Jean - or J P Floru?

The online D'Hondt voting system calculator is a marvellous thing, for electoral geeks. Like the ones who might, for example, spend their evenings writing a blog in support of a political candidate....

One of the things that feeding different percentages into the D'Hondt calculator quickly reveals is that, given current polling data, the most likely competitor with Jean for the last seat in London is the fourth Conservative candidate. Given this, I thought it might be an idea to look him up.

I was expecting a fairly bland Cameronista, without too much to overtly object to. Instead, I found Cllr J P Floru.

Wow. A more vivid and obvious contrast to the politics of social justice, ecological sustainability and community that Jean Lambert represents, you could not hope to find. For example, check out Cllr Floru's rather worrying Conservative Party profile. Apparently, he is the candidate on the Conservative party list most likely to say "The government must do nothing. The free-market will solve this". Quite.

A brief look at his Wikipedia entry reveals more fun facts. For example, 'in 2005 he founded the Freedom Alliance, an organisation promoting libertarianism and free market capitalism through Freedom Week, an annual week-long seminar for students at Cambridge University'. He 'is a committed free marketeer and the author of numerous articles on economics. His stated political heroes are Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and is a follower of the philosophy of Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. He is close to the Taxpayers' Alliance, the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Adam Smith Institute.'

For a more in depth look at the philosophy that inspires Cllr Floru's political outlook, take a look at this article for the Taxpayer's Alliance, which contains such gems as:

"In this time of economic downturn we need tax cuts to make the pie grow again. A substantial cut in corporation tax would do the trick....Whereas in the medium term the Laffer effect would ensure a larger tax take as a result of GDP growth, in the short term the tax cuts could only be afforded by cuts in public spending. The Conservative Party is far too timid on the subject."

It is actually rather heartening that Cllr Floru is so earnest and honest a free-marketeer. After all, democracy is meant to be about choice, and this makes the choice facing Londoners even more stark, and more pressing. You can have Jean Lambert, with her belief in a publicly owned government safety net, in government intervention to create jobs and stimulate green industries, in regulation to shut down the most polluting and unethical parts of the private sector - or you can have Cllr Floru, and the rule of the economic jungle.

Londoners, the choice is yours!