London Mayor: Turn Again Dick Witty Ham

Boris Johnson has issued a statement on the issue of whether he should run against Red Ken for London Mayor. Iain Dale carries the text. Earlier he carried this picture from Theo which tends to confirm the impression that Boris and the Tories generally confuse the Mayor of London job with that of the Lord Mayor of the City of London. I can only imagine that Boris thinks the one with the robes, the tricorn hat, the stockings and the camp parade is "fun" and would rightly consider the job of running a great city completely beyond his meagre O. Etonian practical talents.
Turn again Dick Witty Ham!

Bolton South Labour: Making History by ... Picking a Dyed in the Wool Socialist

Yes, that's right! It's happened right here in Greater Manchester. "Constituency Labour Party Selects Socialist!" Brilliant. A candidate that stood in Bolshy Brent 2005, refusing to toe the party line on the war, highlighting the most socialist achievements of the government as a platform.

Famously pulling in both Tony Benn and Ken Livingstone rather than current ministers as their key supporters on the stump. In fact this person is even Mayor Ken's Human Rights Advisor.


Meanwhile others are rightly celebrating other aspects of the selection - Yasmin Qureshi could be Britain's first woman MP with Pakistani heritage. She will depend on a speedy weigh in versus a more tortuous count in Bethnal Green & Bow to pip Bangladeshi heritage Rushanara Ali to also be first Muslim woman and first Asian woman elected.

The official precis CV goes: Qureshi is a Barrister at 2 King’s Bench Walk chambers and human rights advisor to London Mayor, Ken Livingstone. She has worked for Government Legal Services and Crown Prosecution Service and was the Head of the Criminal Legal Section of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) for some time. She contested Brent East in 2005.

Slate were more effusive. Cheeky Muslim Woman Attorney Who's Britain's Most Appealing Candidate was just their May 2005 headline:

This time, Labor has more than leveled the playing field. Qureshi is a formidable candidate. She's a Muslim of Pakistani descent in a constituency that's 28 percent Asian and 13 percent Muslim; she's a barrister; she's a human-rights adviser to London Mayor "Red" Ken Livingstone, who represented Brent East from 1987 to 2001. On paper, she's astonishing enough. But in person she's astounding. Charismatic, chatty, cheeky, she's a natural extrovert. She described herself as "a gobby candidate" — that's "outspoken" in American — which is one way of saying that she disagrees with a good chunk of current Labor Party policy.

Over the last four weeks, she's run an anti-war campaign that stresses the government's economic strengths. She has distanced herself from Blair and invited in "old Labor" stalwarts like Livingstone ("former Labor" (sic) in his case) and Tony Benn to campaign for her.

Bolton has a Socialist Club. Not just some comrades meeting in a smoky pub mind. This is a bricks and mortar, albeit a little tired, at Wood Street (bricollaged above with YQ) and if you click the link you'll find some real red antecedents.

Wood Street may be needed to make up for the loss of one of=r two Labour Clubs in the Town as The Bolton Evening News reports. Not local. Never heard of her. Blah de blah.

Bolton West MP Ruth Kelly: "She's hard-working and committed to improving the lives of all those living in Bolton South East."

David Crausby, MP for Bolton North: "selection of a Muslim woman is a real step forward."

Bolton Interfaith Council secretary Tony McNeile: "The selection of an Asian woman is a reflection of modern society in Bolton."

Bolton Council leader Cliff Morris added: "It will be nice to have a young Asian woman representing Bolton so we have a nice mix of MPs."

Yes, "nice". LOL add: "The selection of a socialist is the real news today."

Nargis Khan fans will be pleased to hear that she did well and it was her transfers that finally settled matters. LOL have not yet seen the detailed numbers although the final margin was just 17. Thinking aloud this may mean that Nargis - who is a Bolton lass with her family home in the town - may have seen transfers splitting quite evenly between the two "finalists".

London Evening Standard: Mayor and Advisor May Sue

The Standard's latest is a report of what London Mayor Ken Livingstone termed a "stunt" by former LDA secondee Brenda Stern. One of many Andrew Gilligan accusations is that Livingstone's race advisor Lee Jasper caused her to be sent back early from her seconded post. Even though Jasper has no authority over GLA never mind LDA staff.

Gung ho Dale has drawn attention to First Post's story about the Mayor's relations with Standard editor Ronnie Wadley and his announcement that he may break the habit of a lifetime and go to law. Iain says carelessly that Ken and Lee "are to sue".

