Divide for Ken
An online petition to support the Mayor of London suggests he's in more trouble than I thought
By Martin Bright Published 26 February 2008 16:04Interesting to read the full text of the "Unite for Ken" letter that appeared in the Guardian earlier this week with 100 prominent signatories giving their support to the mayor. I have always thought Boris Johnson was a peculiar candidate for the Conservative Party to choose, but it seems that he really has got City Hall running scared. I must say I find it amusing that Livingstone, who stood against the Labour Party in 2000, is now the darling of tribalists within the party. There was a time when such treachery would not have been tolerated. The letter, sponsored by the think-tank Compass, is emblematic of the muddle-headed "lesser of two evils" argument that has bedevilled the left for so long.
One apocalyptic phrase I do agree with, however, is this: "This isn't just about the politics of London but a battle between the forces of progress versus reaction in the nation as a whole". For me, this is true whether Johnson or Livingstone wins. The progressive answer to this conundrum would be to find a genuinely progressive candidate to represent Labour.
I have argued in a documentary for Channel 4's Dispatches, in the pages of the New Statesman and in the Evening Standard, that Livingstone's rule of City Hall and the institution of mayor itself are deeply flawed. So I guess the following phrase could refer to me: "Perhaps most alarming of all we see writers and commentators who claim to be ‘on the left' taking the fight to Livingstone in a way that will only result in a victory for Johnson and all that means for the poor and dispossessed of the Capital and the future politics of our country."
It strikes me as somewhat defeatist of Livingstone's supporters to suggest that the work of left-wing opponents of Livingstone like me "will" lead to Johnson's victory. But, as I say, City Hall is clearly worried. It is also curious that the self-styled "progressives" make no mention of the Mayor's opposition to the taxing of "non-doms" or his idiosyncratic approach to developers of high-rise buildings. That's not to mention whether it is progressive to back a man who uses public money to smear prominent opponents such as Trevor Phillips, runs City Hall as a personal fiefdom with the help of unaccountable advisers on six-figure salaries. They do not examine how it is that a Labour Mayor finds it acceptable to welcome representatives of the Islamic extreme right such as Yusuf al-Qaradawiu to the capital. Nor do they mention how City Hall went on the attack against Atma Singh -- a former adviser who refused to sign up to the Mayor's policy of appeasement of radical Islam -- by suggesting he was a threat to national security.
The investigative journalist and rich man's nemesis Tom Bower gets it right for me in an article in today's Daily Mail.
It's worth quoting Bower at length: "Livingstone has been accused of lying and protecting dishonest cronies employed by the Greater London Authority. At least £3 million has disappeared from the public purse and there are suspicions that much more money is unaccountable.
The well-documented allegations about sleaze in Livingstone's headquarters are ignored by the apologists in the Left-wing liberal media. Instead, they describe Livingstone as the personification of 'the ideals of democracy, equality and sustainability'.
The mayor who casually utters anti-Semitic jibes and publicly embraces Islamic extremists is hailed as 'a standard-bearer for real progressive politics'. To Livingstone's supporters, there are no contradictions between his slogans, sentiments and behaviour.
If any tinpot communist dictator promises 'equality and fraternity', the British Left will instinctively support them, turning a blind eye to the true suffering of the population.
In fighting the class war, whether in London about the mayoralty or in Westminster about the Speaker, the Left ignores the dishonesty of its leaders because the alternative is a Conservative government."
The signatories of this letter should be ashamed of themselves. I am particularly disappointed that individuals committed to democratic renewal such as Baroness Helena Kennedy and Anthony Barnett, one of the founders of Charter 88, chose to sign up to the letter. But frankly anyone who has a progressive bone in their body should have run a mile.
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106 comments
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What I find strange about the criticism of Livingstone from people like Nick Cohen is they drag up as examples of his unfitness for office things like his giving the eulogy at Gerry Healey's funeral...in 1990. And yet they were supporters of his nearly ten years afterwards in 1999, in Nick Cohen's case urging him to stand.
Sorry Andrea, Chavez, my mistake.
