I voted three times

Right, having implied in my last post that I don’t get obsessed with politics....

Today local elections are being held across England and Wales. Almost 5.5 million people are eligible to vote in London. Unlike the rest of England and Wales, London has since 2000 been able to elect a mayor (not to be confused with the Lord Mayor of London, who is, I believe, elected by the City guilds and presides over the Square Mile, i.e., the City of London). The Mayor of London is a very powerful executive position with access to an £11 billion budget, making decisions on education, transport, social services, policing and environmental issues.

Many people choose whether to vote based on the weather. Because of this, what would otherwise be a non sequitur flows quite naturally in this BBC report this morning: "Polls opened at 0700 BST and close at 2200 BST. A mixture of sunshine and showers is forecast in most areas." If it's sunny, I anticipate my three votes will be diluted.

We Londoners get three votes: one for Mayor of London, one for the London Assembly, and one for our local borough assembly. For complicated reasons (which would give away who I voted for if I explained them), I voted for three different parties.

Now we wait.

And while we’re waiting, an interesting fact (which I can verify). As you will all know, in AD 1215, a group of barons famously forced King John (of Robin Hood fame) to yield a number of royal prerogatives, and to grant certain civil liberties. The writ of habeas corpus and the right to trial by a jury of one’s peers were among these. The charter (“Magna Carta”) was confirmed by a number of subsequent monarchs, and the version now on the books dates from AD 1297. This excerpt is from the moiety of Magna Carta which still has the force of law in England and Wales:

“The city of London shall have all the old liberties and customs (which it hath been used to have). Moreover we will and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and the barons of the five ports, and all other ports, shall have all their liberties and free customs” (Magna Carta 1297, chapter 9).

This provides the legal basis for the other London mayor, the Lord Mayor of London, who is also Chief Magistrate of the City of London, Admiral of the Port of London, Chancellor of City University and President or Patron of many other civic and charitable organisations. The Lord Mayor is elected each year. The first recorded Lord Mayor was Henry Fitz-Ailwyn (1189).