Two strikes...

I've stayed away from the election for London Mayor, mainly because I'm not really that interested. But one thing I did find interesting was a poll published yesterday by YouGov which puts Tory candidate Boris Johnson on 49% of first preference votes and Red Ken Livingstone, the Labour candidate and the incumbent, on 36%.

What is interesting about that is not the fact that Livingstone has dropped 12 points since January nor Boris' 49% putting him only 1% away from winning on first preference votes alone. No, what is interesting is that the Mayor has complained about the poll, citing the fact that the data was collected online. YouGov say he's masking his own problems which, from their data sees 20% of those identified as Labour supporters deciding to vote Tory.

It's a strange one. To paraphrae Oscar Wilde, to lose Scotland may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose London as well looks like carelessness.