Among the better ideas proposed by mayoral candidates this week was one by “Prince” John Zylinski, the Polish aristocrat who once challenged Nigel Farage to a duel and who wants to build 400,000 homes in the capital.

It won’t happen. Despite housing being the critical issue of the race, no one can figure out the big stumbling block — how to overcome local opposition. “Nimby” is a derogatory term but many people have reasonable and rational objections, and while it’s widely assumed Nimbys dislike new housing, it’s actually heavily determined by scale and style. Ultimately much of our housing crisis could be alleviated if we offered local residents more consent and eased rules.

The social enterprise Create Streets, which campaigns for more terraced houses to be built in London, has conducted research showing local objections to new housing falls dramatically when people get architecture they like. Most prefer traditional buildings, reflected in the fact that pre-1919 homes have increased in value at double the rate of modern buildings since 1983, according to data from Halifax.

Create Streets found this crossed all boundaries of classes, age and ethnicity. In Oval, 92 per cent of 147 residents preferred “Kennington”-style Victorian architecture over “Vauxhall”-style tower blocks; a similar figure was found in Kingston and Southwark.

There is also a strong sentiment against buildings above eight storeys, with 91 per cent in one poll supporting buildings this height, but only nine per cent supporting those any higher. Half of those who oppose development nearby changed their minds when presented with traditional buildings.

And this opposition to high-rise would not decrease the supply of homes, since traditional Kensington and Chelsea-style mansion blocks can house larger numbers of people. In fact, the proliferation of high-rise blocks in London in the Sixties and Seventies “actually accelerated the population exodus”, according to the group’s manifesto.

So why does London not have more beautiful Islington squares? Partly it is to do with architectural, artistic fashion; in 1987 a young psychologist called David Halpern asked students to rate buildings by attractiveness. Almost everyone had similar tastes, except the architecture students, whose favourite was everyone else’s least favourite and vice-versa.

In its report, Create Streets recalls the director of housing and regeneration at one London borough speaking of the “horrid Edwardian streets that most of us live in” and complaining of “dreary terraces”. Imagine, living in an Edwardian London street — the horror! However, the bigger problem is that, thanks to planning regulations, no one can build the most desired type of building any more.

Create Streets cited one of London’s most prestigious buildings, dating from 1825, which fails today’s rules on at least 13 points. It will get worse, with proposed changes afoot to increase the number of regulations, while current Mayor Boris Johnson has said he can do nothing about it. Can Sadiq, Zac or indeed Prince John do any better?

Blue bloods are conquering the arts

Kit Harington and Rose Leslie, who play Jon Snow and Ygritte in Game of Thrones, are now going out in real life. Life imitates art, as one magazine declared: let’s hope not too closely.

Even for the standards of the profession, Harington and Leslie are well-bred, both being descended from illegitimate children of Charles II. Through him they also derive from Edward IV, the 15th-century inspiration for Thrones’ Robert Baratheon, the eldest of three brothers who gorged himself to death on wine, women and food. Among Edward’s other descendants are Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugh Grant, Rupert Everett and the Fiennes brothers.

I sometimes think acting gets unfairly picked on when it comes to elitism, as most art forms — being prestigious but largely badly paid — get taken over by the aristocracy eventually. It’s the same with rock stars, DJs and, indeed, journalists.

Comedy feeds off its ditherers

It’s a shame Fox didn’t use the Simpsons episode about Smithers coming out to end the programme, which has deteriorated since its Series 4-11 heyday. The Simpsons began in 1989 and comes from an era when moral issues were uncertain, which is partly why it was so funny. Uncertainty is a great basis for comedy, especially political and moral confusion, with the acceptance that life is imperfect and we’re all hypocrites and failures.

In its golden age Simpsons creator Matt Groening insisted on having one Republican on the writing team, to stop the moral certainty one gets when around people like us. As it became unfunny the Simpsons also became more politically predictable.

Younger Americans are more level-headed these days but moral certainty does not make for great comedy.

* This week French winemakers hijacked Spanish tankers, pouring 90,000 bottles down the drain. Wine-makers in south-west France even have an armed wing called Le Crav, the Comité Régional d’Action Viticole, which has even laid explosives for rival distributors.

The French really do take this seriously. In his memoirs, BBC war journalist Wynford Vaughan-Thomas wrote about a battle in 1944 when, he recall, the French army slowed to a halt.

“I looked at the map, and realised we were at the start of Burgundy vineyard country. They were studying it because it would be tragic if they fought through the great vineyards of Burgundy — France would never forgive them and they paused. Then a young sous-lieutenant arrived and said, ‘Courage, my generals — I’ve found the weak spots of the German defences: every one is in a vineyard of inferior quality’. The general made up his mind, ‘j’attaque!”’