Final point. I can't stand the dirty old man, but it's worth noting is how counterproductive a political tactic this round robin and the hysterical abuse of the people on this site is from Livingstone's point of view. Across the blogosphere, posters are reading what you and the party hacks at Compass are writing and vowing not to vote Labour for the first time in their lives. I don't think you realise how you look to outsiders. You would be respected if could just say 'right, we accept that there are serious accuastion of corruption and unaccountable power. As real leftists rather than the pseudo variety we find Livingstone's embrace of the far right revolting, and obviously something has gone badly wrong when Venezuela, a poor country, is subsidising a city as rich as London. However, on balance we consider Livingstone the least worst option.'
But you can't. You just scream like the nutter on the bus everyone wants to avoid. In your own small way you are destroying the very candidate you wish to promote.
Martin Bright, Nick Cohen, the only one missing is the Mad Mel Phillips to complete the axis of evil.
Serosch -- you've forgotten Michael Gove and John Ware... oh and Lex Luthor
Andrea, you just don't get it. Who made al-Qaradawi "there" leaeder? He isn't, he's an embarrassment to most British Muslims, certainly those I know. It's a soft racism to appoint maniacs as spokesman (and they are all men) for a supposedly homogenous Muslim community.
Mr Bright, it will be a happy day indeed when you are sacked from this publication.
You can then join your chum Ms Phillips at the Daily Mail, a publication that supported German fascism in the 20th century and in the 21st century is supporting Jewish fascism.
Clearly there are two Nick Cohens, the one here who opposes rendition and torture - and the one who wrote,
'We have to deport terrorist suspects - whatever their fate
Nick Cohen, Sunday November 5, 2006, The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1939959,00.html
and 'the clock is ticking; who's to say it's wrong to pin a suspect to the wall and pummel him until he talks? '
Obviously, if there were only one Nick Cohen, that would make him a hypocrite and a liar, and who would think that of him.?
http://indecent-left.blogspot.com/2007/02/whats-left-of-cohen.html
http://memory-hole.blog.co.uk/2007/02/20/taking_nick_cohen_seriously_a_r...
Martin you are a card carrying member of the neo con Reaganite right but at least you have a sense of humour unlike mate Cohen.
epitomy,
If I don't know Venezuela, you don't know Gandhi. (By the way, that's how it is spelt; this time you've indulged in creative writing, calling him Gahdhi - which, in Hindi, means a female donkey; I hope you did not mean to call Mohandas Gandhi that. You're welcome to; he'd have laughed at it; as would I; but I know if anyone called Chavez anything like that, that person's fate would have been sad - as would have been of anyone on the wrong side of Pinochet's fence. Rather than defending a megalomaniac busily hanging out with ageing Hollywood stars and seeking limelight by seeking release of hostages taken by guerrillas he has supported all along, why don't you let me know your thoughts of something as simple as corruption under Livingstone's regime?
And yes, I have been to Venezuela - but I am certain you still can't spell Gandhi.
By your comments I assume you were not on Any Questions and making those remarks. If you did then you are a disgrace. If you did not make remarks about the immigrants and then I apologise. I would like to know which it was.
All roads lead to Caracas in the end -- via the world Zionist conspiracy of course
Flippant remark but no substance.
So why haven't they sent me my card yet? I'm still waiting.
Anyway, must dash... off to the latest meeting of the Zionist conspiracy
Nick Cohen may have failed to notice this but the Blogosphere is Britain is inundated with Tories (Note: thats because the left is out there fending off war, the BNP, privatisation,racism and a whole host of other things that are clearly lower down your priority list than having a good old read at your computer eh?) - if you get your dose of reality from merely reading blogs it certainly explains your complete loss of bearings to the point where you are cheerleading for Boris.
You probably have not noticed it, but a lot of people in the real world are totally put off by your new found support for the Tories. I certainly brace myself for a kicking against the left whenever you put pen to paper these days. You may have also noticed that you are in the woeful minority on the blogs on the new statesman - Martin Bright is getting the blog battering he deserves on all his articles.
But of course, anyone who can make the fantastic mistake of confusing Chavez for Pinochet really does not have any credentials as any sort of commentator. No wonder you think Ken is in league with fascists!
Im just glad that the likes of you and Bright will only ever be bigmouths - heaven forbid if you had to do a serious job with any substance - like governing a city like London. But dont let that stop you, or Bright from sowing your mischief to install your new found friend Boris.
