The most important result of the 1 May elections, the vote to select London's Mayor for the next four years, is in.

Boris has won! Absolutely fantastic news, which rounds off a great election for the Conservatives. More than 250 councillor up, plus one London Mayor. All we're waiting on now is the final GLA seat results.

Boris didn't just win - he won convincingly. He enjoyed an 8.1% [149,884 votes] lead over Ken, with 42.5% of those cast, after the first preference votes and although more second preference votes went to Ken - by about 11,000 - all of Ken's second preference votes didn't amount to more than Boris' first preference lead.

Londoners have made their choice, and have chosen a Conservative to be the second mayor of London and, what's more, they have done so convincingly. Corks should certainly be popping in CCHQ tonight.

Now it is just up to Boris to prove to the people of London that they have selected the right person for the job.

On a far more local note, here is the Watford Observer write-up on the Three Rivers council, for which I was standing, and achieved a decent swing in my ward for the length of time that I have been the candidate. Unfortunately, the BNP gained a seat on the council.

It seems that "Boris" is now a four-letter word to Labour:

It's interesting how the use of the name "Boris" pulls people in, yet the name "Ken" pushes people away.

The use of just Ken Livingstone's first name drives people away not because of the name, but because of it's association with Livingstone himself. Whilst using just Boris Johnson's first name pulls people in because of it's association with him.

Labour are running scared, because they know that Ken can't beat Boris. Hence their campaign of dirty tricks against him. They know they can't win fairly, so they try to win unfairly. Typical Labour. They're desperate. Trying to make "Boris" a "bad word" just proves it.

Even the Lib Dems know that Ken is dead in the water, hence their attacks on him now: "He is not listening any more. He's surrounded by personal advisers pursuing their own personal agendas."

They think it's all over for Ken. It will be come May 1.

Boris Johnson's Mayoral campaign was launched yesterday.

His priorities are:

• Making the streets safer
• Improving transport
• Making neighbourhoods greener
• Making City Hall genuinely accountable

Ken has not proven himself worthy of a third term as London Mayor. And the polls certainly agree with it, giving Boris a 10 per cent overall lead, and a 56 to 44 per cent second preference lead as well.

And there's just a month left until the election.

The nominations for the London Mayor has opened, with 14 candidates putting their name forward. Why twelve of them have bothered is beyond me. The race is between Ken Livingston and Boris Johnson, maybe with Brian Paddick in a distant third. And bar those three - and very occasionally Sian Berry of the Green party - none have been mentioned in the media at all.

The candidates are:

Alan Craig - Christian Peoples Alliance & The Christian Party
Boris Johnson - Conservative party
Brian Paddick - Liberal Democrat
Chris Prior - Stop The Congestion Charge party
Damian Hockney -One London party
Dennis Delderfield - New Britain
Gerard Batten - UKIP
Ken Livingstone - Labour party
Lindsey German - Left List party
Matt O'Connor - English Democrats party
Richard Barnbrook - BNP
Sian Berry - Green party
Winston McKenzie - Independent
John Flunder - Senior Citizens' Party

It is a straight race between Ken and Boris. And Boris is the only candidate who can offer a better future for London.

He could be, since a single is being created featuring Boris.

These DJs - who are not connected with any political group or Boris' Mayoral campaign -want to "catapult Boris to chart success using the power of the internet." There is already nearly three hundred people who have joined the facebook group promoting it.

It really is quite amusing. Whether it will actually reach number 1 is extremely debatable, but the snippet so far released is quite good, and we are assured that the complete track is "utter genius".

You can listen to a snippet of the single - "Is Fatboy Slim a DJ?" - being created here.

All I can say is good luck to them!

Boris has, as expected, won the Conservative selection of candidates for London Mayor. But the margin at which he one is higher than most expected, winning with more than 75% of the vote in the open primary:

Boris Johnson: 15,661 votes
Victoria Borwick: 1,869
Andrew Boff: 1,674
Warwick Lightfoot: 609

From the moment Boris threw his hat into the ring, the other candidates had no chance of becoming the Conservative candidate for London Mayor. His name made the contest interesting in a way that it really wouldn't have been otherwise. I feel sorry for them, really. Whilst they are obviously highly talented people who could run London far better than Ken, they had no chance in the selection against Boris.

Boris has posted a message on his campaign website, saying:
Ken's days really are numbered. Boris may face a fight against him, but nothing that he can't handle. Ken has until May 2008, then he's out of office. Finally!

Sources: BBC, The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent

Boris Johnson's website is now back online, after it was taken down as part of the Bloggerheads v Alisher Usmanov affair, in which more than 250 bloggers have expressed their support for Tim and Craig. Tim Ireland has a temporary blog here, where information on further work about it all will be posted until his main site is back up.

Boris Johnson was an innocent bystander in this saga, and was affected solely because his site was hosted on Tim's server.

