Cicero's Songs

The steady stream of exposees and innuendo about Ken Livingstone have become a crescendo. The latest is the full length Dispatches programme, which comes on top of a consistent set of stories from Andrew Gilligan in the Evening Standard . The implication is that Ken Livingstone is a drunk and sleazy politician. As regular readers of this blog will note, that is a view that I have put forward for some time. I do not believe he is fit for office. I do believe he should be replaced. However, the leading opponent of Crony Ken is currently the equally absurd Boris Johnson . The litany of Johnson's questionable career begins with the fact that he was sacked for making up quotations for an article he wrote as a trainee journalist. Despite his starter marriage, which ended in divorce, and a further marriage which produced four children, Johnson caught the public eye when he lied rather obviously about his considerable philandering, including a four year affair with Petronella Wyatt amongs...

Last night was the first of doubtless many debates between the candidates for Mayor of London. To be honest I have been in a gentle kind of despair about the idea of Ken Livingstone, who I believe to be incompetent, doctrinaire and rather crooked, holding on to his job. Certainly, the idea of Boris Johnson- the clownish, gaffe prone Conservative candidate- replacing Livingstone is really not appealing at all. I think I prefer the dubious crook to the embarrassing clown. However, one candidate last night actually did come over as a sound and sensible figure. Brian Paddick was a guy who one can imagine dealing with - God forbid- a major terrorist incident. He also has interesting ideas about how to tackle the mess in transport and already knows far more than other two do about Policing. He is clearly thoughtful and intelligent. Between the posturing of the two gargoyles -Ken and Boris- Brian Paddick looks extremely good. If Boris's campaign implodes , as it easily might, and the ru...