Seeing as you are paid to write articles - have you got round to saying anything at all on the verbal racist abuse against Yasmin Alibhai-Brown at the Evening Standard Question Time and Boris' failure to challenge it? No. didnt think so. your silence both at the event and subsequently is deafening. Your continued support for a Mayoral candidate who cannot even lift a finger to condemn such abusive behaviour in front of his very eyes is shameful. But it gives the rest of us an insight into the kind of mayor that you have chosen to champion and you, my friend, are damned with him by association.
Martin - you have now entered the realm of pure fantasy - you have to write me off as an anti-semite because I have dismantled rabid lies about Venezuela - but if you look through all my comments, you'll find nothing to evidence it. Read before you write Martin - its some good advice for a journalist. you are fast becoming a prime embarrassment to your trade.
Salil - I cant actually work out what you are saying anymore but you have a real bee in your bonnet about my inability to spell. Good to see that you are spending your time dealing with the really important issues in the world! The fact that this of much more interest to you than the truth about Chavez and Venezuela casts you as a bit of a nerd I have to say - just out of interest- what did you read while you were out there? Any of the anti-Chavez press that populates the news-stands on a daily basis? tune into any of the channels that daily pump out lies about Chavez? or did you just bury your head in the nearest dictionary?
Perhaps that explains why you thought you were under a pinochet style dictatorship !
My point is simply this- you have to attack Chavez with lies that fall flat on their faces under scrutiny because that is how you justify your attacks on Ken for allying with Chavez. With friends like these who needs the tories?
Sorry Martin. I didn't mean to upset you, only to invite your clarification of the above puzzling indications.
1). How did you know "the person is a regular caller to Any Answers" unless you listen to A/A regularly? Being the busy man you are, that seems unlikely: which does leave the possibility that you know 'Martin Bright' calls regularly simply because 'Martin Bright' is indeed you...
That's not an unreasonable question to put to you.
2) It's also reasonable to point out that 'Martin Bright' chose to insert in his call a castigation of Livingstone, when the issue he was phoning about had had no connection whatever with Livingstone. Livingstone is, after all, notoriously a target of your's.
If I do "insist on seeing conspiracies everywhere", perhaps I've absorbed the habit from watching your 'objective' Channel 4 Dispatches inquiry, or from reading your inuendo-free pieces in the Evening Standard.
Nick Cohen's lost it. Anyone who thinks that good transport in London, a serious policy on the environment, that it's not a bad thing that crime has been reduced to its lowest level for nine years and therefore concludes that Ken Livingstone is the best person to carry those policies forward is 'hysterical abuse'. This is from the man who has used his position as a national journalist to write attack after attack against political opponents as he justifies his right-ward shift. He repeats the gutter politics of the Standard about corruption for which there has been much written, but no evidence provided. he then insults anyone writing a defence of the Mayor's politics as being on the 'inside' as he knows the 'outside' well. (By the way, I've only visited Cty Hall three times till now, which I guess is considerably less than Mr Cohen..
As epitomy has noted, he and his journalists are remarkably quiet when Boris's friends act in an overtly racist way. I suppose that's one to be kept from the 'outside'.
Why don't you just say that you're a Tory and stop finding anyone else to blame for your impending defection. You're not a new phenomenon.
It's not true either about Ken's popularity. Despite all the tirade, what is counter-productive is the avoidance of discussing policies - the result of the Evening Standard's campaign is that Ken has set the political agenda while Boris relied on the crap that you and others churned out. There are other factors involved in the mayoral election, but if you think the postings here (including my own in all modesty) represent what people on buses I travel on, you do live in isolation.
Bright, why don't you wind in the crap jokes and actually engage in the policy debate?
If Ken is such a massive fan of the gay hating Muslim ultra-right can anyone explain why his administration has:
- funded anti-homophobic bullying DVDs for all secondary schools in London, in partnership with Stonewall
- established the first same sex civil partnership register in the UK
- funded Pride for the last 8 years
- battled Westminster and Bromley councils over the right to fly the rainbow flags at gay venues in the West End and the right to hold civil partnership ceremonies at town halls respectively
- banned a homophobic holiday company from advertising on the London Underground
- established a full time liaison officer for LGBT communities in London
Could it actually be that his engagement with Al Qawadari was a piece of (yes, possibly misjudged) realpolitik in regard to specific issues of the time, rather than a wholesale policy shift in support of the latter's position on gay rights?