Boris Johnson has now officially launched his campaign to be London Mayor. He is the best candidate from any party, and deserves to be elected Mayor. Ken is obviously rattled by Boris - hence their attempts to smear him as a racist, with their inaccuracies pointed out by Andrew Gilligan in the Evening Standard.

Boris is a shoe-in for the Conservative nomination. As able as the others - Andrew Boff, Victoria Borwick and Warwick Lightfoot - are, Boris is the man to beat Ken. And Ken knows it. London has wised up to Red Ken. The "blonde bombshell" is the best man for London.

You can watch his announcement speech here.

Ken v Boris v Lembit?

That is a potential London Mayoral race line-up, now that Lembit Opik has been floated as a potential Lib Dem candidate. This seems hypocritical of them since, if I remember correctly, the Lib Dems were making noises about the Tories having to look outside of London to find a high-profile candidate - since Henley is rather closer top London than Montgomeryshire.*

What this does show is the race to be London Mayor is lining up to be the battle of the mavericks. If Lembit is to be the Lib Dem candidate, it should make the race an interesting one. Lembit himself says: "Me, Boris and Ken would be a splendid contest. It would get a lot of interest and get the public voting as well." And it would be - certainly a good thing for bloggers and sketch-writers!

However, Boris Johnson can easily beat those of these. Ken Livingstone has failed London in his two terms, and Lembit simply isn't in the same league as Boris.

UPDATE: Lembit has says that he won't run for Mayor. That's a pity - it would really have livened up the race even more. Considering the stature of Boris and Ken, the Lib Dems are going to need someone big or just get buried.

*If I remember this incorrectly, I apologise to the Lib Dems. I'm pretty sure I haven't, though.
Sources: The Telegraph, ePolitix

It seems likely that Boris Johnson will run to be Conservative candidate for the Mayor of London, despite some confusion at the moment. You can show your support for him by adding this Facebook application to your profile page, and the button below to your blog or website. Don' forget to join the various Facebook groups backing Boris for London Mayor as well!

There's also "I'm Backing Boris" T-shirts being ordered by Guido, and the Boris Thong... I wonder if Chip Dale will get one?


<a href="http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2445402087"><img src="http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c315/c_ris/blog/boris_needyou_small.png" /></a>

According to the Telegraph, Boris Johnson will run as a candidate for London Mayor - maybe the large amount of support on Facebook groups made him decide to throw his name into the hat?

"Boris Johnson, the Tory MP, has decided he will run as a candidate in the London mayoral contest.
An announcement from Mr Johnson, which could come as early as today, will electrify the race and pose the most serious challenge to Ken Livingstone's hopes of winning a third term." (The Telegraph)

This is excellent news. Boris is the man who can beat Ken. The other Tory candidates simply don't have the necessary brand recognition. I'm sure they're all excellent people, who would do the job admirably, but I just don't think that they could win the election.

Boris is the right person for the job.

UPDATE: ConservativeHome reports that Boris Johnson's website announced his candidacy... and then it vanished. So what's going on there then?

Since I wrote this post on Boris Johnson and the prospect of him standing for Mayor of London yesterday, I've had a bit of a rethink. He should definitely go for it!

He already has two Facebook groups urging him to go for it - Boris for Mayor, and I'm Backing Boris - and the Official Boris Johnson Facebook Group is swiftly growing in number.

Go on Boris, your country needs you!

Here's a button to show your support for Boris:


<img src="http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c315/c_ris/blog/boris_needyou_small.png" />

Apparently Boris Johnson is being considered as a possible Conservative candidate for the Mayor of London. Boris would certainly give Ken Livingstone a run for his money - he is well known, well-liked, and although very gaffe-prone, popular across the political spectrum. However, to do it, Boris would presumably have to give up his safe seat of Henley.

Boris would be a good Tory candidate, but I'm not sure if London mayor would be a job he would particularly relish. Personally, I would prefer him to be in the Shadow Cabinet rather than London Mayor. That is where we need someone like Boris - well known, well liked, and with a buffoon-ish charm.

UPDATE: More here.

Image hat-tip: Theo Spark

Boris Johnson is backing calls to keep the Ancient History A-level alive, and has done so by donning a toga with students currently studying the course. The course is being scrapped by OCR, the exam board who runs the course, and being combined into an A-level on "classical civilisation" instead, which would not properly examine ancient history.

I would have loved to study Ancient History, but it wasn't offered at my school, disappointingly. It is a fascinating subject and has important things to teach us about how the world developed into its modern form. Especially since the philosophy which came to the fore of modern political thought and plays a very large part in our lives was first developed in the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome, that of democracy, it should be kept alive so that it is understood how and why democracy developed into it's modern form. No examination of democracy can begin anywhere except in the ancient civilisations, and it is important that historical study of the period is kept alive.

I have never had the chance to study ancient history, but would love to. It is such a fascinating area. It should be maintained and, as Boris says, "[i]t makes no sense to kick away yet another ladder of opportunity up to university and to reduce the options of pupils who want to study this wonderful subject."

Sources: BBC, The Guardian - article 1, article 2