Although I think he has done his fair share of bad things, I am a bit of a fan of Ken Livingstone.
Why?
Because he is a proper Londoner. He likes a drink of whisky when he is answering Assembly questions? Good lad.
He accurately reflects the cheeky, lairy and cocky instincts of many of us in this city.
Channel 4 did their best with their expose documentary about Ken to dig some serious dirt, but I have to say that if all they could find after eight years in office was a bit of boozing, a streak of arrogance and some dodgy loans to dodgy community projects, then Ken must be cleaner than I thought.
The most hilarious part of the "expose" however, was the revelation that Ken had surrounded himself with a cabal of former Socialist Alliance comrades and - get this - employed them AND paid them salaries.
As I lay in bed this morning listening to Ken on the Today programme, I was amused by the thought that, in adopting the same alarmist tone that Martin Bright did in his Channel 4 hack job, you could make anyone sound sinister.
"A member of a tiny elite who think they are born to rule, he siezed control of the Conservatives when they were at their lowest ebb.
"Vandalising this once-great party, he moved quickly to surround himself with like-minded cronies.
"Committed to fanatical market solutions, he has learned, at least in public, to temper his hard Thatcherite views.
"However, with his gang, their committment to capitalism and the overthrow of the Blair/Brown consensus remains undimmed.
"There is Boris, a fellow member of the secretive Bullingdon Club, on over 60k a year in a sinecure job for life as MP for Henley.
"Two-brains Gove, feared for his ability to rip opponents apart.
"The intimdating figure of Nick Boles, a man who manipulates policy to suit the new, rightwing agenda.
"All of these men were close to Cameron as he plotted his rise to power, most of them given highly-paid jobs at Westminster, the better to advance their leader's cynical agenda."
Easy.
