Harry’s Place

I was once warned to stay away from old men wearings rain coats.

congratulations on the new look site.

Thanks Andy! (Adding you to the blogroll…)

Bloody chancer, Ken. How could anyone vote for that?

(Spin on that, Graham.)

Ken’s an arse. Who’s ever denied that? But it’s a choice, not a referendum.

I expect Graham’s going to go as silent as Sonic does over bets.

When voting in today’s mayoral election, it is only right to take into consideration all the unworthy, opportunistic associations into which Livingstone has entered at various times in the past, and is only too likely to enter in future if re-elected. But to imply, as posting this photo on polling day does, that Johnson is preferable to Livingstone as London’s mayor for the next four years, and because of a tenuous association with the dreadful Galloway, is an insult to voters’s intelligence.

Well said Quinin

And up yours Alec McGoebbels!

(Its me birthday today by the way, anyone who remembers Waterloo and the fashion for powdered periwigs should email me for a chat.)

I expect Graham’s going to go as silent as Sonic does over bets.

It’s not an endorsement. It’s merely Ken’s one arm around the shoulder of the candidate that he has stated is better than the others whom he does not speak of nor touch.

p.s. What a beautiful website!

If Ken is “endorsing” George and Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Polly Toynbee and the Observer are (actually) endorsing Ken then there is an awful lot of “cognitive dissonance” around!

The picture confirms that he’s seriously doing some big tent politics; got a deal with the Greens, says he agrees with 90% with Liberal Democrats, has the backing of the Labour establishment, woos big business…. and now Galloway.

So, politics as usual!

Happy birthday Graham! Regarding emailing commenters- I wonder if this is just temporary, but you cannot link to commenters at present. It may be a way of preventing spoof emails, but I understand there are other ways of preventing those.

Politicians “endorsing” other politicians with views that differ from their own is not “cognitive dissonance,” its politics. However failing to recognize such political backing as political backing as a means to make oneself feel less icky in the voting booth is cognitive dissonance.

Here’s a picture of Ken“endorsing” Boris.

I’d fell 200 times more “icky” backing Boris, And if Gordon, Tony, Polly and the Observer don’t feel at all “icky” in endorsing Ken I don’t see why I should.

But anyway as you can see above by your standards Ken is endoring Boris Johnson anyway.

I despair sometimes….:-)

Happy Birthday!

Actually ken has even offered Boris a job if he gets elected - which he hasn’t come near to doing for Galloway.

Livingstone is “endorsing” tories (I’d be talking myself out of voting for him if I had not already been and done so!)

But Socialist Unity are advocating a vote for Ken and Galloway.

Ken endorsing Tories (although I draw the line at an egomaniac narcissistic solipsistic scumbag like Galloway) might actually have a benefitial effect on them, policy-wise. And indeed vice-versa.

Is launching this new-look on May 1st a coded way of saying “We hate Brown, Bring Back Blair, He Won His Greatest Victory On This Day”?

Ah, conspiracies

Who cares what the laughably named “Socialist Unity” are advocating! They aren’t an official organ of any of the candidates, and, outwith a few fanatics, barely have a readership to speak (well, whisper) of

I think its pretty important to vote for anyone to keep the BNP below 5%. I can’t believe they are running at 4% even at the Independent website.

Is launching this new-look on May 1st a coded way of saying “We hate Brown, Bring Back Blair, He Won His Greatest Victory On This Day”?

I expect Gordon Brown will be blamed if Ken loses, (blamed by Ken himself, I mean). The two are widely believed to loathe each other, and the PM surely can’t have helped the Livingstone cause.

Happy birthday Graham.

What a nice site. I sort of feel like I’m drinking with the aunt’s best crystal and therefore should be on impeccable behaviour or something.

I have done my duty, and gone off to vote for Red Ken. It was a bit painful, but I felt a lot better on smugly grinning at the Tory yummy mummy braying into her mobile and the earnest young bespectacled Green fellow on the way out. You’ve got to take your political kicks where you can get them in these dark times.

Bit of a shame not to see a Labour teller, but I guess West Central is not on the whole fertile territory. Maybe they’ve all taken the same view as me and felt as though they couldn’t bear to actually do stuff for Ken’s campaign.

Your new look is too pastel and the font too small.

All in all, though, not bad.

A happy 46th, Graham.

The colour of the “HP” icon that appears alongside the web address is a bit…Lib-Dem, too

Oh yes, happy birthday, too, graham

Happy birthday, Graham !

Congratulations to HP on the new website.

I voted for Paddick, with a transfer to Ken. What ultimately decided it for me, was that Ken is a passing phenomenon who’ll be gone after another term. But Boris and the Tories may be here for a long time to come. And taking London will undoubtedly boost their chances at the next general election.

I agree that someone who supports Galloway and al-Qaradawi and allies with supporters of the fascists who are slaughtering Iraqi civilians and killing our troops in Iraq really shoudn’t be mayor. But at the end of the day, Ken is just a temporary evil.

Happy Birthday Graham.

