London Elections just a few hours to go

Good news is that City Hall has come alive again so the declarations of the results for the London elections will go ahead as originally planned on Friday. So exciting all I've got to do is get my butt down there. Wouldn't miss it for the world

Who is going to win between Boris and Ken is anybody's guess at the moment. Read somewhere that Ken Livingstone himself concedes he might lose to Boris Johnson this time around.

The discussion about the second preference votes continues. The Evening Standard last night has an article about a polls claim that in the London Mayoral election: 30 per cent of voters did not know about the two-vote system while 27 per cent were aware of it but were uncertain how it works.

Several blogs over the past couple of weeks have posted the above nifty animated ballot paper in their attempt to explain it all. With nearly a million postal votes in London it will be interesting to see the statistics after it is all over - how many spoilt ballots because of lack of understanding.

On their part the Electoral commission has spent a lot of money trying to educate people. At the 4000 polling stations this time around they will have a pictorial stand-alone cut-out with clear instructions. Should help some people to understand what is expected of them.

Well voting starts 7am tomorrow at the polls so let the race begin.

A bad omen, City hall is flooded

A bad omen for the London Assembly and Mayoral elections on Thursday.

Who would have thought it but City Hall, home to the Greater London Authority is flooded due to a burst watermain in Tooley Street, SE1. It has affected the City Hall's IT networks, including email and telephone services. The building has been closed to the staff and visitors since Monday and it's unclear when it will be re-opened. Whoever is declared London's Mayor on Friday certainly won't have a building to swan into.

Meetings about the count are having to be relocated in different parts of London. With communications down it's difficult to get hold of anybody at the moment so we are still not sure what's going to happen about the final Assembly members and Mayoral declaration on Friday which was to be held in City Hall's basement.

London Elects claim "they were looking at contingency plans". Doubt they had any existing contingency plans in place because nobody expected it to happen. Suspect it's a matter of panic measures.

The annoying thing is that there seems to be a media blackout. Or maybe it's just on the back burner for now. The counting of votes for the election on Thursday will take place as planned at Excel, Alexandra Palace and London's Olympia but they need to set up their IT equipment to be able to download the information centrally before the final correlation and declaration. It is bound to cause some speculation about possible irregularities if they are not more transparent about the whole issue. We would have expected news updates at least on the London regional TV news bulletins.

Well I've got my observation assignment for Friday morning and wherever they end up later I'll be there. Now all I've got to do is sort out my clobber.

A laugh to cheer up the mood

Don't very often put videos on my blog but this one sent to me by email is so funny I couldn't resist it.



Click on the arrow and let it play. Just had me in stitches. Ever thought how you would react in the same circumstances.

Hat tip: Justin Hinchcliffe of Hunter and Shooter blog

Meral Ece has my vote

Receiving my 3 postal voting forms makes the London Elections seem more real.

Who I'm voting for as Mayor, will keep that to myself. Who is actually going to win will obviously be either Ken or Boris so it's a tough call.

Running down the names on the Constituency members voting sheet for this constituency, North East (Islington, Hackney and Waltham Forest boroughs) a big cross has been put against candidate Meral Ece.

It has nothing to do with which party she stands for but the fact that Assembly needs some strong voices who will actually stand up and challenge the Mayor and not the dumb dorks who have been sitting there for the past four years hardly saying boo to a goose who the grassroots voters haven't even heard of.

Meral is a strong local campaigner, a loud voice well known and respected locally across party lines in Islington and Hackney. She's not somebody who the Mayor could keep quiet. She deserves to win. If she does she will certainly give the Mayor a run for his money.

The Assembly members voting form is a vote for a political party. A friend told me she was voting for George Galloway not because she cares a stuff about his party but because George is a gobby individual and a law unto himself who if elected will be another who will stand up to challenge the Mayor.

Got me thinking why people other than party activists vote for who they do. For many voters the 'known factor' or the personality of the candidates definitely comes into the equation.

The London Assembly is supposed to scrutinize the Mayor but all Londoners ever hear of the goings on in the Assembly is about the current incumbent Ken Livingston. Hardly surprising that the media don't really take much interest in what members have to say.