There is also a heavy hint that there have been some insider dealing on the Standard's charity auction where a dinner with Wadley (and presumably Gilligan? winner's choice) has been marked down to £771 when eBay bids had been running at over £4,000. Lots of Lots HERE.

Currying favour with Charles Clarke has already reached £405.

Tory Mayoral Candidate: LOL are Backing Boris

Boff is serious and a slasher, ruddy Borwick is into detail except where vagueness serves better, and lightweight Warwick wants to be Chair of the Arts Council or the Design Council or the Tourist Board. Something or other. Not Mayor anyway.

Bozzer will surely have some ideas soon?

The BBC has a story that certain Labour members, uncertain New Statesman readers, and anyone game for a laugh is piling in to the Tory mayoral primary to stop Boris.

Who on earth would want to stop him? I'm Backing Boris for candidate, who could resist his bumbling? :

Back Boris for Mayor of London ... Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my campaign site.
I’m busy working on finalising my priorities for London and pulling together the talented individuals who will make up my campaign, and that includes you. If you have specific areas of interest or knowledge where you think you can help, please do get back in contact via info@backboris.com.
London is, without a doubt, the greatest city on the planet. However, I believe it can be greater still.
Looking forward to putting a smile back on the face of Londoners ... Boris

The idea that Labour might disrupt the Tory selection as Tory Boy Bloggers suggest and STOP Boris being the candidate is quite extraordinary. Even Warwick who is seeking some different job is more of a threat. And Boff would be a real threat, reminding of old Robocop in the North East. Ruddy Vicky too. Boris Johnson is just a joke entry who will embarrass the Tory Party into oblivion. This fact has won LOL's support.

The fact it is a New Statesman blog witterer and some funseekers rather than "The Labour Party" when the links are perused shows just how floppy and sloppy the TBB's are on fact checking.

Have Labour managed to select any muppets at open selections for Tory candidates up and down the country? Requiring a mere handful of voters? NO? This being so how are they going to overcome the deathwish London Tory party?

Silly Standard. Silly story. Silly TBBs. Up with "man has drink at drinks party". In the Express and the Standard btw Coleman gave evidence of Ian Blair's drunkeness in the form of the allegation that he had been witnessed drinking a glass of wine rather quickly after his speech. Wow!

This is something I did the last time I spoke after a dinner, having stayed more or less temperate up to that moment.

Hardly a dead giveaway of wreckless drunkeness in a free country. Clearly if Sir Ian Blair messes up his work through drink that's another matter. But being squiffy every now and then at a function when the Met continues to improve significantly on most critieria? Not something we'd see in Manchester. But acceptable for second class London.

London Mayor: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid, Buffoon Wins?

With five hours to go before the declaration the word coming out from all sorts of orifices and the scuttley creatures therein is that Boris is to be hailed as the new Mayor of London. How close? Whither Lib Dem 2nds?

Poor old London.

Ealing Southall Communalism: Some Clarification

My posts about the non-selection of Cllr Gurcharan Singh have attracted considerable attention, some sinister, from communalists of several stripes. So here is a brief clarification of my position on the subject:

1. I don't know Cllr Gurcharan Singh personally from adam. But as soon as this by-election was called I did begin to collect information on the likely proponents. Gulcharan's history is and was extensively documented for the post-Google years, and is old in song and story from back in the day;
2. My belief was that Cllr Singh could win selection but that his baggage could make him a rotten candidate and a rotten MP if he survived the storm. So I was pretty pleased that he was carved out of the selection. As pleased about that as Gurch' himself was pleased that none of the women candidates made the cut. That was his consolation. And this was mine.
3. After Cllr Singh's defection, and presumably before the local government by-election that follows as he gives the people a chance to back him or sack him as a Tory, I gave a run down of these issues as a generous gift to his new masters, or slaves as may be.
4. This exposition attracted attackage from Sikh hotheads, and also unwanted supportage from other hotheads, Hindu hotheads I'll be bound, pointing out various robust Sikh interest websites and making unsupported generalised, dare I say racist?, assertions about both Sikhs and Muslims.
6. For the record I am dead set against the communalism of the Sikh Federation and its dire threats of electoral retribution if a visible Sikh (that is a man from Uncle) were not selected. I am also dead set against the communalism of all other sectarian ultras. I am set dead against the communalism of Nick Griffin and the BNP too. Not so different.
7. When our local Lib Dems kicked out their sitting candidate Yasmin Zalzala in favour of the weak and wilful John Leech I was among those protesting the loudest and the longest at the rationale in some quarters that as a black, asian, muslim, woman she could never be elected. What rotten bad eggs they all are in the Lib Dems.
8. And when it comes to the mayoral chain thing? Yes, indeed, my Sikh sock puppets, why should not Gurcharan Singh support Sikh brethren in Paris in protesting against French Secularism? That is not the issue. The issue is whether the Mayor of a London Borough has any mandate to wear his chain of office in such a protest. Ditto a Jewish Mayor, or a Muslim Mayor, or a Hindu Mayor, or a Christian Mayor, or even a Secular Humanist Mayor getting communalist with their chain of office.

