Ken Livingstone - Saviour of New Labour?

It occurred to me, following the race for London Mayor, that if Ken manages to win and it steadies the good ship New Labour, and we go on to win a general election, would May 1st prove to be the turning point? And if so, how ironic it would be that the man who New Labour tried to crush in 2000, ended up saving them from destruction in 2008-2010. 

Obviously even if Boris ‘Some of my best friends are picaninnies’ Johnson wins the election there is nothing to say Labour won’t go on to win the general election. Boris might even help us in his own gaffe-prone way. He won’t be chained to Lyndon Crosby forever, surely.

The irony is that rumour has it the Tories would like Johnson to lose, only finishing close enough to claim progress and momentum, while not having the huge liability that is Boris Johnson running the entire city of London in the name of the Conservatives. So if he does lose, which I think he will, expect both parties to be quite pleased to some level. That said, if Boris does win it will more or less be the Tories running it from behind the scenes, the real danger for them would be in situations where he has to be in the public eye, such as the Olympics.

The best line in the whole election so far is when David Cameron recently said of Boris, ‘He might even win it’.

PS The ‘Some of my best friends…’ joke I nabbed from the Recess Monkey blog, check it out at www.recessmonkey.co.uk