Ken Livingstone's former media director Joy Johnson has written a ludicrous piece in the new edition of the British Journalism Review (sadly not online). It's all about the horrible Evening Standard and its role in the London mayoral election. At the beginning of the article she says "I do not believe it was the 'Standard wot won it'". She then proceeds to spend the rest of the article explaining all the damage the Standard did to Livingstone's cause. Indeed, she hilariously blames his defeat not on the paper, but on all the newspaper's billboards.
Just because Livingstone is behaving like a dog going back to its own sick, it doesn't mean all his former advisers have to join him. Get over it Joy. Move on!
38 comments:
Iain says "behaving like a dog going back to its own sick"
I love it when you talk Biblical.
(Proverbs 26:11 - Like a dog that returns to its vomit Is a fool who repeats his folly.)
Song of Ken
"Whingers of the world unite!"
JoyJo doesn't seem to be well named, in that she's a bit sad.
I hope you'll say the same next time John "Railtrack" Major goes on the Today programme and whines about how unfair it was that Labour stuffed him in 97?
On the other hand, those of us who had the bad luck to have worked with Joyless Johnson in the past will know that the fact she was running it tells you a lot about the fundamental ineptitude of Livingstone's campaign.
The difference is that John Major has never once whinged about his defeat in 97.
I wonder what Gordo will say upon his (record) defeat?
Nothing - I suspect he will deny it ever happened.
Just trying to imagine Iain the bleating we'd have had from you lot if the Standard had ripped into the bumbling Boris ahead of the election and saved London from the man and his deputy dogs.
Did the Standard give Major a kicking in 1997? I must have missed that.
I would take any day John 'Rail Track' Major than cynical and dreadful 'so what' Balls and Brown
the 'boastful fixer of boom and bust' whose time to exit has arrived.
Chirs, thought you must have left the country...
No, I doubt whether the Standard gave Major a kicking. But virtually every other paper did.
This suggests you are talking out of your hat:
"From the moment New Labour saw the value of spin, the truth became partisan. The outgoing Conservative government was to be abused: no piece of character assassination, no calumny, no half-truth, no insult was to be missed."
Sounds pretty much like a whine to me.
And all from a PM who was so ashamed of his main political "achievement" - the break up and privatisation of the railway - that he mentioned it not once in his memoir. That sounds to me like the most egregious piece of self-serving "spin" since Mark Anthony spoke at Caesar's funeral!
Anon @ 2:56.
I think the same. I can honestly imagine him standing there on the news, after Labour are reduced to 150-170 seats saying "I'm getting on with the job of delivering the change Britain needs to help it through this global economic downturn."
He will be being put into a straight-jacket at the same time, but he won't notice.
Anonymous 3.02. You are barking. All of what he said was just stating the facts. It wasn't a whine, it was an explanation.
All of what he said was just stating the facts. It wasn't a whine, it was an explanation.
Joy Johnson would no doubt say the same. Pathetic.
It's noticeable that the Economist and the FT are trying to dish Boris' Mayoralty this weekend.
Neither cannot stomach the fact that he's doing well, is popular and will soon be upstaging the country's chief Euro-traitor in Beijing.
They'd prefer breathing their own farts to admitting that Boris is a good Mayor saving Londoners billions, solving the airports conundrum and bringing in the Olympics under budget.
Yes, her whine was pathetic. Remember, I have had the benefit of reading it, unlike you, I suspect.
They'd prefer breathing their own farts to admitting that Boris is a good Mayor saving Londoners billions, solving the airports conundrum and bringing in the Olympics under budget.
He's done all that? Cor. Passed me by though. But then I don't live on planet Ukiploon.
Joy Johnson is a bitter that she has lost her very well paid job. But i suggest somebody submit an FOI on how much redundancy Ken's advisers got - cos the figures reported could be well short of the real figure.
Labour and its supporters are pyschologically incapable of accepting anyone else's point of view or that they themselves might just have got it wrong and they keep asking themselves why do these ungrateful voters not vote for us after all we've done for them? It's not fair and they'll scream and scream and stamp their feet until they're sick - so there !
It shows how delusional the Left are. They can never be honest about themeselves, or anything else for that matter, and the Left are always very bad losers.
What this woman probably doesn't say, is how Livingslime benefitted for many years from very friendly media coverage, like Labour in general, especially from the likes of the BBC, who are far more influential than the Evening Standard. Livingstone did what the hell he liked for 7.5 years, and when finally, he got subjected to some very fair scrutiny of his administration, for 6 months, they piss and moan about how horrible the Evening Standard has been!!! They got exposed very late in the day and should be grateful for the time they had with their snouts in the London taxpayers trough.
