Next year, there will be an election for the mayoralty of London. The chance to defeat Ken Livingstone is the most important contest for the Conservatives before the next general election, but they still have not got a candidate. This week they seem to be deciding, for a second time, to postpone their selection of one. If so, they will have put the process back by more than a year from their original intention. The hustings for their ‘open primary’ will have to take place in August, when most party members will be away. The reason for the delay is that the Tory equivalent of Tony Blair’s ‘sofa government’ have a candidate up their sleeve, but it is not yet convenient for him to declare himself. He is Greg Dyke, the former director-general of the BBC. Mr Dyke is very exciting to some because he is quite famous, quite unTory in demeanour, and a former Labour supporter.
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