BY JOHN ISMAEL

Richard Tice filling his application to run for Mayor of London was the best thing London has seen since the pre-Khan days. Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. Perhaps now there is some hope amongst Londoners that a serious individual with experience of actually getting things done can replace the awful Sadiq Khan in his elevated shoes with his pithy comments and disastrous record on law and order. Perhaps now Londoners are on the way to finding a leader who can show respect towards world leaders and restore London’s battered image as the knife and moped-thief capital of Europe.

The rumours are that the Tory candidate for Mayor will be one of three. Either Tice, Justine Greening or Shaun Bailey (the black London Assembly member who ran for the seat of Lewisham West and Penge but failed to win it) are likely to run. Out of those three, as a former minister, Greening would seem the most experienced but is generally seen as a failed and ineffective operator, as the Rainbow Reich candidate, and the last thing that divided London needs right now is more equality of outcome Marxism and identity politicking.

Bailey is a good guy. He will go far. But this mayoral race is a challenge too soon. Tice is surely the man to beat.

If I were Tice I’d be having a damn good lunch with Bailey, and soon. Bailey can sweep up the Afro-Caribbean vote as Tice’s deputy and Tice can collect the sound votes. As a double ticket they will have Khan for breakfast, especially if Khan’s skeletons happen to fall out of the wardrobe just as the race hots up.