Could it possibly be that this ridiculous assertion is being made by specific journalists who either (a) support Boris (b) have axes to grind in their never ending blog war with prominent leftists or (c) do both?
I'm thinking that it might be the letter, which is why neither Bright or Cohen will go near the actual policy agenda as they will become badly found out in their support of Boris "write some more hilarious spic jokes please Taki" Johnson.
Why is Martin Bright accused of a smear campaign? Just consider his one-sided statements without any evidence or omitting crucial facts.
'The mayor who casually utters anti-Semitic jibes and publicly embraces Islamic extremists'
What casually uttered anti-semitic jibes? (note the plural) If we are talking about the ill-judged comment to an Evening Standard reporter, it had everything to do with the fact that the reporter was from the Standard, not that he was Jewish.
About the 'embracing Islamic extremists' this needs to be looked at more carefully. Presuming we are talking about Qaradawi. Qaradawi is a man who came to Britain on many occasions for 25 years under Labour and Tory adminisrations. He was invited to a conference on Islamic rights addressed not only by Qaradawi and a range of Muslim organisations, but also Human Rights Watch, Bishops' Conference of the EU and also the Green Party. Note they all chose to share a platform, too.
Another strange fact: in October 2001 after September 11 , the Sun referred to Qaradawi reported that he had said 'all muslims should unite against those who terrorise innocents' and were pleased that his view would ' carry more weight than Osama bin Laden's call for murder'. and that 'Number 10 also noted that Qaradawi's statement gives ' lie to the idea that Bin Laden speaks for the Muslim world'.
I am honestly unaware of all of Qaradawi's views on social questions, including some suggestions thta he is opposed to socially regressive interpretations of Islam. However, if we were to assume that he is opposed to homosexuality, abortion rights, contraception and supports other teachings of Islam then we should not be surprised - this is no different from all other major world religions. So Martin Bright's allegation of Mr Livingstone's association with Muslim extremism might perhaps be levelled at anyone who visits the Pope? I sincerely hope not.
However, the Sun's 2001 comments about Qaradawi are not unimportant if we take it that he is deemed influential.
Think back to the 80's when a previous Sun headline read of Ken ' the most odious man in Britain. The reference to Ken Livingstone meeting Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein. Well, History is mightier than myself or Martin Bright and the unthinkable dialogue that took place then led to much wider dialogues involving the Irish PM, John Major, the Ulster Unionists. It would be naive to suggest that it was all sorted in one, but given that even Ian Paisley now sits down with Sinn Fein, the guns have been removed from the North of Ireland, it is pretty obvious that dialogue works and Bin Laden is off limits, but it is utter madness not to have dialogue with Islamic groups.
It is also naive to believe that you can move things forward only having discussions with those whose views you entirely endorse.
One more thing Mr Bright: don't pretend you are of the left - have the decency that people such as Peter Hitchens, Woodrow Wyatt and countless others over the years have had when they joined the right. Say you are no longer of the left.
All right, then have it your way. Ken's cruising to victory and Labour haven't picked a clapped out loser. We'll see in May who is right.
How much clearer do I need to be. I have never called Any Answers. The Martin Bright who regularly calls in is not me. So, yes, I accept your apology.
Martin, thank you for writing what I felt when reading the "Unite for Ken" letter. Ken - famous for ignoring consultations and the will of local councils and residents is now being held up as an "ideal of democracy" - hilarious if it wasnt so serious. It is shame that the signatories wish to help Labour keep their sleazy grip on power that they are willing to forget the failings of a despicable man and regime. well done.
Mr Bright, your real gripe with Ken is that he won't signup to the extremist Zionist project, one of the aims of the project is to completely sideline Muslims in the UK.
epitomy, it is Gandhi, not Ghandi.
Nick Cohen still not able to condemn the racism that was on display at the Evening standard debate. I throw down the gauntlet to you - dare you pick it up?
(for those unfamiliar with the incident see my posting at the beginning of this blog)
For someone who writes so much you have so little to say.
