KEN LIVINGSTONE has no doubt that drivers who fail to pay the congestion charge will at least pay their fines. He has first-hand experience of the bailiffs he has hired to enforce the new tax.

The London Mayor, in his Red Ken days in the 1980s, was an architect of the revolt against Margaret Thatcher’s hated Community Charge.

Livingstone is proud to have been one of the first Labour MPs taken to court for non-payment in 1991. He told the judge he would rather go to jail than pay “the most unjust tax since the peasants’ revolt”.

But he was not so pleased by the tone adopted by John Crilley and Son, the bailiffs working for Brent Council. They demanded the outstanding £302.62, or his “goods and effects” would be taken from his home and sold at auction.

Livingstone said at the time: “I fear that if elderly and vulnerable people receive similar letters from the bailiff they will be intimidated into paying money they do not owe.”

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that when Ken “Pay Up” Livingstone needed persuasive talent of his own, he knew where to turn. He appointed Capita in December 2001 to run the five-year £230 million contract. Capita, of course, absorbed John Crilley soon after it issued its ultimatum to Livingstone.

The irony of the appointment is not lost on Livingstone’s many enemies. The congestion charge has already been dubbed the “poll tax on wheels”.

Let’s just hope that drivers are more responsible about paying their fines than Livingstone was just ten years ago.

Putting his case: The modern art of public relations and spin-doctoring has been embraced by Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the former Lord Chief Justice, in his campaign to become Chancellor of Oxford University. Bingham is being advised by the award-winning lobbyist and professional charmer Ivo Dawnay.

The well-heeled Dawnay — his father was a Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother — is a former Sunday Telegraph and Financial Times journalist. His grandfather, General Guy Dawnay, was Lawrence of Arabia’s commanding officer. Lawrence once said: “A Dawnay is worth a thousand camels.”

Bingham will be hoping that Dawnay, who was educated at Cambridge, is worth at least 1,000 votes.

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