Free Republic

Ken Livingstone, the former London Mayor and one-time figurehead of the Labour [Democrat] left , is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, his family has announced. He is being "well cared for by his family and friends" as he lives a "private life" in retirement, they said in a statement issued to the PA news agency. While having largely retreated from public life in recent years, the 78-year-old was a prominent figure in London politics for more than four decades from the 1970s. In his heyday, "Red Ken" was a thorn in the side both of Margaret Thatcher's Tories and New Labour...

Nearly a third of British Jews said they have considered leaving the United Kingdom over the past two years due to anti-Semitism. The findings are part of a report published Sunday by the Campaign Against Antisemitism watchdog group and the YouGov market research company. In interviews conducted in 2016 and 2017 with a combined sample of 7,156 respondents, 37 percent said they have been concealing in public signs that would indicate that they are Jewish. Fifty-nine percent of the respondents since 2015 said they feel welcome in the United Kingdom; 17 percent said they feel unwelcome. Another 39 percent of...

Ken Livingstone, a former mayor of London, has blamed the turmoil in Venezuela on Hugo Chávez’s unwillingness to execute “oligarchs” after he came to power. ... “One of the things that Chávez did when he came to power, he didn’t kill all the oligarchs. There was about 200 families who controlled about 80% of the wealth in Venezuela,” Livingstone told Talk Radio. “He allowed them to live, to carry on. I suspect a lot of them are using their power and control over imports and exports to make it difficult and to undermine Maduro.”

A furious row erupted inside and outside the Labour party last night after former London mayor Ken Livingstone was “given a slap on the wrist” over anti-Semitic comments. Mr. Livingstone — who had been suspended from the party last April over remarks saying Hitler had supported Zionism — was handed a further 12-month ban from representing Labour. He will remain a full member of the party and will still be allowed to take part in Labour votes and attend meetings. But MPs, including some from his own party’s shadow cabinet, described the move as “shameful” and said the party leadership...

Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has been fired from his radio show, in response to anti-Semitic comments made last month. Livingstone has already been suspended from the Labour Party, where he was until recently a senior policymaker, after claiming in an interview that Adolf Hitler was a Zionist, and appearing to back some of the Nazi dictator’s earlier policies before he “went mad.” “Let’s remember when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews,” Livingstone...

London’s former mayor Ken Livingstone has once again hit headlines for peddling anti-Semitic stereotypes, after he claimed that Jews tend to vote for the right-wing Conservative party because they are wealthy. […] “If we were talking 50 years ago, the Roman Catholic community, the Irish community in Britain, the Jewish community was solidly Labour. Still the Irish Catholic community is pretty still solidly Labour because it is not terribly rich,” he said, but continued: “As the Jewish community got richer, it moved over to voting for Mrs. Thatcher as they did in Finchley.” […] Livingstone, who earned the nickname “Red...

The former mayor of London took to Press TV, an Iranian state-run network, recently to express his disdain for the Bush White House and his assurance that the Boston Marathon bombings were brought upon the United States because of its injustices abroad.

Ken Livingstone did not 'directly blame' the U.S. for the Boston bombings, Labour insisted after Tory demands for him to be axed over controversial comments about terrorism. Mr Livingstone sparked controversy by suggesting the brothers who launched the attack on the city’s marathon acted 'out of anger and demand for revenge' over American foreign policy. US-born Conservative MP Brooks Newmark wrote to opposition leader Ed Miliband calling on him to condemn the remarks, made by the former London mayor on a phone-in on Iranian channel Press TV. He called for the Labour veteran to be removed from the party’s National...

Ken Livingstone has promised to turn London into a “beacon” for the words of the Prophet Mohammed in a sermon at one of the capital’s most controversial mosques. Mr Livingstone, Labour’s candidate for mayor of London, pledged to “educate the mass of Londoners” in Islam, saying: “That will help to cement our city as a beacon that demonstrates the meaning of the words of the Prophet.” Mr Livingstone described Mohammed’s words in his last sermon as “an agenda for all humanity.” He praised the Prophet’s last sermon, telling his audience: “I want to spend the next four years making sure...

Boris Johnson has been elected Mayor of London, adding to Labour's misery after disastrous local elections. The Conservative candidate beat Ken Livingstone with Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick in third place. Mr Johnson polled 1,168,738 votes to Mr Livingstone's 1,028,966. After second preferences were allocated, Mr Johnson achieved around 53% to Mr Livingstone's 47%. The result put further pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown after his party suffered its worst council election results in four decades. After the result was announced, the new mayor thanked his team and praised his opponents, particularly Mr Livingstone who he described as a "very considerable...