Perhaps your reticence on this is because you know your project is damned either way - if you highlight and condemn the racism at the event that the other journalists on the panel immediately wrote about - (Both Alibhai-Brown and Eboda swiftly highlighted the incident), then that shines the light on Backward Boris - the only person on the panel incapable of condemning blatant racism - a terrible indictement of someone so unfit to be the Mayor of a city where 2/3rds of the people he serves are black - but here is the real hammer blow against you : the more you stay quiet on the issue the further you expose yourself - you are not a "commentator" whatever you salary might tell you - you are a tory cheerleader. The next time you start bandying around the word "fascist" with such varied and casual use, we should all remember that you dont even know what racism is, when it is quite literally staring you right in the face, and you had the chance to challenge it..... now away with you to Henley to plan the next step in your Tory takeover and stop wasting our time.
There is a rich vein of stuff to post about Nick Cohen (eg his support for grammar schools) but given his portrayal of critics as nutters how about this one where he begins an e-mail to left journalist Dave Osler, "Oi, Tosser.." See http://www.davidosler.com/2006/04/this_charming_man_an_exchange.html
I tried posting this on Compass's website, but they would not let me. Wonder why. Thought I'd share it here.
"Please take away Mahatma Gandhi's photograph from your publicity
material. He would never have supported a bigot like Ken Livingstone.
You have not only insulted Londoners' intelligence through your
campaign - we have had enough of an anti-Semite, Chavez-loving,
corrupt administration that mollycoddles Islamofascists - you are
welcome to him, but please stop insulting the memory of the greatest
Indian of all time.
Salil Tripathi
Have you been offered a job at the Evening Standard by any chance Martin?
The so called "investigative journalist" you quote at length - Tom Bower - just happens to be Veronica Wadley - editor of the Standard's husband.
Nick now I now the Evening Standard is a beacon of left wing ideology and not a right wing racist rag. As a brummie I remember Nick's right wing Thatherite rants for the racist Enoch powell supporting, lets kick out the immigrants, Birmingham Mail and Post. Good pedigree Tory Nick.
... and he was writing in the Daily Mail. Oh no, its a plot!
With a name like Kenneth Robert Livingstone clearly he has to be one of the Scottish Mediocracy. Why doesn't he swap jobs with Michael Martin?
Nick Cohen doesn't pick up gauntlets, his preferred method is to fling mud and run away like the coward he is.
Note that when his denial of his support for torture and rendition was contradicted by an article where he had proposed both - Cohen ignored the evidence of his venality.
Nick Cohen is a particularly nasty piece of work as he adopts pseudo-left positions merely in order to attack the left.
Cohen pretends to support Iraqi trade unionists but when the occupation forces raid their offices, Cohen writes not a single word of protest.
Cohen also poses as a great friend of the Kurds and Kurdistan, but when Turkey invades oppresses its own Kurdish population or invades Iraqi Kurdistan, Cohen is silent.
Nice friend you have there Mr Bright.
Where is it you are moving to then? You can't be staying in your current job or my name's Martin ... well you know the rest.
While your here Nick how would you differentiate yours and Martins views from the Policy Exchange unit and a journalists such as Charles Moore and Michael Gove.
Martin makes light of the fact that he relies on Bower, but Tom Bower wrote a hatchet job biography on Geoffrey Robinson, the man who keeps the New Statesman afloat. It seems unlikely in the extreme that Bright does not know this. This blog reads more and more like a self-justification in case Bright does not survive the change in editorship.
Bright illustrates his case against a left candidate in an election who is up against a very right wing candidate by relying on an article by Bower in the Mail. All this does is underline how far gone Martin Bright’s politics are.
Furthermore it was in the Standard that Bright wrote “writing as the political editor of Britain's leading left-leaning magazine, I believe the time has come for the Labour Party to drop him as its candidate.” Bright has consistently used right wing platforms or sources for his attempt to disrupt the Labour campaign in London.
Bright is no doubt particularly angry about this impressive list of progressive people backing Livingstone’s re-election because it makes his bizarre proposal for Livingstone to be dropped as the Labour candidate seem even more redundant and flaky.
We can expect supporters of this position to get a lot dirtier in their tactics against Livingstone (although it could not get much dirtier than Bright’s activities such as the Dispatches hatchet job).
