Red Ken Wants To Tax Your Holiday!

After last month’s proposal of an 80% tax rate for bankers, Ken Livingstone has come up with another ingenious idea - tax people who go on holiday more than once a year! Cos they must be filthy rich, innit.

He made a speech at the Travel Convention in Malta this week (a nice paid gig if ever there was one), declaring that overseas holidays were "a class issue". He went on to say that he would like to see a tax imposed after the first outbound holiday of the year. He has clearly never heard of the word 'aspiration'.

Overseas holidays are certainly not a class issue in the 21st century. When you can get a £30 return to Rome with RyanAir you can hardly claim these holidays are to do with class. Taxing people to go on more than one holiday a year is a fatuous idea based on outmoded notions of what constitutes being rich and affluent. People should be free to go on as many holidays a year as they like. We are already taxed to the hilt when we abroad and don't need to be faced with even more charges.

Anyway, how on earth would it be policed? What constitutes a holiday?

We all know plenty of people who go abroad to visit their families. Does that constitute a holiday? These hairbrain ideas just show how out of touch Ken really is with modern day Londoners.

With policies like these, Boris had better watch out. Not.

How Ken Is Defending London From the Cuts

Guess where Labour's candidate for Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, will be when the Comprehensive Spending Review is announced tomorrow? Defending London against the cuts? Manning the barricades?

Hardly. He will be sunning himself HERE. And being paid a handsome amount to do so.

By the way, it's 23 degrees in Malta.

Podcast: The Ken v Oona Debate on LBC

LBC have put the hour long debate I hosted last night between Ken Livingstone and Oona King on their website as a free podcast. If you'd like to listen click HERE.

The Ken & Oona Debate on LBC Tonight

From 9-10pm on my LBC Show tonight I will be hosting the first radio debate between Labour's London mayoral aspirants, Ken Livingstone and Oona King. They'll be debating each other on their visions for London and how they intend to oust Boris Johnson from his job in May 2012.

If you've got any questions you think ought to be put to the two of them feel free to leave them here, or you can text 84850, email iain AT lbc DOT co DOT uk during the course of the day. We'll also be taking questions on the telephone on 0845 60 60 973 from 7pm.

The show starts at 7.15pm and you can listen on 97.3FM in London and surrounding areas, on digital radio all over the country, on Sky channel 0124, Virgin 973 or stream the programme at www.lbc.co.uk.

Friday Caption Competition

Seeing as I am spending most of the day transcribing the two and a half hours I spent with Ken Livingstone on Tuesday, I thought I would let you entertain me throughout the day (and, let's face it, divert my attention) by putting words into my mouth. But only decent ones please.

I think you'll enjoy the interview when it comes out in a couple of weeks. Let's put it this way. You can't spend so long with Ken without him saying something controversial.

Let it Go, Ken!

From Andrew Gilligan's Standard column today...

On Saturday, in his new role as the sorest loser in the history of the world, Ken staged his own separate, unofficial, ex-mayors-only DLR opening ceremony at Woolwich, two days before Boris's. How stratospherically sad is that?

Welcome Ken Livingstone

According to the Independent's Ian Burrell, Ken Livingstone likes nothing better than reading this blog or ConservativeHome. I suppose he's got plenty of time on his hands now...

One of his favourite sites is Conservative Home, or "Tory Home" as he calls it. Here Ken finds not only coverage of London politics but what he believes are the true colours of a party that David Cameron wishes to move across the spectrum, away from the violet end of blue and closer to green...But he really quite likes some of Tory blogger Iain Dale's diary, even if Dale was "a bit dishonest talking about the glorious triumph" of Boris's first 100 days in power...Dale's blog won't make easy reading for Livingstone right now, linking as it does to an interview with Boris in Dale's newly-launched magazine Total Politics.

I wonder if Ken has ever thought of starting a blog of his own. I'd certainly read it. If you're reading this, Ken, my consultancy rates are very cheap. Well, cheaper than yours!

Ken's Defeat: It's Just Not Fair!

Ken Livingstone's former media director Joy Johnson has written a ludicrous piece in the new edition of the British Journalism Review (sadly not online). It's all about the horrible Evening Standard and its role in the London mayoral election. At the beginning of the article she says "I do not believe it was the 'Standard wot won it'". She then proceeds to spend the rest of the article explaining all the damage the Standard did to Livingstone's cause. Indeed, she hilariously blames his defeat not on the paper, but on all the newspaper's billboards.

Just because Livingstone is behaving like a dog going back to its own sick, it doesn't mean all his former advisers have to join him. Get over it Joy. Move on!

Ken's Nice Little Earner

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I always like to help someone who's down on their luck, so I thought I would bring you the opportunity to book Ken Livingstone for your firm's away day after dinner speech. He hasn't wasted much time in getting on the speaking circuit, and who can blame him? With Boris now out of the market Ken has niftily filled the gap. Expect him to trouser at least £10,000 per speech, most of which he will be donating to charity. Or not.

Is This Man the Next Leader of the Labour Party?

If you read Ken Livngstone's article in this morning's Guardian you could be forgiven for thinking so. We haven't seen the last of Ken by any means. Prediction: he will stand in a safe Labour seat in a by-election or at the next election and then stand for the leadership on the exact manifesto he outlined in his article today. A lot of Labour people would be persuaded by it.

Message to Ken: You Lost...

