[youngian]

i make a difference each day in this country, working in the 3rd sector liaising with whatever Cllrs the electorate throw at me
obviously the last 6 years have not been easy, in terms of funding streams
lot of people now, thrown to the wolves...

Play the game, get power, then use that power to do what you need to do.

Like getting your hands on funding streams that will make a real difference to people's lives. Being in opposition is the shittiest thing in politics. Unless you're content with running a political debating society for the rest of your life.

[youngian]

Perhaps UKIP and the Tories have good reasons to be concerned about a Labour Muslim mayor

Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Abouteleb is more popular among supporters of the anti-Islam PVV than current prime minister Mark Rutte. The poll gave Aboutaleb, a Labour party member, a seven point lead over the VVD‘s Rutte among PVV voters when asked which of the two men they preferred as prime minister.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2 ... vv-voters/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bluebellnutter]

The more I think about it, the more I think Goldsmith actually ran the perfect campaign from a DM perspective.

Not outright racist, but plenty of suspicion and weasel words.
Lots of focus on house prices.
Very "middle class" in his reaching out to Hindus etc. on the jewellery stuff.
Pissed off all the "doo gooders", "lefties" and "luvvies".
Not to mention PLU white posh man.

And yet he still got beat. That must be tough for them.

[youngian]

For those who backed and voted for Khan his private religious views were not much of a factor and it hadn't dawned on me how significant that Sadiq's victory is outside the capital and internationally. For the politically active on the left this was great victory over negative xenopohobic mud slinging politics. I'm not sure that voters in Thanet, Nuneaton or Peterborough would have produced the same outcome but I'm looking forward to reading an analysis of Goldsmith's terrible campaign.

[Andy McDandy]

What's also interesting is just how quickly Goldsmith's been pushed under a bus. In olden days he'd have been given a bottle of whisky and a loaded revolver and shown the way into the woods.

[mattomac]

Tories don't like losers.

It's a massive misread of the public, well it is that or it was a desperate attempt to save the election. Of course negative campaigning drives down turnout or so it's perceived.

Of course the Tories trotted out the "its not in the polling we've seen" well they got it wrong, they were going for a low turnout strategy, they lost Wandsworth & Merton which they shouldn't have.

I expect the changes over the next 5-10 years will see an ever decreasing donut to rely on for the Tories.

[youngian]

Jemima Goldsmith @Jemima_Khan
Sad that Zac's campaign did not reflect who I know him to be- an eco friendly, independent- minded politician with integrity.

Yes, let's not judge politicians like Zac too harshly; Smethwick's Peter Griffiths had solar panels.

[bluebellnutter]

I do wonder how much of the campaign was driven by CCHQ rather than Goldsmith. To me it just never looked like his heart was in it right from the word go.

[youngian]

I do wonder how much of the campaign was driven by CCHQ rather than Goldsmith. To me it just never looked like his heart was in it right from the word go.

And he looked like he ticked all the boxes as a centrist Tory who could reach out (although his views pro-Brexit views are his). I can envisage he was told to cut the wind-powered bicycle bollocks and his priority was to get his arse down to Bexley and Bromley to warn them they'd get a Paki for mayor if they didn't turn out to vote.

[Giant f*cking Sudoku]

What's also interesting is just how quickly Goldsmith's been pushed under a bus.

His bare-faced antics threaten their narrative to keep painting the entire Labour party as racist.

[Philip Marlow]

I know Standpoint's an obscure rag (although my local WH Smith gets enough of them in every month), so I'm choosing to regard that as the reason I've seen precious little fuss about this

The Spectre Of Mayor Khan's Islamist London
http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/node/6482/full

On a crisp, sunlit morning in March, I ceased to feel at home in London. It dawned on me that the city where I had been born 58 years ago was no longer safe.

For starters, never mind the 'Islamist London' bollocks - just take a gander at the illustration...That should be attracting exactly the sort of raging ire that the New Statesman (rightly) brought down on itself with the Star of David 'kosher conspiracy' cover. They're both nudge-nudge unpleasant cues to bigotry in exactly the same way. Anyone out there interested? Anyone?

The actual text continues in the same vein.

[Tubby Isaacs]

London is a he'll of a lot safer than it was in the 90s and early 00s.

[PaulOnBooks]

As a postscript to this, Michael Fallon (pompous, lying twat) has just coughed up costs and damages to Suliman Gani for his claim that Gani was an ISIS supporter.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... sadiq-khan" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[youngian]

Tories have found a volunteer to stand as Mayor; Romford MP and grade one Brexit nutter Andrew Rosindell. Are the Tories just trolling London now?

Selecting Andrew Rosindell as the Tory candidate guarantees a landslide. For Sadiq Khan

His candidacy would have two major winners: Sadiq Khan, and anyone who is curious to find out what the exact size of the core Conservative vote in the capital is. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/d ... lide-sadiq

[youngian]

Thoughtful Rory has been wandering around the West End having thoughts. He’s a man of diminishing returns