Thank goodness – Boris got re-elected.
Although I spend much of my time in London I haven't lived there for 20 years so I shouldn't really care who the mayor is. But when the choice is Boris Johnston or Red Ken (as I still remember him) it's impossible to be neutral.
I lived in London throughout the Eighties so I remember the worst excesses of the Livingstone-run Greater London Authority that Margaret Thatcher rightly abolished and it's remarkable to me that Livingstone is still with us (politically speaking). I thought his brand of socialism was defeated long ago but until this morning he had never accepted personal defeat (and I respect him for that).
Our paths crossed very briefly a couple of years ago when I was on the Alan Titchmarsh Show. Livingstone was a regular guest who was wheeled on to comment on the news, but he struck me as a rather sad figure. He didn't join us in the Green Room and there was an air of Banquo's Ghost about him.
It struck me then – and on other occasions – that the reason he was there was because he had nothing else to do.
This morning I heard him complain bitterly that Boris doesn't do anything. According to Livingstone, Johnson is a "do nothing" mayor, but if it's true surely that's a good thing? Anyone who believes that politicians have the answers to our problems is seriously deluded.
Laissez-faire politicians like Boris should be applauded not criticised. The less politicians do the better. If it ain't broke don't fix it. And if it is broke, try not to make things worse! The weak and the gullible should be protected, within reason, but on the whole people should be allowed to get on with their lives with as little interference as possible from politicians.
Anyway, what a relief to know that London will be represented at the 2012 Olympics not by Livingstone but by the slightly eccentric figure of Boris Johnston. With Boris at the opening ceremony I might even be persuaded to watch. Let's hope the occasion reflects the charming and slightly shambolic personality of the city's mayor – the complete opposite, in other words, of Beijing in 2008.