What is anti-Semitism? A quiz for Ken Livingstone

Absolute genius and something that lays bare the hypocrisy of some members of the Labour Party

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2016/04/29/what-is-anti-semitism-a-quiz-for-ken-livingstone/

Last day of campaigning ahead of elections across UK per BBC News

There's a fascinating bit at the end of this BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36195498

'Labour candidate Sadiq Khan urged Londoners to choose "hope over fear" and played down suggestions he would be affected by the party's recent troubles, saying: "You won't see Jeremy Corbyn's name or Ken Livingstone's name" on the ballot paper.

BBC Newsnight's political editor Nick Watt says Mr Khan plans to keep Mr Corbyn away from his victory celebrations should he prevail and the two men would not be seen together for several days.'

Several days, that'll show people that Sadiq Khan and the man he nominated for Labour Party leader are really far apart...

Note nothing about the 'uncle Toms' comment by Sadiq Khan. The BBC just have to keep that quiet for one more day...

PETER HITCHENS: Everyone Howls At Batty Ken - But They Wouldn't Dare Tackle Racist Muslims

'As for all those people who suddenly got so exercised about Judophobia, and wildly worked up about Ken Livingstone's batty views on Zionism (standard issue on the far Left for decades), I have some questions for them.

Are you prepared to put the same energy into challenging and denouncing Judophobia among the Palestinians you support abroad, and the British Muslims whose votes you seek here?

Because, if not, I might suspect that you are just using the issue to try to win back control of the Labour Party, which you lost last summer in a fair fight.' 

Good points from Peter Hitchens here
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/05/01/peter-hitchens-everyone-howls-batty-ken-wouldnt-dare-tackle-racist-muslims/  I don't expect the BBC to allow such views any airtime

Is Sadiq Khan continuity Ken Livingstone?

Vote Sadiq Khan and get Ken Livingstone...

Hmmmbest vote Zac Goldsmith in the London Mayoral election.

What does Ed Miliband say about senior members of the Labour Party appearing in support of Lutfur Rahman?

Will the BBC cover this Public Meeting? Or does that go against their top priority of aiding a Labour victory at the general election?

Ken Livingstone, do you still think that Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is "one of the most authoritative Muslim scholars in the world today" who "has done most to combat socially regressive interpretations of Islam on issues like women's rights and relations with other religions"?

I see that Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the man who Ken Livingstone defended and described as "one of the most authoritative Muslim scholars in the world today" who "has done most to combat socially regressive interpretations of Islam on issues like women's rights and relations with other religions"? has been at it again.

This time the delightful Qaradawi opined whilst in Gaza that "This land has never once been a Jewish land. Palestine is for the Arab Islamic nation,"

Factually incorrect but what do you expect from a man who has previously called for the death penalty for apostates


and describes homosexuality as 'a crime' for which people should be punished?

Sheikh al-Qaradawi also said the following in a speech by aired on Al-Jazeera on 30 January 2009.

"Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers."

What do you have to say about your 'progressive' Islamist now Ken?

Do you still stand by this defence of Sheikh al-Qaradawi?



Seriously Ken Livingstone sickens me and I rejoice every day that he is no longer Mayor of London.

You can read more about Sheikh al-Qaradawi here. Maybe Ken Livingstone should look up the word of Taqqiya.

Ken Livingstone - the West is always to blame

MEMRI has a clip of a fascinating interview with Ken Livingstone

Here's the transcript and details:

'Following are excerpts from statements made by former mayor of London Ken Livingstone, which aired on Press TV and were posted on the Internet on April 26, 2013:

Voice of Muhammad, a caller from the UK: How [come the Boston bombers] enjoyed all these pleasures there, and yet, they ended up blowing themselves up [sic] like that?

Ken Livingstone: Well, I think there is a problem… Very often people get incredibly angry about injustices that they see. They would have been reading about the torture at Guantanamo Bay, at Baghram airbase. They would have read stuff about how, I think it is 54 different countries secretly collaborated with America for this rendition – people being snatched off streets taken to be tortured, because the Bush regime believed that they were all potential terrorists. There was such ignorance in the Bush White House about Islam and about the history of so many disputes that exist in the Middle East. People get angry – they lash out.

[...]

