London

Tom Griffin (London, OK): There was something of a government in exile feel about yesterday's Progressive London conference, a Ken Livingstone-led attempt to rebuild the left in London in the wake of his defeat by Boris Johnson.

A morning session on the lessons from the London elections perhaps explained the thinking behind the initiative. Julia Clarke of IPSOS-MORI highlighted evidence of an inner London-outer London split between Johnson and Livingstone voters. She also reported findings that voting patterns showed a stronger correlation with ethnicity than with class.

This led to some discussion of the role of the "white working class." However, former GLA Transport Director Redmond O'Neill suggested that Livingstone's problem had been more with middle class voters. In particular, he pointed to increased Liberal Democrat transfers to the Tories and suggested that the Lib Dems' orientation in the campaign had damaged both themselves and Labour.

An analysis of the need for a broad coalition if the left is to retake power in the capital clearly underlay the conference as a whole. Many of the panels featured Liberal Democrats, Greens and independents alongside Labour speakers. The session on civil liberties and justice was a case in point featuring Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik alongside Labour peer Helena Kennedy, who issued a heartfelt appeal for all present to attend next month's Convention on Modern Liberty.

Tom Griffin (London, OK): Ken Livingstone's defeat by Boris Johnson last year was an early sign of what looks like being a tough electoral cycle for Labour. So tomorrow's Progressive London conference at Congress House may also be an early indicator of the potential for renewal on the left.

One hopeful sign is the emergence of a strong crop of left-of-centre bloggers focused on London politics. Martin Hoscik of MayorWatch, Adam Bienkov of ToryTroll and Tom Barry of Boriswatch are among those speaking in a session on new media at the event.

Over at Comment is Free, another London blogger, Dave Hill, offers a sober assessment of what Progressive London has to achieve:

There is a already a new blog dedicated to aggregating views on and from Boris: welcome bozzawatch!

John Hill (London, Camberwell College of Arts): I've always quite admired Fathers 4 Justice for their media-savvy radical conservatism (transforming embarrassing your children into political dissent) and applauded middle-age white men entering into a gender politics debate, so I was willing to give the English Democrats the benefit of the doubt.

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): I have just come back from one of the most extraordinary political meetings I've ever been to in a long life of such events. It was the Mayoral hustings put on by London Citizens in the Methodist Central Hall, packed with well over 2,000 people. Neither the Labour Party nor the Conservative Party was mentioned by name and may just as well not have existed. The Lib-Dems and the Greens were named by their candidates but that was a sign of their marginality. The organisers put on a fantastic demonstration of politics from below, roll-calling the dozens of local organisations, schools, churches and faith communities that combined in what was both very London yet also drew upon American style populist organising and trade union solidarity. There was singing, there was a highly professional display of human causes unfolded with dignity and enjoyment. It felt genuinely representative. More on this I'm sure.