, and it is crucially important that you return to the role which you have performed so well. We desperately need a focused opposition to the idiocies of the 'coalition's' failed economic policies. Keep the faith!

Not as bad as the 1930s, the global economic situation is still worse than anything seen since.

It's pretty clear that it is going to get just as bad, as Christine Lagarde, Head of the IMF has warned. I don't think we want Buffoon Boris anywhere near the levers of power in this situation.

When I hear that Boris Johnson is double figure ahead in the poll, I gringe. What has he done for Londoners since he came power? Bicycle!!

You mean of course the Bankers Bike? You can only ride one if you have a bank account that allows direct debits. Lots of us don't. Also check out the map of bike zones. They dont have any past the Elephant and Castle ( not for those sort of people dontcha know)

Oh Ken . If you are there PLEASE slap a larger Congestion Charge on Chelsea Tractors

You read a lot of comments about how bad New Labour are, they were absolutely awful I agree, however they are no longer in government.

You also read comments that Labour are just as bad as the Tories & they would not be any better at running the country - that is not true on the economic front; all the things that are going wrong with Osborne's economic policies are the ones which were predicted would go wrong before the Tories didn't win the election but formed the governmen anyway.

Although Ken is not perhaps the best messsenger, his message is right - there is an alternative to Osborneomics.

Please Londoners hold your noses & vote for Ken despite the previous mistakes of Labour & the current existing ones. They truly are better than the Tories & Scotland, Wales & the north of England will thank you.

Tax and spend is so last year

Hmmm. It's becoming pretty clear even to those who were not at first disposed to believe it that it's the only game in town. I think you'll find that 'austerity' is last year's look.

I feel sorry for Londoners . What a choice. A dinosaur, or a toff muppet?

Forced austerity is what the Tories believe in.

Their mistake is in the use of force, making things worse than they have to be.

I like dinosaurs.

I would vote for you, Peter.

Labour spent less than Thatcher as a proportion of GDP.

The deficit arose because they taxed MUCH less than Thatcher

I do too. But I don't want one running the capital city. Best in a museum.

Didn't you read the article?

It is Boris Johnson who has a stealth tax on Londoners with inflation-busing fares increaes. Bus fares are up 50% under Johnson. Shameful.

Ken's policy is to give some of that excessive tax back to Londoners.

I don't think we want Buffoon Boris anywhere near the levers of power in this situation.

Voting for Ken just because Boris is a crap candidate too does not really amount to much of a choice for Londoners, does it?

I agree. What has happened is that the Tories have found the perfect cover to complete under the guise of 'necessity' what they have overtly wanted to do since 1979 and covertly wanted to do since 1945. They didn't dare say that at the last election (especially as regards the NHS) because they knew it would lose them the election,and this, especially combined with the fact that they did not win that election, means that what is happening has no democratic legitmacy as well as being economically illiterate.

Not even a Diplodocus?

Labour spent less than Thatcher as a proportion of GDP.

The deficit arose because they taxed MUCH less than Thatcher

Labour did much worse things to Britain's economy than running up a large public deficit.

Voting for Ken just because Boris is a crap candidate too does not really amount to much of a choice for Londoners, does it?

Well, that's democracy UK-style isn't it? Maybe in the end what any democratic system comes down to for many/most voters.

Didn't you read the article?

It is Boris Johnson who has a stealth tax on Londoners with inflation-busing fares increaes. Bus fares are up 50% under Johnson.

Yup. And if you reverse the fare increases (which incidentally tend not to hit the unemployed so hard), you have to find the money somewhere else. Or spend less. One way or another the budget has to balance.

Boris has hit fares hard to deliver on an ideological promise to minimise council tax rises. Which if I recall right was part of his election platform, so we've got what it says on the tin.

Ken is saying he'll start cutting fares without even mentioning the inevitability of finding that money somewhere else, e.g. council tax, or announcing what he's planning to cut to fund his generosity.

Asking him for more details is a fair challenge.

I would vote for you, Peter

I am not worthy. But thank you.

I understand what you mean. My opinion on a bike ride in London Roads, is more like a death wish.

You could always help sway the vote by getting the women of London on your side, just ask your good pal the Islamic scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi. that very same scholar that supports for "female genital mutilation, wife-beating, the execution of homosexuals in Islamic states, the destruction of the Jewish people, the use of suicide bombs against innocent civilians and the blaming of rape victims who do not dress with sufficient modesty. You claim that Qaradawi's is "one of the most authoritative Muslim scholars in the world today" who "has done most to combat socially regressive interpretations of Islam on issues like women's rights and relations with other religions.

If this is the type of person you hold in high esteem, give me Boris anyday.

A diplodocus would do a better job than either of them. A troodon is more intelligent, it might even get to grips with the infrastructure.

Keep up.

Everyone in London who follows this knows that the fares cut comes from the surplus at TfL, which was a massive surplus of £729mn last year and is £205mn in the first 6 months of this year.

http://www.mayorwatch.co.uk/livingstone-promises-to-reverse-latest-fares-increase/201117743

This is where the fares cut comes from, the money idling in TfL's bank account.

