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Ken Livingstone Should be Prime Minister!
Posted by
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28 February 2005
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Ahh Ken Livingstone. I've always liked the bugger. He's on the Old Labour side of Labour, the side that I tend to think of as actually worth paying attention to. I was extremely pleased when he got elected Mayor of London. Recently of course Ken's been involved in a scandal. You see Ken was being 'doorstepped'. This is where a politician is basically harrassed by the press, who follow him around incessantly, parking on their doorstep until he comes out. When said politician comes out he will have many reporters jump on him like hyenas on the remains of a Lions dinner. If Politicians act evasively they are made to look bad, if they get pissed off and react accordingly they get made to look bad, and if they answer they get made to look bad.
Thursday's Independent had a commentary by a former ITN reporter on this very tactic. He stated how he, in the Major years, would park himself outside Downing Street and scream "Mr. Major are you a liar?", or "Mr. Major, are you planning on resigning?" Major would usually wave and then sheepishly walk inside. What Major was supposed to be lying about or what cause they had to believe he was resigning was inconsequential. These were simply the first questions that fly into his mind. The clips of Major would then appear on ITN with headlines such as "Major refuses to deny he is a liar!" or "Major refuses to deny that he is planning to resign!" cue clip. Result: Journalists 1 Major 0. If however Major had said "No I am not a liar!" Instead we'd get a clip off him saying "I am not a liar!" and then some 'expert' drafted in to give us a point by point description of how Major is a liar. Result: Journalists 2 Major 0. If on the other time Major had turned around and screamed "###### off and die you festering leeches on the teet of society." This would be shown instead. Result Journalists: 298 Major -12. Good old Ken went for option no. 3.
What's great about Ken is his outburst prompted demands to apologise from everyone from Tony down to his own deputy. Hell the London Assembly that he heads unanaminously voted for him to apologise. On Wednesday he had his weekly press conference. He turned up and apologised to the Jewish Community of London and anyone else who might have felt offended. He refused, however, to apologise to Associated Press who own the London Evening Standard, who's journalist it was on the receiving end of Ken's remark. The AP also happens to own that bastion of great journalism the Daily Mail.
For the next section I have pulled extracts from Ken's statement at the Press Conference from http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gla/story/0,,1423115,00.html The Guardian website being the premier source for anyone wanting to do any form of British political research.
Ken not only refused to apologise, he went on a rant. A fantastic rant.
Fantastic. Just brilliant. Not only does he refuse to apologise saying that:
This is what I love. He's being honest, he's being level headed and most of all he's taking the opportunity to poke jabs at his opponent. Would you see this from Tony? Not in a million years. Tony wants everyone to be happy. Ken on the other hand is more than happy to point out how idiotic this whole argument is. We live in a world where you cannot say or allude to racism or nazism without a backlash. Look at the Prince Harry row. So he wore a swastika? Did he at any point stand atop a pedestol and say 'That Hitler, what a guy!' Or 'You know what? That Jew at the back is well shifty looking' No, Prince Harry is not a nazi, he was merely wearing a costume. Simply alluding to Nazism does not make you one. I read an article by one person saying that Nazis were not to be made fun of. That they were serious. I suppose this person has never seen an episode of "'Allo 'Allo" then, or perhaps Charlie Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator' made in wartime and an obvious jab at Hitler. I mean come on I've never seen so crappy an attempt to whirl a media storm out of nothing in my life as in these two cases. Oooooo they mentioned Nazis. KILL THEM ALL! Harry's a role model they say! Oh yeah, I saw Harry wearing a swastika, quick to the National Front headquarters I wanna join up! And Ken's comment. He was describing the journalist as alike to a concentration camp guard. Now he's obviously not saying this a ######ing good thing is he?! Oh and he's Jewish. Ahh well that's different then, because obviously Jewish people can't possibly not be annoying little cretins. Now there's a suggestion that is ultimately racist. There's this suggestion going around that because he said it to a Jew that automatically makes it worse than had he said it to white Christian guy.
I'm adding this to the list of reasons to hate Journalists. Yep, this is reason 109,429.
I hope someone burns Associated Press headquarters to the ground.
