The Metropolis

Ken Livingstone's new campaign video has a tasty pop at Mayor Johnson's holidays

Mike Pollitt | Wednesday 8 February, 2012 11:10

Another day, another campaign video from The Big Two.

This is Ken Livingstone on crime. It’s political campaigning 101. Take some people who are victims of crime, make the viewer feel sorry for them, and implicitly blame the incumbent for their suffering.

Does it work?

Well the victims are played by actors who are about as convincing as the cast of Hollyoaks. The first minute drags, which is fatal for any YouTube video, and the talk of “savage cuts in policing” opens up a whole barrel of statistical worms (see eg this on whether police numbers are rising or falling) which turns any debate over the running of the Met into an unsightly squabble over numbers.

This line, however, is quite tasty:

“[Victims] deserve a Mayor that won’t stay on holiday when riots erupt on our streets.”

Ouch.

Basically Ken doesn’t want to be out-toughened on crime. Which means we’re going to have lots of irrelevant arguments about the exact numbers of police in the Met, and very little discussion of how those people police us.

I wonder what joys tomorrow’s YouTube will bring.

Channel 4 Factcheck – Does Boris have the right to weigh into the police cuts row

Previous campaign videos dissected:
Mayor Johnson’s £3.10 council tax cut
Ken Livingstone’s 7% fare cut

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