London

Running rings
The Olympics, and ours not theirs, could turn out to be for whoever is Mayor of London (MoL) on the due date, 2012, a mixed blessing and we should not assume, automatically, that Boris will still be mayor. During the hustings for the election of MoL 2008 did anyone hear Boris, Brian or Sian say a word about the 2012 event? If the answer is no then this was not remarkable as it is a done deal and to speak out would have made the candidate look a bit like King Canute attempting to hold back the tide of the inevitable in a futile gesture.

Andrew Gilligan, the winner
Congratulations to Andrew Gilligan upon winning the 'Journalist of the Year' award. As we all know Gilligan once worked for the BBC but left, 'under a cloud' after interviewing Dr David Kelly about the weapons in Iraq dossier. Kelly went on to commit suicide and Gilligan left the BBC. Rescued by The Spectator Gilligan continued his work as a reporter and in time began working for the Evening Standard.

The citation for Gilligan mentioned his: - "relentless investigative journalism".

And also said: - "Andrew Gilligan is one of Britain's most courageous journalists, uncovering abuses at the heart of government and society that affect millions of people. There is no one else like him."

Readers of Gilligan's work will know that he has uncovered financial 'goings on' of a large scale in London and Samuel Johnson said "when a man is tired of London he is tired of life", but should Gilligan ever tire of the capital then a similar career could be found here in Birmingham, or in fact any city of the UK. For it is a well known Alistair Campbell, the other onefact that financial upsets are the default state in local politics and beyond. So once again, congratulations to Gilligan and I wonder what Alistair Campbell makes of all this, remember him?