Bright says that the signatories should be ashamed of themselves, and that anyone with a progressive bone in their bodies would have run a mile, but these individuals are the ones who can see that Londoners would suffer under a Johnson mayoralty.
Under Ken good policies on the environment and transport will continue. Bright can’t see this. Bright has jumped outside a basically progressive framework altogether.
The New Statesman deserves a political editor who is actually on the left in a meaningful sense.
That all sounds great. But I'm afraid my view is that such policy initiatives should be the bottom-line for a progressive politician. I don't believe I should feel grateful that he is sometimes doing the right thing.
The Qaradawi visit was a disgrace, as Peter Tatchell has consistently argued. But, of course, anyway against Livingstone is branded a traitor or a racist and this just will not do. This strategy becomes particularly sinister when Livingstone starts to use this kind of sectarian discourse against anti-racist campaigners such as Trevor Phillips, or indeed, his own race adviser Atma Singh, who was branded a threat to national security because he refused to sign up to City Hall's policy of appeasement of the Islamic radical right.
Thank god for Martin Bright. At last someone part of the 'progressive' left who is willing to not only to poo-poo the radical right (which incidentally I don't think you could call Boris Johnson) as well as the hard-left.
Serosch: "...your real gripe with Ken is that he won't signup to the extremist Zionist project, one of the aims of the project is to completely sideline Muslims in the UK." - Seriously what?! Instead Ken signs up to an extremist Islamic project...much better! Glad to see the left, 'progressive' or otherwise is hell bent on providing such nonsense.
Keep up the level-headed and sensible writing Martin - left or right, doesn't matter, truth will out and thank you for providing a critique which would otherwise be white-washed by the Labour spin machine.
Epitomy, redharry, and everyone else on the left - Nick Cohen is busy running off in a cloud of dust. "All right, then have it your way."
Mr Cohen, have you any arguments? Mr Cohen?
Oh, he's gone.
Isolated fake left-wingers like Bright and Cohen are forced into childish abuse ("scream like the nutter on the bus", "half-wit rantings", "sick megalomaniac"!) precisely because their arguments do not bear analysis. If the left do not support Livingstone then it is very likely that Johnson will get in. This is a basic political reality. And Livingstone is a very positive progressive candidate.
It is the pro-war left that is being exposed in these debates, not, as in Mr Cohen's fantasy, Livingstone. Presumeably this is why Martin Bright has not deigned to return to this blog and why Mr Cohen is beating such an ignominious retreat.
"But I'm afraid my view is that such policy initiatives should be the bottom-line for a progressive politician.I don't believe I should feel grateful that he is sometimes doing the right thing."
Good to see you admit that Ken is a progressive politician. Do you think that Johnson would be as progressive?
You might think that these should be bottom line policies but they aren't . The GLA has been a leading authority in driving forward the agenda on LGBT equality.
Who's asking you to be grateful? Just think that the New Statesman might consider supporting an administration with such a positive record on LGBT equality.
And its groundbreaking work on the London Living Wage, responsible public procurement and several transport and environmental strategies.
Or, if not supporting, then at least trying to bring some kind of balance to the equation.
Yet you choose to reiterate your standard sentences about Livingstone's attacks on Philips and Singh.
Let's assume you're right and these attacks were completely out of line. On the overall balance of progressive policies vrs nasty attacks on political opponents, do you not think the scorecard is generally favourable for the Labour Mayor of London?
As far as I can tell your entire agenda against Livingstone is down to three things:
i. He can be a nasty political opponent
ii. You disagree with some of his positions on world affairs
iii. The LDA have mismanaged some of their contracts.
Is that really a reason to jump ship to supporting the Tories? Or is this just an inevitable conclusion to your increasing rightward shift?
salili - great comment, completely agree.
jenny - what do you mean by "impressive list", half of them dont even live in london - how do they know whats best for londoners? and since the list includes labour MPs.. why are there not more signatories? why are the other 300+ labour MPs not supporting Ken. ken said he didnrt want this election to be about personalities but about policies, then why has he brought all his friends out to sign a letter? all a bit sad really .....
ps. the whole "progressive" politics is rubbish, london doesnt need progressive anything, we need solutions to real problems and not the geasture politics, divide, lie and spin of ken.
