Ken felt like Sysiphus for most of the year. The 'Guardian', while printing letters on other things occasionally, including his famous put-down of Ken Livingstone, resolutely refused to publish anything that mentioned his Mayor campaign. He distributed leaflets whenever he could & posted 'Wanted for Mayor' notices at Fraser's party (next column). In October, the Geo-Cities search engine put Ken on their Mayor page & the 'Guardian' corrected their web page, admitting Ken was a candidate for Official Labour & not an independent. Then, they put a reporter (Julia Hartley-Brewer) on the case & sent a photographer down on 29th but Rusbridger presumably spiked the story when it was clear Ken was not a Lord Sutch-type buffoon but a serious candidate. So I believe Julia slipped the story to the 'Evening Standard' who had once mentioned his candidature. Meanwhile, Frank Dobson declared reluctantly & Ken was quite polite to him, moving the Vote of Thanks at a fund-raising dinner in Islington North. But Dobbo had sent two letters to every Labour members (costing at least £25,000), misusing the membership database to do so, as Ken's spies (in Bexleyheath CLP) found out.
After nominations went in, things moved fast. Ken did interviews for several local radio stations, for ITV London Tonight (9/11), the BBC Around Westminster, Channel 4, GMTV & the Beeb again & at last, items appeared in newspapers. He was long-listed & attended the short-lisiting interview on Tuesday 16th November. After thinking that he had done more than enough to get on the short list, everything went pear-shaped.The procedure itself became a farce as they tried to find ways to exclude the Other Ken & Our Ken got the chop to avoid splitting the Anti-Livingstone vote. Down load Ken's Mayor Diary (1.6MB) for the full blow-by-blow account from the beginning.
Ken's thanks to the team: Jennette Arnold, Tony Gunnersen, Georgette Djaba & especially, Avis.

A big welcome back to Pam Giddy, who was installed as Director in March. Immediately, the profile of the Charter, never low recently, went up another notch & we are now the port of first call on constitutional issues. With successful elections and new parliaments for Scotland & Wales, our success is now visible in institutions. The North-East region has now set up a Constitutional Convention as a prelude to demanding regional government. However, our nervousness about Freedom of Information, with the authoritarian Jack Straw in charge now turned out to have been justified. A new concern came about as a result of the Tories doing some joined-up thinking & they will try to rubbish the legitimacy of English legislation passed through the Commons with its Celtic members still in place. We were still thinking about this as the year ended.

Frazer Whitehead hosted a Labour Party Garden Party in his lovely garden in Canonbury again. One of Ken's rivals for Mayor, Glenda Jackson, turned up to lobby for votes & we were both interviewed by the High & I (local paper). Ken came the better out of the encounter, as Glenda, while a brilliant actress is inhibited about acting as a politician & lacks social skills.

This is Cllr. Meg & Tom Simpson, born on September 1st, at the Garden Party, doubtless Tom's first of many Labour Party engagements. Meg should be our Greater London Assembly Member by next newsletter.

...on February 28th. Ken felt strongly enough to associate with Islington's Usual Suspects on the far left of the party to join them on the march from the Embankment. Here are Sue, Simon, Rowena & Jenny.