Home Politics & Debate
If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.

Ken Livingstone's suspension quashed

Ken Livingstone's four-week suspension from the mayor's office has been quashed by a High Court judge.

He was suspended for his remarks to a Jewish journalist likening him to a Nazi concentration camp guard.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5410872.stm

Good news.

Fuck Associated Newspapers.
Beep boop. I'm a bot.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Much as I detest Associated Newspapers, its a shame they couldn't have given the slimy cunt a life ban from any public appearance.

    Much as Red Ken hates Associated Newspapers now, he didn't seem too miffed when the Evening Standard paid him a very large amount of money to be the food critic.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    Fuck Associated Newspapers.

    A drunk Ken Livingstone insulted one of their reporters. Members of local government agree to uphold certain standards, The Standards Board for England and the The Adjudication Panel believed Livingstone to be at fault. It wasn't Associated Newspapers that made the original ruling...

    I don't think Livingstone should have been suspended as I don't like the idea of an unelected body holding such a power - although some kind of measure is needed in local govt.

    Livingstone's behaviour anyway only confirmed that he's a twat, any decent person would have apologised. But considering the excellent performance of the Conservatives in the local elections in London Ken might not win at the next election...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    A drunk Ken Livingstone insulted one of their reporters. Members of local government agree to uphold certain standards, The Standards Board for England and the The Adjudication Panel believed Livingstone to be at fault. It wasn't Associated Newspapers that made the original ruling...
    However they were the ones stirring shit and keeping the non-story in the front pages.
    Livingstone's behaviour anyway only confirmed that he's a twat, any decent person would have apologised. But considering the excellent performance of the Conservatives in the local elections in London Ken might not win at the next election...
    He did apologise. He also said a few home truths. That wasn't what Associated Newspapers had expected though. The group have conducted a decades-long campaign of harrassement against Livingstone and wanting a gruelling apology and a humiliation.

    In fact, on the day when Livingstone was due to give his now famous statement after the incident, the HateMail was already using the words 'gruelling' and 'humiliating climbdown'.

    This truly was the dictionary definition of storm on a teacup, and one that was made so for political reasons.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    The group have conducted a decades-long campaign of harrassement against Livingstone and wanting a gruelling apology and a humiliation.

    By paying him a large amount of cash and giving him a job as a restaurant critic?

    Man, I can feel the psychological damage.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    He also said a few home truths.

    Suggesting that a jewish reporter was no better than an Extermination Camp guard?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote:
    By paying him a large amount of cash and giving him a job as a restaurant critic?

    Man, I can feel the psychological damage.
    Nah... the vitriol was mostly originated at the Mail.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Suggesting that a jewish reporter was no better than an Extermination Camp guard?
    Er, no, not that one.
  • Teh_GerbilTeh_Gerbil Posts: 13,332 Born on Earth, Raised by The Mix
    Suggesting that a jewish reporter was no better than an Extermination Camp guard?
    Reprters aren't any better. They follow and harras people all the time.

    He didn't do it DELIBERATLEY to offend him. Like he even knew he was a Jew.

    It was a complete over reaction. If he wasn't Jewish, there would have been no outcry. What, should people wear little badges symbolising thier religion so you don't accidently say something that might offend them?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Teh_Gerbil wrote:
    Reprters aren't any better. They follow and harras people all the time.

    If you really think reporters aren't any better you're pretty thick.

    Livingstone had been at a party hosted by a senior Labour politician. It was legitimate for the reporter to cover it. Livingstone has been in the public eye for years and he's frequently courted publicity...
    Teh_Gerbil wrote:
    He didn't do it DELIBERATLEY to offend him. Like he even knew he was a Jew.

    Livingstone was wasted. Listen to the clip on the news of him slurring...A simple apology would have been the right thing to do.

    The entire London Assembly and Ken's Labour Deputy Mayor condemned the comments and called for him to apologise. But, then given Ken's cosying up to anti-Semites like al-Qaradawi he doesn't seem to care too much about offending Jewish Londoners.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    That'd be why he later apologised to all and any Jewish person for any offence caused...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote:
    That'd be why he later apologised to all and any Jewish person for any offence caused...

    Did he? When? All I remember was this.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Teh_Gerbil wrote:
    Reprters aren't any better. They follow and harras people all the time.

    Indeed they do, and when you are the Mayor of London then you really should expect them to be around when you attend a Party function, non?
    If he wasn't Jewish, there would have been no outcry.

    But then it also wouldn't have been as much of an insult either.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well, from that very article there is this:

    "He added that over the past two weeks his "main concern" was for many Jewish Londoners, and regretted if his comments "may have been seen to downplay the horror and magnitude of the Holocaust".

    ""I wish to say to Londoners my words were not intended to cause such offence and that my view remains that the Holocaust against the Jews is the greatest racial crime of the 20th century."


    And then later on I'm pretty sure he apologised to the Jewish community at large for any offence caused.

    *goes to google*

    I've found this so far. I don't know what the actual words were:

    "The Mayor is expected to stage a partial climbdown by expressing "regret" to the Jewish community for his remarks to a Jewish journalist. He said he would make a statement to the Jewish community next Tuesday. His deputy, Nicky Gavron, said that he would express his regret "in his own way and in his own time".

    What Livingstone did not do was to apologise to the journo in question or the odious organisation he works for. And rightly so.
Sign In or Register to comment.