Today in Politics: Gordon loves Ken
How times change. Gordon Brown appeared at the side of Ken Livingstone this afternoon to lend his support for his attempt to win a third term as London Mayor. "Ken Livingstone has dedicated his professional and personal life to London," Brown writes in the London Evening Standard. Well, almost. There was a time when his new friend called repeatedly for Brown to be sacked as Chancellor after Labour's 1997 election victory. And there was that little local difficulty when Ken stood against Labour as an independent to win the Mayor's post in 2000. As Mayor, Livingstone took legal action to try to stop Brown's part-privatisation plan for the London Underground.
It is true that Gordon and Ken have patched up most of their differences, though they don't necessarily see eye to eye on the expansion of Heathrow Airport, nuclear power and Post Office closures. The go-between who healed their rift was Ed Balls, Brown's closest ally. When he was the Treasury minister reponsible for the City of London, Balls judged that "Red Ken" had changed his spots. Their rapprochement paved the way for a deal on the long-delayed £16bn Crossrail scheme to build a rail line through the middle of the capital.
There is, of course, another reason why Gordon loves Ken. He needs him to win on 1 May. If the Tories win in London, their prospects of defeating Brown at the general election will receive a huge boost. Politics creates strange bedfellows.
This smacks to me of what has become common place in politics. "Backroom deals". Mr Livingstone has suffered from bad publicity of late as being an over bearing whisky swigger. Also the traffic light system in London has been heavily rumoured to have been manipulated to back up claims of severe traffic problems. Many of the subsidised businesses given money by The Mayor's office have been exposed as a scam. Then we move onto Mr Brown who has suffered personal attack as well. Lost data on welfare. Serious offenders let loose by a clerical error and the top slot for Brown the fiasco or rather injustice over the Lisbon treaty. So what are these two eminant chaps cooking up for the future. Another increase in pensions for themselves or perhaps a few jobs for family members. Come on we need to demand real democracy here and this sort of thing is just not good enough. Patched up their differences. "My A**e" as Dad Royal would say.
Posted by: John Finningham | Thursday, 20 March 2008 at 06:58 PM
Strange bedfellows indeed....
... Gordon Brown has been hosting Republican psychopathic madman John McCain at No 10 this week. I wonder what Britain's unelected Iraq War yankee suckup had to say to his incoming Master?
There's nothing like freshly-licked shoes to put a stride in the step of a man like John-Bomb McCain.
Posted by: Neil McGowan | Thursday, 20 March 2008 at 08:08 PM
brown meets mcain. total failure brown meets chancer mcain what is good or newsworthy about that
Posted by: northwern red | Friday, 21 March 2008 at 11:45 AM
Martin Kettle - not a journalist for whom I usually have much time - has suggested this week that the Lib Dems should urgently put forward Vince Cable's name, as nominations for the post of London Mayor have not yet closed.
Contesting the fight with a whisky-slugging failure and an Old Etonian twit, the chances of Cable carrying the day (if only the Lib-Dems could find the money for a proper campaign) would be high. Having a Lib-Dem London Mayor would enormously raise the profile of the party at a national level too. Since Lib-Dems have traditionally done best at local-level politics and have an excellent record, this surely seems an excellent idea?
Posted by: Neil McGowan | Sunday, 23 March 2008 at 09:03 AM
I don't agree with you about much Neil, but I'm certainly with you on this one. Frankly, I'd rather Cable was leading the country than London, but London would be a start.
Posted by: Jakers | Sunday, 23 March 2008 at 11:43 PM
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