A mildly political blog

We didn't get a vote in Scotland tis year (we had Council and Scottish Parliament votes last year, and Europeans next year and big Gordon hasn't really made his mind up about the General Election yet) so this year has been a chance to watch the machinations in England. Obviously we (sadly) missed out on he all the Party Election Broadcasts and such like, but BBC News 24 and Question Time had all the debates, especially the London Mayoral one.

My home bourgh (must remember the o when talking about England!) or North Tyneside went blue in a surprise move. Since its formation in 1976, North Tyneside was bright red, dyed in the wool Labour right up until 2004 (with a brief NOC in 1986 for a year) and after 3years in NOC, it finally flipped and went Tory. Part of this is demographic - the council built more nice new houses for middle class people in its traditional heartlands, and thus diluted its core vote. But also North Tyneside is changing - the Conservative Mayor from 2003-6 (the second one after the first was forced to resign due to sex scandals) was deemed to be an efficient operator of the council and there were suggestions in the media at easter than her Labour successor needed a Conservative council to keep him in check.....interesting idea.

Which brings us to Boris. Two of my friends who are fairly similar in many ways, have totally opposite views about him. Mr Pete, who lives in London is a Green Party member but found himself out leafleting for Ken as he fears for what Boris will do to Transport & Housing (incidently Mr Pete has also threatened to "defecate in the lobby of City Hall if Boris wins so keep an eye out on the BBC News...). On the other hand Sarah claimed that she will "absolutely and utterly relocate to London if Boris becomes mayor." We'll miss you when you move Sarah.

And who knows about the next General Election, the future of the NHS in England etc????

I think that many will look to see if Boris is his own man or if he runs what could be described as a model of what Cameron's Conservatives will be like for the whole country?