Ken Livingstone's Love Of Fine Dining

Let's hope he's proud at being a champagne socialist: former Mayor Ken Livingstone's expenses for his second term at City Hall reveal that he claimed for more than £16,000 in dining bills. According to the Standard (who should really be well versed in Ken's culinary habits, seeing as he used to be their restaurant critic), bills of over £1,000 were not uncommon, with some of the city's glammest eateries benefitting from Mr. Livingstone's largesse. None of the expense claims, naturally, were actually against the law.

Were he still able to dine out on the taxpayer's dime, Ken might have cause to mourn the closure of Tatsuo. The Japanese restaurant, reputedly the most expensive in London, is being forced to shut up shop after accruing liabilities of more than £338,000. Formerly popular with big-hitters in the banking and finance world, the seismic shocks of the last eight months have effectively killed off a large part of their customer base.