Less than two days before polls open and the London Mayoral race remains a close run thing in most polls — apart from the most recent Times/Poplus poll gives Boris Johnson a 12 point lead over Ken Livingstone Johnson’s in-house paper aka The Evening Standard.
It could all come down to second preferences and the Guardian has today grudgingly made up its mind on this issue. It walks us through many of Livingstone’s short comings, including how he has offended the Jewish community, but in the end it says the choice is clear (ish):
Thanks to the mayoral voting system, in which voters can put a cross beside both a first and a second choice, this is an election in which opponents of Mr Johnson can safely choose between Mr Livingstone and one of these other candidates for their first choice. But those who do not choose Mr Livingstone first must give him their second preferences. They should do so in spite of Mr Livingstone’s flaws, putting him on notice that, if elected, he is on probation, especially over his ethnic politicking, and ensuring that he is answerable to a London assembly which contains all voices. In the end, though, this is a contest between Mr Johnson and Mr Livingstone. There is no ducking it. And that means voting for Mr Livingstone as London’s next mayor, the Guardian writes.
The Green candidate Jenny Jones has also said she will give her second preferences to Livingstone having tweeted her intentions a little earlier today:
“@GreenJennyJones: To those tweeting re how I ought not to suggest 2nd pref for Ken – it’s how I see it. I trust Ken, I don’t trust Boris #SpeakAsYouFind”.
And to reassure you all that all these posts and comments on Harry’s Place, both for and against Livingstone, are not disappearing into the either a social media monitoring firm has produced this infographic looking at social chatter around the London Mayoral campaign. Top blog? That would be this one.