Rav Casley Gera’s Blog

Obviously we did not win, but what was achieved in a very difficult national context was remarkable.

Overall my first preference vote increased by 208,239 - 30 per cent, over 2004 - increasing in every GLA constituency except Bexley and Bromley. In the context of Labour’s lowest national vote for some decades that was a remarkable achievement.

In the London Assembly Labour actually won an additional seat and performed better than the national average. In the Mayoral context, I polled nearly 14 per cent more than the Labour vote nationally and nine per cent more than Labour in the London Assembly who themselves polled above Labour nationally.

That achievement of our campaign could not overcome the scale of the swing to the Tories throughout the country and in some London constituencies, notably Bexley and Bromley, Havering and Redbridge and West Central.

The swing to the Conservatives was assisted by the collapse of the Liberal Democrats in London, in part due to the conservative nature of their London Mayoral campaign.

It is noteworthy that a number of parties to the right of the Tories notably the BNP polled much higher in the Assembly list than in the Mayoral vote, suggesting that some of their voters voted tactically for Boris Johnson. The BNP got 61,004 votes more in the Assembly list than in the Mayoral election, for example.

In the City and East division there was actually a 2.9 per cent swing to me in the Mayoral election.

Overall, with more than a million votes the election showed a powerful progressive alliance in London.

There is no doubt that the new Mayoralty will inaugurate decline and division.

I hope you will therefore share my view that progressive London should remain organised and ready to face the challenges to come - including a general election.

Yours sincerely

Ken Livingstone

Putting a brave face on it, it seems

Shopping. It’s an enjoyable, but not exactly enriching way to spend an afternoon. You’ll come home tired, probably happy, maybe a little worried about how much you’ve spent. But you don’t normally come home feeling like you’ve really had your world expanded, like yourhorizons have widened -not like you might after a day visiting art galleries, for example.

Well, at least that’s traditionally been the case. But no longer [Read more →]

You know, I’ve lived on or near Holloway Rd all my three years in London – I lived right on it for a few months – and I’ve never really thought of it as a place to go; just as a route to somewhere else. Everyone talks about it as vaguely dangerous place, in that way which is basically code for “it’s poor and unpleasant.” A bloke at work – who is admittedly a self-professed Tory Snob – declared yesterday that it would do nothing but good if you stood at Archway, pointed a large flamethrower towards Highbury Corner, and pressed fire. [Read more →]