He obviously doesn't quite realise he has lost, because Ken Livingstone has just turned up at City Hall at the AGM of the London Assembly. Let's hope he doesn't have the effect of the ghost at Banquo's feast...

UPDATE: Ken has just said he will attend every Mayoral Question Time for the next four years. He's going to be like one of those sad defeated MPs who appear in the House of Commons after they have lost, as they can't quite bear to leave.

Livingstone Runs Scared of Second Preferences

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This is Labour's Get Out the Vote leaflet in London. Bizarrely it encourages voters to put Ken as both their first and second preference. On the face of it, they misunderstand the very electoral system they imposed. But when you think about the logic of doing this they must be really scared that many of their voters might put Boris second and therefore boost his chances of winning on second preferences. Or could there be another reason?

By the way, have you been out to vote yet? In Bromley, it seems, people can't wait to get out and do their bit to oust Livingstone. My spy tells me queueing up to vote at the Princess Plain Polling Station in Bromley Common and Keston ward. This is encouraging because in 2004 the turnout in areas like this was very low.

I'm also told that in one North London Borough (electoral law prevents me from telling you which one), at the opening of postal votes, Boris was on 69%. In 2004 at the opening of postal votes Steve Norris was in the mid 40s. Very encouraging.

Keep the news coming throughout the day.

Pot, Kettle, Black

So Ken called Kate Hoey a "semi-detached member of Labour". Hmmm. That was him a few years ago. At that point he seemed to make a virtue out of it. Rattled is the word which comes to mind.

Hoey's action really presents Labour with a dilemma. With Gordon Brown having made a virtue of GOATS (Government Of All The Talents) they can hardly complain when Boris seeks to be inclusive too. But Labour MPs will be hopping mad and seeking retribution. There will be demands for the whip to be withdrawn on the pretext of her semi-endorsement of a non Labour candidate. You can bet your bottom dollar that they won't do it until after Thursday, though.

Paddick Needs to Discover a Sense of Humour

I don't know how many of you caught the London mayoral debate on the BBC Politics Show this lunchtime but again it was a pretty unedifying spectale, but slightly better than the Newsnight equivalent. Accuse me of being biased if you like (and I know I can rely some of you to do just that!) but I felt that Boris shaded it. At the end he called Ken Livingstone 'stale' and I think that's exactly how the Mayor came across - no now policies, no new ideas. Boris was clearly up for it, while the Mayor seemed to be going through the motions. Jon Sopel tried to goad Boris with some selective quotes but Boris sailed through the jibes rather majesterially.

But perhaps what came out of it most was the total eclipse of Brian Paddick. I have always had a lot of respect for him, but his campaign hasn't caught fire. I think his performance in this debate showed why. He badly needs to discover a sense of humour. If you are fighting two people who are masters of the the oneliner you need to play them at their won game and use humour as part of your political armoury. He particualrly needed some sort of funny line when he repeatedly refused to say who his second preference would go to. In the end he ended up hinting that it would go to the Greens. Not good enough. If the LibDems are in favour of a proportional system, the electorate deserves to know who a candidate's second preference would go to. It tells you something about them. Brian Paddick failed this test and throughout the interview appeared a sideshow to the main focus of Boris v Ken.

Ken's 'Celebrity' Conundrum

A few weeks ago Ken Livingstone said the London Mayoral Race was not "Celebrity Big Brother" and that it should be about policy, not personality. However, it seems he has changed his mind. Today, he's released a list of 20 Celebrity backers, full of usual suspects of lefty 'hangers on'.

Damon Albarn, Banksy, Jo Brand, Bill Bailey, Billy Bragg, Tim Campbell (Apprentice winner), Anthony Gormley, Phill Jupitus, Peter Kennard, Alistair McGowan, Jonthan Porritt, Vince Power, Tony Robinson, Prunella Scales, Arthur Smith, Ralph Steadman, Emma Thompson, Vivienne Westwood, Richard Wilson and Robert Wyatt.

I can't think the release of this list will attract a single vote to Livingstone. It's like a memorial service for Red Wedge. Not exactly 'cool Britannia'. I've never even heard of three of them. Livingstone may well come to regret publishing this list. I'm sure I remember hearing Emma Thompson say recently that she endorsed some of his policies "but not the man".

Ken Asks Chavez to Fund Free Travel for IllegalImmigrants

I've just been told that at a Mayoral debate tonight, Ken Livingstone has said that he will ask Hugo Chavez to fund free travel for asylum seekers and illegal immigrants on public transport.

Well, it's a uniquely innovative way to win votes, I suppose...

UPDATE: The Spectator Coffee House shows how Ken lied last night on Newsnight about not knowing who his donors were.

Ken Hides One of His Faces

Spotted getting off the tube at St James's Park: Ken Livingstone, with a scarf wrapped around so much of his face it looked as if he was wearing a Burka. Surely not scared of being recognised by the Great Unwashed, Ken? You used to bask in their adolation. No longer, it seems

Red Ken Runs Scared

Frit.

Archer Warns Boris of Livingstone's 'Dirty Tricks'

Star interviewer Rob McGibbon has conducted a fascinating interview with Jeffrey Archer over at AccessInterviews.com. I've posted a clip from it in the video box over on the right, but for the whole thing, click HERE. Archer says he thinks Boris will lose (although it was recorded a month ago, so maybe he's changed his mind) and warns him that Livingstone will put up a dirty fight. I think we're already seeing the beginnings of that.

What I Have to Say About Ken Livingstone's Private Life

And I hope that goes for everyone else too.