Ken Livingstone oversteps the mark - again

I've only just discovered the Henry Jackson Society. I realise that this is rather remiss of me, but there's a lot out there on the internet, and, sadly, one can't know it all. Which is why there are places like Simply Jews, to lead us to these oases of good sense and rationality. I was led to the HJS by being directed to a speech at a Cambridge Union debate on the Middle East by Douglas Murray, and was so impressed that I googled the HJS. You, too, might find the reason for its name interesting. On my first visit to its website, I discovered that among the HJS writers is Robin Shepherd owner/publisher of The Commentator, another of my regular stops on the net.

On this, my first visit to the site, I found a fascinating article by the said Douglas Murray, and it's on that old 'friend' of the left (or one part of it , at least), Ken Livingstone. For those not Brits or unaware of who this charmer is, he was elected Mayor of London for two terms on the Labour ticket (although, strictly speaking, the first time he was an 'independent'). Trouble is, he has a number of traits that one wouldn't normally associate with the conventional left, unless we're talking of Nick Cohen's "Progressive Left", of course. One of them has led to the coining of the phrase "The Livingstone Formulation" - go to Engage, and put those two words into its own search engine. You'll get interesting results: try it here.

Another of his traits is to associate with misogynists, homophobes and anti-Semites…and get away with it, of course, because he's on the 'left', as Murray puts it. I wish to make it clear that, despite his dubious connections, no-one (and certainly not me) is accusing Livingstone of being a misogynist, etc, just of associating with them. Murray makes this point specifically when he says, right at the start of his column, "When is a homophobic comment not a homophobic comment? When it is spoken by somebody on the ‘left’ of course."

Murray hammers home this point when he continues "If the Conservative party, let alone a Conservative Mayor of London, continually praised one of the world’s leading advocates of genocide against the Jews, and advocate of the murder of gays, as a ‘moderate’ and ‘reformer’, then the presence of that politician at the top of British politics would be impossible." In that sentence is a link to a You Tube clip of al-Qaeadawi heaping praise on Hitler for the Shoah, and hoping that next time, "it will be at the hands of the believers". Lovely man; lovely supporters.



And Livingstone hopes to be the next Mayor of London - again. I consider myself a recidivist Labour voter (one who continually re-offends). But this recidivist Labour supporter has found his limit, again.

See the whole article (and introduce yourself to the valuable Henry Jackson Society website) here:

By Brian Goldfarb.