February 29, 2008
Boris campaign gathers momentum
A host of new donors to the Boris Johnson campaign to be London mayor are today published on the Electoral Commission website.
The names include Patrick Snowball, former chief executive of Norwich Union, who has given the blond bombshell £8,000. Snowball was in the news this week as he will be leading the Tory proposal to set up a new “Green ISA” scheme.
Others are Jonathan Mervis, Lord Jonathan Marland, Cameron Mackintosh and a group called Elliott Advisers.
Johnson picked up £33,000 of support in January and £47,000 in February, taking his running tally to about £356,000. Still some way off the £1m-plus which his team has been seeking ahead of the May 1 poll.
As for Ken Livingstone, it’s not clear how much he has raised because the donations come via the Labour party and won’t be public until a few weeks after the election. It’s safe to predict that much of his cash will come from the unions. Brian Paddick, the Lib Dem man, has been trailing on the funding stakes.
4.15pm
Resurgent Boris is clearly starting to worry the government.
I’ve just emerged from the main hall at the Labour spring conference in Birmingham where ministers lined up to criticise him. Tessa Jowell, London & Olympics minister, admitted that the mayoral contest is the closest we have seen in nearly a decade.
Hazel Blears, communities secretary, said: “Boris is no joke. He’s a nasty, right-wing elitist, with odious views and criminal friends like Conrad Black.”
Don’t hang back Hazel. Tell us what you really think.
Incidentally I went to a debate of the candidates on Tuesday night and was impressed by both Paddick and Sian Berry from the Greens. One of her ideas is subsidised office space for creative companies in central London, which makes sense. Ken told her he would invite her into his team if he won a third term – although it wasn’t clear how serious he was being.
Why is it our politicians refuse to see the obvious? The decisions that need to be made on the issues that will have the most effect on the life of Londoners, are simply the ones being shied away from by the blonde idiot, the red idiot, and Paddick, a sad and pathetic LibDem! Crime should be number 1, and I’m afraid that threatening to take the bus passes from yobbo scum doesn’t cut the mustard! Real change needs to be imposed if you are to see any real reduction in crime, proper prison sentences, evictions and deportations should be some of the areas being looked at. Not that they will be of course. There will be lots of posturing and expostulating, but in the end, it will amount to nothing. No. If London wants to regain the glories of the past, including the safety and security once enjoyed by most, then there is only one choice to make, and a vote for Richard Barnbrook is that choice. Only the British National Party has the guts to stand and do what needs to be done, and remember, faint heart never won fair lady, and the fairest lady in this country, the City of London, is what will rise or fall according to your choice.
Posted by: Craig Pond | March 2nd, 2008 at 9:15 am | Report this commentIt’s hard to tell if the previous comment is a parody. ‘if London wants to regain the glories of the past’ then it would probably be expedient to regain control of the vast empire England had, wait, what’s that? if you close your eyes and wish hard enough crime will stop. Perhaps we need to commit another genocide like the ones we carried out in North America and Australia. Even things up a bit.
Posted by: James Smith | March 2nd, 2008 at 12:19 pm | Report this commentHah see that Pond is alive and well. FYI he is a BNP candidate who is standing in the elections for Stoke Council so he obviously has a big stake in what happens in London.
He regularly tours round the internet targeting chat boards and newspaper comments to carry out his campaigning for the BNP, spiced up with a bit of casual racial hatred now and then. He’s just been banned from the Daily Express website (where he was posting as ‘Biglill’) for claiming that Asian Muslim men target young white English girls for prostitution, I quote;
‘And remember this, that is no false assumption that says Pakistani muslim males are deliberately targeting young, white British girls for sex and prostitution! Just because the BBC bottled out of telling the whole truth doesn’t mean there aren’t those of us that will stand and say what needs to be said!’
I kept a copy of the web page and his profile so if there is any legal grief about quoting him these can be provided on request.
Posted by: Andy | April 8th, 2008 at 1:02 pm | Report this comment