As Andrew Gilligan has noted in the Telegraph, Ken Livingstone has been making some rather odd comments about his health recently, challenging Boris Johnson to compare medical records and crowing that, even in his late sixties, he still doesn’t need glasses.

Really? Surely this isn’t the same short-sighted Ken who, during his appearances on Question Time as Mayor, had to put on minus prescription spectacles to work out who the hell was talking to him? Surely this isn’t the same Ken who, at a “Freedom for Palestine” rally in 2002, uttered the words: “I’ve got my bloody glasses on but I still can’t see the end of the crowd”?

Very peculiar.

It’s clear that Ken does need glasses, even if not to read. (But then, even those with alarmingly high minus prescriptions don’t: it’s all a matter of how close you hold the paper.) So why would he claim otherwise?

I can think of only one possible explanation. The late L Ron Hubbard claimed to be able to cure myopia (including his own). Has Ken been taking secret Dianetics sessions?

If not, such a blatant fib seems… well, myopic, to say the least.