Let's forget Comeback Ken and go for Oona
Wherever the London Labour tribe gathers, they panic and weep and commiserate about Gordon Brown - and then a new whispered discussion begins. Who should be Labour's candidate against Boris in 2012?
The political circumstances will be drastically different. The Conservatives will (alas) almost certainly have been in Downing Street for two years or more. London will be on the brink of staging the Olympic Games. If we are a jittery city - with the Games running behind schedule and over-budget - Boris won't be able to blame a Labour government. But if they look likely to be a success, Boris will probably have the political wind at his back.
Snuffling out mayoral candidates in a parliamentary system isn't easy. A political model dominated by party discipline doesn't throw up the charismatic individualists you need for City Hall. It pasteurises politicians, training them to be dull and not distract from The Leader.
The obvious contender is comeback Ken. He has already declared his intention to run again at the age of 67, saying this weekend: "Tell me if this is too much information but my prostate is as smooth as a billiard ball." I'm a fan of his, and I think his achievements will look even more impressive after the Boris and Dave Etonian wall game has dragged on for two years.
But Labour insiders appear to be uncomfortable with the prospect of Ken returning from the political dead. Some are even talking up Sir Alan Sugar as a possible Labour candidate - however implausible that might seem.
I think there is a better alternative: Oona King. She was born in north London to a Jewish mother and a black-American father, and educatedat the local comp. All through her career in London politics she has been driven by the issues that dominate City Hall: housing and transport. If you even mention the word "housing" in her presence, a three-hour lecture tumbles out about overcrowding and damp and council estates, all jammed with statistics, stories from her old Tower Hamlets constituency and the burning hunger to do more than Boris ever would.
Oona is down-to-earth, clever and a Londoner to her fingertips. Like Ken and Boris, everybody feels they know her. The issue that brought her career crashing down - Iraq - won't be a big factor, since City Hall has no say on foreign policy. The only reason that she might hold back is she has just adopted a little boy and wants to spend time with him. By 2012, we may well have a mixed-race President of the US. What better symbol of London than to pick a black-Jewish woman who has dedicated her career to lifting up the poor of all races as our leader?