Communalism. I'm agin it.

Meanwhile a blog friend has fingered the likely source of some of the interference:

Your anonymous spammer has an IP that traces to Dulles VA, which puts them as most likely an employee of the Washington DC-based Khalistan Affairs Committee. Professional lobbyist/propagandist a la GIYUS.

So there you go. Sectarian spooks in Washington, DC and Dulles, VA are taking an interest. We are indeed blessed.

Dale's Dire Maths: "Calculating" Boy Costs London Households £4,000

Dave-id Cameron and his puppy are going Japanese at the thought of making the future Maidstone and Weald MP Iain Dale his Chancellor

Oh dear, oh dear, I Dale. There is a dire need for six-week National Community Service training for Tory Boy Bloggers if this piece of careless spin is anything to go by.

This report (PDF download) is from the The Bow Group. "The Bow Group is the oldest - and one of the most influential - centre-right Think-Tanks in Britain. The Group exists to develop policy, publish research and stimulate debate within the Conservative Party. It has no corporate view, but represents all strands of Conservative opinion."

Iain claims that this, ahem, impartial report reveals quotes at length from the report including that:

The Mayor has also squandered the huge increase in government grants over the same time. Grants that cost the average London household over £2,000 in tax.

The Executive Summary of the report in fact says:

... the GLA now receiving tax payer grants worth £2,000 per household
Exec Summary, second deck of type on Tax, on super soaraway page 3

So according to the report Exec Summary London households RECEIVE THE BENEFIT OF an average of £2,000 in government grant per annum. They do not PAY it. How Why does Iain get not spot this switch from RECEIVE to COST? A little bit adventurous even by Tory twisting standards?

So, Ken and his crew actually EARNED LONDONERS (say 3 million households x £2,000 =) £6 Bn in government grants? According to this Tory think tank report. Hurrah! Well done Team Ken.

There was no secret hypothecation of taxes in London last time I looked. These are taxes from national and international companies and direct and indirect personal tax nationwide. So this "statistic" would have been 100% pure Tory toss anyway. Given that it in fact INCOME [insert]the Bow Group report featured by[/insert] Iain Dale's Diary has actually cost every household in London £4,000. Shame on him them. Maidstone and Weald must watch him closely should he be successful in his ambition to become their MP.

Compared to Boris Johnson we're told his calculating is "quite good".

UPDATE: It's a bit hard to tell but Iain has been visiting and states that the perverse spin was from the Bow Group and not ID. Fair enough. So he only re-published this tosh without comment. Probably he'll have corrected their figures by now? He's still playing hard to get when it comes to Maidstone and Weald or being a PPC in general.

London Mayor: More on Spotted Dick Witty Ham

Guido has a good set of links and news here over the "sudden" (only since January) surge for Boris Johnson to be the Tory Buffoon in the Mayoral Race. "Tired of Shagger Norris? Try Shagger Boris!" is my gratis contribution to the campaign fund.

Meanwhile, some sub-Warholian has created an image for Boris to rival the London 2012 in infamy. Apparently advertising some kind of circumcision service in London.

Guido Poll and More. Does this mean that Dave-id Cameron has been wasting 18 Doughty Street AND Iain Dale's AND a succession of wannabee's time in a phoney war for the role?

Streets of London: ANL "Boris to be Physically Sick"

The Anti Nowhere League (above) have a message for Boris Johnson.

The parody punks - still pogoing the boards incidentally - tell Boris that they'll show him something: "you'll never understand" and what's more "that'll make you really sick". i.e. London.

Because that's right. After five or six weeks from launch when he managed to visit just one London Borough Bojo's Bus is adding valiantly to the congestion he would like to un-tax.

