Ken Livingstone has called on Boris Johnson in a letter today to "ditch the dirty tricks - and have a debate with me on the fares issue so people can make up their minds": Dear Boris, There can be little doubt that the mayoral election has changed recently. Far from being the re-coronation you once hoped this contest would be, it’s now accepted that the race will be closely fought. Even some of your own Tory supporters have started complaining that you got complacent and had started taking London voters for granted. But no one could have expected that you would react so badly to a little bit of pressure. Suddenly the Conservative party in London is flailing around and lashing out. David Cameron has told you to raise your game. And you, in turn, seem to be getting pushed around by your campaign manager, Lynton Crosby. It has not taken much for your party to turn to the dark side. Some of us remember how Mr Crosby tried to import his nasty "dog whistle politics" when Michael Howard was leader of the Conservative Party in 2005. In Australia, he had helped conservatives win with tactics that included making false claims about refugees throwing their children out of boats. And now he's at it again.
Harriet Harman MP, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary said today in a speech to the Oxford Media Convention: I'm very pleased to be here today - meeting up with those of you I haven't met before and with many of you who I have known for years - but in my new capacity as Shadow Culture Secretary. At the age of 61 it's exciting to be part of Ed Miliband's new generation. Not so much the face book generation as the face lift generation. We meet in historic times: * Never before have the creative industries been so important to help take us through these difficult economic times; * And never before has the media been under such scrutiny because of the phone hacking scandal; And all of this against the backdrop of astonishing developments in technology. One of the things that we are most proud of from our time in government is the support we gave to culture, the creative industries and sport. From free entry to museums and galleries, to boosting the film industry with tax credits, to winning the Olympics. Labour supported something that is hugely important to people's lives, something we are good at in this country and something that has a massive importance in the future.