Ken Livingston you are a disgrace

[dcfcsteve]

Yes, Ken Livingstone is a bit mad but has history been air-brushed so much that a staunch old Labour man know looks like a crazy, radical leftie?

KOH

Ken Livingstone is the one who's air-brushed his past. He is no staucnh old Labour man. He's new Labour to the core - and like the rest of them would say and do anything to stay in power for an extra minute.

The Labour party spent so long kept out of power under the Tories that they have a deep psychological terror/paranoia of finding themselves powerless again. That is why they ruthless suppress dissent within their own ranks, spin and smear against opponents, bully the media, and change policy direction on a regular basis dependent upon the 'weather vane' that is their beloved focus groups. Ken is just one of the more glowing examples of how old Labour has air-brushed its less palatable past to stay in-power. Fortunately for democracy/politics, he is the one who's least effective at keepng the mask on and most likely to expose the lie the party continues to live...

[Roverstillidie]

Ken Livingstone is the one who's air-brushed his past. He is no staucnh old Labour man. He's new Labour to the core - and like the rest of them would say and do anything to stay in power for an extra minute.

The Labour party spent so long kept out of power under the Tories that they have a deep psychological terror/paranoia of finding themselves powerless again. That is why they ruthless suppress dissent within their own ranks, spin and smear against opponents, bully the media, and change policy direction on a regular basis dependent upon the 'weather vane' that is their beloved focus groups. Ken is just one of the more glowing examples of how old Labour has air-brushed its less palatable past to stay in-power. Fortunately for democracy/politics, he is the one who's least effective at keepng the mask on and most likely to expose the lie the party continues to live...

with respect, that is a banquet of bóllocks. ken livingston is new labour to the core? he has been the biggest pain in the arse of the new labour project, opposing the war and various other aspects of the blair administration to the point where he was forced out of the party before labour were forced to back down.

your asssessment of new labour is correct, but red ken has never pulled any punches and certainly never played along with blair. preciscly hat part of kens past has he airbrushed?

[dcfcsteve]

with respect, that is a banquet of bóllocks. ken livingston is new labour to the core? he has been the biggest pain in the arse of the new labour project, opposing the war and various other aspects of the blair administration to the point where he was forced out of the party before labour were forced to back down.

your asssessment of new labour is correct, but red ken has never pulled any punches and certainly never played along with blair. preciscly hat part of kens past has he airbrushed?

Hang on. Livingstone was NOT forced out of the Labour party on any issues of policy. He was forced out purely and simply because his rampaging ego couldn't accept that anyone other than him should be selected by the party as its candidate for London Mayor. He therefore stood against his own party's democratically agreed candidate as an Independent, and was rightly expelled from Labour for doing so. He's just like New Labour in that he will do anything to secure and remain in power - even going against the democratically expressed wishes of his own party to do so.

And tell me this - if he is so opposed to a lot of what Blair does, why did he happily (and it was happily) rejoin New Labour's ranks then ? If he was so fundamentally opposed to the war in Iraq - a war that had caused principled Labour politicians like Robin Cook to publically stand-down from their offices - why did Ken the saint rejoin Labour less than 9 months after that war had started?? I'll tell you why - purely because it would keep him in power.

That's why Ken is New Labour to the core - because he thinks and acts like New Labour, not old Labour. He talks big on principle when it suits him, but underneath it all he will do whatever he has to to secure and remain in power. And to hell with any alleged principles that get in his way in this...