Boris gets serious!

It's the economy stupid (on politics and other musings)

A few weeks ago at the height of Obamamania I wrote a post entitled Barack Obama vs. the US economy, which was described as "hogwash" by a close friend and strong Obama supporter in Los Angeles. I write badly especially when I'm in a rush, but the essential message I was trying to get across was the onesideness of Obama's campaign message. Change seems to be the central focus of his message, but change from what to what? That message appears to be lacking and Clinton is capitalizing on that. Nevertheless, Obama is proving himself a fighter and may well have some surprises in store for us yet ...BTW, what's happening to Ron Paul? He seems to be still in the race, but the media blackout is freaking strange. His message is "hope", but he's also got experience to back it up.
In other political news, Lee Jasper spectacularly quit his post yesterday as the London mayors "race adviser". I know some of my friends supported him and in a way it's kinda sad to see him go out like this. But lets face it, Lee was a victim of his own stupidity. You can't blame media for stuff like this. But at least he wouldn't have to be grilled by police into the investigation of how his former association spent taxpayers money. The question for Lee is what's he gonna do now? The bigger question for London, is how will this affect the upcoming mayoral election? More and more people seem to doubting Ken Livingstone and clearly he's standing on risky political ground. However Boris is no alternative, (doesn't he remind you of Borat; in other words trying to fit into someone and something he really isn't - total insincerity). But Brian Paddick does seem sincere and offers level headed proposals to tackle some of the cities problems. Rising crime is one of them, and being an ex-police officer goes a long way. Being gay may also be a great asset for the "equality/minority vote" (although being a fan of page 3 may cause some to raise questions towards his sexuality). However practically everybody in London is a minority in some way, it just seems that nobody really knows of him and more importantly his policies ... at least not yet.
Why is all this important for real estate? Well a stable political environment attracts a stable economy, and a stable economy supports a stable housing market. At the moment we don't have any of those things, neither in our city, country or the world. 2008 is a big year in the global political environment. Things can only get worse before they get better.