All I Hear is Radio Ken Ken

Rocky, Rambo, Indiana Jones, they all have something in common. They are all heroes who have made comebacks. They were all popular characters who made millions of dollars around the world. So what does this all have to do with Ken Livingstone? Well in reality nothing. Unlike the afore mentioned characters of the big screen, Ken was defeated by his villain. He was not that popular (he lost after all) and he has wasted millions of pounds across London for years. He is not even making a comeback really, he is just refusing to go.

LBC have given him a job presenting the afternoon phone in show whilst Jeni Barnett is away on holiday. I have to say that I am not surprised. LBC loved Ken and is gagging for Boris to fail. I suppose the LBC is the only propaganda machine left for the old mayor now that Boris is canning his London Paper. I wonder if Ken will be speaking to his listeners in the same way as he did to the London Assembly. I wouldn't think so for a minute but one thing I must insist on is that he at least gets the chance to interview Boris from time to time. I think that would lead to hilarity beyond the norm.

Shame on you LBC but with judgement reserved in lieu of a good old head to head please.

Brian, Borris & Ken or Larry, Curly & Mo?

I was watching News Night the other night and for once I am happy and surprised to say that my usual anger at some of the news was turned into laughter when I was treated to the Three Stooges live with Paxman. Livingstone, Johnson and the Lib/Dem guy stood in a row and answered (or in fact didn't answer) Paxman's questions in probably the best example of political farce I have seen for years. At points I was almost expecting to see Boris take a swing a Ken who would duck, the Lib/Dem guy would then take Boris' slap on the face and in turn slap Ken as he rose and turned to face him. The big questions are...who was Larry, who was Curly, who was Mo? I'll let you decide.

The candidates all bumbled over each other for the entire duration and didn't really say a lot. The highlight was when Paxman told Boris he couldn't say anything else until he gave him figures on how much more or less it was going to cost him to scrap bendy buses and replace them with Route Masters. He clearly didn't know or remember them, but Paxman wouldn't let it go and came across like a father at the dinner table saying to his child, "Right, no desert until you tell me what the capital of Turkmenistan is!!!". Is this really what we are expecting of the Mayor of London...second rate politics, argued and presented badly (although amusingly) on issues that quite frankly seem quite banal in comparison to many of the issues facing Londoners today?

I think that we need to draw a line in the sand between comedy and politics and as long as the Mayoral contests fall on the side of comedy we should seriously think about abolishing the position like we did in the 80s to the GLC. I think that we should also be aware that what works well in the US, doesn't necessarily work well in the UK. I always thought that UK politics was a little more refined and subtle than it is in the US and that mud slinging and face off debates were a bit unsophisticated, but then perhaps since the New Labour media machine dropped in, this is what British politics has been reduced to.