So Boris Johnson said [re Congestion Charge increase] he “understood where Porsche was coming from". Yes, important not to alienate city boys on huge bonuses eh Boris? It sounds a bit spineless really. Livingstone has at least showed he's a leader of men and prepared to make a few enemies. Boris Johnson couldn't lead a dog to a lamppost for a slash.

Did he? I don’t remember that. I can remember him the day after she died speaking of “the Queen of Hearts”. Don’t remember him blubbing at the funeral. – Idlex
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Perhaps my memory fails me. Whether he blubbed or not, he certainly tapped into the hysteria of the moment.
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I did. End of fairy tale, etc. Won’t happen again.
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I can’t say I did. I didn’t know the woman or have particular strong feelings about her. She was a famous stranger to me, and one who had irritated me slightly in the past with her displays of narcissism and self-pity. She worked for some worthy causes, of course, and the fact that she did these as much out of self-promotion and upper-class guilt doesn’t take away from the good that she did. I think than many people shared my ambivalence towards Diana, but they seemed to be taken over by a kind of group hysteria in the aftermath of her death.
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I was shocked and saddened at the sudden loss of such a prominent figure, but since I didn’t see her as a role model or as instrumental to the future of the country, I didn’t consider her loss to be any more upsetting or catastrophic as any other. I didn’t buy into the idea that we should pity one of the most privileged women on the planet; nor did I think there was anything exceptional or praiseworthy about her tawdry private life. And yet it was precisely these things that won people’s hearts. She was a tragic figure: rejected, wounded, fallible, but showing a determination to get her life back together. In many ways she had common tastes, but she also lived a life of glamour and privilege. To her fans, she was like them in feelings and preference but lived on a plane of existence they could only aspire to. In the modern currency of celebrity, she had it all: familiar enough not to alienate them, talentless enough not to provoke envy, and glamorous enough to command adoration.
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A day or two after Diana died, my girlfriend asked if we could drive up Buck House to see the flowers. It was bedlam. The crowds were unbelievable but we managed to creep through them, right up to the roundabout outside the palace. What I remember most was that I just parked up on the edge of the roundabout, stuck on the handbrake and wandered off without the police, who were everywhere, batting an eyelid. I wonder if such an understanding attitude would exist today! After a while, wandering up and down, marvelling at the immensity of the public’s response, we got back in the car and drove past Kensington Palace. Flowers were tucked into the railings and laid on the pavement for hundreds of yards. I was emotional, yes, but more at such a conspicuous display of public unity than at its cause. If anything would make you believe in the power of collectivism, it was such a remarkable show of togetherness and shared experience.
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It had been a long time since anything had united the people in such a way. The European Championships of the previous year gave some of us our first taster of what it was like to come together in a common cause, but for most people, the death of Diana was a first: cathartic and strangely uplifting. The outpouring of emotion – be it happiness or grief – offers its own rewards, totally unconnected to their supposed cause. This wasn’t lost on Tony Blair, who used it as a springboard to engineer a shift away from reason and rationalism towards a more emotion-based ethos. This change had been happening since the start of the decade, but definitely accelerated under the stewardship of New Labour.
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Without wanting to keep labouring the same point, I believe this has resulted in a corruption of public debate, where strength of feeling is more important than facts and ideas. Two of my biggest bugbears – the smoking ban and environmentalism – are products of this process.

My reasons for blubbing were not as complex as yours were for not blubbing, Tayles. It was simply the end of an enchanting fairy-tale. However much you might try to avoid the popular press, the stunningly beautiful Diana became a central part of public life. But she was different from anyone else, a little girl lost in a powerful system which she never really understood. To be cut down in the prime of her life was the stuff of epic tragedies – and it made me moist.
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As far as I know, they don’t steal their bonuses from the pockets of hard-up Londoners.
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Better be careful there. You don’t have to be a raving leftie to make the association between city fat-cats and the recent nose-dive by some of our financial institutions. Northern Rock has not covered the sector in glory with its reckless borrowing which hit small investors badly. Last week’s HBOS scandal was perhaps even worse; it seems a small club of greedy opportunists knocked the bank for six by spreading false rumours about its creditworthiness and then short-selling its shares to make profits estimated at £100m.
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Of course this doesn’t mean the Mayor should alienate the financial sector’s successful people and ban their Porsches as Markjohn would like. This is just the kind of class-ridden, envious nonsense we expect from the left.

Northern Rock has not covered the sector in glory with its reckless borrowing which hit small investors badly. Last week’s HBOS scandal was perhaps even worse; it seems a small club of greedy opportunists knocked the bank for six by spreading false rumours about its creditworthiness and then short-selling its shares to make profits estimated at £100m. – Paul
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Frankly, Northern Rock should have been allowed to perish. A free market doesn’t work without an element of risk and investors should know that. If people want risk-free investments they’re better off with premium bonds. Sorry if that doesn’t sound compassionate, but people should be aware of these things before they make such a commitment. The government’s handling of the whole affair has unbalanced a process that only works if it is left to run its natural course. There will be winners and losers, but by trying to ensure there are no losers means that no one wins. That might appeal to communists, but shouldn’t to anyone who is interested in creating wealth.
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As for HBOS, such unscrupulous dealings should be illegal, if they aren’t already. I think it’s wrong to sully the reputation of the free market by ignoring the good it does or highlighting those who attempt to subvert the system as somehow typical of how it works.

