It's polling day here in London, everybody do the democracy dance!

I actually like the politics of all three main candidates, but my reaction to the campaign has been ">:O UNIMPRESSED FACE" due to the endless debates over important topics such as whether buses should be RouteMasters or bendy buses. Never mind housing, civil rights, or other transport issues, let's discuss the shapes of buses some more! Srsly?

However, I do think the electoral system in London is a vast improvement on the ludicrous first-past-the-post system used in national elections, which is antiquated enough to make even the most enthusiastic politico despondent. In London, you get to vote for first and second choice for mayor, and if there is not a clear winner (ie more than 50%) of the first votes, then a second round counts both first and second votes. You also get to two other votes, one for your local representative and one for a party for the London Assembly.

This is good for several reasons: you get to differentiate between your choice of mayoral candidate, one usually based on the personality and policies of the candidates, and your Assembly and representative choices, usually based on political affiliation. Also, it lessens the need for tactical voting: for example, where I was brought up is a massively Conservative area, so I used to vote Labour even though I'm a Liberal Democrat supporter because Labour are more likely to dent the Conservative lead. In the mayoral elections, however, I voted Paddick (Lib Dem) as first choice, because I'm a liberal at heart, and Ken (Labour) as second, because I'd rather have him than Boris (Conservative), and that's the real race.

I must say though, I have been hugely unimpressed with all the Boris bashing going on at the moment. Both real life friends and people on LJ have told me that "If you vote for Boris, it means you're an idiot and you don't understand anything about politics." This really pisses me off. I seriously considered voting for Boris, not because he's charming (though he is) or because I thought it would be funny (though it would), but because he's an extremely intelligent and capable man. I don't share his political values, but I do respect him and his experience, and I genuinely believe that beneath all the bluster there is a very sharp mind, and I believe he could run the city very well. Unlike Ken or Paddick, whose values I share but I have very little respect for.

I love Boris. He has some really good ideas, he's dedicated and personable and I would love to have him round to my house for tea. I would do Boris. However, in the end I decided to vote for Ken, the weasely little git, because although I want to punch him in his smug face, I think he's done an excellent job of running the city thus far.

Here in London we have three godawful free newspapers which are given out on the tube and the bus. I use "newspaper" in the loosest possible sense of the term. They are mostly trashy celebrity gossip and I hate them.

However, today and yesterday the trashy celebrity gossip was about David Tennant and Doctor Who, and I'm fine with that. :D They had pictures and rumours from the filming of this year's Christmas special, which I cut out and kept and got ROYALLY MOCKED for by my friends. But I thought that you guys might appreciate seeing scans. :)

Today I met flats for a very enjoyable lunch and coffee in central London, and I decided that instead of getting the bus as usual, I would walk home. I've always enjoyed walking through London, particularly at night, as the lights of the city look particularly beautiful in the dark. I started at Goodge Street, walked across to Holborn and then down to the Strand, across the Waterloo bridge and past Waterloo station, along the Kennington Road, round the Oval, all along the Brixton Road and up the Brixton Hill, then back home towards Clapham. I'm struck once again by how impersonal London is; thousands of people all living so physically close and yet so socially indifferent to one another. We all move past and between and through each other without thought or interest, our bubbles of isolation punctured only briefly by the intersection of our lives' with others. I actually find it to be quite liberating, as an expression of independence and self-determination.

The experience of being one among so many is a strange one, even more so when you realise that you observe only the briefest glimpse of the lives of the people that you pass. We interact minutely; a smile, a moment of eye contact, and then we separate and disperse and the other person is forgotten. We desperately search for inclusion and approval, trying to mould ourselves to an acceptable form palatable to those around us, never realising that they are as lost as we are.