meanwhile, back in London …

I’m sooo sick of the campaign and I’m determined to look elsewhere for news to bring you, dear readers.

Shiraz Maher, writing in the New Statesman, says that London mayor “Red Ken” Livingstone is the lapdog of radical British Islamist groups, while he fails to address the local bread-and-butter concerns of his Muslim (and non-Muslim) constituents [e.a.].

Several Muslim groups took the unprecedented step this month of endorsing Ken Livingstone’s campaign for re-election as Mayor of London, publishing a statement on the Guardian’s website. The signatories told Muslim voters that doing so serves their “best interests”.

“His stands and policies have constantly championed justice in the Middle East and around the world, freedom for the Palestinians and withdrawal of occupying troops from Iraq, a rare trait of modern-day public figures,” reads the letter.

Herein lies a problem. An investigation by the Centre for Social Cohesion found that just under half of the letter’s signatories represented just two pressure groups: the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB). …

Yet an Ipsos MORI poll released by Livingstone last November revealed that Muslims in the capital consider crime reduction, clean streets, education and affordable housing as their primary concerns - issues far removed from Palestine and Iraq.

I’m not surprised to hear that in London, as everywhere else, people’s actual political concerns are local. What fascinates and troubles me, though, is that radical Islamist organizations in Britain seem to be getting an outsize say in what is “good” for Muslims in Britain.

Perhaps this state of affairs will be challenged in the upcoming election for Mayor of London, a position that was only established in 2000, according to The Economist:

The third election for the mayor of London, an office created in 2000 for a city that had lacked its own administration since 1986, comes in May….

Many Londoners are indifferent as to who their mayor is (voting turnout was only 37% in 2004). Yet the office has come to matter. The mayor controls a budget of £10.6 billion ($20.9 billion)—up from £3.8 billion in 2001-02, and divided mostly between transport and policing (see chart). He also has powers over cultural matters and economic development; in 2006 he acquired more clout over housing, planning, the environment, and learning and skills. The biggest directly elected office in the country is also a bully pulpit.

Red Ken has got some competition this time, it turns out, and they’re going after him even as I write:

‘Trotskyites ran Ken Livingstone’s campaigns’
Times Online, UK - 12 hours ago

Livingstone aides ‘broke rules on poll campaigns’
Guardian Unlimited, UK - Jan 19, 2008

Mayor Ken Livingstone accused of ’shocking’ drinking habits by …
This is London, UK - Jan 19, 2008

Whisky & Ken: the row worsens
First Post, UK - 1 hour ago

Atma Singh’s full article on Ken Livingstone
Times Online, UK - Jan 19, 2008
I started work in City Hall in July 2001 as a policy adviser on Asian Affairs for Ken Livingstone. I had previously worked on his 2000 campaign and even .

Ken Livingstone’s aides ‘in secret Marxist cell’
Times Online, UK - Jan 19, 2008

Meanwhile, I just discovered that to vote in the election for Mayor of London and the London Assembly, you don’t even have to be a citizen of Britain: [e.a.]

The 2008 Greater London Authority (GLA) Elections which include elections for Mayor of London and London Assembly will be held on 1st May 2008.

To vote you must:

• live in London
• be a British, Commonwealth or EU citizen
• be at least 18 years of age on election day

That’s a very interesting notion of sovereignty, isn’t it?—allowing non-British citizens to influence the governance of British citizens—particularly in the areas of policing, economic matters, and culture. Frankly, I find it more than a little bit creepy.***

So I will be paying some attention to the election for Mayor of London. It turns out that Red Ken comes by his nickname honestly [e.a.]:

KEN LIVINGSTONE is embroiled in fresh controversy after allegations that his most senior aides have been members of a Trotskyite faction that plotted to turn London into a “socialist city state”. The advisers, who include the mayor’s chief of staff and his principal economic adviser, have refused to say whether they remain members of the secretive group Socialist Action, whose members greet each other using codenames.

He also has some very vocal competition in one Boris Johnson, a Tory, who is attacking Livingstone for his inattention to street crime:

Boris was on Nick Ferrari’s radio programme this morning talking about gun and knife crime, and setting out his five point plan to tackle the growing problem.

He explained to Nick how it was important to focus on areas such as strengthening the police presence on London’s streets and supporting grassroots organisations. Boris went on to criticise the current Labour Mayor who has said it is not something he or the Met Commissioner can solve.

Boris stressed that with 27 teenagers being killed by their fellow teenagers in London in 2007, this was exactly the problem that the Mayor had to get to grips with.

Commenting after the interview, Boris added:

“It frustrates me no end to hear the Mayor say nothing can be done to sort out gang and knife crime in London. He is in a position to make a real change and instead decides to stick his head in the sand. I will tackle this issue head on when I am Mayor”.

Johnson is an unusual challenger, to say the least—something of a celebrity in Britain and known by one name, the familiar “Boris.” The Economist offers a more sober assessment:

the Tories’ choice of candidate to run against him is a risky one. Mr Johnson’s journalistic career was stellar (he was editor of the Spectator, among other jobs) but punctuated by controversy. He became an MP, but concealing an affair led to his removal from the Tory front bench in 2004 by Michael Howard, the party’s leader; David Cameron, Mr Howard’s successor, restored him. His sense of fun knows few bounds (Mr Paddick calls him a “clown”), which critics say equips him ill to run a city with dire social problems.

The latest polls have Boris running neck in neck with Red Ken, according to The Independent:

The [YouGov] poll’s most interesting findings were that Livingstone was on 45 per cent, and Boris Johnson on 44. This implies that the contest is too close to call, and that the outcome will depend on how the second preference votes of those who voted for other candidates are distributed. In the previous two mayoral elections, in 2000 and 2004, it was pretty clear from the outset that Livingstone was going to win. Now he is fighting for this political life.

————-

***In researching for this post, I discovered that the position of Mayor of London has a counterpart: the Lord Mayor of London.