Reading the Manfesto of the candidates is interesting for those who take time thinking about it. We in Islington haven't received ours - least one hasn't dropped through my letter box yet. Post in this area is a bit hit and miss at the best of times. Households are supposed to get it before recieving their postal votes. My friend Robert brought me the one he received in Hackney last week. Wonder what explanation the Royal Mail is going to give this time aound. What can they really say. We are so used to lame excuses for bad postal services and nothing really changes.

Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody dies

From a late night Tory whisper to early morning BBC news. Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwood, the longest-serving female MP in Parliament representing Crewe and Nantwich since 1974, has died at the age of 77 after a brief illness.

A touching video tribute from Gordon Brown. We will undoubtedly hear more about her during the day. Across party lines she was a lady well respected by her peers as a fiercely independent no nonsense backbencher.

Sad as it might be by-election fever will be taking off in the background. The LibDems and the Tories won't waste a moment putting the wheels in motion.

Later: As expected, less than 12 hours after the announcement the Guardian already has a piece speculating on the outcome of the by-election.

Mole man to pay for repairs to his house

It's in all the papers and of course all the local rags, an update on the 'Mole Man' who spent 40 years digging a labyrinth of tunnels under his dilapidated Victorian house in Mortimer Road, Hackney.

When the story first hit the news it seemed so incredible that after complaints from the neighbours for years this could have gone on for so long with Hackney council pussyfooting around.

In 2006 William Lyttle, 77, an eccentric recluse was finally ordered to stop digging and was evicted so the council could stabilise the property. At the time there were memorable pictures of him being literally carried from his house.

It's claimed that the house was structurally unsound. Of course it must have been. His digging affected the property next door and the road in front of his house. Now he has been fined £300,000 for the repairs and is banned from going near the building. Obviously the property will end up being compulsory purchased to offset the costs.

I for one am very curious about the man. What made him do it and where is he now? Originally from Ireland he is reported to have a farm there as well. The whole saga so fires up the imagination, it has the making of a good book or a TV drama.

London Decides - The Mayoral Debate

Last night BBC's Mayoral hustings hosted by Andrew Neil was one of the funniest live debates I've seen for ages. At times he had the studio audience in stitches laughing.

Just shows how much research goes into producing such programmes. Andrew's questions really put the three main candidates Ken Livingstone (Labour), Boris Johnson (Tory) and Brian Paddick (LibDems) on the spot.

The debate seemed to be slightly biased in favour of Ken Livingstone. True to form, nothing seem to ruffle Ken's feathers and as usual he had an answer for everything. Can respect Ken for at least being honest and admitting he made a mistake over allowing the Chinese secret police to guard the Olympic torch 'relay' through London last weekend.

When it came to Boris, Andrew obviously enjoyed trying to tie him up in knots which naturally entertained the audience. Boris made a real Charlie of himself over the issue of bringing back the Routemaster style buses. On the other hand some of Andrew's interaction with Brian Paddick and comments about the Libdems were bordering on the insulting. Brian, cool and collected didn't take the bait.

All candidates however had some good ideas. I particularly liked Boris with his reintroduction of bus conductors and Brian with the concept of trams on busy bus routes. It is the financial implications which may not make either proposal feasible.

For those interested the BBC has this morning put up a video of the 30 minute show. London Decides - The Mayoral Debate. Well worth watching.

London marathon 2008 kudos to them all

It's reported that about 35000 people took part in this years London marathon. Have to admit I haven't got it in me. The body just couldn't take it. Watching them yesterday one has to admire their courage.

It's always interesting who wins but the real heroes are the thousands who dress up and run for a charitable cause. The BBC website has some memorable photos - Day in pictures and London Marathon: Your pictures Plus some interesting stories Thousands conquer London Marathon.

The group that really mesmerised the nation, the Maasai warriors wearing their colourful traditional clothing with their shoes made out of tyres. What a cultural shock for them to come to UK. Hardly surprising they have raised more than the money they were hoping for to build a bore hole for water in their village.

Teach your self Pot smoking from LibDems

This is just plain potty and down right irresponsible, Liberal Youth were seen distributing a flyer “Lib Dems on Drugs” outside the City and Islington College in Goswell Road advising on cannabis usage and even going so far as advocating buying the high strength form of skunk.

