Boris Johnson

Guy Aitchison (London, OK): Over at Liberal Conspiracy, Sunny Hundal is soliciting help from his readers to put together a briefing document on Boris Johnson's new policy director and former head of Policy Exchange, Anthony Browne. He's asking readers to send in any articles, websites or miscellaneous info on the man that Londoners should be made aware of. And if you have no idea what any of this is about, or if you just need reminding, read Dave Hill's excellent article in today's Guardian.

Guy Aitchison (London, OK): The Telegraph's Three Line Whip blog reports that the total number of "spoiled ballot papers" which included "41,032 rejected first choice votes and 412,054 rejected second choice votes" was "three times the size of Boris Johnson’s 140,000-vote majority". A "fiasco", fumes the Telegraph's David Hughes, a "democratic travesty". The Electoral Commission must take actions since "who knows what the result might have been if there had not been such a spectacular display of voter confusion."

Guy Aitchison (London, OK): Could the election of Boris Johnson (a man most famous for appearing on HIGNFY) provide the cue for other TV personalities and celebs to enter into politics? The reason I ask is that I have just watched a ten minute interview with Alan Sugar on BBC News 24. It featured under the headline "Sir Alan's Broken Britain". There seemed very little point to the interview other than the fact Sugar - "off the telly" - has recently aired his views on the issues of violent crime and feral youth. So, what is the problem according to Sugar's analysis? "Human rights legislation", which comes from Europe and "places like that". And what is to be done? "Billions more" on the police, he said. Why these pronouncements were thought worthy of serious news coverage I do not know. It was perhaps too much to have expected the BBC interviewers to ask Sugar precisely which "European" human rights law he thinks explains recent stabbings and gun crime (they were happy enough doing the PR for BBC series "The Apprentice"). I remember feeling slightly smug when Arnold Schwarzenegger got elected Governor of California since I foolishly imagined the same thing could not happen here. Not any more.

Jon Bright (London, OK): This from the Guardian's feed. They said it, not me:

Hat-tip: Worship St. Irregulars.

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): So Boris has won the race and become the Tory candidate for London. By a landslide. No surprise there, but when momentum starts... Coming back from Bournemouth and the extraordinary domination of Brown and seeing the steely glint in Boris' eyes in the Evening Standard, the following scenario unfolded before my eyes as I bumped home on the Northern Line.

Jon Bright (London, OK): The probability of Boris Johnson securing the conservative party nomination for Mayor of London is now so overwhelming that his primary campaign is becoming virtually indistinguishable from the election campaign proper. And he's beginning to stake out his battleground.

But transport - with a particular focus on his loathing for 'bendy buses' - feels like an unusual choice. As anyone who makes regular use of them will know, London's bus network is superb. Bendy buses, in combination with the Oyster card, have done away with the maddening, infuriating wait at each stop where the usual incompetents fiddle with their change or ask obscure questions about the destination. Their sheer frequency sometimes beggars belief - only at the dead of night in the most obscure backwater will you wait longer than half an hour. So what's his problem?