Ken's word, Ken's bond
KEN Livingstone says that the Internation- al Monetary Fund is still appalling and the IMF could say the same of him. A cynical prime minister (not that we have one) might have argued that the two deserve each other and nominated him to run it. That would at least have got him out of London. He has been giving his views on the world's financial institutions to the New Musical Express, accusing them of killing more people than Hitler. Next week in the Economist he will discuss the future of Oasis. Next month he expects to be elected mayor of London, and then he wants to tap the market for a colossal bond which would refinance London Underground and make its escalators work. He has left it rather late to establish his credit. Last month he was cajoling a City audience with honeyed words for the market economy and explain- ing that he wanted to help the City, not to harm it. Two months earlier he had been lyrical in praise of direct action, as wit- nessed in the City's Waterloo Day riots and as promised for May Day. I would no more take his bond than his word.
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