Lib Dems have always been clever at damage limitation and blaming somebody when caught out. It's reported that these were old flyers taken from the Liberal Youth's office at party headquarters to attract attention. That maybe so but they should have been destroyed long ago. Islington's Lib Dem councillors may claim to be embarrassed and have distanced themselves from the issues but it's still a Federal Party policy document.

Some years ago at a Party conference there was a vote on the issue. The flyers were to be part of the publicity campaign. Whether they were distributed I don't remember. .

As a then party member and an Islington conference delegate I refused to vote for it. The motion was passed but caused an uproar at the time. It upset many grassroots party members who were horrified at what happened. Media reports then claimed it to be a historic vote - the Liberal Democrats were the first major political party in the UK to back the legalisation of cannabis, as part of a wide-ranging review of drug laws in general. Ever since then the party has been tagged as being 'Soft on Drugs'. I'm not aware there has been any conference amendment to the policy since then so it's still part of the party's policy archives.

I have been asked many times why I won't vote for Brian Paddick the Liberal Democrat London Mayoral candidate. It's his past association with drugs when he was Lambeth's Metropolitan Police Borough Commander and the controversial drugs policy he introduced into the borough that I'm uncomfortable with. I wasn't surprised when he joined the party with this mindset. It's the controversy surrounding the issue that has given him the so called London "High Profile status! the party always refers to. It may not be a media hot topic at the moment but it's still in the background.

Moving forward towards London Elects 2008

1st of May is just around the corner. An earlier post London Elects 2008 I mentioned I'm to be an accredited official observer at the 2nd May E-count of the London elections .

Decided to cut short my break so I could attend the observers meeting last night. Much better to meet everybody in advance and to know which of the 3 centres I'll be based.

Many people don't realise that there are actually 3 elections on the same day, London Mayor, Assembly members and the Assembly list members. Means people will receive 3 separate ballot papers and have 2 votes on the vote for Mayor sheet - first and second preference votes. The other two sheets will be a single vote only.

There's a great deal of emphasis placed on the second preference votes which can change the expected outcome of such elections. Many people find it difficult to understand how it all works. London Elects nifty website has an Idiots video guide on how to vote. Click on the tabs at the bottom of the page - there's one for the Mayoral and another tab for the Assembly votes.

There are 25 Assembly members consisting of 14 constituency assembly members (London boroughs are grouped within a constituency) and 11 London wide members. With so many candidates and so many voters the count is being conducted electronically. It's claimed it should take 12 hours so lets hope so. Wouldn't like to even think about how long it would take if it all had to be counted manually. Watch a video of the complete e-counting process.

Well I've now received my official an Electoral Commission 'Accredited Observer' Identity card and t-shirt. It's valid until the end of the year. Means any election until then I can be asked to attend the final count. Many of the other observers haven't had the experience of watching voters cast their votes at a polling station before so are being encouraged to attend a local centre on 1st May. Done that and got the t-shirt many times so I'll give that one a miss and wait for the actual count the following day.

NB: Thanks to emails received - this post has since been amended because I apparently didn't make the voting procedure clear.

To Plymouth and back

Bit quiet on the blog front this past week. Had a break in Plymouth with my sister Anne-louise.

Travelled on the day the snow hit us. With my old creaking bones thoughts of the long train journey weren't pleasant but with two break downs on the track it turned into a nightmare. First there was a problem with the brakes then further along over-running track works. Sitting on a train going nowhere is so frustrating. Least the snow covering the landscape viewed from the window was spectacular. Not seen a sight like that for years. Seems incredible that we have snow in April. Eventually we arrived. Was feeling shattered but good old Bob, Anne-louise's husband, arrived like a knight in shining armour to meet me.

They live in a rather quiet idyllic hilly part of Plymouth. A mixture of old and new properties in the area. Their house always makes my flat seem smaller than it really is. No change made inside since I was last there so with their big dog Shadow in tow the first tour was the garden. A project they have been working on for a couple of years now. It's an end house situated in a cul-de-sac with a good bit of land at the back going round the side of the property at different levels.

