Wednesday 1 August 2007

Cancel those phone lines, Eleanor

Brrring, brrring; brrring, brrring. I rush to the mobile. A familiar voice at the other end.

"Hello, this is the Mayor of London." Lembit Opik, for it is he, rings to let me know he won't be running for the Lib Dem nomination for Mayor.

Or does he? Opik uses the familiar phrase "I have no plans to......", a phrase pioneered by Michael Heseltine in the months leading up to his challenge to Margaret Thatcher.

But Opik tells me: "I have no plans to run for Mayor, and if you think that's a way of saying I will stand then you need to get yourself a map.

"There are two conditions under which I would stand. One, that Montgomeryshire becomes a London borough. Two, that Welshpool becomes a station on the Metropolitan line."

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