I wouldn't vote for Peter because he's not standing and I don't live in London....but if he was standing and I did live in London I would give it serious consideration...as long as there wasn't a cute Triceratops in the running of course...

Talk about tired old politicians and clapped-out policies....

If Ken is the solution, methinks Londoners prefer the problem.

Vote Ken for lower bus fares!

Not very inspiring but Ken might have some success if he could stick with it. Unfortunately, if elected he won't be able to resist positioning himself as the leader of the opposition, and I don't think Londoners are inclined to give him that platform.

Unfortunately, if elected he won't be able to resist positioning himself as the leader of the opposition, and I don't think Londoners are inclined to give him that platform.

Well, somebody ought to do it since Milliband seems to have abrogated the position.

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Faith in politics is at a low ebb.

Thanks to cynical career politicians like Ken Livingstone who now constantly whine about bankers and the financial system yet when they were in power let it all get out of control because they funded their social projects with the proceeds of banking.

Ken, you still don't get it, do you? You're yesterday's man. I particularly care why, but I suspect the voters were sick of you mincing around with tin-pot dictators and mullahs who still live in the Dark Ages. But now you have to stop living in the past. Take up gardening or something. Just stop polluting our public life with these hackneyed, desperate political broadcasts.

a "referendum" on national economic policy, which he hasn't noticed is not a contest the Labour party are winning at the moment.

And you haven't noticed that nobody seems to be winning anything on the economic front at the moment - and if you believe that the current policy will ameliorate the situation you are living in cloud-cuckoo land.

Then why are TFL claiming this alleged surplus doesn't exist?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100107603/ken-livingstone%E2%80%99s-fares-cut-could-it-backfire/

Ken now claims he can pay for his new bout of largesse through an alleged £728 million “operating surplus” in TfL’s budget. The existence of this money is flatly denied by TfL’s deputy chairman, Daniel Moylan. “He got his figure by comparing the current business plan with one set before the government came in and took £2 billion away from us [under the spending cuts],” Moylan says.

“The £728 million does not exist. It’s not there as a cash sum. It was used to offset part of our £2 billion reduction in grant. There is no fairy money under a toadstool – Ken is kippered on this. He hasn’t done his research properly.”

wishy washy ,gobbledegook,poppycock,bendy bus,panto season still alive and well in london,what is the point of boris johnson?

I'm sure a lot of people would vote for Boris, the lovable buffoon, because it would be a bit of a laugh. But another Johnson victory would be no laughing matter. He's been coasting on the back of all of the groundwork laid by Livingstone, and sooner or later he's going to have to start actually doing something. I just don't think Boris Johnson is competent.

This is a strangely biassed article. It says:

>When they vote, those who have lost their jobs, or have seen their student fees soar, can protest at the actions of the Tory-led government. But a campaign of protest votes is not enough.<

Why should any thinking person protest at the Coalition because of rising student fees or an increase in lost jobs? These measures have only been as necessary as they are as a result of the incompetence of the last Labour government who had every chance to put controls in place but failed to do so and rushed headlong into ever more tax and spend. Those who really can think - and I count Guardian readers as very much in the vanguard of such a group - will readily know that they should never ever vote Labour again.

Boris it is again, then!

I just don't think Boris Johnson is competent.

Just another self-publicist with an over-inflated sense of entitlement.

When the clowning around has to stop there is nothing there - rather like Cameron who, when his faux sincerity is stripped away, contributes nothing of value to the national debate over where UK plc should go next.

I detest ken livingston. Socialist policies of attacking morality and of course multiculturalism have destroyed this counyltry.

Ken is very much the archbishop of canterbuty's man. This country is so unpleasant because of them.

Really? Your comment is bordering on parody (it proabably is mockery). It is otherwise loaded with bad spelling and typos to such an extent that it strikes me as embarassing...
If you really detest Ken then you'd better start by detesting your lack of basic skills that renders you unfit to lash out at Ken in the first place...

Ken,

It's time to nail the lie.

Osborne's running up more and more debts whilst cutting public services.

Osborne can't balance the books and never will with slash and burn.

By all means make the election about the economy but let's not let them get away with the lies that we can't afford a health service.

Ken I decided to vote for you before you even announced you candidacy. I was mad at you because of the Olympics and I voted for Boris out of spite, but all is forgiven. Come back!

We might wish that there could be a change of mayor but remember that Boris has achieved much of what Ken could not. Boris's achievements even only to the beginning of 2011 are impressive enough. It's a Tory summary but just look at:

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2010/01/100-achievements-of-boris-johnson-as-mayor-of-london.html

All of these are correct even though some things may still need further work. He managed to curtail Ken's massive waste, still do what he's done and still give back some to the exchequer. There never was such an impressive list of Ken's 'achievements'. We lampoon Boris as somehow ineffective at our peril. It may pain us to admit it but he has actually turned out to be a good mayor. I think we shall have him a little longer and, (dare I say it?) he would be better than Ken in these difficult times.