Talk about going green. By saving everything that can be reused, their water butts and composters really show what can be done when there is space to do it. There are his and hers sheds for everything, a useful man is our Bob. A proud new addition is a pond with fish and tadpoles inside. The elevated side is also now in shape with a demarcated vegetable garden. The greenhouse is still at foundation level but that's the next job when it's a little warmer. Quite bemused to see the varieties of potatoes on the window sills in the house sprouting roots before planting. Reminds me of when I was a child.

So used to the noise in London, wasn't easy to sleep the first night. Too quiet for my liking. Not a sound anywhere. Was happy to go out in the morning to take the dog for his walk. 'Walk' is the unsaid word in the house. Shadow goes ballistic when he hears anybody say it. There's a big hilly green space where people take their dogs and my sister as chatty as myself seems to know everybody. Looks like many people round there have a dog and standing back it was funny watching the dogs all rushing to one another. They seem to know each other as well.

Went to see my niece Ayida and her four children. They are growing up so fast. Later met another niece Luli at her work place. She's saving up for a long world working tour in September. Kept thinking those were the days. I'm glad she's taking the plunge. I've been all over the world and it's a shame so many people just don't have the chance in life. There's a lot to experience out there.

So many things to do and places to go. Time goes fast when you are having fun. Sad it wasn't warmer, would have loved to tinker in Bob's shed or the garden. Never mind there's always another day.

Almost missed the train back. Thought it would be an easy run. Couldn't believe it, the train had to wait in the middle of nowhere again because the one in front had broken down. The worst thing was there wasn't enough drinks on the train, not even a cup of tea and many of the toilets were not working so people had to queue up.

Somebody should call First Great Western the train operators to book. They are certainly are not geared up to customer service on their trains.

Ken Livingston and his children does it really matter.

For the life of me can't understand what does it matter how many children Ken Livingston has.

What has it got to do with his standing for Mayor of London. How will revelations that he has five children by three different women affect his mayoral campaign. So much hype about nothing.

It's the fact that he keeps much of his personal life 'Private' that seems to irk the media. They are trying to dig up some dirt and turn it into a breaking news story as if they have suddenly found a secret love-child somewhere.

Realistically considering his age there's a presumption that he must have had former relationships. Just hope none of the children have inherited his grating voice that's all.

Now we have Flying Penguins

April fool stunts on the 1st are always a laugh. The BBC replayed their flying Penguin gag again this morning. Seeing it the first time yesterday I took a double take not quite sure what I was watching. The replay this morning had me in stitches.

Watch as Terry Jones discovers a unique colony of penguins on BBC. Flying Penguins can be seen here.

Shame it's only available to view for 5 days and can't be downloaded.

Nevertheless just wonder how many people will take it as true, after all it is the BBC.

Caught by CCTV

Now it's official, parking fines by post for all kinds of offences.

Islington was one of the London boroughs trying out the new CCTV cameras to catch errant drivers. Quick off the mark they already have the information on their Council website Street Parking - Enforcement and Fines. Some of the fines are rather stiff but that's the law so if you break them you have to pay.

Can't help but chuckle about the offence, Offending drivers can be caught by CCTV on busy routes. Happened to a local tradesman whom I help with his business correspondence. Last month he opened one letter and out popped a closeup photo of his car along with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). Oh boy was he shocked. It was a picture of his car positioned over the line at the red light on Holloway Road as he was waiting to turn left into Seven Sisters Road. Neither of us were aware that the camera existed so to see his car like that was a total surprise.

What could he say. The evidence was staring us in the face. Realistically there's no logical explanation he can give to protest against the fine. A letter was written as a matter of course but without much hope of success. The ironical thing about it is that he couldn't even remember the incident.

Holloway Road is part of Traffic for London Road Network (TLRN), ‘red routes’network. Since then, every time I go there shopping, I have a chuckle at the smarty pants drivers who when at the same red light over-shoot the demarcation line for a quick left turn getaway. Seems they are completely oblivious that they are being watched on CCTV. Wonder how many drivers have been caught out since they installed the camera.

What about the dreaded lurking Parking attendants. Seems they now have a fancy new name and henceforth will been known as Civil enforcement officers.