Ken calls in the Irish vote

Next Thursday, five million Londoners vote for their first directly-elected lord mayor

Next Thursday, five million Londoners vote for their first directly-elected lord mayor. Few doubt but that the winner will be the maverick labourite MP, Ken Livingstone. The outcome is of little relevance to Ireland, but of the four candidates Livingstone is by far the most interesting. He has shown an interest in Ireland, if a contentious one, going back many years and he has managed to greatly upset the control freaks in New Labour. His victory will be a huge blow to Tony Blair and as all his opponents - from the Tory right to official Labour - warn, his reign as London supremo, a vastly influential position in one of the world's great cities, will be unpredictable, if not downright dangerous.

Livingstone and other runners Frank Dobson (Lab) and Steve Norris (Tory) turned up earlier this month at a special meeting in the London Irish Centre in Camden organised by the Irish Post. Liberal candidate, Susan Kramer, sent a representative. The main campaign issues are the police and transport, but as there are 100,000 Irish people who were born in London and many others with lesser links which, it is claimed, makes one in 10 of the population Irish, it's a vote worth courting. The Post described Livingstone as the buachaill ban and said that in comparison with the others, who hardly knew what they were at, he was relaxed and assured on Ireland and the Irish.

Red Ken, who is credited with inventing the Loony Left and saying global capitalism killed more people than the Nazis, has also been a long-time supporter of republicanism and believer in a united Ireland. He brought Gerry Adams to a conference in London in 1984 when the IRA was bombing the city; called for dialogue with Sinn Fein long before the peace movement; supported the hunger strikers and was accused of giving £53,000 of GLC funds to the Troops Out Movement. Now he wants a big official St Patrick's Day parade and he has called for new elections in the North. So at least he knows we exist.

It's hard to judge whether Livingstone's election next week will cause the greater anger in the Tory or Labour party, but for those of us at a distance there could be interesting times ahead in London.