Another day, another mayoral debate

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but yesterday night BBC London region was treated to the third televisual ding-dong between Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone and PC Plod. The first was refereed by Konnie Huq, the third saw Jeremy Paxman grill the three and this latest one had Andrew Neil as question-master. Country cousins you didn’t miss much: it was the dullest of the three and if you are still not put-off by that you can watch it here.

Brian Paddick smiled a bit more than last time, maybe because someone told him how stony-faced he appeared for Paxo. The fact that there were no candidate opening statements unlike with the other two meant that he couldn’t fluff his lines again. I agree with LabourHome who said of last week’s performance that he has about as much in common with the average LibDem as Norman Tebbit (except maybe ex-Tory Nick Clegg – see below). Boris J looked as embarassingly shambolic and skew-whiff as ever attempting to play to the gallery with populist soundbites on crime and Ken was just Ken. Honest, straight, likeable, take-it-or-leave-it Ken. I doubt it changed a single audience vote as the baying crowd looked like they were all there to cheer on their faves and jeer their opponents.

Finally this cover from Friday’s Tribune is a corker. For people who weren’t around at the time, it’s revenge of the lefties from the Sun from polling day in 1992 that later led to the grammatically challenged headline “it’s the sun Wot Won It”. Sadly Tribune doesn’t have the same sized circulation to decide the whole outcome but let’s hope it jolts people into action. A Boris-led London would be a disaster.

Niggly point: they should’ve made it an enviro-friendly lightbulb.