ok, here goes...
1. Boris got voted in because he offered something that any politician who has been in power (and run London like it was his personal property) already for over 20 fucking years on-and-off cannot offer. Hope. Hope that it doesn't have to be like this. Hope that we can be united instead of divided. Hope that we can be listened to and considered instead of being ridden roughshod over. Hope that a stop might be put to some of the most blatant corruption and sleaze since ther 1970s. Anyone who gets a classics degree from Oxford cannot be too unintelligent. His self-effacing and humourous manner cannot be taken as indicative of stupidity or ineffectiveness. When he has a job to get on with Boris so far appears to concentrate on doing it well. He may not be able to please everybody but neither is he a vindictive self-important shit who has waged a personal vendetta against the hardworking tax-paying middle class army who actually make up most of London. People are tired of that, and in Boris they see a politician who may, just perhaps, try to keep his promises, serve his public humbly and faithfully, and work to earn their trust and respect.

He may not turn out to have done all that in 4 years time, but there is now the hope that he may. Ken had nothing to offer except more misery and corruption. In my opinion, it's never better the devil you know.

2. Scooters. Things that are 50cc are mopeds amnd they are ridden by a)16 year olds who cannot ride a bigger bike, and b)car drivers who do not want to do any bike training. Both in my opinion, are a fucking menace and should be legislated off the roads. I think you can still get a 50cc Aprilia RS which looks like a proper bike, but it is a bloody joke. heavy and hard to ride like a grown up sportsbike, but with a stupid little 50cc engine. I piss myself every time I come up to the lights on my proper bike and some little child is revving the nuts off their farty Aprilia. I wonder if they feel as much of a tit as they look when they are a tiny speck in my rear-view mirror?

But proper plastic-free vintage scooters with gears are cool. Quite apart from the mod image, which will always be cooler than the rocker image by dint of the suits, hair, music and girls it involved, the damn things are just so much fun to ride. I've ridden motorbikes for years but I have never been on one that handles anything like as well as my first Vespa 125 Primavera. They are more fun to ride around town than anything, period. Plus they look so cool and chicks dig them. If they didn't need fixing constantly I'd still ride one.

I don't get this thing of calling scooters gay either. Well, not if motorbikes are held up in copmparison as straight. Motorbikes are almost always ridden by men, who go out in groups together dressed in skin-tight brightly coloured leather leotards and drink nothing but orange juice. And then there's those Harley Davidsons all dressed up in black leather, studs and tassles...
(Lambkin, Wed 7 May 2008, 22:29, Reply)