Johnson has the advantage of being percieved as a harmless idiot, while Livingstone appears smarter but malevolent.

Its like being asked to choose between a clown and an evil clown.

“So, we’ve got poll figures, Ken…”

“What do the voters feel? We need policemen on the streets? Cheaper bus fares? A greater emphasis on urban development?”

“Er, no, Ken. They think you’re an arsehole.”

“Oh…”

Cor, there are some horrible numbers for Livingstone in that poll.

Cannot deliver on promise of fare cuts: 45% agree 28% disagree
Boris “has best record as Mayor” by 37-31, with the same margin for “able to improve London”
Livingstone’s rating for “most trusted to deliver promises” is 26%
As for “best at representing London in the Olympic Games” it’s BJ by 42-24

Oh, and the non-story of the tax-avoidance that Sunny’s been spinning like a top to downplay?

“I am less likely to vote for Ken Livingstone as a result of the allegations over tax avoidance, and expense claims while he was Mayor”
Agree 45%

likeability, yes.

oh and and tax avoidance

and anti-semitism

Shatterface,

Johnson has the advantage of being percieved as a harmless idiot, while Livingstone appears smarter but malevolent.

Its like being asked to choose between a clown and an evil clown.

Brilliant.

Yep – Bojo the clown or Pennyunwise (enhhh… working on that one).

Say Sunny, anything about the other horses in the race? LibCon would have a USP if you paid less attention to all the guff about Livingstone and more on the other candidates. At least one of them is a lefty.

At # 1:
I don’t think Mr Livingstone is smarter than Mr Johnson. Quite the contrary.

Labour KNEW that Boris Johnson would be the Conservative candidate, they KNEW that he is well liked even by people who don’t typically vote Conservative (like myself) and they KNEW that Ken Livingstone had lost to Boris Johnson previously.
Whom did they pick? Big mistake. Labour have nobody to blame but themselves.

Standard right wing trick to talk about so called like ability. Remember it was all about who Americans would rather have a beer with in 2000. 8 years on economy in ruins, 2 wars lasting longer than the second world war, boy that was a fucking expensive beer.

Also as the media is so pro tory they get to decide the issues. Even Paxman fails to ask Boris tough questions. Boris has a lot of baggage but the media ignore it. He should win easy with those advantages.

Andreas Moser: “I don’t think Mr Livingstone is smarter than Mr Johnson. Quite the contrary.”

I seriously doubt that Mr Livingstone can be that dim.

FWIW I’m unlikely to vote to either of them.

@4. And funding the chiselling crooks at the LDA, along with the hate preachers at the East London Mosque.

Ken’s problem can be distilled into one phrase. He is not trusted. Attacks only work if they chime with existing impressions. I don’t think anyone cares too much about his tax return but once again he looks shifty. He lied about not running as an independent, about seeking a second term and about not raising fares, he lied about what he was up to in Tower Hamlets and now he’s claiming he can restore EMS and cut fares because he’s found a quarter billion down the back of the sofa that Boris missed. No-one believes it.

(‘you may like Boris more, but I can run the city better’)

Best idea I’ve hears yet. I’m a bastard but I know what I’m doing might actually resonate.

(give a loud interview to a paper saying that he recognises he made mistakes in the past).

Hell would freeze over first. His vanity would never permit it.

I seriously doubt that Mr Livingstone can be that dim.

Well, he wasn’t a King’s Scholar to Eton, and then a Brackenbury scholar to Balliol. They aren’t petty intellectual achievements. In my experience, it tends to be rather stupid people who think that Boris is dim. They lack sufficient perception to see beyond the act.

Plenty of people voted for Margaret Thatcher who thought she was completely unlikeable. But you have to have something about you to counteract the bad smell.