His popeliness has added seven new ones one of which is “the excessive accumulation of wealth by a few” – Jack
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We’re back at the zero-sum mentality here. No rational soul could believe that one man’s gain is another’s loss, unless some kind of iniquity is at play; and yet it is trotted out constantly in one form or another: footballers earning ‘too much’, city boys receiving massive bonuses, corporations annoucing huge profits. I reckon this way of thinking is a serious obstacle to any society moving in the right direction. Unless, of course, assuaging envy is considered to be more important than improving people’s quality of life.

But I think that perhaps any death draws a line under a life, and brings the realization that the story of that life has been told, and that there is no more to tell, the book closed. – Idlex
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I suppose that sudden closure does leave an emptiness. We always think of people’s lives as being a biography: a long and complex passage towards some unknown, far-flung destination. We expect people to get old and the end of their life to become visible on the horizon before it is eventually reached. When a life ends unexpectedly and abruptly, there is a sense of shock, loss and regret. I can understand that, and I have undoubtedly felt that with the loss of numerous famous people over the years. If I admired that person or enjoyed the products of their labours, that sadness was more intense and lasting. I suppose that Diana didn’t touch me in the same way that she did others. I do, however, feel that the hysteria that followed her death was completely disproportionate to the esteem in which she was held.

Work in progress, or what will happen if Boris Johnson wins race to be Mayor of London?

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...The Democrats in America wasted years trying to expose the inner darkness of Ronald Reagan, when the voters persisted in adoring his easy charm. The supporters of Ken Livingstone seem to have forgotten that their candidate used to win because people actually liked him. In Mr Crosby’s vast experience of campaigns, he has never come across a candidate who excites less voter hostility than Boris. On all that stuff about jokes, human foibles, even, oddly, on honesty, he is unassailable.

Markjohn, before presenting yourself as an expert on the subject it might help if you did some reading. Boris’s environmental strategy includes:
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Getting around town quickly and cheaply will become much easier when London has a bicycle hire scheme. We will broker a deal with a private company to bring thousands of bikes to the capital at no cost to the taxpayer.
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We will follow the New York example and provide funding for more cycle parks for London. We would divert £2 million from the total £5 million saved from TfL consultancy fees towards increasing the provision of cycle parking around the city. This could, for example, pay for procuring and installing 13,000 Sheffield stands (enough parking for 26,000 bicycles), or 1,250 secure cycle cages (with parking for 15,000 bicycles).
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Secure cycle parking must become a priority within the London Plan, so that secure cycle parking is a standard feature of new developments. It is clear we need a fresh approach, which is why for the first time cycling will have its own Policy Guidance in our amended London Plan, putting it on an equal status to secure car parking.
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Now please answer these questions:
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1. Do you think the Labour government’s massive spending increase on education and the NHS has achieved the results it promised? Do you think he who pledges to spend the most will achieve the most?
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2. How often does Livingstone ride a bike?
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3. What the hell has a writer’s colourful prose about driving a fast car on an open road got to do with cycling in a congested city?

"As for HBOS, such unscrupulous dealings should be illegal, if they aren’t already." (Tayles)

This is surely very complicated. Open the financial pages of any newspaper and the guy who manages a long equities fund will tell you we've reached the bottom. In the column opposite the guy who manages a commodities fund will tell you that we're in a bear market for the foreseeable future. Where do you draw the line? Speculating on financial instruments is often based on rumours and opinions, from what I've heard it's more usual for proprietary traders to phone Frankfurt first thing in the morning than go through the FT with a fine toothed comb, just as people involved in oil trading spend twelve ro more hours a day all hooked up on MSN messenger.

I don't think these city traders do an easy job either. I know how I felt the other weekend when I ended the night in a casino with £200. I spent a few hours playing, was down to £20 at one stage, then clawed back to having £200, and I'd had a couple of beers along the way. I cashed in, went out for a fag and decided to go back in and bet the £200 on on high stakes roulette bet and lost. The next morning I was pretty peeved with myself, but the day after I'd pretty much forgotten about it. I've been in similar situations where I've won and woken up joyful, ready to either hit the shop or deposit some extra pocket money in my current account.

Doing similar in a highly competitive environment with millions of pounds of your employers money must be a stressful job, I doubt I could do it. I make bets of a couple of hundred quid here or there on share prices from time to time, and it's only having played roulette a bit at reasonably high stakes thats hardened my nerves up enough to do it and stand any chance of actually winning. In my experience your employer can make you feel pretty bad when they've paid you £50 for the day and you haven't managed to sell any of their wares, I'd iamgine if you lost a few hundred grand or more of their money on a bad bet things would be pretty stressful that night.

Still bitter about failing to cut the mustard at Oxford, Waik?

