I think Ken’s real comfort zone is inner London. He needs to reach out to outer London – thats where he last in 2008, and he could loose it there this time too.

Ken won’t win. There are too many Labour supporters like me who would rather walk to the polling station and back the incumbent than risk seeing Labour represented by a divisive extremist who sucks up to tyrants, antisemites and gay bashers.

Go away, old man.

Ken’s campaign is certainly energetic, as you claim.

But it isn’t any more truthful than Ken was back in the day.

For instance, they have made a lot of some modest public transport fare increases under Boris, needed to fund investment in infrastructure But they fail to mention that Ken kept fares down by putting council tax up by c £1000 per family…. and probably would again.

Boris, by contrast, is proposing a council tax freeze.

“But they fail to mention that Ken kept fares down by putting council tax up by c £1000 per family…. and probably would again.”

The GLA bit of the council tax is about £310 per year for a band D property, so how could Ken have put it up by £1,000 per family?

Hope Boris keeps going with the line about ‘modest public transport fare increases’, mind.

Fundamentally, I don’t think Ken has learnt anything from his defeat and he never admits mistakes. So not sure the signs are good for him.

donpaskini @ 4

Hope Boris keeps going with the line about ‘modest public transport fare increases’, mind.

Me too. Under the new fare system, a bus ride for a pay-as-you-go Oystercard holder will go up by a very modest 5p (from £1.30 to £1.35), except for pensioners, who travel free (and whose freedom passes have now been extended to 24 hrs per day), and JobCentre Plus pass holders whose rate has been frozen at 65p.

People who use a lot of buses can get an Oyster photocard, capped at £2.20 per day, no matter how many journeys they take.

So, in summary, the elderly & jobless pay no more. The better off are charged 5p extra per journey, or 10p per day, with unlimited journeys.

Not a big deal.

Moving to your other point, while in office, Ken increased the council tax precept 8 times, costing the average family £1000
each over the period. Or, to put it another way, the equivalent of the fare increase on 20,000 bus journeys.

Not that Ken didn’t raise fares himself, of course.

In January 2004, Ken increased the basic bus fare (this was before Oystercards were introduced) from 70p to £1 – a rise of 43% (inflation was 2.6% at the time).

The next year, in January 2005, Ken increased the discounted Oystercard rate for a bus ride by 14.3% and then – only one month later – in February 2005, he upped it again by a further 25% for peak time travel.

Then, in 2007, he slammed on another 25% rise on the Oyster off-peak fare.

In his own memoirs (see page 497) Ken admits he broke his own promises on fares.

Yes, indeed, let’s keep the focus on fares. The public aren’t stupid.

@6 – you missed out the increases in tube fares from your copying and pasting. I wonder why?

I’d love to see your workings for the claim that council tax rises cost ‘the average family’ over £1000.

@3

“For instance, they have made a lot of some modest public transport fare increases under Boris, needed to fund investment in infrastructure”

Boris has increased the cost of a single bus fare by 50%, from 90p when he took office to £1.35 now – that is far from ‘modest’. The fare rises have also been disproportionately aimed at the poor.

A useful analysis – especially as I suspect the reason Mr Livingston is ahead in the polls at the moment is visibility, and the fact that it does not appear that Mr Johnson has even started campaigning (given that all politicians are permanently on campaign anyway…). I suspect there is a set date at which the Johnson campaign will start – and up to that point, it is happy to let Mr Livingston give himself enough rope (even if Flowerpower’s council tax figures (requiring an average increase of £125 per year) are wrong, his facts on Mr Livingston’s own record on transport are not).

I can’t help but think that Mr Livingston is fatally flawed anyway. Even on transport he is vulnerable, and there are other problems. His performance after the riots, where he tried to exonorate the rioters from blame, will undoubtedly crop up again for example, as will his association with unpleasant regimes (Cuba for example) and groups. It was an obvious mistake for Labour to renominate him – was there no other Labour-supporter with public recognition and a vision for London (does Mr Livingston actually have one of those?) anywhere around London who might have been persuaded to stand?

@6

“JobCentre Plus pass holders whose rate has been frozen at 65p.”

Again, you’re ignoring the time when Boris actually increased the fare from 0p to 65p. Obviously, percentages don’t work here – but for some of the poorest people in London, and those who need to use public transport to get to interviews – it was pretty appalling.

donpaskini@7 Watchman @ 9

I’d love to see your workings for the claim that council tax rises cost ‘the average family’ over £1000.

Actually I didn’t say “over £1000″, I said ” c £1000″ (c=circa=around).

But okay – here are the workings:

The precept at the start was £123. Had Ken done what Boris has done and kept the precept frozen, then the total precept element of Council Tax payable by a family in Band D in financial years 2000-2001 to 2008-9 inclusive (the years Ken set the precept) would have been:

£123 X 9 = £1107.

But Ken kept raising the precept every year, such that the total precept payable for the period was, in fact, £2071.

£2071 – £1107 = £964 – which is as near as dammit £1k.

That was the cost of Ken’s council tax increases for an average family.

Any quibbles?

No, he doesn’t. He just needs to get the left out.

@3 – That’s right, he’s planning to slash services for the poor again. That’s exactly the plan! Starving councils of even inflationary rises does just that.

@6 – Photocard eh? Oh wait, student or under 16. The actual cap is £4.20

Moreover, there is highly restricted availability (time limits) for the JC+ card, and the full bus fare was 90p not very long ago…

When was the bus fare 90p?

ukliberty – 2007

UK Liberty @ 13 Leon Wolfson @ 14

Leon’s memory (like Ken’s) is a bit selective.

Yes, the bus fare was reduced from £1 to 90p as a re-election gimmick, but the whole thing came unstuck when internal e-mails were leaked to the Standard showing that the plan was to put the fares back up after the votes were cast.

Pure Ken.

@15 – Ah yes, is that what you call facts. I answered a question.

You of course then have to paint this as evil. Typical right-wing behaviour.

“tap into Londoners’ expectations of the world’s capital.”

The world’s capital? Please.

2, Sorry you feel this way, Especially on How many Police Boris has cut from Outer london, I can’t fault what you say, Hopefully like Me you’ll vote for the Labour assembly members If Not the mayoral choice

5 true Ken should have apoloigsed in 2008 for not doing anything for outer london and spent the next 4 years campaigning there, Starting 4 months ago in outer london was 3 years too late.

Above all, Ken Livingstone has to stop making Nazi comparisons: http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/ken-livingstone-hitler/