Ok, time to lay our collective neck on the line and throw our hat (which we won't be needing if our head gets chopped off) into the Ken v Standard ring.
So here's what we think: we like Ken, he knows his own mind and never panders to the media or the public. And to say that his relatively unchallenged position as Mayor has made him arrogant is just nearsighted...he was always like that. Even in the 80s when everyone was arrogant, Ken stood out as a tiny bit more arrogant than everybody else.
But we elected him anyway, and we knew what he was like. And he's done a relatively decent job.
Plus the Standard is a terrible terrible paper. And so is the Daily
Mail and so is the Metro and anything else tainted with the AP brand.
And the one, really unfortunate thing about this whole argument is that the issue of the Standard being a load of scumbags has got lost.
And that is, undeniably, Ken's fault. He wasn't racist (as everyone we think must realise by now) he was just childish and a bit daft. If he'd chosen his words a little more carefully and really verbally floored this bloke then we'd be cheering him from the rafters ...unfortunately, in the end, he came across as a bit of a knob.
We suggest that Ken hire Stephen Fry to follow him round and feed him
cutting repartee at opportune moments, or, failing that, just grow the moustache back. Everyone enjoyed the moustache.
As for the Olympics - if the committee see Ken's remark as indicative
of Londoner's feelings they're very very misguided indeed. We would love the Olympics to come to London but only if the infrastructure is in place and someone can guarantee that it won't send huge areas of the city into irreversible destitution. And if the committee are concentrating on what Ken said after some party rather than the future of large swathes of the East of London, well then we need a new committee please.
We don't like Seb Coe though. Wow he's obnoxious. At least we can have a go at him if we don't get it. In fact, thinking about it, we may have a go at him even if we do get it.
