What Ken did next
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 by Nigel
I like what Ken Livingstone’s announced in London - a comprehensive plan to reduce London’s greenhouse gas emissions, right across the board, tackling energy used for housing, transport and business. This seems like the right way to tackle things - at that level where local meets national. And even Arnie Schwarzeneger is getting in on the act in California… .
Ken’s still a wily one; you’ve got to admire him. OK, so the case is particularly urgent in London. Look what London will look like if we don’t act. You’d need scuba gear on the London Eye for starters.
He makes the rest of the government look sluggish, and you can bet he thoroughly enjoys doing so. If transport is one of the big keys to building a greener economy, he’s done far more in London in seven yeas than the dismal amount Transport Secretary John “I will have failed if in five years there are not far fewer journeys by car” Prescott has achieved nationally in ten.
(Two-Jags, you will remember, was the one who drove 250 yards to the Bournemouth conference centre to deliver a speech about encouraging people to use public transport, and then rounded on journalists who asked why he hadn’t walked by saying: “Because of the security reasons for one thing and second, my wife doesn’t like to have her hair blown about. Have you got another silly question?”)
My journo friend William covered the mayoral election in 2000 when Labour put up Frank Dobson as the doomed anti-Livingstone candidate. He remembers standing in the London Eye with Livingstone and a TV crew. The sound guy asked the standard question they always ask you to get a level on the mic. “So can you tell me what you had to eat this morning?” Livingstone smiled malevolently at the camera and growled, “I ‘ad that Frank Dobson for breakfast.”
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