brother wrote:KEN LIVINGSTONE IS A MORON, THIS IS THE MAN WHO RECENTLY INSULTED THE JEWS AND THE PRESS BY DESCRIBING THEM AS CONCENTRATION CAMP SOILDERS OR THE LIKE, even there vwas many calls for him to apologise he just refused too, many people in the u.k are pissed of at him, also this is the person who introduced a new stealth tax on central london called the congestion charge, which means anytime your car enters central london youi pay £5 and he wants to make it more expensive.
I cannoty stand this idiot and hope he gets voted to the political dustbin next time round.
Brother, we don't often disagree but I think yours is a very skewed view of Ken Livingstone. His so-called insult to jews was taken completely out of context and blown-up out of all proportions by a single media outlet that has hated him for many years. Yes, he was wrong to say what he did, but as he said on the Frost on Sunday programme a couple of weeks ago, if he'd been asked to apologise to the journalist in question, he would have done.
The full story is this, he was ambushed by this journalist late on a Wednesday evening, who effectively baited him into making some controversial remarks. The paper in question then sat on the story for 2 days before publishing it on Friday evening. That's hardly the actions of being extremely offended, instead a co-ordinated release of the story took place with the papers of the newspaper group - obviously aiming for maximum impact. Ken Livingstone has been one of the politicians at the forefront of improving race and community relations, so to label him as anti-semitic is a farce.
As for the congestion charge... what on earth else would solve London's chronic transport/infrastructure problems. There is no money in the treasury to radically improve public transport across London, so the money had to be found elsewhere. If it was such a bad idea, why is it now being adopted in other cities across the country and elsewhere in Europe?
As for Livingstone's politics, I'm no fan of his. I thought his running of the GLC in the early 1980s was a joke, when he allowed militancy to take over, I'm not with him on nuclear disarmament and I'm not with him on many, many other points, as a liberal-centrist he's still too far to the left of my comfort zone. However, from everything I've seen of him, he is one of the only UK politicians that I've seen who genuinely cares about what he's doing for the people of London. Can you just imagine if the lovely Lord Archer was in power? At no point do I see Ken Livingstone playing up his own importance, or using the Mayorship as a stepping stone to further power. If you don't appreciate honesty in politicians, that's your business, but I do.
Yes, I think in the context of overall British policy, TfL has fallen down on this TC issue. But, as others have pointed out, the GC population in London is extremely concentrated, extremely politically active and could change the course of voting in about 6 or 7 constituencies in London - a key battleground for Labour in the May (?) election. Therefore, this will be a popular move if anything and I'm sure the Labour Party nationally won't make too big a deal about it. It's also not in the power of the British GOVERNMENT to overrule this, it's a legal issue and I'm sure the government will be loath to get too involved and damage its reputation amongst GC voters (who tend to vote Labour).
So brother, sorry to disagree with you so vehemently on this one, otherwise I think your posts are very sensible, we just differ on this issue particularly.
