Obsolete

It's sad that this otherwise excellent blog is so unquestioning in its acceptance of the anti-Muslim left's propoganda. What you say about Qaradawi is just plain wrong, and the term 'Islamist' and the 'Muslim right' are so essentialising as to be meaningless.

The point about the bus 'controversy' is that it germinated in papers like the Telegraph and ES and neatly serves to exclude any discussion of the rest of the candidates' transport policies. This is bad for Ken (because it's a big strength for him and he's actually got some policies) and good for Boris (because beyond some desultory car-friendly changes he has no policy worth the name other than the Routemaster idiocy).

As an example of how this works, focusing (inaccurately) on the bendy bus accident rate means no one focuses on the large drop in child fatalities in road accidents (as a parent I've received a blizzard of TfL branded stuff teaching children road safety, which is part of the nanny state I can go along with).

To further illustrate this effect, a CiF article by Christian Wolmar yesterday explicitly trying to move on from buses by making some good points about Metronet resulted in 8 out of the first 14 comments trying to take the subject back to Routemasters. Hmm. Do I smell astroturf or am I being overly suspicious here?

This wouldn't matter if it was a fringe issue, but transport is a key area for the Mayoralty and indeed all of London, and there's a long list of key transport projects for which 'edited the Spectator and appeared on telly' isn't a sufficient qualification and neither is 'simplifying London's transport policy into a silly row over bus designs'. In no particular order:

* DLR extensions currently being built and proposed
* East London line first phase, second phase and proposed Clapham extension
* Tramlink nationalisation and extensions
* Metronet nationalisation, reorganisation and contract renegotiation while simultaneously trying to resignal and reequip most of the tube network
* London Overground station upgrades and new trains
* Crossrail
* Extension of Oyster to overground rail, particularly south of the river where we're currently at a disadvantage
* Possible bringing of some more privatised rail services under TfL control in South London
* Cross-river tram
* Winning an esoteric but increasingly expensive argument with the DfT about smartcard ticket technology and accepting both the DfT's ITSO and TfL's Oyster on the same lines.

The thing about those projects is that Boris is going to have to get a handle on them on *day 1* - there's no time to get acclimatised as most of them are happening right now. Given that, however bright he is (and I suspect he is) everyone agrees he's completely incapable of organising even his own office, how's he going to get his head round that lot before the plates stop spinning and we're surrounded by broken crockery? The fact that he's not said whether he'll keep the existing excellent TfL team (doubtful, many of them would probably leave if they can't persuade him to change his mind on the bus question) or named whom he wants to appoint (apart from an extremely rich banker called Bob Diamond) also sets alarm bells ringing. In any case, he's likely to need a TfL Chairman, since Ken does that job at present (it's optional for the Mayor), so there's an indeterminate period of time when the Board will be rudderless.

The real scandal in the election is that the Tories didn't put up a decent candidate. David Davis, while a nasty right-winger, is at least smart, competent, well organised and a proper Londoner to boot, and could have been a great asset to the Tories as Mayor. Boris, I suspect, will be a great liability (and not a few Tories agree - almost fearing winning as much as losing), not least because Livingstone, of all people, won't need to readjust to a world where free market capitalism isn't always the answer.

Yakoub: If you have sources that contradict what I wrote about Qaradawi then I'll be happy to consider them and then clarify if necessary. From what I can tell the only thing I might be slightly exaggerating is his position on female circumcision: I realise that it's a cultural rather than a doctrinal issue in Islam, but Qaradawi wasn't one of the clerics that recently called for it to be declared haram, instead he sat on the fence. Again, if you can suggest some different labels for Tamimi than "Islamist" and for the likes of MAB, BMI and the MCB as Muslim right or conservative organisations then be my guest.

Tom: I quite agree, just that as I write living outside London the transport issues inside it aren't at front of my knowledge or my general interest. I also more than concur about "astroturfers" seemingly go around, as despite how bad that Ghannoushi article was, it didn't quite deserve some of the bashing it got, some almost certainly also led by the far-right, which seems to be increasing on CiF.

'Quite so. The same goes for the entire Muslims 4 Ken group. Condemning them is an utter waste of time; they're simply not worth the bother'

My dear sir that is what Oona King MP thought in East London a few years ago...until the Muslims help choose George instead. I am sure the profressionaly orchestrated campaign with hundreds of activists and thousands of multi-lingual emails, postal mail-outs, tele-texts on the day, blogs, Mosque leafleting, announcements, voter ferrying and door knocking and Mayor visits will make all the difference and prove that the Muslim community is a equal, powerful and integrated section of this great city we call home.