Sitting at the Evening Standard’s London Mayor debate last night, it occurred to me how cosy this election is. Whoever wins the contest on May 1 will lead one of the world’s most high-profile cities with an 11.3 billion pound budget to run public transport, police and fire services and promote the economy of this global financial centre. Yet at times the candidates seem to think they are engaging in some kind of school debating contest.

First there was breathless Boris, who bounded up to the podium like a precocious teenager and raced through his speech to cram in as much as possible during his allotted eight minutes. Then a more nervous, and far less exuberant delivery from the class swot — Brian Paddick — the former policeman turned Lib Dem mayoral candidate, who delivered a serious and earnest “Why I should be head boy” speech.

Throughout Paddick’s speech, Boris and Ken whispered to each other on the podium as if they thought they were at the back at the class and couldn’t be seen. Boris could barely contain his glee when Paddick slipped up in his bid to assert his desirability over a candidate (Johnson) who spends his time at the “Henry” regatta. His conflation of Henley with the Hooray Henries associated with Johnson’s consituency prompted a barely disguised giggle from Boris and his supporters.

Then came Ken, who looked a little beyond the city’s borders to place London in its global context: “The things we do in the city set the agenda for the world,” he told the audience of “influentials” in west London’s Cadogan Hall.

But still, it was difficult to shake the sense that this election contest is more village hall than City Hall. Questions and answers centred around the congestion charge, beat police officers, free travel passes for the under-16s and preserving gardens. It was only at the end that we got a real sense of the scope of this newly created role when columnist Simon Jenkins asked what vision the candidates had for the city. The answer seems to be not too many skyscrapers but well-designed ones are OK. The future of London as a world financial centre seemed less clear.

How will Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson, Brian Paddick or Sian Berry spend London’s annual 11 billion-pound budget if they are elected mayor on May 1?

How will they tackle youth crime and congestion,  and how will the capital maintain its position as a global cultural and financial hub?

The budget is in their hands, but you can quiz them on how they will spend it.

The four leading candidates in the Mayor of London election have agreed to answer your questions.

We asked you to send in your questions, and have now sent a selection to the relevant candidates.

Their answers will be posted here on April 24.

Ken Livingstone talks to Tim Castle about standing for a third term as Mayor of London.

He dismisses a recent YouGov poll that shows him trailing Conservative rival Boris Johnson and says his rival candidates are all “Ken Lites” who have moved their policies closer to his.

He says questions about his age or suggestions that he has been in the post too long are “ephemera” designed to avoid the real issues in the campaign.

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Brian Paddick talks to Tim Castle about his autobiography and his candidacy for the mayoral election in London.

He says not being a politician is a “distinct advantage” when running against Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson.

“They are big personalities but they are not the sort of personalities that Londoners really want running London.”

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*For all the latest Reuters news, analysis, pictures and blogs from the campaign trail, visit our special London elections site*

The mayoral candidates have set out their plans for London.

Crime, affordable housing and public transport are discussed at length in their manifestos.

Ken Livingstone says he will raise the congestion charge in October for drivers of cars with high emissions. Boris Johnson says the plan is flawed and should be scrapped.

The mayor says that crime is falling and more houses are being built for ordinary people.

If he wins a third term, he promises that trains and buses will improve.

He says that only he can be trusted to oversee the huge public transport improvements planned for the capital ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

Johnson and Paddick say it’s time for a change on May 1.

The Conservative hopeful thinks Livingstone has become stale after eight years in power.

The mayor’s rivals tell voters they will offer a new approach.

They’ve unveiled their campaign proposals. But what would you do if you were in charge of City Hall for the day?

*For all the latest Reuters news, analysis, pictures and blogs from the campaign trail, visit our special London elections site*

The battle for London Mayor has moved 250 miles north to Gateshead, where Tory contender Boris Johnson has been sticking his rhetorical boot into the Labour incumbent.

Johnson won laughs and applause from party activists at the Conservative Spring Conference as he eased his political stiletto between Ken Livingstone’s ribs.

He was merely repaying the compliment after Labour dedicated an afternoon to bashing Boris at their spring conference in Birmingham two weeks ago.

But while Labour Minister Hazel Blears called Johnson a “nasty, right-wing elitist, with odious views and criminal friends”, Boris opted for a more subtle approach.

“I know I am facing one of the wiliest and most redoubtable opponents in British politics … a man equipped as if by millennia of evolution with a prehensile tail with which to cling to office,” he told his appreciative audience.

“He has said some wise things. For instance, he said that only a ghastly dehumanised moron would get rid of the Routemaster bus, a point he then proved by getting rid of them himself.

“Just as the dinosaurs finally ceded dominion of the earth after their interminable epoch, so it is dawning on us that Ken Livingstone is visibly being transformed into “Ken Leaving-Soon” and the great Newtosaurus Rex has finally had its day.”

The mutual exchange of invective shows how the political temperature is rising ahead of the May 1 election, with the two contenders neck and neck in the polls.

The contest is already being seen as a proxy for the next general election - due by 2010 but potentially coming as soon as summer next year.

Johnson says it would be “momentous” if Labour loses the London Mayoral race.

You can see Johnson telling me why he is standing for Mayor here, and explaining why Boring Boris and Old Boris are two sides of the same coin here.

Boris Johnson talks to Tim Castle at the Conservative Spring Conference in Gateshead.

The Tory candidate for London Mayor says he will give it 100 percent should he become mayor and focus on making the capital safer because “it’s central to making a wonderful city yet more wonderful.”

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Boris Johnson talks to Tim Castle at the Conservative Spring Conference in Gateshead about why he is running for London Mayor.

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