Thande
Donor
This is all pretty recent politics, so if the mods think it's too hot for Discussion it can be moved to Chat.
Been reading about the London mayoral elections recently (links to Genocide articles: 2000, 2004, 2008) and been pondering a few what-ifs...here are the ones I've thought of, but London-expert members can probably come up with more.
2000
1) Ken Livingstone secures the Labour nomination. He wins even more resoundingly than OTL and is just part of the cavalcade of Labour dominance at the time under Blair. But he could then choose to start a punch-up over the Iraq War and dramatically resign from the party as a result, possibly causing problems for Blair (well, not life-shaking problems, but probably worse than Claire Short).
2) Ken Livingstone runs as an independent as OTL, and he and Dobson split the Labour vote enough that Norris squeaks through, granting the Conservatives a rare victory in their wilderness years. This might lead to the Labour left emphasising that Blair taking the party to the right will lead to more such trouble in the future.
3) Jeffrey Archer's perjury does not come out and he becomes the Conservative candidate. I doubt he could win unless combined with scenario (2), but if he did, his perjury could come out as a scandal later on--if it exploded during IDS' disastrous period of leadership it could weaken the Tories even more.
2004
4) Labour doesn't take Ken Livingstone back, perhaps if he remains a more vocal opponent of Iraq, and he runs as an independent again, opening up a few different possibilities--if he wins, an idea could emerge that Londoners like independents rather than party politics; he could split the vote as in (2) above and let Norris through; can't see the official Labour candidate winning though (I doubt it would be Gavron as that was obviously just a stand-in while Livingstone came back).
5) The Conservatives try someone different to Norris as their candidate. Don't know who, though.
2008
6) Ken Livingstone squeaks through. Would probably ruin Boris Johnson's political career, make the Tories seem lightweight and too media-led for nominating him, and perhaps give Gordon Brown a slight boost.
7) Norris doesn't rule himself out and runs again as the Tory candidate--whether he succeeds or not is open to question.
8) Sir John Major accepts David Cameron's offer to run as the Tory candidate. Would be very interesting, especially if he managed to win--he might be able to redeem his political reputation a bit, especially if he did a good job of preparing for the Olympics.
9) Jeremy Clarkson accepts being drafted as some Tory activists wanted...not very likely though.
10) The Lib Dems agree to run Greg Dyke on a joint ticket with the Conservatives, as Dyke wanted and the Conservatives were prepared to consider. He presumably wins with the combined support of both parties. Would be an odd precursor to the current coalition government.
Any other ideas?
Been reading about the London mayoral elections recently (links to Genocide articles: 2000, 2004, 2008) and been pondering a few what-ifs...here are the ones I've thought of, but London-expert members can probably come up with more.
2000
1) Ken Livingstone secures the Labour nomination. He wins even more resoundingly than OTL and is just part of the cavalcade of Labour dominance at the time under Blair. But he could then choose to start a punch-up over the Iraq War and dramatically resign from the party as a result, possibly causing problems for Blair (well, not life-shaking problems, but probably worse than Claire Short).
2) Ken Livingstone runs as an independent as OTL, and he and Dobson split the Labour vote enough that Norris squeaks through, granting the Conservatives a rare victory in their wilderness years. This might lead to the Labour left emphasising that Blair taking the party to the right will lead to more such trouble in the future.
3) Jeffrey Archer's perjury does not come out and he becomes the Conservative candidate. I doubt he could win unless combined with scenario (2), but if he did, his perjury could come out as a scandal later on--if it exploded during IDS' disastrous period of leadership it could weaken the Tories even more.
2004
4) Labour doesn't take Ken Livingstone back, perhaps if he remains a more vocal opponent of Iraq, and he runs as an independent again, opening up a few different possibilities--if he wins, an idea could emerge that Londoners like independents rather than party politics; he could split the vote as in (2) above and let Norris through; can't see the official Labour candidate winning though (I doubt it would be Gavron as that was obviously just a stand-in while Livingstone came back).
5) The Conservatives try someone different to Norris as their candidate. Don't know who, though.
2008
6) Ken Livingstone squeaks through. Would probably ruin Boris Johnson's political career, make the Tories seem lightweight and too media-led for nominating him, and perhaps give Gordon Brown a slight boost.
7) Norris doesn't rule himself out and runs again as the Tory candidate--whether he succeeds or not is open to question.
8) Sir John Major accepts David Cameron's offer to run as the Tory candidate. Would be very interesting, especially if he managed to win--he might be able to redeem his political reputation a bit, especially if he did a good job of preparing for the Olympics.
9) Jeremy Clarkson accepts being drafted as some Tory activists wanted...not very likely though.
10) The Lib Dems agree to run Greg Dyke on a joint ticket with the Conservatives, as Dyke wanted and the Conservatives were prepared to consider. He presumably wins with the combined support of both parties. Would be an odd precursor to the current coalition government.
Any other ideas?