The Left just don't get the fundamentals of electoral democracy (when they're in power anyway), like administrations being subjected to criticism and scrutiny by the media, for example.
Given the hostility that the Conservatives have had nationally, from most of the influential media, for many years, I find it very ironic when the Left start bitching about a regional newspaper who gave 'em some grief for 6 months!
What the Left don't like is the fact that it was effective criticism. The Mail, Telegraph etc. can piss in the wind all they like, crying wolf about "socialism", and no one gives a damn. But Gilligan did some very hot forensic research and came up trumps proving Livingstone's malevolent Balkanising of Londoners just to shove us into little Ken-voting boxes.
That, on the other hand, is very nasty and unfair in the left's eye, because it was such a damning indictment.
Anon at 3:02
"Sounds pretty much like a whine to me."
Not a whine (or a whinge) but a statement of fact.
I've lived through and witnessed several elections and changes of government thereafter starting with 1964 (unlike you, I suspect).
At no time following any of these changes ('64, '70, '74 and '79) was there anything to match the atmosphere surrounding '97.
For a start NuLab began a series of so-called Public Inquiries ('Bloody Sunday', BSE etc) which amounted to nothing more than political show trials of previous Conservative governments and ministers.
Nothing like this ever happened previously.
Then there was the 'rebasing' of everything pre '97 as belonging to some political dark ages prior to 'liberation'. 1997 became a Year Zero from when all progress began.
And NuLub tinkered with constitution and electoral reforms - not from any serious thought through principal - but simply from a partisan aim at cementing political power in their hands on a permanent basis.
Gordon Brown symbolised the attitude with his graceless comment at the Treasury when told that the government's finances had never been sounder; "What do you want me to do, send them a f*ck*ng thank you note?"
He compounded by taking a 'not invented by us' attitude to several popular and effective schemes (PEPs and TESSAs for instance) and replacing them with his own, less effective and generous, and more complicated ISAs.
So when John Major wrote: "The outgoing Conservative government was to be abused: no piece of character assassination, no calumny, no half-truth, no insult was to be missed" he was bang on the button.
Tough Titty, Ken. Life ain't fair.
Firstly, agree with Geoff H, and now the tactic is backfiring big time, especially in Scotland. And Ken lost as he started taking his core support for granted. What really did it for him was using the LDA to close down a black run church (in the same week Boris said such churches are really useful in the inner city). And he made a lot of people sick by hosting an Islamic cleric soon after London was bombed. And his supporters going round calling Christians, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs names like slave and infidel and he never tried to stop them. Even went to an aggressive mosque and posed for a photo dressed like some wannabe Taliban.
I particularly liked the description that Boris gave of Livingstone hanging about his former place of work `like a Pterodactyl nursing a secret sorrow'. Wonderful image, and spot on!
They'd prefer breathing their own farts to admitting that Boris is a good Mayor saving Londoners billions
Don't knock it 'til you've tried it ;-)
Labour -
Oppressive, bullying, unlistening and ignorant in victory; bitter, twisted and in total denial in defeat.
Such joy to see them so eaten up by the well deserved defeat of their poster boy Livingstone (yes the same Livingstone that was thrown out of the Labour party but a few short years ago).
So very pathetic that with the imminent collapse of their Government, and their party, that rather then accept that the electorate have resoundingly rejected not only their ideas, but their entire approach, they resort to childish sour grapes about one newspaper's coverage rather than learn their lessons, take their defeats like adults and attempt to move forward with what the people of Britain actually want their Government to do.
It'll be another 18 years in the political wilderness for Labour thank god.
The left think they have a right to rule however the commonon masses vote.
Read 'lord' hartesley's autobiography for a lefties view on elections.
Boris Ukiploon? I don't think so.
Simon Heffer more like.
As for me, planet earth is plenty good enough these days, breathing good clean eurosceptic air - spiced by Boris pointing out all the 'Piffle' that he encounters. Most refreshing actually.
Livingstone as a sorrowful Pterodactyl..brilliant.
I don't bother at all with the political stench emanating from the mutual fart-breathers - 'The Economist' and 'The FT'.
But I still admire their financial analysis. You just have to hold your nose and read it quickly.
For a start NuLab began a series of so-called Public Inquiries ('Bloody Sunday', BSE etc) which amounted to nothing more than political show trials of previous Conservative governments and ministers.
