In years to come, historians may look back at today as the time when Labour lost the 2020 general election. They may have a point, although I’d go back a few months to 12th September 2015 when Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader. But today’s utter fiasco surrounding the comments of ‘Red’ Ken Livingstone say as much as about Corbyn’s judgement as they do about the former London mayor himself.
Speaking on Radio London this morning, Livingstone said he had never heard anyone in the Labour Party say anything anti-Semitic. That obviously included himself when, back in 2006, he compared a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard. Today, Livingstone pointed out,”When Hitler won his election in 1932 his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.” But Livingstone added that he was not suggesting Hitler was a zionist, having said that he was. Does this make sense? Of course it doesn’t: it’s Ken Livingstone speaking.
Labour has a real and growing problem with anti-semitism. Just this week, Naz Shah was suspended from the Labour Party when it was revealed that she said, before she became an MP, that Israel should be moved to the USA. Livingstone, who is on the hard left (Corbynite) slate for the Labour Party National Executive elections, said: “Naz is not anti-Semitic – she was completely over the top, what she said was rude”. Oh, that’s okay, then.
The Labour leader himself is clearly not a racist and abhors anti-semitism, but he has been far too relaxed on the subject for many years. He has met with the leaders of terrorist organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah, referring to them, as he refers to everyone, as his “friends”. He probably believes, very sincerely, that he can somehow bring about peace in the Middle East by speaking with his “friends”, but let us be very clear: these are organisations dedicated to the extermination of the Jewish state. Corbyn’s words are not enough. We need action.
George Galloway had a friend too, that genocidal maniac Saddam Hussein. Like Tony Benn, he even went to talk to him, providing succour to the islamic fascist Ba’athists in Iraq. Forget anything to do with the 2003 invasion of 2003, Saddam was a monster, a vile mass-murdering monster. We hear much self-hatred from elements of the far left, but so many forget that Saddam was pure evil. Livingstone’s pal Galloway was happy to pose with him for nice photographs.
“There is no crisis”, said Jeremy Corbyn, despite his “very grave concerns about the language he used in the interview this morning”. But wait a minute: Red Ken is the leader’s place man in his review of our nuclear deterrent. Red Ken, a unilateral disarmer, will have a massive influence in the Labour Party policy as to whether we renew Trident. I wonder what conclusions he will come up with. He might no longer hold an elected position, but his influence over public life, thanks to the patronage of his old friend Corbyn, means he has more power than ever before.
Jonathan Arkrush, who is president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said that Livingstone’s comments were “abhorrent and beyond disgraceful. He denies anti-Semitism in Labour when the evidence is there for all to see. He lacks any sense of reality and decency. He must now be expelled from the Labour Party.”
George Galloway himself, once again standing against the Labour Party, this time in the London mayoral election (he is currently polling at 0%) tonight tweeted this: “The suspension of Ken Livingstone is a crime against Labour. Worse than that, it is a gigantic blunder. The consequences will be grave.”
What happened in World War Two was a crime against humanity. It was genocide. The long overdue suspension of Livingstone is not a crime against Labour, it is a blessing.
“There’s no crisis!” said Jeremy Corbyn, although his henchman, formerly Tony Benn’s fixer and Momentum supremo John Lansman tonight tweeted: “Ken Livingstone achieved many good things for London and beyond. But all political lives end in failure, & he should now depart voluntarily.”
And yet twitter is full of the usual tosh, blaming ‘Blairites’ for suspending Livingstone, pretending he had done and said nothing wrong. Let’s get this straight: Red Ken has been suspended by the comrades and many, though not all of them, want him to stroll off into the sunset. Fat chance.
Labour has a problem and its leader’s laissez-faire attitude to dealing with serious issues merely confirm how unsuited he is to high political office.
Ken Livingstone won’t lose Labour the next general election, but the actions and inaction of the party’s current leader surely will.
