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London Mayoral Election Betting: Everybody hates Ken

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A large queue has formed. It's full of journalists, columnists and commentators and they're putting the boot in on Ken

Since the mayoral campaign started, a lengthy queue has formed of people eager to character assassinate Ken Livingstone. He was last week accused of "forcing a buyout" of the £98m Croydon Tramlink by using Transport for London to deliberately undermine the company. His methods included laying on extra buses to "steal" passengers, and sending negative letters to the banks. Mean, mean, mean. Tramtrack's general manager Roger Harding said "[TfL's] way of negotiating is to decide what [they] will pay and then tell you that's it. They 'consult' you and then do exactly what they want."

This comes on top of last month's revelation that Livingstone spent two years experimenting on live animals, which has been detailed for the first time by two of his former colleagues in a forthcoming biography. They have described how he conducted tests on mice, rats, rabbits, sheep and goats at Chester Beatty research centre while he was in his 20s. So mean and so cruel.

The media have also been stabbing away. "The truth is that it would make almost no difference whatever to the planet if London were led by Kenny Livingstone or Kenny Everett," opened Andrew Gilligan's editorial yesterday in the Evening Standard. "Livingstone runs London like a fiefdom, surrounded by cronies, with legions of PR people hyping his every move" howled Janet Street-Porter in the Independent on Sunday. Does this man have any friends?

Poor Ken. His rival has kept things on the safe side this week and announced a spate of fluffy, family-friendly iniatives, including paying cash for recyling waste and planting trees. What's next? Free fudge for every voter? (Boris once claimed voting Tory would cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3.)

A brief break in the pain came yesterday when Livingstone was cleared of breaking the law over donations to his re-election campaign. But the same report also rapped him over the knuckles for how his website raises cash. This morning's Times renewed the thrashing by claiming "Ken Livingstone's previous campaign to be re-elected as Mayor of London was financed by a £20,000 donation from the train drivers' union Aslef that does not appear in the Electoral Commission register." So mean, cruel and creative with the accounts too. No wonder his price is out at 3.0 on Betfair at week's end. Boris is at [1.53], and can't believe his luck.