Ken Livingstone was on chipper form at the Tower of London last week, notwith­standing his recent ejection from City Hall. No – Boris Johnson is not planning to chop his predecessor’s head off. The former mayor was booked to speak at the Legal Leaders of London event, organised by outsourcing outfit CPA.

It was only Ken’s second after-dinner speaking engagement since the mayoral election. ‘Last week it was the local government finance officers, so anything is a step up after that,’ he observed in characteristically lugubrious fashion.

Ken also let us know how his legendary staying power – and colourful political history – swung the Olympics for London. ‘I decided [at an International Olympic Com­mittee conference] that if there was still a delegate left standing in the bar I would be there standing next to them,’ he said. ‘Some mornings I couldn’t remember coming to bed. Once I woke up and thought: oh bo**ocks, I’ve just promised a guy from Singapore I’m going to build him an ice slalom and I don’t even know what an ice slalom is.’

Ken also leveraged one-time Eastern bloc contacts from the days when he was the firebrand socialist leader of Greater London Council. ‘When Yeltsin went, all the old guard in Moscow came back into power,’ he recalled. ‘Buttering up all those ex-commies certainly paid off.’

Ever the man of the people, the former mayor also took questions from the floor. The Gazette couldn’t resist asking him if he thinks Gordon Brown can turn things around. After berating the media’s obsession was image and artifice – which he thinks is what has really damaged the Labour leader – Ken said he thinks Brown can win next time – but only if the economic downturn is not too severe or prolonged. ‘If there’s a recession it’s all over,’ he reckons.

We were also diverted by renowned law and IT boffin Professor Richard Susskind OBE, who spoke at the event. Susskind was put off his stride recently while giving a speech in the US, when it became clear his audience had no idea what the word ‘bespoke’ meant. ‘A guy collared me afterwards and said: "Good speech professor but I thought you were a little pay-tronising."’ To which Susskind dead­panned: ‘I think you’ll find it’s pronounced "patronising".’ Or so he says.

Susskind also let on that he has finally finished his much-anticipated new book, The End of Lawyers? It will be published in October by Oxford University Press.