The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #159827   Message #3803465
Posted By: Teribus
04-Aug-16 - 01:59 AM
Thread Name: BS: (UK) Whither the Labour Party
Subject: RE: BS: (UK) Whither the Labour Party
Raggy,

Thanks for those links, but they have already been posted twice before so nothing new there.

I see the name Ken Livingston mentioned in them. Is that the same Ken Livingston who is currently suspended from the Labour Party?

The same Ken Livingston who said in the 2012 London Mayoral Elections:

"Livingstone stood for the Labour candidacy as 2012 Mayoral candidate. His campaign attracted criticism when he joked that the election was "a simple choice between good and evil",[296] and when he was accused of anti-semitism by Jewish Labour supporters for suggesting that being largely wealthy, the Jewish community would not vote for him. He denied making the comments, but nevertheless apologised.[297][298][299]"

The same Ken Livingston:

"In April 2016, Livingstone commented publicly on the suspension of Labour MP Naz Shah; she had been removed from the party after it was revealed that she had made comments on Facebook suggesting that Israeli Jews should be relocated to the United States.[314] Livingstone stated that Shah's postings, which were made before she became an MP at the 2015 general election, were "completely over the top" and "rude",[315] although he did not deem them antisemitic.[316] He asserted that there is a "well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby to smear anybody who criticises Israeli policy as antisemitic",[317] and also stated that Adolf Hitler "was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews".[315]

He defended his claims by reference to Lenni Brenner's Zionism in the Age of the Dictators,[318] and many commentators suggested that Livingstone was referring to the Haavara Agreement between Nazi Germany and the Zionist Federation of Germany.[319][320][321][322] Livingstone's statements were criticised by historians,[323][324] among them Roger Moorhouse, who said that they were historically inaccurate.[325] However political scientist Norman Finkelstein said that whilst "Livingstone maybe wasn't precise enough, and lacked nuance", his comments did reflect an initial ambivalence on the part of Hitler towards Zionism and other Jewish territorialist projects before the Nazi adoption of the Final Solution, though he conceded Livingstone may have made the remark simply to "bait" critics of Naz Shah.[326] Livingstone also became involved in a public argument on the subject with the Labour MP John Mann.[327]

Livingstone was subsequently suspended from Labour Party membership "for bringing the party into disrepute".[328] Over 20 Labour MPs called for Livingstone's suspension, while Jon Lansman, founder of the pro-Corbyn Momentum group, called for Livingstone to leave politics altogether,[328] and Khan called for his expulsion from the party.[318] In a subsequent interview, Livingstone expressed regret both for mentioning Hitler and for offending Jews but added that "I'm not going to apologise for telling the truth."[329][330] Corbyn announced that the decision to expel Livingstone would be made by a National Executive Committee internal inquiry, whilst Livingstone insisted that he would be exonerated on the basis of Brenner's book, saying "how can the truth be an offence?"[331] Following this controversy, Livingstone has questioned whether or not he has Jewish ancestry on his mother's side stating that Greville Janner used to speculate whether or not he was Jewish because "my grandmother's name was Zona."[332]

Livingstone was sacked in Spring 2016 by LBC. He was quoted by The Daily Telegraph as saying this was because of his comments about Hitler.[333] With the former Conservative minister David Mellor, Livingstone had co-hosted a Saturday morning current affairs programme on LBC for 8 years.[333]


That the man that accuses Boris Johnson of being a racist? If so you'd have to admire his brass-necked hypocrisy.