It's the whole squalid intervention that has disfigured the record of the Western democracies. I think this fuels the anger of the young men, who – as we saw in Boston – went out, and, out of anger and demand for revenge, claimed lives in the West

You have to admire Ken Livingstone... Actually no you don't!

Baroness Thatcher has died

Baroness Thatcher one of the great British Prime Ministers has died and I am waiting for the British left to rise to the occasion. Before long the nasty face of the British left will be much in evidence. In the meantime I am going to monitor the BBC. At the moment their lead article runs thus:

'Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died at 87 following a stroke, her spokesman has said. Lord Bell said: "It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning." Baroness Thatcher was Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990. She was the first woman to hold the post. Her family is expected to make a further statement later. Baroness Thatcher, born Margaret Roberts, became the Conservative MP for Finchley, north London in 1959, retiring from the Commons in 1992. Having been education secretary, she successfully challenged former prime minister Edward Heath for her party's leadership in 1975. She won general elections in 1979, 1983 and 1987. Baroness Thatcher's government privatised several state-owned industries. She was also in power when the UK went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands in 1982.'

Such small accomplishments: privatised several state-owned industries and was in power when the UK went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. How about rescued the UK economy from the despair of the Wilson/Callaghan Labour governments? How about turned the UK from 'the sick man of Europe' into one of the world's leading powers? How about went to the defence of the Falklands despite the opposition of the Labour party?

I suppose that a news organisation that the BBC's Jane Garvey recalled celebrated the 1997 Labour victory:

“I do remember… the corridors of Broadcasting House were strewn with empty champagne bottles. I’ll always remember that”

is unlikely to stay neutral on the death of the hated 'Thatch'


UPDATE:I see that the BBC's Political Editor, Nick Robinson, has stooped this low:

tweets: The dominant figure of post-war British politics is dead. Love her or loathe her, Margaret Thatcher shaped this country as few others did.

Evan Davis has tweeted this pearler:

I see Ken Livingstone has been unable to show any grace today, I suppose breaking the habits of a lifetime would be hard. Sky News quote him thus:

'Ex-London mayor Ken Livingstone tells Sky News Baroness Thatcher's policies were "fundamentally wrong". "She created today's housing crisis, she produced the banking crisis, she created the benefits crisis. It was her government that started putting people on incapacity benefits rather than register them as unemployed because the Britain she inherited was broadly at full employment," he says.

Full employment? Unemployment began to rise from the 4% level in early 1975 and by the time of the 1979 general election was at nearly 6%. The inefficiencies hidden by this employment level took some time to iron out.

Here's another of the BBC's favourites, 'comedian' Mark Steel

What a terrible shame – that it wasn’t 87 years earlier
— Mark Steel (@mrmarksteel) April 8, 2013

The man who Ken Livingstone called "one of the most authoritative Muslim scholars in the world today" who "has done most to combat socially regressive interpretations of Islam on issues like women's rights and relations with other religions"

Here's Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi speaking recently

So Ken, what do you think about Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi's stand on apostacy?

Do you still think that Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is "one of the most authoritative Muslim scholars in the world today" who "has done most to combat socially regressive interpretations of Islam on issues like women's rights and relations with other religions"?

In case you think that maybe Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has hardened his views recently and maybe after Ken spoke, here's the same Qaradawi from 2006


And here's Ken Livingstonespeaking at a Stonewal husting in 2008


Ken Livingstone, it's so great that he's no longer London Mayor.

Ken Livingstone - liar

There are some left-wing comedians, who when appearing on BBC topical news quizzes, delight in calling Jeffrey Archer a 'perjurer' and explaining this is because that is what he was convicted of. I wonder if they will now say 'the liar Ken Livingstone' following this story.

Nigel Farage and Ken Livingstone in total accord, weird!

Nigel Farage and Ken Livingstone in total accord on the EU, weird!

'Does Ken Livingstone pass a fit and proper person test?'

The Commentator raises the questions about the suitability of Ken Livingstone to be London Mayor.

'Ken Livingstone has been accused of tax avoidance hypocrisy, a worrying relationship with the Jewish community and a grave lack of judgment over his work for Press TV. On all three counts, he fails the fit and proper person test'

There's plenty to read in the article and three good questions that point in only one direction.

Thought for the day - 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'

That is a quotation usually attributed to Edmund Burke although those words in that exact sequence are elusive in his works.