So what do we make of the revelation that Ken has five children by three different women? I have a feeling that the morality-free society he has helped to create will not judge him too harshly.
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Never mind that he has behaved like some monarch from the middle ages, siring children and leaving them virtually fatherless. Never mind that he puts himself up as the standard-bearer for 21st century ethics. Poor Ken is just a victim of people who want to get him.
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It was fascinating to see the meisterspinner at work with a stream of deflections, outrage and – the oldest trick – denial of side-issues and of charges that were never made.
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It seems like only yesterday the press was trying to imply I was gay
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They have even broken into my bank account – which is illegal
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I would not comment on the private lives of Boris Johnson or Brian Paddick
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I don’t think anybody in this city will be shocked by what two consenting adults do, as long as you don’t include children, animals and vegetables. (Sorry Ken, it does involve children).
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I feel no guilt whatsoever
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And this is the man who has blamed bad parenting for teenage violence. It grieves me to say so; the reaction of a lot of people will be “good old Ken”.
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When you have put a lifetime’s work into building up a fragmented society with no ethical code other than the slippery virtues of equality and diversity, you have then given yourself carte blanche to behave as you like without being censured. Neat.
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If this man wins, it will be a tragic comment on the kind of society he and the Left have cultivated.

So what do we make of the revelation that Ken has five children by three different women? – PaulD
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Neither Boris nor Brian Paddick are making anything of it. Both have chosen not to comment. Since Paddick is openly homosexual, and Boris has his periodic bimbo explosions, I suppose neither feels in any position to comment. Pot, kettle, etc.
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I suppose that my take on these things is that I’m not really greatly concerned with what people get up to sexually, because sexual acts do not appear to me to be in and of themselves harmful or consequential. The problems all start when there are consequences. And conceiving children is one of the primary major consequence of heterosexual sex. If I had a daughter (I don’t), I would probably be quite happy if she slept with men of her own age, but distressed if she became pregnant, or contracted some sexually-transmitted disease, or suffered any other misfortune – for at that point what was inconsequentially sexual becomes very serious.
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From this point of view, Ken would appear to have been highly irresponsible, fathering children left, right, and centre. One senses that if he has had 5 children by 3 women, he may easily have had more. But none of the women involved have commented. Maybe they all wanted children? Maybe Ken has somehow managed to be a wonderful father to them all, and paid for their private education? We don’t know.
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Of course, it’s open to anyone to deny that sexual acts are ever inconsequential. In the case of Boris, those acts constituted infidelity to his wife, and could have provided grounds for divorce. But his wife has not taken this course. And in the recent case of Elliot Spitzer of New York, a self-style ‘Mr Clean’ who prosecuted prostitution rings, but turned out to employ the services of prostitutes himself, the man was shown to be a complete hypocrite.

I was never going to vote for Ken anyway, but even if I did want to vote Red-Ken this news would not sway me one bit. I disagree with imposing a manditory social stigma on single parent families, and believe that people's private sexual life should remain private. I also dislike the idea that to be an electable politician you have to be married with 2.4 children.

I like to come-back at these people that go on about all torture being banned with the retort 'what if it's consentual?'. If people want to have dodgy sex let them.

Boris Johnson: I’m the victim of dirty tricks in London Mayor race
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Boris Johnson claims that he is the victim of a “ruthless” dirty tricks campaign – including hacking into computers and “blatant lies” – designed to derail his attempt to become mayor of London.

Here’s a good one:
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Ministers instructed: don’t mention Boris
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In an unusual move, the most senior figures in government were told they would have to pay £5 into a “swear box” each time they referred to Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayoral candidate, by his first name alone.
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Why? The government fears that calling him simply Boris makes the maverick appear too charismatic and popular among the voters. Instead, they must refer to him more formally either as “Boris Johnson” or the “Tory candidate”.
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So it’s not just us plebs who suffer from NuLab’s thought police.

I stumbled across the Guardian’s Comment Is Free where readers follow up a Boris-knocking article in the Observer. The mood is not what I expected – it’s hard to find anyone with a kind word to say about Livingstone. Some are fizzing with hatred of the man. And this in the Guardian of all places.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/13/localgovernment.london

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Boris Johnson has taken a narrow lead over Ken Livingstone in the race to be London’s mayor, according to a poll for The Observer that will alarm Labour MPs.
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The Conservative candidate appears to be gaining support from voters switching away from Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat candidate, as Londoners increasingly decide that the election is a two-horse race. Paddick performed poorly in a debate for BBC2’s Newsnight last week and has failed to make inroads.

I think that Boris had to overcome the preconception among some voters that he is a buffoon – intelligent, articulate and funny, yes, but not someone you could trust in high office. The mumbling, bumbling joker of old might have given Livingstone an Achilles heel to aim at.

A few generalisations there, Ron! I’ve met extremes of rudeness and politeness both sides of the Watford Gap.
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It’s impossible to categorise London because the place is such a mish-mash.

Okay, enough theory. Who’s got actual money on this race?

Apparently, mine is no good. Not even Paypal. I should ask Guido to lay my bets, but he’s an anarcho-capitalist and he’d just buy hookers and coke with it.