Morning:
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So, having prevaricated until the 11th hour over whom I would cast my first preference for, I caved in, in the booth, and gave Ken my vote.
I was strongly ambivalent about Ken - I had fully intended to vote for Brian Paddick - but Livingstone had at least taken his office seriously, with the Oyster card, Congestion charge and challenge to the absurd farrago of the PPP on the Tube. But few in London's suburbs seem to have taken a similar view.
They didn't mind that making crass remarks is Boris Johnson's default setting. Indeed it's for precisely this reason that the usually disaffected but latently Tory voters out in the 'burbs were so heavily - and effectively - targeted by his strategists. The truth is: these suburbanites secretly like such divisive talk.
Johnson's campaign team also knew what Boris may himself realise: out there in the sticks, these semi-detached Londoners cleave more to the shires than they do to Soho; they think of themselves as second-home owners even if their only cottage is a conservatory they bought by mail order.
The Tories were able to play upon the fears of these "dwellers in the doughnut": their fears of crime, their fears of the numinous "other" in the city centre, their residual dislike of London's cosmopolitanism, and their sense that the last Mayor's congestion charge was a ghastly imposition of the Nanny State.
But I say to all of you out there in Carshalton or Epping: walk a mile in my shoes. It's us, here in the inner city, who are the winners and losers when it comes to car taxes, whether they be parking or driving charges - not you. It's us who are the victims of all the socalled "nuisance crimes" that the new Mayor hopes dramatically to reduce - not you. And it's us who live in a multicultural society, far more than you do.
Johnson says he will be a Mayor for all Londoners but I ask him, how is he going to surmount this paradox: he was elected by the suburbs to enact policies instead aimed squarely at improving the lives of those in the centre. How, when he was elected on the basis of anxieties, will he deal with realities?
And while he may be a genius, as his friend Charles Moore claimed on the radio at the weekend, I doubt he has what I always understood to be its true hallmark: the infinite capacity for taking pains. He can prove me wrong.
Reader views (10)
I am surprised Will Self has got it so wrong this time. Boris won handsomely on the popular vote because people simply want to see the whole of corrupt, decadent and incompetent New Labour out of office as quickly as possible.
- Mikko Takala, Drumnadrochit, Scotland, 07/05/2008 13:13
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Hmmm, semi detached Londoners buying their their conservatories by mail order! That is the trouble, the lefties are such snobs they don't care about the poor kids being murdered. I live in the centre, and it is as congested as before Ken's extra taxes. Taxation For London is what we say.
- Kate G, London UK, 07/05/2008 10:39
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Will Self you need to get out more the problem you think is only in central London spreads out far and wide. From the south of London to the north and east and west too parking is no easer or cheaper. The fares we pay to travel on buses that are full do not run as often as the buses in central London. The cattle trucks we board to come to work in the morning. Social nuisance crimes are rife with bands of kids wandering the streets at night cans of larger in hand and will to push anyone out of they way I feel ten times safer walking through Soho than through my own streets.
- Dave, Croydon, 07/05/2008 08:36
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I voted Tory for the first time ever. Not a pro Boris but an anti Ken one. I voted for the less bigoted of the two. You are not on the side of the angels if you voted for Ken. For a true liberal it is just a tribal thing.
The fact that he has governed ineffeciantly with his main motivation spite, made the decision easier.
The punitive element of the CC appeals to a certain type of person, they are not interested in the fact that it hasn't worked. It hasn't even cut emission's.
Yet still it is lauded.
- Peter Charles, London, England, 06/05/2008 22:50
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Wait a minute! It was not only the "doughtnut dwellers" who voted Boris Johnson in. West Central - part of inner London - voted for Boris, as first choice, with a majority of 53%.
- Ely, London, W1, 06/05/2008 20:28
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Will Self You need to get out more. We are just as affected by all the above in fact you could say more so as we are the ones who have to drive into London with no discount Every day in Croydon there are muggings knife crime is rife. All immigrants are sent to the home office in Croydon making the town centre a very multicultural society. Gangs of kids wander round all our towns unchecked. Forget the sour grapes and give Boris a chance.
- Dave, Croydon, 06/05/2008 18:45
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Will, stop being a Luvy cry baby, and take your defeat like a man. You sound like that other liberal hypocrite, Polly Toynbee.
- Richard, Ealing, 06/05/2008 17:27
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As a born and breed inner city Londoner, who now resides in leafy Richmond, I take issue with Mr Self's pathetic rantings of what constitutes a Londoner.
If Will thinks that I am not a 'real' Londoner, maybe he should check my latest Council Tax bill, with it's ever increasing City Hall contribution added to an ever increasing Local Council Tax charge.
Ken did very little for the outer London borough and as a result paid the ultimate price - get used to it pal and give Boris a fir chance.
- Mutley, Richmond, 06/05/2008 17:04
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Boris doesn't need to prove anything to you of all people Will. If you think Epping is devoid of nuisance crime and multiculturalism I suggest you step down from your orange box take your Oyster card and use the Central Line (the red one ) Not everyone can afford to live where you walk in your shoes.
- David Armstrong, Essex, UK, 06/05/2008 16:44
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One can only begin to imagine the utter desolation which is no doubt coursing through Boris' apparently small mind when he reads of your doubts about him. I think we can all be fairly certain, however, that proving you wrong, now that the challenge has been laid down, will remain at the top of his list of priorities until you advise him that you are satisfied with his performance. One has to ask, Will, is this a deliberate ploy to ensure your point is proven; make Boris concentrate on meeting your expectations at the expense of dealing with crime and injustice and surely he's bound to fail? Clever ploy, let's hope Boris spots it for what it is!
Now, before you consider such an inherently disastrous future, let us remind ourselves of what Boris has achieved thus far, inter-alia:
Degree from Oxford, raised a family in central London, become and MP, written books, run a magazine, produced and starred in historical TV shows and now, become mayor of London. I often wonder how those achievements stack up against those of his many, boisterous critics...
ps, I trust you recognise the inherent irony of a lefty suggesting something like this: "making crass remarks is Boris Johnson's default setting".
- St, London, 06/05/2008 15:36
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