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| Britain |
| Livingstone faces inquiry over Nazi jibe at Jew |
| 2005-02-15 |
| Ken Livingstone was facing a disciplinary inquiry last night after he refused to apologise for comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi prison guard. The Board of Deputies of British Jews submitted an official complaint to the Standards Board for England, which - if upheld - could lead to Mr Livingstone being suspended or disqualified from office. In a separate move, the London Assembly unanimously passed a motion censuring the mayor for the remarks he made last week to a reporter from the Evening Standard. At a meeting of the assembly, Mr Livingstone defended his behaviour by claiming that Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail, had conducted a hate campaign against him ever since his time as the Left-wing leader of the Greater London Council in the 1980s. With his voice shaking, Mr Livingstone said: "If I could, in anything I say, relieve any pain anyone feels, I would not hesitate to do it. But it would require me to be a liar. I could apologise but why should I say words I do not believe in my heart? Therefore I cannot. If that is something people find they cannot accept, I am sorry, but this is how I feel after nearly a quarter of a century of their behaviour and tactics." Sadly, coming out with this sort of puerile dribble is the reason he's popular. Always presenting himself as the honest, downtrodden victim, Livingstone is in fact a thug and a bully, quick to lose his temper. The sort of politician that's two-a-penny in the ME. The mayor's stance was attacked by members of all five parties in the assembly, including Labour colleagues. They said that, with the row coinciding with this week's inspection by the International Olympic Committee, Mr Livingstone could damage London's Olympic chances. Angie Bray, a Tory assembly member, pointed out that Mr Livingstone had done "extremely well" out of Associated Newspapers. He once worked as a freelance restaurant critic for the Evening Standard and his partner Emma Beal also worked there. At the meeting the mayor refused to meet three Holocaust survivors who delivered a petition accusing him of "belittling" their experience and afterwards they condemned him bitterly. Gena Turgel, 82, who was chosen to lead the Queen to her seat in Westminster Hall at the Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony, said: "I am shocked. There is no comparison between what Mr Livingstone's family have gone through and what ours suffered." The assembly has no power to discipline Mr Livingstone, but the Standards Board for England, which is in charge of investigating complaints against elected office-holders in local government, could take action. As mayor, Mr Livingstone is bound by a code of conduct that applies to councillors and mayors. One section says office holders "must not treat others with disrespect". Another outlaws conduct which would bring an authority "into disrepute". If the standards board finds that the complaint is justified, the case will be referred either to the London standards committee, which could suspend Mr Livingstone for up to three months, or to the independent adjudication panel, which could ban him from office for up to five years. Alternatively, Mr Livingstone could be ordered to do something such as attending race awareness training. An investigation by the standards board into allegations that Mr Livingstone assaulted a man at party in May 2002, led to him being cleared. The person involved in that incident was also an Evening Standard journalist. IIRC, The journalist - who suffered some quite serious injuries - withdrew his allegation that Livingstone pushed him off a wall. |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #3 "Alternatively, Mr Livingstone could be ordered to do something such as attending race awareness training." Where he'll learn all about the horrors of Islamophobia, and the evils of Zionism. |
| Posted by: gromgorru 2005-02-15 9:00:47 AM |
| #2 I dont want to slow the loading of the site down if my webspace gets slow but here is an image of Ken I cooked up with The Gimp. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-02-15 7:07:27 AM |
| #1 He is a sicking twit who really needs to be knocked on his arse by someone he insults some day. Nothing will come of this. The labor cronies on the standards board will be happy to paper this over. After all it's just some "jews" who are upset after all. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-02-15 6:27:58 AM |
