grodscorp@grods.comDemocracy London style
 | Posted by jLo on Saturday 3 May 2008, 11:39 am Categories: Politics, Them crazy... Tags: BorisJohnson, London, MayoralElections, UK |
The Editor notes: A huge welcome back to jLo who is briefly returning from a long, self-imposed GrodsExile.
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I love to vote. Apparently, however, I need to stop doing it: my vote is a jinx that sees the forces of evil triumph. My 18th birthday party was significant not because I finally got to get legally drunk, but because it was the night John Howard came to power. 11 long years it took for him to be unseated, and I mourn the fact that I was not in the country to celebrate with my long-suffering friends the night it happened.
Now, I am dealt a further blow. Not only did I miss the greatest electoral night in Australia of my adult life to date, but my FIRST LONDON ELECTION has turned out to be a bitter disappointment. Commonweatlh residents of London are entitled to have their say in local council/Mayoral elections, and so I dutifully turned up at Shoreditch Town Hall yesterday morning to cast my vote (three jurisdictions in six months, in case anyone else but me has noticed). Tonight the counting is over and apparently Boris Johnson is my new Mayor.
What the fuck.
It’s my 18th birthday all over again.
You all know how I feel about this city. I love it to pieces, and can never explain exactly why. Well, my job just got harder, because of the measly 45% of my fellow Londoners who could be bothered turning up to vote, a staggering number of them thought that it would be a good idea for Boris Johnson to be the mayor. That racist, homophobic muppet with stupid hair is now in charge of one of the greatest cities in the world. You have got to be kidding.
It’s nights like this that make me lost my faith in democracy. What the fuck are you all thinking? Are you NUTS? I am very privileged in many ways, and I try to never lose sight of that. But when I see other adults make such FUCKED UP choices, my political minority status is very difficult to resolve.
End drunken rant. Goodnight.
PS. Perhaps I should refrain from voting in the US general election? God help us if my jinx continues.
Saturday 3 May 2008, 11:54 am #cosmicjester
i hear Mr Tampa aka Lynton Crosby was involved in the convervative campaign, so the fuckwit who helped Howard steal the 2001 election with racist dogwhistling is now unleashed on Britian :(
Saturday 3 May 2008, 11:59 am #John Surname
Look, JLo, this site isn’t the domain of the latte left anymore. Your post has offended me more that the 2020 summit (held, ironically, this year) and the Sorry combined.
Saturday 3 May 2008, 12:30 pm #The Editor
I’m not sure that Andrew Bolt shares your feelings about Boris, jLo.
Saturday 3 May 2008, 12:56 pm #Jack Dorf
Disenfranchise yourself now. For the sake of humanity!
Saturday 3 May 2008, 2:26 pm #magic bellybutton
Bolt - one fucktard championing the cause of another. What a surprise.
Saturday 3 May 2008, 3:53 pm #steve
Well the Liberal Brisbane City Council downsized the extent of the Hale Street bridge this week at the same time announcing an additional cost of $120 Million for the work. Expect some nice dodgy economic figures to come out of London from now on.
Can anyone suggest why a massively downsized project gets to cost more than the larger version or is it a Liberal Party specialty?
Saturday 3 May 2008, 10:32 pm #Wah
If Bolt loves Boris Johnson, than one can conclude that he is a prize-winning cunt.
Why do the mayors of London have to be the media hoares and to the extreme of the parties.
First Red Ken, now this survivor of a Thatcherite abortion.
Saturday 3 May 2008, 11:18 pm #jLo
I am delighted to see (through the fog of my hangover) that my drunken rant to the Editor was posted. Cheers, mate. The horror hasn’t faded, although I am somewhat appeased by the knowledge that the good citizens of my area slammed Boris by almost two votes to one (52% to 27%). Huzzah! Now we can all sport those obnoxious ‘Don’t Blame Me” stickers as we wander about guzzling our lattes.
Saturday 3 May 2008, 11:41 pm #Wah
What area are you in Boris - from Red Ken’s old stomping ground of Brent?
One thing Bolt will attmpt to do here is say that this shows a trend back top cnservatism around thw world - despitr several elections around the world in recent times going the opposite way.
The truth is New Labor are on the noe after the same amount of time Howard was in power - but unlike Australia they have a strong political media which gave Blair what for about Iraq and other scandals. Also, the Tories finally have a half decent leader. This has nothing to do with a shift in political thinking.
Sunday 4 May 2008, 12:24 am #Damian
Noice one, JLo.
I also enjoyed Lenin’s similarly disgusted take:
PS. Bolt is a tool.
Sunday 4 May 2008, 4:21 pm #krypto
is that guy drunk or what? he looks like he just woke up after a hard night on the tiles.
So London has elected Barney Gumble as it’s Mayor huh? …and there are still Aussies who OPPOSE an Australian republic. Nuff said.
Tuesday 6 May 2008, 2:36 am #Andrew Bartlett
I’m all for diasporas spreading their wings and intertwining their tenticles, but voting for UK, USA and Australian elections in the space of a few months is a bit much. Looks like the Empire is still having an effect.
Maybe that crucial 5% was made up of arch-conservative Australians who had all fled to UK following the demise of John Howard (either that or Mr Crosby figured out how to multiple vote in a big way).
Still, whatever you say about Boris, I don’t believe he’s anywhere near as bad as John H.
Tuesday 6 May 2008, 5:08 pm #John Surname
“Maybe that crucial 5% was made up of arch-conservative Australians who had all fled to UK following the demise of John Howard…”
If only they’d left Australia before the election…
That five percent would have been ours!