Over the next few days different contributors to the Wire will be writing about the run-up to the Mayoral Election in London. Here is the rundown.

Before the May 1st Elections

The way we’re doing it is that I’ve invited all the regular contributors to write a piece (or several) if they want to.

We are starting today with 2 pieces by Garbo (who is taking a break from providing daily political summaries and has beaten me to the draw on this introduction) and (hopefully) Mike Rouse.

Personally I have detested Mr Livingstone and virtually all his works for years, and I would gladly (metaphorically) see his head on a stake in Trafalgar Square with his eyes being pecked out by the pigeons as revenge on their persecutor … but others will disagree, mildly or vigorously.

On May 1st

I haven’t seen anyone suggesting what they will be doing on the day of the vote. I can imagine copious live blogging, and live twittering. I’m wondering about running a chatroom on the blog again - last time a series of bloggers got a story to the Newsnight Studio Bloggers before the BBC reported it. I wrote about the plans in advance, reported during the election, and posted some posted some reflections afterwards.

After May 1st

After the election there should be a series of more analytical (is it any coincidence that that word has “anal” in it? For the avoidance of doubt, I mean definition three) pieces looking at different policy areas in London.

As an example - I will be looking at Trees in Towns, the advantages of micro-parks (as in the City) and perhaps planning policy (all those blasted new skyscrapers that will not now be needed). Incidentally, I hadn’t noticed that the anchor tenant for the Shard of Glass was Transport for London (so now you know where part of the tube fare hike went).

Wrapping Up

If you post details of your intended coverage, I’ll summarise them in an article at the weekend.