Paul Keithley

London mayor Boris Johnson and Lord Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympics. Attributed to Surrey County Council.

By Paul Keithley, Global Paradigm Fellow in England

In London on May 3rd—between the activist festivities of May 1st and the widely respected Star Wars Day on May 4th (there are more Jedis than Jews in England, after all)—voters went to the polls to determine who would head the government of Britain’s largest city. The main contenders were Boris Johnson, the Conservative incumbent mayor and Labour’s Ken Livingstone (with appearances by the lesser Liberal Democrats and the Green Party). More than a quarter of London’s nearly 8,000,000 people participated in the democratic process, which resulted in the reelection of Mayor Johnson by a slim 3% margin.

By Paul Keithley, Global Paradigm Fellow in England

English Prime Minister David Cameron and his administration have come under fire after a cabinet minister’s remarks led to consumer anxiety over gasoline. Francis Maude, a member of Cameron’s cabinet, off-handedly advised people to fill “jerry cans,” or gas canisters, in the case of a strike by the petrol tankers union before the Easter Holiday. The ensuing panic among consumers led to a short-lived depletion of petrol as tankers were unable supply stations fast enough to meet the overwhelming demand.