Boris and Berry

London's voters have spoken (the 45% of them who voted, anyway). Last week Londoners ditched two-term mayor Ken Livingstone and elected the Conservative Party's candidate, Boris Johnson. There were 10 candidates running for mayor but, as a result of the electoral system, voters did not have to worry about the "spoiler" effect. London uses the Supplementary Vote, which is similar to Instant Runoff Voting, so a candidate can only win by getting the support of a majority as opposed to a bare plurality.

Victory for Boris was a real boon to the already reinvigorated Conservatives. Ken Livingstone is an unorthodox radical, often out of step with the Labour leadership, but he had the misfortune of being the Labour candidate at a time when the party's popularity was at rock bottom. Ditching Tony Blair last year in favor of Gordon Brown did Labour no good. And ditching Livingstone out of frustration with the Blair-Brown Labour Party is not likely to make ordinary Londoners any better off.

One encouraging outcome from the London mayoral election was Sian Berry's performance as the Green candidate. Berry, who won the endorsement of one of Britain's leading daily newspapers, The Independent , and the Sunday Observer , came in fourth with a combined first-and-second preference vote total of 140,000. Berry's campaign helped push Green policies further up the agenda. Ironically it's the Conservative Party (whose trademark color is blue) that has been doing an impressive job of promoting green issues under the slogan "Go Green, Vote Blue."

The Green Party's policy proposals for London included interest-free loans to homeowners for installing solar panels. This policy is eminently sensible, and is already up-and-running on this side of the Atlantic in Berkeley, California. Berkeley residents who install solar panels can borrow the necessary money from the city and repay the loan over 20 years via their electricity bills.

Stay tuned for public policy developments along these lines in Massachusetts.