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Key points • Ken Livingstone claims terrorist attacks fuelled by UK foreign policy • Public expression of these views breaks political truce since attacks • His views shared by Labour back-benchers and many members of public Key quote "You've just had 80 years of western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of the western need for oil. We've propped up unsavoury governments, we've overthrown ones we didn't consider sympathetic" - KEN LIVINGSTON, SPEAKING ON RADIO 4 Story in full KEN Livingstone, the mayor of London, yesterday stunned even his political opponents by claiming the terrorist attacks on the city a...

LONDON (Reuters) - Western foreign policy has fuelled the Islamist radicalism behind the bomb attacks which killed more than 50 people in London, the capital's mayor Ken Livingstone said on Wednesday. Livingstone, who earned the nickname "Red Ken" for his left-wing views, won widespread praise for a defiant response which helped unite London after the bombings. But he has revived his reputation for courting controversy in recent days. Asked on Wednesday what he thought had motivated the four suspected suicide bombers, Livingstone cited Western policy in the Middle East and early American backing for Osama bin Laden. "A lot of...

MAYOR Ken Livingstone faced calls to quit last night after trying to justify suicide bombings. He said: “Given that the Palestinians don’t have jet fighters and don’t have tanks, they only have their bodies to use as weapons. “In that unfair balance, that is what people use.” Last night Lord Janner of the World Jewish Congress said: “His sad attempt to justify Middle Eastern suicide bombers is a betrayal of the hundreds of innocent people who suffered from this terrorist barbarism in London.” The Board of Deputies of British Jews added: “It is absurd he should parrot this apology...

"Red Ken" Livingstone was playing Winston Churchill the day of the bloody London bombings. He sounded just the right mix of sadness and defiance to the terrorists "... even after your cowardly attack, you will see that…people from around the world will arrive in London…to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves." Ken Livingstone is fast enough on his feet to denounce terrorists today and enable them tomorrow. It was Red Ken who scapegoated the half-Jewish leader of the Conservative Party in the recent election, in order to appeal...

Interesting.... This muslim Cleric visited london EXACTLY one year ago from the date of the attacks, July 7, 2004 CNSNews.com) - London Mayor Ken Livingstone's previous support of a Muslim cleric who advocates suicide bombings may cause him some embarrassment as he now must speak for the city in the wake of Thursday's terrorist bombings. Livingstone condemned the Thursday attacks as "mass murder," and added that "this was not a terrorist attack against the mighty or the powerful, it is not aimed at presidents or prime ministers, it was aimed at ordinary working-class Londoners." Yet Livingstone has in the past...

(CNSNews.com) - London Mayor Ken Livingstone's previous support of a Muslim cleric who advocates suicide bombings may cause him some embarrasment as he now must speak for the city in the wake of Thursday's terrorist bombings.Livingstone condemned the Thursday attacks as "mass murder," and added that "this was not a terrorist attack against the mighty or the powerful, it is not aimed at presidents or prime ministers, it was aimed at ordinary working-class Londoners."Yet Livingstone has in the past labeled Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi a "man of peace" and a "moderate" despite the fact that Al-Qaradawi has supported suicide bombings and...

LONDON mayor Ken Livingstone said the terrorists who attacked the British capital today can never destroy the city's principles of freedom and harmony. "Nothing you do, no matter how many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our cities where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another," Mayor Livingstone said in Singapore just 24 hours after London was named the host of the 2012 Olympics.

KEN LIVINGSTONE has told Londoners not to flush the lavatory after relieving themselves. The Mayor of London said that dramatic action was needed to prevent an acute water shortage and painted a vision of standpipes in the streets if nothing is done. Mr Livingstone made the comments while inaugurating a public education campaign to promote water conservation. He said that he could ask ministers for an immediate hosepipe and sprinkler ban if the situation deteriorated. Modifying lavatory habits was an important part of this programme, he said. “The quickest and most dramatic impact is, don’t use a sprinkler or hose...

I'll reckon Mayor Ken Livingstone of London is the only politician in the world who tips his hat to both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Deng Xiaoping. The odd coupling came last Friday in San Francisco during the World Environment Day conference. In a speech to fellow mayors, socialist Livingstone praised California's Republican governor for moving to reduce the state's emission of greenhouse gasses -- and also quoted former Chinese leader Deng, whose legacy includes the 1989 killing of hundreds of protesters in Tiananmen Square, saying that "it doesn't matter if your cat is black or white, but does it catch the...

One of the more revolting contemporary English politicians is London's Mayor Ken Livingstone. He has just accused Israel — Israel, if you please — of "ethnic cleansing" and has described Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as "a war criminal who should be in prison." His remarks came after vicious anti-Semitic attacks in England increased 42 percent last year over the previous year, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center. During a recent press conference, Mr, Livingstone compared a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard.

