Hezza and Red Ken - a fine bromance?
By Tony Grew - 24th June 2011
Members of the House of Lords can always be relied upon for a decent anecdote, and yesterday's nuts and bolts examination of the localism bill was no exception.
It was not the most interesting session, with peers debating the merits or otherwise of directly-elected mayors.
Tory Lord Jenkin of Roding lightened the mood when he told the House of his "slightly chequered experience of the mayor in London, having been the minister responsible for the legislation that abolished the GLC".
He recalled meeting Ken Livingstone after he had just become the first-ever elected mayor of London.
"I said to him, 'Ken, I should congratulate you on a remarkable victory'.
"'Oh, Patrick', he said, 'you were responsible for it'.
"In a sense I was, since I had created the situation where the position of a mayor for Greater London was possible, particularly a mayor who in his earlier capacity as leader of the GLC I had had a considerable passage of arms with.
"He was therefore perfectly entitled to make that remark."
Labour's Lord Beecham chipped in with another amusing incident.
"I am not sure whether it was the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, or the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, that Ken Livingstone was referring to on one occasion when, on emerging from Marsham Street, as it then was, having had one of a series of meetings in the dark days of the 1980s when the GLC was at loggerheads with the government, he was asked, 'Why are you going to see him again?' and he replied, 'I think he likes me for my body'.
"Whether it was the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, or the noble Lord, Lord Heseltine, who said that, I am not entirely sure."
Lord Jenkin wasn't going to let that pass.
"I assure the noble Lord that it was not me," he told the House.
"I would also question whether or not it was my noble friend Lord Heseltine. It may be a bit apocryphal."
Lord Beecham said he "recalls seeing it on television at the time".
Article Comments
I think the level of talk between these people makes the argument for the closing of this meeting place for people that have no connection to citizens such as myself and my partner.
Pensioners that see the future with declining prosperity for no other reason than to prop the rich bankers up. A pox on both the houses.
Tony Kelly
27th Jun 2011 at 11:59 am
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