The Rise and Fall of Hilary Perrin

What do you have to do to be expelled the Labour Party these days? Or, at the very least, to be dismissed from its paid employment? The party's regional organiser for London, Hilary Perrin, is going around saying that its candidate for Mayor, Ken Livingstone, cannot, should not, must not and will not win. All right, so Mayor of London is a non-job, anyway. London is run by central government and the Borough Councils, mostly the former. That Boris Johnson can do it proves, almost literally, that it can be done by a chimpanzee. But that is not the point.

Rather nearer to the point is the fact that if the Mayor of London is not going to be Ken Livingstone, then there is really not much point in having such an officer at all. The bauble was invented by Tony Blair specifically in order to park Livingstone somewhere out of the way. Little more than a paper candidacy was even arranged to ease his passage once he had fallen out with Labour, to which he was readmitted by special dispensation in time for his inevitable re-election. He was only removed when the popular press decided to stage a stunt and secure the election of a joke candidate instead.

If Livingstone wins, then he will be Mayor until he dies, at which point the position ought to be abolished, and no doubt will be. If Livingstone loses, then the position ought to be abolished forthwith, and no doubt will be. The precedent for that second abolition was set by the abolition of the GLC. What goes around, comes around. Gordon Brown should have brought it back around in 2008.

Meanwhile, Nick Cohen is certainly a member of the Labour Party. And Andrew Gilligan, among others? What do you have to do to be expelled the Labour Party these days?