Wandering through Fulham today I saw Simon Hughes, mayoral candidate for the Liberal Democrats, campaigning. So I stopped and asked him some questions. I started by asking him about online government and what his feelings were about it, he said we need more, but had no immediate concrete ideas, he alluded to the lib dems being up on this sort of thing generally and talked about regular consultation of Londoners, though not solely online. He started into policy shpiel so I cut him off relatively quickly by mentioning faxyourmp.com and asked him if he had heard of it. He said he had and when I questioned him about his response rate replied openly, saying he had started out badly, but had got better (his page on theyworkforyou.com says he replied to 42% of faxes). I also asked him about theyworkforyou.com and again he replied that he thought it was a good idea. I told him that my most burning issue with this set of elections was the number of people who weren’t going to vote in them and he very much agreed with me on that. However, at this point (about five minutes in) he wound the conversation up, not unpleasantly, but he obviously didn’t want to stand and debate with me all day. He finished by saying that he was the youngest and most modern of the candidates and to make sure I used my vote on Thursday.

As I walked back to the flat I thought of loads of other questions to ask him, but there you go. It was an interesting encounter, but I can’t let being starstruck sway me really. He didn’t convince me of much, but that was because he was on the sell. I guess no candidate can afford not to be at the moment. I would have liked to ask him “why shouldn’t I vote for Ken” and got a short, pithy and brutally honest answer, but there would be no chance of that. The outcome of the whole event is no effect, I’m still just as unsure as I was before! The issues are all a bit student president for my liking., keeping the tubes open etc. The first and second choice model for the mayoral election means that I’m considering playing fast and loose with my first choice, but I’m realistically very attracted to both the Greens and the Lib Dems. However, I’m feeling defensive, I don’t want to see Steven Norris elected, but I hope there’s little chance of that.