The Borisbike, LabourList and A Little Hysteria

LabourList is trying to argue that The Evening Standard is being nasty to poor old Red Ken again:

The excitable reporting from London's flagship paper was notable for their unstinting determination to nudge the 'Borisbike' nickname into London’s popular lexicon. After a cursory scan, I found the phrase used six times in Friday's edition. Apart from being one of the uncatchiest nicknames around, the trickiest issue arising from the coinage is that the policy actually originated from Boris Johnson's predecessor, Ken Livingstone, a whole year before Boris was even elected.

Yeah, well, as far as I can see the Standard is giving praise to the politician in power when something happens. Which is, y'know, the way things work. If the policy started with Red Ken, then he misses out on the praise because he didn't actually implement it. And it does work both ways - Gordon Brown's supposed economic miracle was actually created by one Ken Clarke under Prime Minister John Major - yet you didn't often see that acknowledged at the time.

I have no doubt that at the last mayoral election the Standard was biased against Ken - some might say, with good cause. But I think it is a massive stretch to argue that positive coverage of a Boris Johnson policy represents a slur on Red Ken. This isn't part of an election campaign - the campaign for London Mayor hasn't started yet - and Ken isn't even confirmed as the Labour candidate yet.

Get a grip, LabourList.