Russell Brand as future Mayor of London Noooooooooooo !

You mean....*Camilla*?

Maybe soontobe queen?

Well, I suppose each of us is very important really!

No, not the Queen, she wouldn't have time. It'll come to me...

Never going to get jokes quickly though.

Two weeks ago I might have thought that you might have been having a dig.
Now I know different Ana

I have gransnet matured!

Or should that be someone?

Is it just me, or does this site make you watch your grammar a bit more than usual?

I am somebody very important

Why, are you the Queen?

I am not going to out myself.

Ah, you're another Londoner then soontobe?

Personally, I have had enough of all of them.
But I do realise that someone has to govern, so I do tend to vote one way or another.
The film which had the phrase "none of the above" is where I have been at for the last few years.
Hence, heck, I will even take a look at Russell Brand.
tbh, what I would really like to happen is for the main 3 parties especially, or all of them really, to be not all etonian, oxford, cambridge etc. Privately educated, fat cats and most have never done a full days hard work/manual labour in their money sheltered childhood lives. Or the 20s or 30s.
I can dream cant I?

There will always be a certain proportion of the population who will alternate between the two main parties at general election time because they've had enough of the incumbent government.

Yes to what you have written at 12.03pm
If an election was nearer, I would look into policies more. But right now I dont have to, and have better things to do, and like durhamjen says, things will all change again in the next few months.
[as you probably can tell, I am sometimes one of those irritating floating voters].
[I do tend to lean towards one party more than the others, but I am not totally loyal to them.
I think politics change, and those in charge change, which makes even the bigger parties change direction.
Interestingly [for me anyway], the one I end up voting for, is generally the one that wins.
I often think that most parties only really need to speak to people like me near voting time, as about 80% of voters vote the same throughout their lives, I think I am right in saying.

I am not alone where I live. It used to be 1 party, then another.
It may be a 3rd one before very long.
I noticed it is on DCs list as being a seat that they have to win to win the election. Not sure they are going to do it here tbh.

Oops "are right" - who am I to judge what you might have eaten ?

Having come to the table rather late I totally agree rosequartz numpty is the kindest epithet I can think of! dj you ate right about politicians promising the earth especially if they are unlikely to have to put their money where their mouth is. Such is life

astonished that this numpty has warranted five pages of discussion.

Nothing wrong with that, Soutra. All the parties are going to be promising us lots before the election. Ukip still haven't said what their policies are yet, just that they keep changing their minds.
I took it that soontobe is having a discussion with herself on this thread.

Make up your mind soontobe , you say you are fed up with the mainstream parties and imply you would look favourably on UKIP and then in the next breath suggest their policies might be suspect

I dont think that people want to look to closely at the policies and happenings of UKIP and others. Which is indeed a worrying situation.

Soutra I don't know if you watched Channel 4 News last night, but there was a very interesting report about Boris Johnson and the granting of a contract for the development of the Royal Albert Docks to a Chinese company. The former Chairman of the government's Committee on Standards in Public Life said "It [the deal] has the smell of as semi-corrupt arrangement."

This is the way London is being administered at the moment - and it's pretty worrying.

www.channel4.com/news/boris-johnson-london-propery-deal-china-albert-dock

People probably were saying similar things in Germany about that nice Herr Hitler pre-1933. In fact I know they were. Mainstream politicians, if by that you mean the major parties, may face a challenge next May but heaven help us from the kneejerk reactive "protest" vote. It's very easy for looney parties like UKIP to pander to the voter by stirring up dissent and division but what are they actually offering? What on earth does a sleb like Russell Brand know about administering a great city like London? It's a wind-up.

I dont think I am alone in being very fed up of main stream politics.
So RB and others like UKIP may well get further than we think in politics today.
There is a gap in the market.

This is a joke - right?<checks date on calendar- no not April1>I read the bit about "left-wing anarchist tendencies" and then that Nigel Farage "gets" Brand So that makes 2 good reasons why not. But hey he's entitled to put his name forward and Londoners are free to exercise their democratic right. Hope common sense prevails however though

Very good article. Spot on and not only about RB.

Came across this partial defence of RB this morning.