en Livingstone, the populist mayor of London, with the common touch and the nasal twang of South London, found just the right words to summarize the way the British have reacted in the aftermath of the barbaric attack by the suicide bombers. He said, in almost Churchillian style, "In the days that follow, look at our airports, look at our seaports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfill their dreams and achieve their potential ... Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail." He's been in office for six years and  he has been predicting such an attack. Being mayor of London is not a powerful office, but he is never shy to say what he feels and thinks and to speak out in defiance of the national government and world leaders, including George Bush,  whom he described as a war criminal. He was at odds with the Conservative leader Maggie Thatcher and he's has disagreed with the Labor party Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
When I last spent a week broadcasting from the British capital, I had the opportunity to interview him as a candidate for office. I found his sense of humor infectious, but so-help-me, I did not think that I was speaking with a man soon to be London's mayor. The electorate were better informed than I.
He and Prime Minister Blair persuasively worked together to impress the International Olympic Committee to award the Olympic Games for 2012 to London. The joy in London so soon to be turned to sadness with the terrorism. I wonder whether the Brits would be hosting the Olympic games if the terrorists had bombed and killed and injured so many, a week earlier? They likely would have with Blair and Livingstone at the helm.