There is much which both sad and laughable in the today's Evening Standard trailer for an interview they are carrying with Ken Livingstone tomorrow. The fact that he uses the Evening Standard, his sworn enemy during his time as Mayor, to launch a vitriolic attack on the Labour Prime Minister, the Labour Prime Minister, should in itself be enough to rule out Livingstone as a candidate for Mayor next time round. or at least as a Labour candidate.
Livingstone apparently says he is "as certain as you can be" that he will run for the Labour nomination in 2012 but threatens that he will run as an Independent. Presumably this is "the message of renewal" that he fails to see in the appointment of Lord Mandelson as Business Secretary.
Livingstone continues to be badly advised by the same sycophants who protected him from the truth during the London campaign. He lost the London campaign against Boris Johnson because he refused to engage on the subjects which were of concern to vast swathes of Londoners, but he has now convinced himself that it was all the fault of Gordon Brown.
His attack today, and tomorrow, will do slight damage to Gordon Brown and to the Labour Party, but diminish Ken Livingstone immeasurably.
