As the many and varied Mayors-to-be sit down for their christmas lunch, each will wonder whether in 12 months time they will be swapping the plate of turkey for a pile of draft mayoral press releases.
So, are Boris, Ken or Brian looking more like winners or turkeys?
Ken's Evening Standard spat thundered on, with ominous warnings of a horrid end for one of the two main characters. Hostilities climaxed with Ken demanding Andrew Gilligan's head. The Standard's editor refused to fire her "outstanding and fearless" reporter.
LONDONIST VIEW? Not terribly festive, any of this. It must be in Ken's interest for this story to fizzle out before much mud sticks. Some advice from Alastair Campbell wouldn't go amiss after his own Gilligan experience.
Meanwhile, Boris was busy championing some rubbish car magazine's take on a design for a new Routemaster. Ken slammed it as costing £600m, and increasing fares.
LONDONIST VIEW? Boris needs to get his publicity/ideas machine working as efficiently as Ken's rapid rebuttal machine.
Brian made a foray into policy by apparently suggesting on LBC that the Bendy Bus might be extended to Outer London. Boris sensed blood - not least as most of his votes come from the 'burbs - and went on the offensive.
LONDONIST VIEW? Astute move from Boris, there's mileage in him attacking the others for being too Zone 1 centric.
Among the minor candidates, there was the revelation that the BNP's candidate is now seeing the principal ballerina at the English National Ballet. We wonder what her thoughts are on Richard Barnbrook's past penchant for homoerotic film, which included the immortal poetic line "It bares you like a foreskin's folds".
LONDONIST VIEW? Dumping a colourful past and being seen with a ballet star on your arm won't be enough to attract the Telegraph's readers to vote for you, Richard.
More-reliable-than-most polling reveals a 6% Ken lead, but this was undertaken before the current grants scandal.
Shop VIP west end day image taken from E01's Flickrstream
