Diary – 22 January 2005

It is an odd feeling to be the target of the Mayor’s hostility. Could it possibly be that Ken Livingstone, former London Evening Standard magazine restaurant critic, is still riled by my refusing, three years ago and a few hours after my appointment as editor of the Standard, to go and have lunch with him? One of the things you learn as an editor is that people can take umbrage at the most peculiar things. Alas, my weekday lunches consist overwhelmingly of Associated Newspapers’ finest salads taken at my desk among a sea of changing page proofs and executives demanding instant decisions in mid-bite. It’s a far cry from the days (on another title) when one executive was heard to mumble, ‘There’s not enough lunching on this paper,’ to which his colleague replied, ‘Yes, only one a day.’ Nevertheless Ken evokes some admiration — which is why we supported him for Mayor in the 2004 election rather than Steve Norris, whose involvement with Jarvis would not sit happily with the Mayor’s job, or with thousands of readers who endure the twice-daily misery of rail travel.