Stokey Talk

It’s join-the-dots time. “Did you meet Ken Livingstone on Church Street,” trilled the We Love Stoke Newington website at the weekend. Yes, the former London mayor was pounding the Church Street pavements on Saturday, mingling with the farmers’ market crowd and shaking the hands of local business owners.

We Love Stoke Newington is, of course, the (rather good) website of the three Labour councillors who represent the Stoke Newington Central ward. Meanwhile, over at Blood and Property, the (equally good) chronicler of all things political in Hackney, they report that in the last round of local elections in 2006, the best-performing Green candidate came within 200 votes of the worst-performing Labour councillor in this ward.

So, did the presence of Red Ken suggest that Hackney Labour is worried that the Greens might erode its (admittedly stonking 44 out of 57) majority on May 6?