Those of my readers who have a vote today: for goodness sakes, go and use it if you haven't already. Democracy is not an automatic right, and the less we use it the more likely we are to lose it -- you just know Margaret Thatcher would have declared herself Emperor for Life if she had thought she could get away with it.

In the Mayor of London roadshow, after some last minute hesitation (and contrary to what I told mosey_pussycat) I voted Paddick first and Livingstone second, since the smart money seems to be on the election coming down to a two-horse race between Kuddly Ken and Barmy Boris, with second choices making the difference. I hope I'm right, because if Boris Johnson wins on first place votes alone I am going to feel a complete tit. Livingstone has many faults, like all politicians, but he's so self-evidently a superior choice compared to Johnson, who looks and acts like he's just come from midnight mass at St Loony's-up-the-Cream-Bun-and-Jam, that I truthfully cannot see how any person with a grain of sense could think Boris was a good choice (there, that should alienate half my friends list).

As I came home from voting the heavens opened briefly, and left behind this:



A double rainbow, no less. Maybe God was trying to tell Walthamstow to vote for Paddick after all.