I tend to agree with KingKev, Personally, I don't much care if Ken's supposedly left wing or not. I want to vote for a progressive, not a reactionary - not someone who embraces (physically!) homophobes, anti-semites or other assorted clerical bigots, No decent Londoner who values our free and diverse capital could vote Ken.
Back Paddick or Berrry.
Why do we have to be so bitter in this debate? Has it ever occurred to anyone that there might be issues at stake in the fight between the Livingstone camp and the Bright-Cohen camp, and that both sides might have good reasons for the positions they take?
I don't agree with Bright and Cohen it their villification of Ken, but I don' think their position makes them right-wing or the enemy, and I think the left's inability to handle this kind of debate well is a weakness.
Maybe the Major's office needs looking at as an insitution, maybe the Johnson camp is rubbing their hands in glee at Brights documentary, but maybe just maybe Cohen and Bright are idealistically motivated and feel they are defending democratic values, in much the same tradition as Orwell did, from the a left but libertarian leaning point of view. If you travel to a strongly totalitarian country, you will find it very hard to totally dismiss such views.
For me the nub of the question is this - How do you defend and extend democratic values in a globalised world? Is it best done on a national level, with "democratic" nations invading "totalitarian" ones and thus imposing freedom... Surely there is a problem with this position in principle and practice, since democracy cannot really be imposed on a people who are not in a right place to put it into practice.
So is there a better way? Well European expansion is a far more consensual way of extending the remit of the kind of democracy, with substantive social guarantees, that most of us on the left would be proud of. This is one route towards international democracy.
Another route is to establish something like a world parliament, so that democracy became an international norm that actually started to be practiced.
You see, I think Ken and Martin and Nick are punting towards the same things but at different scales of reference. Ken, and most of the anti war movement, oppose the US precisely because they see the US as the biggest opponent of democracy internationally. Martin writes about Gun, the GCHQ whistle-blower in this issue of NS, so surely he empathises with this tradition.
But the big gripe with Ken and the anti-war left is the embrace of un-democratic anti-Americans. I am not sure it is a good idea to hold your nose about your enemies enemies, this is precisely the mistake the US right made with PInochet etc...
But, at the same time, to consider Ken an enemy, just because you don't like his friends stands as a very similar class of mistake.
Is it not possible to see past this and see that the USA is indeed an enemy of meaningful forms of international democracy, and that we should focus on that as a project rather than on our differences?
... er, what's the difference between Pinochet and Chavez?
http://www.newstatesman.com/200802260003
there is one divide in lodnon at this time and you are remaining one side of it
if you cannot recognise ken as progressive compared to boris- the only other person likely to win as london mayor- then you have travelled so far you must join nick cohen et al-you habve no claim to a progressive agneda
contrast ken with boris on the following issues-write an article on that rather than witch hunting smears, and inuendo, personal attacks and disagreements on international issues - compare and contrast them on green issues, transport,policing defending multicultural London-opposing homophobia, a serious response to 7/7 that united the nations and not in a racist anti-muslim way, engages seriously with business in london to gain big investments that benefit all londoners and partuicularly the poorest-....
...i feel like i have to set a GCSE assignment for you- forget it- 'your'e fired!'
join the evening standard where you belong
i look forward toyour departure from the new statesman
Wonderful to see the back slapping between ex-lefties Cohen and Bright - you are both the unashamed warm-up act for the star attraction ... Boris Johnson! (what a wonderfully entertaining gig that would make!)
the great thing about stating this obvious fact, is that Boris is such a backward and unpalateable prospect, you have no choice but to squirm and justify your position in increasingly pathetic ways: The "Labour should select another candidate" or "Im actually backing Paddick" positions being the most creative contortions which still amount to piling in for the Backward Boris toff bandwagon.
The nail in the coffin for Cohen was the fact that he sat in the evening standard's "influentials" debate with Boris Johnson, where Yasmin Alibhai Brown was told to "f*** off back to Uganda you c***" by a rabid audience member after she agreed with someone making a point about affirmative action. Whatever your views on affirmative action, surely it is the job of a supposed progressive journo, and indeed, any candidate for mayor, to condemn such a racist outburst and make it clear this is unnaceptable? The only person who is making this the point of difference and a sign of things to come under Boris is the New Nation's Michael Eboda.
