Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone are both entertaining enough stand up comics, and Boris's slapstick act as an amiable buffoon straight out of Jeeves seems to have come across better than Ken's slighly dated Cheeky Chappy.

But watching the French election coverage I was struck by how all the Presidential candidates shared one thing - they knew how to speak inspirationally in public. A skill apparently completely unknown in English politics, with the possible exception of George Galloway. I suppose they've been told that a rather slimy conversational style is what is required.
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I note that almost all of the voters in the London election failed to use their second vote in a meaningful way. For it to mean anything, you cast your first vote for the person you'd really like, and the second for the one among the two people you know are going to come first and second whom you dislike less.

I wonder if that failure to use the second vote effectively was intentional or just that the voters aren't too clever in understanding how this strange voting system in London works.