Just over a week ago, I embarked on a whistle-stop tour of London, getting a real sense of how vast, and diverse our capital is. I owe huge thanks to those around the city. Every day, I learn more about London - some of it wonderful, some harrowing.

It is amazing what a razzler dazzler in a hurry can miss after just 40 or so years in the world. Over the last week he has visited "over fourteen" boroughs. Fifteen? Sixteen? Or was it fourteen? Isn't it good that true to his word he is spending "a good deal" of time on his mission to be mayor?

You can watch a video of Boris at the internal Tory hustings in Ilford here. Or see a spiffing set of touristy blicks of Boris' horrors and delights that have left Londoners cold.

Obviously wherever Boris goes, the press follows. Or at least The Telegraph, The Bexley Times and The Standard, er twice.

Dale on London: Still No Correction to Con Cobblers

Yesterday LOL published a quick "doesn't add up" postlinking to Iain Dale's spin on a Bow Group fantasy.

This particular Tory Think Tank (TTT) offering, according to Iain, said that London households lose £2,000 each per annum on grants that London receive. This is of course gobbledy gook.

Sorry to say LOL confused Iain's sometimes sloppy appreciation of facts and figures with the sloppy appreciation of facts and figures in the paragraphs he quoted. Particularly when these contradicted a key point of the report's Executive Summary itself. It seems I was wrong. My profuse apologies to Iain for this error.

Seven LOL Precepts:

1. Nonetheless, sorry to see that he has not updated. I explained here how what Iain has printed is utterly wrong. Here's some more.

2. The problem applies whether it was Iain's own editorialising, which it did look like despite the indent, or something lifted off p 27 of the Tory "think tank" Bow Group report, which it actually is.

3. Did Iain Dale, as a leading blogger and commentator, actually help a couple of sadly illiterate and innumerate city boys write the bloody thing?

4. On pages 3 (Exec Report) and 5 (Within "What does the Mayor Do?) and 7 (The GLA precept) it explains clearly that this £2,000 per household or almost £6 Bn is what Ken's London team RAISES from grants, not the tax BURDEN per household.

5. The grant figure is clearly from national taxes on businesses and personal direct and indirect taxation and not some roof tax on Londoners. That is an utterly mistaken comment. Or deliberate disingenuity.

6. Several comments at Iain's post point out that most of the London precept goes on the Police service and the like. Are the Tory Bow Group calling for Policing, Fire, Flooding etc spending cuts just as the Tory Party at large whine so inaccurately about crime etc?

7. Whether Iain wrote it himself or or not the bit of the tory Bow Group report quoted, re-published by Iain Dale is utter tosh.

LOL feel that Iain should update his post accordingly - or perhaps remove with an explanation that it falls woefully below the standard of work Iain Dale's Diary likes to re-publish.

Political Betting: Strangeness on Mayor Market

There is an extraordinary betting market for London mayor. Ken is a strong favourite with Boris unfeasibly close behind. But the other three Tory hope-fools are not quoted while various non-runners are there. Strange.

Dave Osler: Lists LOL and Addle

Dave Osler's Dave'spart blog has added both your humble blogger and friend Adele (Crazy World) to his blogroll. I'm chuffed.

Dave is a consistently good source of interesting and well-researched posts and being as he has worked his way back to Labour from the independent left he attracts some Trotty flame interest.

He has analysis of the phenomenon of Big Issue founder John Bird standing for London Mayor and of independents in general. Comments go off on tangents about Galloway and PR.

Bird was a WRP-er when the Libyan money was pouring into their paper. But that's not all. “Actually,” someone called John Bird told the Standard in 1997, “I was a member of something called the Socialist Party of Great Britain at school for a while. You had to pass an exam, you know. You could not just join”. I am now told by a comrade that this may have been John Bird of Bremner, Bird and Fortune. Nonetheless Big Issue John Bird is a former sectarian leftie.

We had The Big Issue in Manchester in 1992, soon after the 1991 launch in London and the sale of the previously fiercely independent City Life, which I had co-founded, sold to the auld enemy MEN that we had set up specifically to counter.

John Bird was impressed with Ruth Turner and sprang to her aid: “I just don’t believe this. She was religiously straight - almost like a zealot.” Which may translate roughly to 'Ruth simply wouldn't let me pull the fiddles I wanted'!!

AND ANOTHER THING: Despite his revolutionary socialist background Bird was courted assiduously by Cameron's Tories to be their candidate. They are making some strange moves on recruitment and selection. But no-one is taken in. Same old same old.