On local election day in parts of England and Wales, think on that quotation as you go to the polls...

For myself Ken Livingstone holds views and has associated with people that are evil and thus I will be voting for Boris Johnson as London Mayor.

I will also, albeit reluctantly, be voting Conservative in the local council elections. Our council swings between Labour and Conservative and just seems better run, and certainly less wasteful, when the Conservatives are in power.

What is Ken Livingstone's apparent problem with Judaism?

This article is incredible, here's the transcript of the video of Ken Livingstone speaking on a Press TV broadcast:

'Is not the problem here that when Zionism was conceived of back in the 1880s, the world was one that accepted racial division… The Germans talked about anyone of German blood, even if it had been a thousand years since they left, able to come back. The world broadly accepted this racism at all levels, and that was the origin of Zionism – ‘every other group is racially selective, we will do it’. We see that today in this ridiculous situation that that whereas Christianity and Islam massively goes out there to convert people to its [sic] faith, it’s very difficult to convert into Judaism. I think it’s a real problem, there’s this racial exclusiveness that has its origins in that dreadful time… 1880s, when all nations suffered from it.'

 Here's Alodya's explanation of where Ken Livingstone is WRONG:

'As ignorantly wrong about the history he claims to be drawing on as he is about the teachings of Christianity and Judaism, Livingstone targets Judaism as a different religion that is racist and intolerant, unlike Christianity and Islam. His “history” of the conversion rules of Judaism being based on nineteenth century German racial exclusivism is a total and malign fantasy calculated to represent Judaism and Nazism as having the same roots. Equating zionism and Nazism are central features of anti-semitic anti-zionism.

Making Judaism difficult to convert to goes back to Talmudic times,  not long after the period of Rabbi Hillel and Jesus of Nazareth and although the Rabbis made it more difficult in the centuries following the Jewish Diaspora, has nothing to do with the rise of political zionism in the mid to late nineteenth century.

Judaism is not interested in race. A child is Jewish if he or she is the child of a Jewish mother, whether he or she is black, like the Jews of India, Ethiopia and many parts of the Maghreb, or pale skinned, blond haired and  blue eyed, like some of the Jews of Poland  and Russia, frizzily dark haired and curved-nosed like many of the Jews of Germany, or has the characteristic skin colour and eyes of the children of Jewish converts who came from Japan and China. Anyone can convert to Judaism, provided they are not the children of a sexual union ruled illicit in the Torah, such as an incestuous union. All shades of zionist movement (of which there are many, both secular and religious, socialist and economically conservative), have always accepted that anyone born or converted according to Orthodox Jewish rules is eligible for citizenship of the Jewish state, wherever they live in the world.

Religious zionism however goes back to the first Psalms of the first period of Jewish exile to Babylon, which yearn for the return by the entire people to the homeland, both the land of Israel, and Zion-- the City of Jerusalem. They have been sung and chanted by religious Jews everywhere in the world as part of the prayers which accompany every meal they ate for almost two thousand years and continue to this day. Every  orthodox Jewish wedding going back to the earliest exile days has begun with an invocation to "Let us go up to Jerusalem" taken from the Song of Solomon and other Hebrew Bible texts'

 What is Ken's problem? Whatever it is, let's amke sure he doesn't get elected tomorrow.

Another reason not to vote for Ken Livingstone

'But by far the biggest row was over fares. Ken had signed off an above-inflation increase that was due to come into effect the year after the mayoral election, and TfL had started to brief the credit-rating agencies to that effect. This was significant, because any change to that rating would have a big impact on TfL’s borrowing. Then, one morning, Ken popped up at his weekly press conference and, off the cuff, announced that he would freeze fares if re-elected.

Over the next few days, things got silly. Ken’s aides tried to get us to sign off a statement saying the freeze had been in the budget all along. I couldn’t see how that was possible, as we’d already briefed the agencies. Then one of my press officers told me that if he was forced to put out the press release drafted by the mayor’s office, he’d resign. It was at that point, mercifully, that I managed to get myself sacked. It all became irrelevant, of course, when Boris won. But I’d got a good look at Ken being Ken.

Which is why there will be no more turning of blind eyes from me, or resigned shrugs. We need someone speaking for all of London, not just the Balkanised segments whose votes he craves. We’ve held our noses before, but not this time. I’ve seen Ken being Ken up close; it’s why I’m voting for Boris Johnson.'

