Having just finished watching the Mayoral debate I have to say that I think Boris had the best of it this evening, I have heard all about his bad performances (esp. that one against Paxman), but I feel he did really quite well this evening. There was a fire in his belly, and when he spoke about his central issues the crowd cheered. Boris also stated that he would certainly defy the Conservative Party leadership if he didn’t believe the party’s policy on a certain area was in the best interests of London, a spine-chilling moment for the CCO hierarchy.
Ken was also surprising, but only in his utter frankness. I’m not sure if he is normally this blunt or whether it is just my not living in London and not having experienced so much of it before but his answers on the the Olympics (where he proudly stood up and said he bid for the 2012 Olympics in order to get the government to give London’s East end a shed load of cash) and on Lib Dem 2nd preferences (when former plod Brian Paddick attacked Ken for blatently courting Lib Dem voters on the debate, Ken turned round and said, “absolutely”) were fantastic. Paddick looked as though Ken had just slapped him the face, WONDERFUL!
Paddick of course did the part of the Liberal Democrat - neither Boris or Ken are up to it, but I am. He tried lamely to but in every now and again with points but was largely overlooked throughout. I especially enjoyed it when he was cut off answering a question by members of the audience and when he tried to continue Dimbleby went to the audience instead.
All in all, I don’t think that either Boris or Ken faired too badly at all. Boris was more of what Boris is famous for and why people love him, but he had some real substance and scored a lot of points on crime issues. Meanwhile Ken was Ken, unrepentant and game for a laugh. Paddick was just the irritating LibDem in the corner, whom everyone knows isn’t going to win but won’t shut up or say anything of any real use.
Iain Dale seems quite down about the whole thing, but I have to say I just do not agree with him. It was good for what it was. I can’t see it happening for the General Election as quite frankly it wouldn’t work, it can only semi work for the Mayor of London job as it is the centralised power job in Britain, and as we don’t generally do head to head debates in Britain, tonight’s performance was nothing to grumble too much about at all.