London Mayoral: Boris Couldn't Even Mind a Pushbike

Iain Dale was on a panel discussing the chances of Blonde Bollinger Bullingdon Bombshell Boris in the election for London Mayor. At the end he found himself in a minority of one on the question of whether Johnson would win.

He then found a couple of shy Tories propping up the bar who admitted chickening out. Garbo at The Poliblogs has a level-headed appraisal.

Boris Johnson is basically even more of a maverick that Peter Hain to my eyes. No one serious would trust him to manage anything. He can't even look after his own pushbike properly. Or get home on it without stabilizers.

London Mayor: Has Boris Emulated Milton Tzangerei?

With around 50% of the boxes in the system we're hearing that Bojo may be about to emulate the watermelon smiled Morgan Tzangerei and win outright. If so will Ken be able to set picanninies, former colonials and white slave stock (like Boris hisself) a-grinning London wide? By moving the goal posts, delaying the announcement for five weeks, and insisting on a run off? Just a thought.

ASIDE: Will someone please pretty please tell smug shadowy chancellor GOO that Burry is NOT pronounced Berry?

HINT TO CAM: These terrible results for Labour ARE the result of a protest, particularly on the 10% tax and property scaremongering, and NOT a positive buy in to Tory "policy". Please stop pretending otherwise.

London Mayor: Elephants and Unity Never Forget

Unity has celebrated Boris Johnson's elevation to the possibility of perhaps being the gaffe-riddled Tory London mayoral candidate by promoting an ancient civilization. Boris, before he was an MP, being done up like a kipper on Have I Got News For You. Reminded of his tape recorded agreement to help convicted fraudster, Old Etonian, biffer of royalty, and Bullingdon Boy Darius Guppy in tracking down a NOTW journalist the latter wanted to bish. It is probably too much to hope that DG is the unidentified 10th man in the Cameron/Johnson Bullingdon portrait. If not he was perhaps enjoying a night in a cell somewhere. Both Johnson and Guppy make the BNP List of Criminal Tories.

Meanwhile, The Daily Mail does a fine job of reporting a thunderous punch up between Earl Spencer and the lad Guppy.

The latter believed, with some justification if the gossip of the day were to be believed (which I don't), that Spencer spent Guppy's 13-month jail sentence trying to get off with Guppy's wife. Meanwhile Boris goes "Ape".

So there you go. Ken - called a reporter a few names. And got called some back - strangely excised from the tape. Boris - recorded agreeing to help a notorious hothead find a scribbler for a proper old fashioned, but non-fatal or at least not premediatated as fatal, kicking.

Which thankfully never happened due to Boris' incompetence which also saw him sacked from the Times - for making up quotes.

Lib-Cons: Racially Challenged Foot in Mouth Mayor

With all the fuss about Boris Johnson's plethora of Colemanballs it would be too easy to overlook those pernicious Lib Dems.

But they're not just putting up a (recanted?) racially incorrect idiot as candidate for Mayor in Southwark. They have just made him - that's Bob "eternal regret" Skelly - Mayor. Labour councillors apparently walked out. Shades of Settle where black trade unionists were greeted by a Lib Dem mayor with a "coon" joke.

Back to Southwark. "They" being Tories and Lib Dems in a Lib-Con Alliance. Example of Bob Skelly's wit and wisdom when the Borough's lead member for Education (2004) :

"Every evening I go out in a big van and kidnap some Caribbean boys. I berate them about their lack of commitment to education and give them a booster lesson in English."

Picture and more from the London SE1 community website.

From which on the plus (?) side ... Cllr Skelly has named the Damilola Taylor Trust as his mayoral charity for the coming year and aims to raise £50,000 to support their work. And another Lib Dem Mackie Sheik who clearly learned his lessons well, in the back of Bob Skelly's van no doubt, was voted in as deputy.

All seems a rather cynical and convoluted piece of race card playing really.

Tory Triumphalism: They Just Don't Get It Do They?

Agree with anon 12:30 reviews of the speeches at Iain Dale's. Boris did fluff/bottle his "joke" about Meier/Mayor at the get go didn't he?? But otherwise it was a humble and positive opener for the former buffoon. Ken was excellent in response. Paddick was of course a complete and utter Lib Dem tosser.

For the next 24 hours London is safe. Then we must start to worry.

Cam and Dale are wrong of course in thinking the last 48 hours of happiness are in reponse to the policy platform of the Cuddly Nu Tories. There is no policy platform, so how could it be?

