The BBC have reported that Lib Dem Brian Paddick picked up by far the most second preference votes in the race to be mayor of London, according to figures just released.

Brian Paddick 641,412
Sian Berry 331,727
Ken Livinstone 303,198
Boris Johnson 257,792
Richard Barnbrook 128,609
Gerard Batten 113,651
Alan Craig 80,140
Matt O'Connor 73,538
Lindsey German 35,057
Winston McKenzie 38,954

A slightly different race!

BBC NEWS | Politics | Paddick 'won second vote contest'
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Who cares? He didn't get enough first preference votes, and ergo is not Mayor.
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The Liberal Democrats will probably be the next big thing in mainstream opposition parties and will almost certainly adopt Libertarian ideals as mainstream policy base. They will refurbish, re-organise and grow. I'd be hugely surprised if they did not. I saw this trend eight years ago, but no one believed me. I think it may come to pass, especially now as Labour will leak many malcontents and evolutionary social democrats to liberal democracy, and left of centre Conservatives may find a new home in a new opposition.
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Originally Posted by Eurosceptic Atlanticist:
Who cares? He didn't get enough first preference votes, and ergo is not Mayor.

Well presumably it means more voters prefered him to Boris Johnson. Concievably if there'd be a run off then he would of been mayor. It is certainly worth noting. He is likely to have better than Boris or Ken.
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Originally Posted by Eurosceptic Atlanticist:
Who cares? He didn't get enough first preference votes, and ergo is not Mayor.

Seconded.

I spoke to some people who did not like the man and/or his views and refused to vote for him first or second preference.

His party did not do well in last week's London Mayoral or Assembly elections and nationally got a lower overall percentage vote share than a year ago.

In fact, last Thursday the europhile Liberal 'Dems' (deservedly) got their worst local election results for a decade :-).
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They are in transition and meltdown, but they will change. At the moment they represent everything that is impractical in politics, but when and if they pay attention to immigration issues, the failing EU, stop serving the ends of political correctness, get their act together and re-emerge, they will be in a position to take Labour's place as official opposition.

Liberal Democracy is the left of centre political ideology of the new millennium. Nationalist conservatism is the right of centre emergent ideology. They will make quite volatile opponents in some ways and in others will form cusps. This will take time, but I feel it will happen large-scale across the old West.

America is already feeling the pinch of the new as Hilary Clinton struggles against her rival and Bush rapidly disappears from view. America, too, will change, with a new feisty secular faction in the ascendant and a number of libertarian oriented groups still nascent but starting to take shape into what will be the new American conservative camp.

American politics will die a rather agonising death before these infants of the new age break free of their placentas. But they are coming down the birth canal and nothing is likely to stop them now.

Old Europe is dying too, and has been for a long time. It is like a once great edifice that has stone cancer and is being eaten away slowly by the elements. New, smaller, groups will form and even smaller, newer groups within those. These will make new alliances. This will all take at least another decade to show up significantly and perhaps another to come to full being. But I feel they are there and I can see their misty shapes emergent in the glare of light that almost always flares after the first decade of a new century.

A new millennium will make this evolutionary change even more pronounced. But there we are looking at changes over generations and centuries.

In our immediate time, we are looking at decadence and rot crumbling to fertilize new ideas within the next twenty years. :-)
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I put this thread on not because "I care" but because "I was interested"!
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I contributed because I care not because I am interested. Do these dovetail somewhere, or are they non-identical twins?
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Originally Posted by Frith:
They are in transition and meltdown, but they will change. At the moment they represent everything that is impractical in politics, but when and if they pay attention to immigration issues, the failing EU, stop serving the ends of political correctness, get their act together and re-emerge, they will be in a position to take Labour's place as official opposition.

So what your saying is, they will make themselves attractive to voters if they become a completely different party to what they are now? Funny that! Do you know if I was 40 years younger I may be able to attract the attention of attractive to young women!:-)
When I look at the type of person who vote Lib Dem and the people who stand for the Lib Dems, I think I'd sooner take a long walk on a short Pier rather than vote for them!
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Originally Posted by kernow:
So what your saying is, they will make themselves attractive to voters if they become a completely different party to what they are now? Funny that! Do you know if I was 40 years younger I may be able to attract the attention of attractive to young women!:-)
When I look at the type of person who vote Lib Dem and the people who stand for the Lib Dems, I think I'd sooner take a long walk on a short Pier rather than vote for them!

I know it sounds a little iffy at the moment the way they now are, but I don't think I'm wrong. I think they will transform themselves into something, not entirely different, but more workable and mainstream, as liberal democracy has a lot going for it if you're liberally minded (and a lot of people today are).

I wouldn't go for it, but I think centre left supporters will. Not they way the Lib Dems are now but the way they will go in time. (You think I'm nuts, don't you? :-) I just feel this will happen as there is a gap and they may fill it.)
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