Ken, Boris, Fine Wine & Things Newspapers Do

Saturdays are hectic family days for me, so I only stole a glimpse at my google alerts before heading off to the sports hall this morning. The one Boris story I skimmed was the Daily Telegraph's, in which the new mayor described opening a cupboard in his predecessor's office and making an impressive find:

"Last night, I flung wide a cupboard that I had not opened before and found to my delight a fridge, stocked with several bottles. But then, beside it was another cupboard. I opened that and there was this astonishing collection of wine: very fine bottles left behind by Mayor Livingstone. Whether they are GLA bottles of wine or his own we have yet to discover. There are rows and rows of glistening Chateauneuf-du-Pape. A goodly hoard, over a hundred bottles."

Well, I thought, you might expect to find a few bottles of posh plonk in the London mayor's office, what with all those posh guests he'd have to entertain there. But "over a hundred" did seem a lot. I also noticed that the Daily Mail was carrying the story, but I didn't have time to read it. Now, having returned home, I find an email has arrived from Ken Livingstone. It contains the following statement:

"Boris Johnson has told the Daily Telegraph that he found 'over a hundred bottles of wine' in my office. This statement is a deliberate lie which the newspaper has been contacted to demand be withdrawn. To be fair to the Daily Mail, which initially repeated this story, it has removed it from its website and agreed to do so immediately. The Daily Telegraph site is continuing to carry a story which is a lie by Boris Johnson."

Click here for confirmation that the Mail has indeed removed the story. But click here to see that the Telegraph website also carries another, earlier, account of Johnson's discovery which concentrates more closely on the wine beneath a headline referring to a "secret cellar". These words are in quotes, despite neither the "cellar" nor "secret" being attributed to Johnson in the article. Tut, tut.

Why does any of this matter? I'd guess it matters to Livingstone because insinuations of self-serving decadence were aimed at his regime throughout the election campaign and he is no more willing to let them go unchallenged now than he was then. It also matters because it does Boris Johnson no harm if such insinuations continue.

I therefore call on mayor Johnson to count the bottles carefully and confirm he hasn't been guilty of any inadvertent exaggeration, to discover and disclose to whom this "glistening Chateauneuf-du-Pape" actually belongs and, should it prove to be GLA property, let us know what he plans to do with it. Perhaps the ex-mayor too could provide more information about the matter. Perhaps he could provide it to his successor. That way, the full truth will surely emerge.

It is to the mayor's credit that he recently apologised for having previously given the false impression that Livingstone and his team had regularly dined on the most decadent of lunchtime sandwiches at Londoners' expense. I'm sure he wouldn't want people being given the wrong idea again.

Comments

[Ben]

Well, as Boris himself says - albeit in this wind-up of John Briffa - "all wine is good". I think Ken should donate it to the new Mayor (assuming it is his, and not the GLA's).

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2281321,00.html

[Tom]

It's a good deal more serious than just allegations of decadence - of the people I know who voted Boris, one common allegation (second after communism) was drunkenness, which has its origins in dog-whistle right-wing smear stories. Hence giving the impression that his office was stuffed with booze reinforces this 'drunken Communist' image that they wanted to portray. As if a genuine alkie would have left 100 bottles of booze lying around.

Of course, the main reason for disbelieving this is the same reason for disbelieving any insinuations that Livingstone was personally corrupt - a drunk or corrupt Mayor wouldn't have achieved nearly so much.

[Helen]

What a complete arse. I expect to read Boris's reports of finding a huge fridge full of Beluga and a walk-in humidor of fine cigars behind a secret panel in due course.