Cohen of course has not made an issue of the fact that a mayoral candidate who can sit in a meeting with such blatant racism and allow it to continue unchecked has fallen at the first hurdle of demonstrating he will govern a city like london equally. (still grateful for your endorsement from Nick, Martin?)
On the flip side of this, Livingstone has presided over a fall in racist attacks together with a general fall in crime - something no Tory adminstration has done for all their chorus calling on crime, and something which neither Bright or Cohen weigh up as being a critical achievement for the Mayor.
That is why you should both be considered ex-left- you have lost your bearings and are an embarrasment - now away with you.
Bright is infatuated with what city hall worries about - have you tried door-stepping black people, Lesbian and gay people, environmentalists, the peace movement about their views? (For Martin's benefit - these are the constituents that traditionally make up the left. They are also the targets of Boris's backward views in his rather public disdain for these and many other issues that should be considered critical in the next Mayor.) These groups are worried about a victory for backward Boris as they will be the first to feel the loss of Livingstones progressive positions on these issues. You may remember that up until Ken became Mayor, people still spoke of the legacy of the GLC which was destroyed by Thatcher. I dont want to return such lamenting but you seem to have a very short term memory - especially when you consider the role of fleet street in this at the time. The constant attacks on Ken's support for Black, Lesbian and Gay groups and others, is echoed again in the latest round of attacks and has the same aim - to justify his removal - the ultimate scalp for the Tories in the run in to a general election.
However, the more jubiliant your tone on speculating about 'how scared city hall' is, the more you sound like a deluded, isolated voice in the wilderness; one that will no doubt have a cosy, well paid home in the evening standard if the new statesman ever decides to stop wasting the precious time that remains in the run up to this election on your pantomime performance as a serious political editor.
As glibly entertaining as it is to watch you rolling out the red carpet for the Thatcherite Boris and lying prostrate on it, Im more interested in reading about how the left can defend the gain it has made in Livingstone, and play a decisive role in this close election which will either make things better for Londoners under Livingstone, or so much worse under Boris.
We get it "epitomy" (and you certainly are). None of us are allowed to deviate from slavish backing for the man who gives big bear hugs to clerical fascists, homophobes, misogynists, racists. None of us can support other candidates who find it sickening that this man and his gang of reactionary cronies supposedly repsents our city.
ALL GOOD CITIZENS MUST VOTE FOR KEN. NO ALTERNATIVE. WAR IS PEACE; FREEDOM IS SLAVERY; IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. PADDICK AND BERRY ARE NON-CITIZENS. THE WAR ON BORASIA GOES WELL.
Now, since you almost certainly work in City Hall, can you do something useful please? I am paying you after all.
Mr Cohen is still trapped in the days of Blair's new labour ascendency when any left progressive ideas were trampled on by the SDP claret drining crowd who had hi-jacked the Labour Party. Now that project has come to its end, the Nick Cohens of this world have to find a new home. They haven't the integrity (if that's the right word - maybe chutzpah is more appropriate) to clarify their ideological shift like Peter Hitchens, so he has to conjure up a world where it is implied that we have all embraced the right.
For the record, Mr Cohen: Ken's not cruising it, but you're making it eassier because you and Boris and Martin Bright want to sling mud. Even Ross Lydall who is employed by the Standard admitted that Ken wiped the floor with Boris on the environment. If you and all the other Boris supporters would have prepared him for a serious political debate - (and sorry, I may be an old-fashioned lefty, but I do consider that conservatives can come with good ideas), maybe Boris would fare better. While Ken is the only person to have policies and strtegies rather than gimmicks - sorry the Greens have policies - then people will vote on the basis that for the most part they like London under Ken and like where he's going.
One last point which is important to both Nick Cohen and me - anti-semitism. Do you think an increase in racism, evident at the Standard husting as epitomy pointed out ,when you and Boris chose to say nothing is going to make the lives of you and me any easier? Do you think the BNP cares whether you support Ken or not when they attack Jews? I know who will stand beside me against racism and who will not. You Mr Cohen need to wake up.
Isn'' the real reason why you want Livingstone to be defeated is that it would be a massive fillip for your PEU mates at Tory HQ. I will bet my wages that in the next 23 months you and Nick Cohen will be making nothing but negative and snide remarks towards Brown. Or is he a homophobic lover of the Islamic right.