The results in the country are I feel a protest vote based on one or two particular issues - the 10p tax gaffe and perhaps the credit crunch, though goodness knows Tories do those far worse and far more frequently.

Brown should have squared off the 10p Tax Gaffe immediately the attacks belatedly began.

London has I believe been less moved by that than other points North, South, West and East but in the final analysis it was close enough that the stay homes and protests on that problem probably did tip the balance.

Ken was therefore very gracious indeed to accept responsibility on his own shoulders without a quibble and to thank Labour for unstinting support.

Question: How will a Mayoral election in the run up to London 2012 actually play? Fascinating. Assuming Boris doesn't mess up so badly he is in prison and replaced by then.

Observation: The 2nd preferences did not matter Boris won by 15,000 or so without his. Which thankfully means the BNP can claim no credit as Shagger Barnbrook takes his place in County Hall. Strangely there's no place for him on the BNP masthead. Is he about to change parties?

Fantasy: By-election soon in London, perhaps by Galloway taking Chiltern Hundreds for old comrade. Ken wins by a landslide. Boris is out canvassing for him. Brown graciously falls on his sword to allow Ken a run at the leadership. McDonnell, Meacher and Denham sit on hands and Back Ken. Ken Livingstone is Prime Minister! Ten More Years!

FREUDIAN SLIP: Quite like Tory Trimuphalism. But have corrected headline.

Green Party: London Mayoral Candidate, Miss Android; Chorlton Candidate, Medieval Punishments

Guido Fawkes has a story about this Green Candidate for London mayor Sian being a back-to-the-stone-age anti human campaigner HERE.

We've not quite seen this articulated so clearly in Manchester but we did have a Green candidate for Chorlton in 2004 name of Jessica who surprised the liberal intelligensia normally taken in by Green no-paper campaigns by announcing that ASBOs were insufficient and that a set of stocks should be placed in Albert Square forthwith. Alas the web archive doesn't contain the historic pages. But I'm betting there will be a reader out there who saved a copy ...

Next it will be trial by earth, trial by fire, trial by water; and let's not forget chopping hands off and the like. The trouble with Greens is that they like recycling and furry animals but beyond they they may believe in anything.

London Mayor's Question Time: Ken Does Boris Brain In

Boris on Ken: Missing You Already.

P(r)oxy Smearing: Signposting London Colemanballs

Good to see Iain Dale staying arms length from some silly smears and innuendoes from the loathsome Tory neantherdal Brian Coleman. The latter has used a New Statesman blog post for a rambling - almost inebriated sounding - string of generalisations about public figures, perceived as being "lefties".

Assuming Iain Dale remains tea total this is not one of the smear he will ever need to defend on his own behalf. But imagine the outrage if it were a commentator of the left saying Boris is unfit for office as he once got sozzled, or Cameron should be hounded out of parliament as he once got high, or that Osborne can't get tax sums right since he overindulged once at conference?

Reading his blog - this Brian Coleman seems to be a nasty arsey old Tory dinosaur who is by turns censorious (of the left) and libertarian (when it comes to the right).

He will allow ALL politicians to take a drink too far at a party conference, even excusing or laughing at or egging on perhaps a rather serious sounding sexual assault by a Tory MP which if involving a predatory hetero Labour MP rather than a predatory homo Tory one would very likely involve some more naming and shaming or at least another gurt dollop of innuendo.

Meanwhile Coleman generalises on the theme of the supposed general drunkeness of three London figures from some loosely alleged third hand and third rate drunken moments or in one case a supposed "well known" medical condition.

Was this "methodist" high Tory Thatcherite actually drunk when he dribbled this nonsense out? Do the New Statesman actually pay for such a garrulous, petty and careless correspondent to vent low rent jibes and gibberish of the worst kind?

They should sack him not give him a column.

Let us not forget that while Ken clearly enjoys the odd glass of red Bozzer and Cam and Oz are stalwarts of a despicable drinking and dining club which kills fox cubs by "stoning" with empty champagne bottles, thrashes restaurants willy nilly and generally engages - to this day - in behaviour that makes a slurring Mayor, a troubled Transport guru, or even a stumbling copper seem like a complete non story.

Nasty man this Coleman. Tell us about some top Tories and some illegal drugs Brian. Or more on this predatory pederast. But forget "man gets tipsy at drinks party" as this is down there with "dog bites man".