London with a Conservative mayor, or the Conservative Party with a mayor in it: which is more of an oddity in Britain today? But the mix of frivolity and promise that Boris Johnson has pulled off as the victorious mayoral candidate for Greater London shows the extent to which both parties, Conservative and Labour, are at a crossroads now. The departing incumbent, Ken Livingstone or “Red Ken”, who lost to Mr Johnson in his eighth year as mayor, was perhaps one of the last of Labour’s Left radicals. In a way, as Mr Johnson publicly acknowledged in his acceptance speech, Mr Livingstone had single-handedly shaped the office of mayor. Son of a dancer and a seaman, he gave to London the congestion charge, the 2012 Olympics and political correctness, championing homosexual weddings and chicken-tikka multiculturalism. For all this to be displaced by an old Etonian who read classics at Oxford (where he was president of the union) and went on to edit The Spectator after being sacked as a trainee editor by The Times for making up a quote is a strong popular verdict on Labour that should make the party and its leadership sit up with alarm. More so, since Mr Johnson’s astonishing win was matched by Labour’s lowest share in local elections since 1968 and the best Conservative performance since 1979.

To what extent can these results be regarded as a portent for Labour? And can Mr Johnson pitted against Mr Livingstone be seen as a ‘prequel’ to David Cameron pitted against Gordon Brown in the general elections still quite a while away. London mayors are supposed to be odd men out in their parties, as was Mr Livingstone in his often virulent disagreements with Tony Blair and whose first victory as mayor was as an independent candidate. Mr Johnson, too, is not the typical Tory old bore, and his public brushes with scandal and buffoonery have often made Mr Cameron’s support for him look like a bit of a gamble. But that gamble has paid off, although it puts the spotlight more sharply on the Conservatives now. This comes with a general feeling, all over Britain, that some sort of a dusk seems to be settling upon, and around, Mr Brown. He appears to be losing his grip on communicating to the people the point of his public office in terms of certain concrete aspects of their everyday lives. To come upon an upbeat icon like Mr Johnson at this juncture, however untested his potential, is not a bad thing at all for the Conservatives.