Boris Johnson has won the race to become the next mayor of London - ending Ken Livingstone's eight-year reign at City Hall.

Boris Johnson is the new Mayor of London, his rivals conceded tonight. The Tory MP scored a stunning election victory to end Ken Livingstone's eight-year reign and round off a disastrous 24 hours for the Labour Party. After a nailbiting count, Mr Johnson was so far ahead on first-preference votes he could not be caught by Mr Livingstone, even after second preferences were taken into account. Labour officials conceded privately that the Conservative was too far ahead. At 5pm, Mr Livingstone's campaign chief Tessa Jowell said: "The reports I'm getting suggest Boris Johnson is ahead. "If Ken has not won,...

Boris Johnson poised to become London Mayor as Tories seal local election success By Robert Winnett Last updated: 6:27 PM BST 02/05/2008 Boris Johnson is preparing to be unveiled as the new mayor of London later today following Labour’s collapse across Britain in the local elections. Senior Conservative sources said they would be “gobsmacked” if Mr Johnson did not win the mayoral contest and even Downing Street aides appear to have conceded that Ken Livingstone has lost. Confidence of a Tory win was boosted after one bookmaker announced it was paying out on a Boris Johnson victory hours before the...

Polling stations are now closing... Based on a wide range of conversations we've had throughout the day with people in the field and with senior Tory and other insiders we are very confident that on the basis of patterns of turnout, postal votes and canvass returns Boris Johnson has been elected Mayor of London.

Mayoral Elections   .....    Campaigning: Ken Livingstone on the trail at Northolt mosque in Ealing over the weekend Pro-Ken Muslim group claims Boris 'would scrap the Koran' Andrew Gilligan 28.04.08 Ken Livingstone supporters are claiming that Boris Johnson would ban the Koran in adverts in the capital's Bengali-language press. The claim is one of a number of last-minute tactics - condemned by Mr Johnson today as "poison" and "desperate" - being used by Mr Livingstone's backers to sway crucial votes. The "dirty tricks" were uncovered in a Standard investigation which also found that: • Bengali-language leaflets are being handed...

Ken's adviser is linked to terror group Andrew Gilligan 21.04.08 Ken Livingstone has appointed a former member of a banned terrorist organisation to the board of Transport for London. Until 2001, Dabinderjit Singh, a civil servant, was a member of the International Sikh Youth Federation, a UK-based group banned under British antiterror laws. The then Home Office minister, Lord Bassam, said British-based ISYF members were a "threat to national security" and the group had carried out " assassinations, bombings and kidnappings" overseas. The ISYF plotted a number of unsuccessful attacks in the UK and one of its members was...

The Tory mayoral candidate, Boris Johnson, was announcing a wheeze. He would remove free bus passes from unruly children but they could “earn” them back through community service. Ken Livingstone, his Labour opponent, stepped to the podium to reply and declared it a great idea that he would steal. Johnson sat dumbfounded, his mouth open. “But what sort of idiot wouldn’t steal a good idea when they heard it,” said the mischievous Livingstone. The people of London have been treated to three months of this sort of Clinton versus Obama backchat, with policies hurled back and forth and personalities stripped...

A NEW survey commissioned by the London Mayor has concluded that the media sees no common ground between Islam and the West, and that conflict between them is ‘inevitable’. The survey commissioned by the Greater London Authority (GLA) and published by London mayor Ken Livingstone this week also suggested that news organizations draw up new codes of conduct to combat negativity about Islam. The GLA survey included a review of recent opinion polls, study of recent books and articles, a survey of the news in one week, consideration of stories about political correctness, interviews with Muslim journalists, and analysis of...

After bullying London's mayor into apologizing for his city's role in the transatlantic slave trade more than two centuries ago, Jesse Jackson did what he does best - demand money. At Thursday's memorial commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of England's slave trade, Mayor Ken Livingstone was literally brought to tears as he apologized "on behalf of London and its institutions" for their role in ferrying human cargo to the New World. If you've been paying attention to this charlatan's game, you won't be surprised to hear that the Guardian reported that "Jackson walked over and placed his arm...

Livingstone breaks down in tears at slave trade memorialLast updated at 18:49pm on 23rd August 2007  Controverial London mayor Ken Livingstone broke down in tears as he apologised for his London's role in the transatlantic slave trade, saying the city is still tainted by it.  The notoriously outspoken Livingstone seldom apologises for anything, but he choked up as he read an account of the brutal tortures suffered by slaves in Britain's Caribbean colonies. scroll down for more  Livingstone broke down in tears as he apologised for his London's role in the transatlantic slave trade And the politician once nicknamed...