They may learn to love each other in time, but the odds are against it. There is ripe potential for disagreement, not least because the office is new and untried. The immediate dispute, in which opinion polls suggest most people in London are on his side - this newspaper backs him too - is over the Underground. Mr Livingstone means to stand by his plan to raise money through bonds: Mr Prescott is determined to stop him. Already yesterday the new mayor was talking of seeking a judicial review if thwarted. Again, the threat was patent: he could not believe that the government would seek to "pick a fight" on the issue after the drubbing Londoners gave it.
Then there is law and order and the policing of London. Yesterday Mr Livingstone could almost have been Jack Straw: "The drug dealer, the racist thug, the robber, the mindless yobs defiling monuments dedicated to those who gave their lives for our liberty, all these people will find the new mayor distinctly uncuddly." That is a change of tune which some of his hotter supporters may find unappealing. Others - the police and Mr Straw included - may ask: will it last? And how can he get the city moving again without alienating the motorists whom Mr Blair is so eager not to upset? On top of that, he is taking on, with huge ambition, an office whose powers are carefully reined in to prevent feared excesses. When the mayor proposes and the Treasury vetoes, will Mr Livingstone put his head down and negotiate, or will he merely denounce and demand that his powers be increased?
Yet tensions like these are inseparable from real devolution, as opposed to the brand of controlled devolution for which Mr Blair all too obviously yearns. There needs to be a courteous and reasoned, but not too continuous dialogue. The government created this office: it must give it the space to breathe and thrive. There must not be a climate of interference and censure. Mr Livingstone must remember that he got where he is on the back of a broad coalition which wants to see him concentrate on making London a safer, cleaner and more efficient city, not on trying to cut out a place for himself on the national stage. Londoners want him to be exciting, but not many would thank him for a state of perpetual conflict. Despite the low level of turnout, his is a famous victory. Tony needs to take proper account of that. But Ken should not push it too far.
