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The London mayoral election is on Thursday. Having thought long and hard about this, and actually against my better judgement (and what I've written here before), I will vote for Ken Livingstone.

What has led to this conclusion? Here are the considerations:

— The reality of waking up to Boris as mayor. I don't think I could live with that

— If London vote Conservative, what are the prospects for Labour in a general election, whenever that may be? A victory for Livingstone is a victory for Labour

— I am Labour, through and through. Sometimes, the party has to come above the person

— On that, even Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell are looking for a Livingstone victory

— Can I cope with 4 more years of Livingstone and his utterances on things not concerning him (most notably around foreign policy and people like Hugo Chavez etc.)? Well, no. But, this is one of the well-known problems with political positions that have inherent power in them, such as city mayors. As such, pronouncements are likely on anything from a mayor

— With the lack of any other good candidates (such as Oona King), you have to play with what you've got.

Tags — Politics