This morning, Caroline Pidgeon took part in LBC’s first mayoral debate alongside UKIP’s Peter Whittle, the Greens’ Sian Berry, Tory Zac Goldsmith and Labour’s Sadiq Khan.
I know I’m not unbiased, but if I had listened as an undecided voter, I’d have thought that Caroline would be the best Mayor. She had facts to back up what she was saying, she understood the key transport, housing, policing and childcare problems and talked like a Mayor. This is in contrast to her Labour and Conservative opponents, who sound more like Stadtler and Waldorf from the Muppets every time I listen to them.
Zac’s pitch boiled down to: “I’m a Tory so I know how to talk Tory to other Tories, vote for me.” and Khan’s was “I’m not a Tory, vote for me.” Neither of these inspire any sort of confidence.
Caroline talked about building houses and making sure the workforce has the sufficient skills to deliver, of making sure the lowest paid can get to their work with cheaper fares before 7:30 am, of investing in cleaner taxis & making them affordable for taxi drivers, of building cycleways. It was all good, solid practical stuff.
You can watch the whole thing in these two videos. Enjoy.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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5 Comments
You listened to that and you put Caroline in front – oh well!
Just listened to the video’s. What can I say? If that’s the best London can do god help them. I agree with Caron, Caroline Pidgeon came out by far the best. She may be going a little over the top with her spending plans, but at least you get the feeling she knows what London’s problems are and would try and correct them. The lady from the Greens was more or less what you would expect, but the Tory, Labour and UKIP guys came across very poorly. To be honest if I was a Londoner I’d be embarrassed and annoyed at the standard of candidate put up by Labour and the Tories.
Caroline did very well and I hope the recent polls that have her in 6th place are wrong.
Very amused to see that one party old codger who was a thorn in Caroline’s side in her early days is now on record saying how wonderful she is!
My nine year old is enjoying following the coverage of Caroline’s campaign and the US election. It was fun having to explain to him who Bill Clinton is: “Oh, he’s just Hillary’s husband!”
We just saw her at the Pride in London hustings: my ranking (and more importantly that of my floating voter husband) was:
1) Caroline Pidgeon (LD)
2) Sadiq Khan (Lab)
3) Peter Whittle (UKIP)
4) Zac Goldsmith (Cons)
5) Sian Berry
6) Sophie Walker
Zac Goldsmith in particular seemed distant and struggling – which was a surprise. I know that a crowd of poofs is probably not his natural habitat – perhaps he will play better in the burbs…