What?? So the killing of 13 people guilty of nothing except (maybe?) marching down the street and the question of who or what was responsible for a catastrophic breakdown in food security are off limits because they were done by the Tories?
No wonder you lot lost three elections in a row. Oh, and don't go banking your winnings on contest number four yet either. The fundamental arrogance of the Tories - and their belief that the law is for other people - might trip you up yet if the Labour Party ever gathers the courage to do the one thing we all know needs to be done.
Livingstone ballsed it up big time when he was in charge of the GLC. Corruption was endemic and there's no reason to suppose it changed when he was in charge of London
What?? So the killing of 13 people guilty of nothing except (maybe?) marching down the street and the question of who or what was responsible for a catastrophic breakdown in food security are off limits because they were done by the Tories?
BSE (Bloody Stupid Enquiry) was another famous non-event.
The scientists who pointed out that the disease was not caused by feeding offal, but by ridiculously heavy EU-compulsory doses of Organo-Phosphates, all met with suspicious untimely deaths in car accidents and the like....while the scientists working at the Lab which claimed eating beefburgers would in time, kill tens of millions of people, all became millionaires.
I think time has shown that they were talking total bollocks, but at the time the scare was politically convenient to suppress euroscepticism, bury John Major's government, and bring on Blair.
The disease in humans did not conform to a pattern consistent with being developed from eating burgers, as it was clustered in small areas. Those that died tragic and early deaths were not killed by beef-burgers.
I read one report which indicated that the disease could have been spread by dental instruments, which are now boiled for far longer periods than previously, to ensure this disease cannot spread that way.
People trusted the media totally in 1997. After 11 years of Labour government no one believes a word they hear or read any more - and rightly so.
Major told the odd fib as most leaders have to do. Blair and Brown lied on the industrial scale.
Still Labour.
Your reaction on the BSE 'show trial' does you no credit.
What's more your assumption that anyone who questions NuLab's actions and honour MUST, by definition be an 'arrogant Tory'.
As it happens, in that series of elections and changes of government I referenced, I have voted for all three main parties on different occasions.
I assume, that since you view the actions of outgoing governments as perfectly proper reason for public inquiries, you'll have no problem with Tony Blair standing trial before the ICC in the Hague for his bogus claims about WMD in Iraq and committing the UK to war there?
Or Gordon Brown being charged with malfeasance for the botched - and unwise and unnecessary - sale of gold reserves?
Though I do worry about what is you hope that "Labour Party ever gathers the courage to do the one thing we all know needs to be done" is.
Something to do with one of those instruments of potential for State repression you've passed, such as the Civil Contingencies Act, and the potential for suspension of elections?
"Read 'lord' hartesley's autobiography for a lefties view on elections."
not in this lifetime I think the dog vomit would be preferable.
Livingstone and his people weren't complaining about the Evening Standard when it was paying him to write restaurant reviews.
Yes, well, the previous commentators have thoroughly dissed pinko hate-sheets like the FT and Economist.
Did I miss the statutory dismissal of the Indy, and Howker and Vallely's treasonable piece: The South Bank show -- Chaos in the court of King Boris?
Oh, and wasn't even “It-was-Andy-wot-won-it!”, Gilligan at the Evening Standard having a go?
Deary me.
Alternatively, we could be witnessing the most titanic reverse ferret since the Mail's in 1939.
Nick, Remind me didn't Livingstone current "partner" also work for the Evening Standard too?
Which is where these two love birds met.
Yes Malcom Redfellow Gilligan did write the piece on Boris -
I quote
So far, on policy, the decisions he has made or signalled - fewer high-rise buildings, LDA reform, greater scepticism about the Olympics and the Met leadership - are clearly correct.
It doesn't sound like withdrawal of support to me.
The only problem Boris is finding that he needs a different type of team around him - not big egos who expect to build their own empires, but team-players who buy into Boris's abilities, work with him and support him.
It can take anyone a while to realise that the biggest image in town is usually the least possible to work with. Boris needs to pick content people as a foil to his leadership skills, not those desperate to boost their own careers.
It is a sign of leadership ability that Boris acts as soon as he knows a relationship isn't working. He'll build his team in time, and then he'll be unstoppable.
When did Giligan ever manage an office of state? He probably doesn't know how hard it is to get the people bit right. Blair sat with the wrong people for ten long years, even conning the country into taking one of his chief failures as its next PM. Johnson fires immediately if he's not satisfied. Think of the money he'll save!
Communists like red Ken are not used to being thrown out of power by the people.
Red Ken thought he could pull the wool over the eyes of people using his beloved BBC as his poodle.
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