Thursday's Independent had a commentary by a former ITN reporter on this very tactic. He stated how he, in the Major years, would park himself outside Downing Street and scream "Mr. Major are you a liar?", or "Mr. Major, are you planning on resigning?" Major would usually wave and then sheepishly walk inside. What Major was supposed to be lying about or what cause they had to believe he was resigning was inconsequential. These were simply the first questions that fly into his mind. The clips of Major would then appear on ITN with headlines such as "Major refuses to deny he is a liar!" or "Major refuses to deny that he is planning to resign!" cue clip. Result: Journalists 1 Major 0. If however Major had said "No I am not a liar!" Instead we'd get a clip off him saying "I am not a liar!" and then some 'expert' drafted in to give us a point by point description of how Major is a liar. Result: Journalists 2 Major 0. If on the other time Major had turned around and screamed "###### off and die you festering leeches on the teet of society." This would be shown instead. Result Journalists: 298 Major -12. Good old Ken went for option no. 3.
What's great about Ken is his outburst prompted demands to apologise from everyone from Tony down to his own deputy. Hell the London Assembly that he heads unanaminously voted for him to apologise. On Wednesday he had his weekly press conference. He turned up and apologised to the Jewish Community of London and anyone else who might have felt offended. He refused, however, to apologise to Associated Press who own the London Evening Standard, who's journalist it was on the receiving end of Ken's remark. The AP also happens to own that bastion of great journalism the Daily Mail.
For the next section I have pulled extracts from Ken's statement at the Press Conference from http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gla/story/0,,1423115,00.html The Guardian website being the premier source for anyone wanting to do any form of British political research.
Ken not only refused to apologise, he went on a rant. A fantastic rant.
QUOTE
To the Daily Mail group I say that no one in Britain is less qualified than they to complain about anti-semitism. Their papers ... were the leading advocates of anti-semitism in Britain for half a century.
Beginning a hundred years ago with their campaign to stop Jewish refugees fleeing to Britain from Russia they carried on right the way through the rise of Hitler and even after the start of World War II still felt free to peddle the lie that Germany's Jews had brought the Holocaust upon themselves ...
For the Mail group the victims may change but the intolerance, hatred and fear pervade every issue of the papers.
Beginning a hundred years ago with their campaign to stop Jewish refugees fleeing to Britain from Russia they carried on right the way through the rise of Hitler and even after the start of World War II still felt free to peddle the lie that Germany's Jews had brought the Holocaust upon themselves ...
For the Mail group the victims may change but the intolerance, hatred and fear pervade every issue of the papers.
Fantastic. Just brilliant. Not only does he refuse to apologise saying that:
QUOTE
Many other journalists will confirm I have made similar comments to them over the last 24 years. You are the first to complain. If you feel that my comments are too harsh or robust then you are most probably in the wrong job and certainly working for the wrong newspaper group.
This is what I love. He's being honest, he's being level headed and most of all he's taking the opportunity to poke jabs at his opponent. Would you see this from Tony? Not in a million years. Tony wants everyone to be happy. Ken on the other hand is more than happy to point out how idiotic this whole argument is. We live in a world where you cannot say or allude to racism or nazism without a backlash. Look at the Prince Harry row. So he wore a swastika? Did he at any point stand atop a pedestol and say 'That Hitler, what a guy!' Or 'You know what? That Jew at the back is well shifty looking' No, Prince Harry is not a nazi, he was merely wearing a costume. Simply alluding to Nazism does not make you one. I read an article by one person saying that Nazis were not to be made fun of. That they were serious. I suppose this person has never seen an episode of "'Allo 'Allo" then, or perhaps Charlie Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator' made in wartime and an obvious jab at Hitler. I mean come on I've never seen so crappy an attempt to whirl a media storm out of nothing in my life as in these two cases. Oooooo they mentioned Nazis. KILL THEM ALL! Harry's a role model they say! Oh yeah, I saw Harry wearing a swastika, quick to the National Front headquarters I wanna join up! And Ken's comment. He was describing the journalist as alike to a concentration camp guard. Now he's obviously not saying this a ######ing good thing is he?! Oh and he's Jewish. Ahh well that's different then, because obviously Jewish people can't possibly not be annoying little cretins. Now there's a suggestion that is ultimately racist. There's this suggestion going around that because he said it to a Jew that automatically makes it worse than had he said it to white Christian guy.
I'm adding this to the list of reasons to hate Journalists. Yep, this is reason 109,429.
I hope someone burns Associated Press headquarters to the ground.
