In the end, we have to follow our gut instincts

It's telling that so few homes have put up posters. Cycling around my area - populated with young families and professionals - I've seen barely a handful of Kens and a single Paddick. To date, I've passed not one Boris, though I think he'll get more than a few north London votes.

Elections used to mean a riot of different coloured posters in every street. But the liberal-minded middle classes are much cannier now about how they cast their votes - and a lot less ready to wear political colours on their Prada lapels.

It hadn't occurred to me to put up a sign of my political leaning in the race, but last week I came home from work to find one on the dining room table. "We need to talk about the election," said my partner ominously, daring me to come to a decision about today's vote.

Like everyone I've talked to, I'm disappointed by Ken. I find much of his politics dated. He looks weary. And the murky goings on among some of his closest associates, exposed by my colleague Andrew Gilligan, leave a very nasty taste in the mouth. Whether or not Ken is personally corrupt, one thing is sure: he has compromised the integrity of the office by allowing these things to continue unchecked.

But I've weighed up the negatives and I'd still rather Ken ran London than Boris - a man I don't believe is competent to do so - or Paddick, who's even less up to the job. Yet for months people like me have been agonising: can we still stomach voting for Ken?

For some, it's genuinely hard to decide - even yesterday several friends were still stumped. They are hardly born-again Tories but for the first time are giving serious thought to a Conservative.

Others have been vague because they have secretly plumped for Boris. They mumble excuses about Ken's inadequacies, but quiz them further and you'll find they've still got a gas-guzzling people carrier and don't much fancy shelling out £25 each time they do the school run. Others confess to saving up to send their kids to private school, so no longer feel the knee-jerk antipathy to being ruled by an Old Etonian.

But Boris's pedigree does matter to those who, like me, can't square voting in a Bullingdon boy, even if it means re-electing Ken. Boris is campaigning for the already privileged, for big car drivers and west London. For all his faults, Ken's net is wider, more to do with putting London first, not select groups who live here. That's the approach that tallies best with my gut instinct and, when all the arguing is done, that's what drives us to place our cross where we do.