London’s Mayor Ken Livingstone today blamed the press for the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dr David Kelly, the Government scientist at the centre of the row over the Iraq war dossiers. Mr Livingstone, speaking during a phone-in on the LBC 97.3 FM Nick Ferrari programme, said: “The best of reporters are great and courageous people, many of them give their lives to bring us the truth. “There’s a downside: the real underbelly of British reporting are the scum of the earth and they destroy lives. “I think if we had better reporting standards in this country David...

Despite calling Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "a war criminal who should be in prison," London Mayor Ken Livingstone told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that he would agree to meet with him face-to-face should he visit England. "And I would express to him in a meeting exactly the same views I have expressed in public," he added. That would include charges that Sharon "continues to organize terror" by combating the current intifada, that Israel is engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians similar to that of the Serbs in Bosnia and that the government is trying to...

Ken Livingstone came under renewed pressure to apologise for his "Nazi" jibe today.The Israeli ambassador in London added his country's voice to the demands for the Mayor to say sorry. In a statement, the embassy said the Mayor's "flippant" language about the Holocaust showed "gross insensitivity" and had caused "shock and emotion" around the world. Meanwhile, in the Commons, a Labour MP tabled a parliamentary motion saying Mr Livingstone had no excuse for his "appalling" comments to Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold and should apologise without further delay. The continuing and widespread pressure on Mr Livingstone destroyed his attempts to...

LONDON (Reuters) - London's outspoken mayor Ken Livingstone has refused to apologise for comparing a newspaper reporter to a "German war criminal" during a confrontation outside a party. Livingstone has been under pressure from Jewish leaders and politicians, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, to issue a formal apology for telling a Jewish reporter he was acting like a "concentration camp guard" after he cornered him outside the event. "My words were not intended to cause offence and my view remains that the Holocaust against the Jews is the greatest racial crime of the 20th century if not of all time,"...

Students' leaders have banned Ken Livingstone from their union's annual conference because of his "Nazi" insult.In another blow to the Mayor's reputation, he today finds himself formally criticised for racial insensitivity by the National Union of Students - an organisation that has traditionally allied itself with Labour's Left wing. The setback comes amid suggestions that Mr Livingstone will make a partial apology tomorrow for his comments, which included comparing an Evening Standard reporter who is Jewish to "a concentration camp guard". It further undermines attempts by Mr Livingstone's allies to portray the controversy as a mere spat between him and...

London Mayor Ken Livingstone refused Tuesday to apologize for comparing a Jewish newspaper reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard. Jewish and Holocaust groups have urged Livingstone to say he is sorry, as have Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and the London Assembly, the body that scrutinizes the mayor's work. But Livingstone told a news conference that he didn't believe he had done anything wrong. "You may think my remarks to that reporter - and many over the years - are offensive," he said. "That is purely a matter of judgment. If you think they are racist I think you are...

KEN LIVINGSTONE was accused last night of having “lost the plot” after an angry confrontation with a Jewish journalist who, he said, was behaving “just like a concentration camp guard”. The Mayor clashed with Oliver Finegold, a reporter from the London Evening Standard, on Wednesday night at a party marking the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith becoming the first openly gay MP.

Ken Livingstone is the typical socially resented, double-faced, backward thinking, anti-establishment, anti-semitic, homophobic, extreme-left-radical Labour figure that one would encounter in a European political setting. His siding with Hugo Chavez demonstrates just that. Curiously he has the support of another such creature and prominent representative of Hugo Chavez in the House of Commons, MP John McDonnell.

London's mayor Ken Livingstone, who calls President George W. Bush "the greatest threat to life on this planet,” wants to celebrate Cuba's communist revolution by inviting Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to visit his city. The visit would take place on the 50th anniversary of Castro’s return to Cuba to launch the guerrilla war that led to his communist takeover in 1959. Once known as "Red Ken" as a member of England's loony left and leader of the Greater London Council, Livingstone is a great admirer of Cuba and has praised its health and educational systems, which he compares favorably to...

Announcement - No. 16 January 13, 2005 No.16 London Mayor Ken Livingstone's Defense of Islamist Cleric Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi     This past summer, Islamist cleric Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi visited London to establish the International Council of Muslim Clerics. He was hosted by London Mayor Ken Livingstone at City Hall. The visit was surrounded by criticism of Mayor Livingstone for hosting the sheikh, who is considered a spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and who also heads The European Council for Fatwa and Research. In response to the continued criticism, Mayor Livingstone called a January 11, 2005 press conference,...