I am off to vote for Ken, for reasons relating principally to the effective administration of London, as I have stated before.

A photo op with two egotistical politicians looking desperately at the lens while the more savvy one reaches an outreached arm around the more dangerously disturbed total egomaniac is standard political electioneering on the campaign trail.

Here it is clearly saying;

‘give me the mayoral vote if you want him as a GLA member’.

Though it is an implied association not a mutually overt alliance as with Sian Berry and the Greens.

I don’t want to see George Galloway in any kind of democratic political process (I would like to see him in a small house on St Elba)but I cannot let my vote be influenced by the putative motivations of other voters, that would turn an election into a psychodrama.

I have offered to fight Galloway to the bitter and pathetic end in the campest costume of his own choosing, the offer still stands.

Thanks for the birthday wishes.

I think you mean St Helena Metta - the previous small troublemaker escaped from Elba and made a comeback…

Who cares what the laughably named “Socialist Unity” are advocating!

Well not me, I just saw the link to the SU site and the hat-tip and kind of assumed they would be making the same argument, not the opposite one.

In any case, after advocating a couple of weeks ago that everyone make Paddick their first choice I had second thoughts after seeing more of him recently and being rather unimpressed, so it was Sian Berry first and, slightly reluctantly, Ken second for me.

Didn’t expect to see that punk kid Graham so soon.

The new look of this site is good, although it could do with being a bit wider.

I’d geared up for an argument yesterday, but there was no HP, and talking this over seems pretty pointless now. Still… David, you were able to vote Labour at the last general election, and ISTR you urging others to as well, despite the lingering presence of Blair as leader. I’m not sure about you yourself, but I know a number of people on HP put forward the line about not letting the Tories in the back door, through apathy or a protest vote. And rightly so. Yet you can’t vote for Ken? Even if every allegation that’s been made against Ken were true, he’d still be nowhere near as vile, self-serving, vindictive or corrupt as Blair. He isn’t perfect, but he’s been a decent Mayor, making London a much better place to live and work than it was 10 years ago. There’s every reason to vote for Livingstone, and none to vote against him.

No, I haven’t been impressed with Paddick either, from what I’ve see of him. He’s trying too hard. Normally I’m inclined towards the Lib Dems or the Greens perhaps, but when its close with the Tory, like now, vote Labour. Its simply not in my DNA to let the Tories in, let alone vote for them.

Plus I suspect Paddick’s had recent coaching, it’s rather too obvious.

Hari on why to vote for Ken.

Also, Dave Hill.

Happy Brithday Graham!

Well this is a tough one….

On the one hand there’s a bloke who has consistently fought for London’s interests, has tried to tackle poverty, has improved the public transport system and tackled congestion, and has increased social housing provision in the capital.

On the other hand the same bloke is apparently a despicable homophobe because he wouldn’t give £1m to the Gay World Cup, or something.

How will I make up my mind?

Happy Birthday Graham

Hmmm, undecided on the new look, do miss the backwards R tho

Not bad. Not bad at all.

I note that peace seems to have broken out between Socialist Unity, Harry’s Place and Shiraz Socialist (though I wouldn’t count on an end to hostilities between the latter and former, not while Jim Denham keeps breathing).

With Rome having fallen to Gianni Alemanno, an ex-MSI ‘post-fascist’ type, the new Mayor, it is to be hoped that both the BNP and Boris do not replicate this. Particularly the call for cleansing the city of illegal immigrants, raising Gypsy encampments to ground, or indeed the shouts of Duce! Duce!

Graham

a)Mount St Helens, b)Elba and c)St Helena often gets mushed up in my brain.

I agree I wouldnt want him on b) though a) erupting could be fun or c) or even somewhere more antarctic like south Georgia islands which he could rename as something more penguiny and less imperialist.

Graham do you think George’s penis will end up in a match box failing to be sold at a Christies auction?

The new look of this site is good, although it could do with being a bit wider.

Get a 21inch screen.

Mr Galloway intends to carry on as MP for Bethnal Green and Bow if he is elected to the assembly: “I would be doing two jobs for one salary, so the London taxpayer will gain from electing me.”

So George is claiming he won’t be paid if elected?
Lying liars etc.

Happy birthday Graham. Are you celebrating with hot punch or port?

Marko Attilla Hoare:

Livingstone a “temporary evil”? How many terms has he had as mayor of London? How many years before then did he run a bully pulpit and align himself with the likes of Gerry Healey?

I’m writing from Canada, so have no idea how bad Boris really is, but isn’t he more likely to be a one-term wonder than Livingstone has proven to be? I’m also in no position to know if Livingstone has cultivated a successor of any sorts. That’s not usually an aspect of municipal politics, but just wondering.

Graham do you think George’s penis will end up in a match box failing to be sold at a Christies auction?

We can but hope so.

Are you celebrating with hot punch or port?

Glenmorangie.

Pimms (no 1 cup), with bits of cucumber in, I bet.

How utterly arriviste.

As Tom Jones sang:-

Don’t give me Caol Isla, I just need a tot of Bowmore.