Boris Takes London?

Michael Moynihan | 5.1.2008 6:06 PM

Polls are now closed in London; the city nervously awaits its fate. According to the latest polling data, Boris "Buffoonish Toff" Johnson, the tousle-haired, mumbling conservative candidate, is neck and neck with "Red" Ken Livingstone, the lefty incumbent. (As I pointed out in a previous post, quotable Ken isn't so keen on capitalism, which he says "has killed more people than Hitler.") This YouGov poll predicts a slim margin of victory for Johnson. Other polls put Livingstone ahead by a nose. From the Livingstone-friendly Guardian: "A poll for Ipsos Mori last week put Livingstone 4% ahead and another for MRUK put him 2% in front." Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick, a former Scotland Yard commander famous for pushing through London's eminently sensible marijuana policy, is polling around 12 percent.

For what it's worth, the Tory blog ConservativeHome, run by former Conservative Central Office staffer Tim Montgomerie, is "calling London for Boris." Not much info beneath the banner headline ("Based on a wide range of conversations we've had throughout the day with people in the field and with senior Tory and other insiders…"), though, so skepticism is in order.

Watch Ken Livingstone defend his (physical) embrace of radical Egyptian cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi below. And by all means continue watching if you want to hear a series of exciting plans for the acquisition of a fleet of "bendy buses" for London:

Update: The Guardian asks representatives of London's easily horrified cognescenti just what would happen if the rakish Mr. Johnson were elected Mayor. Full points to fashion designer Vivenne Westwood who suggests that it might just prove that England is a fascist dictatorship, and that anyone who disagrees with her is, well, not interested in democracy: "Boris as mayor? Unthinkable. It just exposes democracy as a sham, especially if people don't vote for Ken—he's the best thing in politics."