That's Dan Hodges a former Ken Livingstone team member writing in The Telegraph.

I keep finding good reasons not to vote for Ken Livingstone, I've  yet to find one to push me the other way; I wonder why?

The man who Ken Livingstone calls a moderate and has embraced has been at it again

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the influential preacher based in The Yemen, a man whose sermons are seen by millions of people, has once again has called upon Muslims and Arabs to rise up and destroy Israel.

In his sermon last Friday, Qaradawi called on all Arabs and Muslims to be "fighters and mujahadeen" and exhorted them not to accept the "humiliation and disgrace" of Israel's existence.

Qaradawi said that the Muslims will be victorious and that the Israelis will have to go back to "the lands they came from."

Qaradawi also stated that Jews support Israel and thus it is necessary for Muslims to support the destruction of Israel.

So what, you may ask? Why does it matter what yet another extremist Islamist cleric is saying to fellow Muslims? Well it does matter because  Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is the Islamist preacher who Ken Livingstone has embraced and called a moderate voice. Someone who believes or even just says that is fit to be London Mayor, let's make sure that Ken Livingstone is given the free time to associate will all the Islamist extremists and supporters of terrorism that he wants.

It was only as recently as March that we had the news of Ken Livingstone reaffirming his stand to invite and embrace, when London mayor in 2004, the Islamist cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who condoned suicide bombing against Israeli target. Here are some more incendiary remarks made by Ken Livingstone's moderate embracee:

"Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the (Jews) people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers."

In 2005 defending bombings against Israeli civilians, al-Qaradawi said on BBC's Newsnight that:"An Israeli woman is not like women in our societies, because she is a soldier."

I have also read that Ken Livingstone's embracee also considers pregnant women and their unborn babies to be valid targets on the ground that the babies could grow up to join the Israeli Army.

I rarely agree with Sir Alan Sugar but...

Sir Alan Sugar has reportedly said:

"I don’t care if Ed Miliband is backing Livingstone. I seriously suggest NO-ONE votes for Livingstone in the Mayoral elections."

Sensible chap... on this matter anyway.

No I Won't

Labour's former attack dog and now Campaign chief, Tom Watson, has said in an interview on LBC that:

"For once, I’m being totally candid with you. I’m saying to you, those Labour voters that are thinking of going to vote for Boris Johnson, hold your nose, vote for Ken, because that’s the way that you will help Labour. Let me also say, that having worked with Ken Livingstone, looking at his interview in The Guardian this morning, he has a beautiful dog. He’s got a Labrador. I shouldn’t say this, but there is an American maxim that when a politician is in trouble, get him a dog."

Leaving aside the admission that he is not normally "totally candid", this Jewish voter will not 'hold my nose' and vote Ken, the smell emanating from the Ken Livingstone is far too strong for this Jewish voter and I will ensure that as many voters, Jewish and otherwise, know what the various smells coming from the Ken Livingstone campaign are.

The danger of voting for Ken Livingstone

I have posted about Ken Livingstone's troubling links with Islamist preachers of anti-semitism, homophobia and more and so may have ignored other issues. From Guido Fawkes:

'Bob Crow, the RMT union boss hated by London’s commuters, has put the union’s money behind an attempt to stop the “Not Ken Again“ advertising posters attacking Ken’s cronyism. He is wasting the RMT’s money because all the evidence is that he is Ken’s crony.

Team Ken have deliberately tried to keep London hate-figure Crow and his militant transport union out of the picture at all times during the campaign. Above is a mock-up of what would happen on May 4 if Londoners “Got Ken Again”.

The RMT boss is trying to get the crony posters blocked, yet Ken’s candidate for deputy mayor Val Shawcross is a member of the RMT and supports their strikes. During Livingstone’s first term Bob Crow served on the Transport for London board he chaired between 2002 and 2004. The records show ‘the chair welcomed Bob Crow to his first board meeting’. The favour was well received, last year Crow told LBC “I’ve never been apart from Ken. We have differences like I have with my brother and sister but overall, Ken’s a good bloke. Give us a shout Ken when you want some money”. Spoken like a true crony.'

How can any true Londoner vote for Ken Livingstone?

Ken Livingstone's declared income yesterday and today; I wonder what he will declare tomorrow...

More details at Mark Pack.