Ken Livingstone

I have blogged a lot about Ken Livingstone recently, but then there has been a lot to comment upon. Earlier today I blogged "about a piece by Nick Cohen entitled "Why Ken Livingstone is not fit for office"." In it I included some comments by Nick Cohen about tonight's Dispatches programme which included this extract from Nick Cohen's Guardian article "It is a minute organisation - I doubt it has more than 100 members - but Livingstone has given a fair proportion of them jobs with six-figure salaries at the public's expense. John Ross, Livingstone's economic adviser on £121,000, is typical. He is so lacking in economic knowledge that he decided that the Russian Communist party was a force for the future in 1991, two years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. His economic advice at the time was for the ruling class to learn 'that they will be killed if they do not allow a takeover by the working class'."

This reference to John Ross provoked a response from a "GLA spokesman" which I have published in the comments to the above piece but I repeat here (as I know a lot of people never read the comments to an article):

"The Greater London Authority does not politically vet potential or existing employees, nor carry records regarding their political views, and it would indeed be unlawful and a breach of employment and human rights for it to do so.

The only important, and lawful, criteria regarding the record of Greater London Authority staff is to be found in policies that have been successfully delivered.

Details of the work of the senior GLA staff, that have directly contributed to making London a more successful city, can be found here: http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=15355

The Mayor has written to Channel 4 pointing out the Dispatches programme scheduled to be shown this evening is a clear attempt to influence the electoral process and in breach of the special impartiality requirements to maintain objectivity standards in broadcasting. The full press release can be read here: http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=15357"


Ken Livingstone may have achieved his objective of stopping this programme from going out as still, 2½ hours before transmission time, the Dispatches home page carries no mention of tonight's programme. Their listings page just says "The Court of Ken
Dispatches investigates the current London mayoral system and the way in which this office operates."

Ken Livingstone has a habit of getting what he wants so I would not be surprised if tonight's show was pulled. If not then you can expect the attacks on Boris Johnson to get more and more vicious.