Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Welcome Ken Livingstone

According to the Independent's Ian Burrell, Ken Livingstone likes nothing better than reading this blog or ConservativeHome. I suppose he's got plenty of time on his hands now...
One of his favourite sites is Conservative Home, or "Tory Home" as he calls it. Here Ken finds not only coverage of London politics but what he believes are the true colours of a party that David Cameron wishes to move across the spectrum, away from the violet end of blue and closer to green...But he really quite likes some of Tory blogger Iain Dale's diary, even if Dale was "a bit dishonest talking about the glorious triumph" of Boris's first 100 days in power...Dale's blog won't make easy reading for Livingstone right now, linking as it does to an interview with Boris in Dale's newly-launched magazine Total Politics.

I wonder if Ken has ever thought of starting a blog of his own. I'd certainly read it. If you're reading this, Ken, my consultancy rates are very cheap. Well, cheaper than yours!

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid Ken will be far too busy with his upcoming corruption trials to write a blog.

Anonymous said...

The most satisfying part of the entire Olympics was seeing someone other than Ken Livingstone representing London at the closing ceremony.

FonyBlair said...

Maybe Ken should just retire gracefully from politics having frittered away millions on useless pet projects.

Did Ken ever step back and think that all the money he was spending willy nilly was actually EARNT by hard working Londoners who would rather choose what to do with THEIR money?

The last thing we need is Ken droning on via a blog.....we are already going to have to put up with him on LBC!

He won;t be lonely and out in teh cold for long. There should be a fair few parliamentarians joining him on the redundancy scrap heap come the next election.

PS. Boris's whiff whaff speech in Bejing was genius. Somethnig Ken could never have pulled off. Available on the BBC news website - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7580165.stm

Anonymous said...

Boris just tends to be lost pretty much all the time though.

deputy mayors...
transport policy...
where he descends from...

Anonymous said...

I would sooner watch myself be disembowelled than read a blog by Ken Livingstone.

Anonymous said...

Ken,
If you are reading this posting, a word of advice to you. Move away from matters relating to GLA and Boris, choose a charity work to spend your time, like raising funds for the Great Ormond Street Hospital. They would welcome some one with a visibility like you This is better than indulging in silly comments over the LBC channel. The public will even forgive you for the excesses.

Next time, it appears that Alan Sugar is much interested in the mayoral candidacy and whatever the rump of New Labour left then after 2010 defeat, would like to be interested in him.

Unsworth said...

Everyone's rates are cheaper than Livingstone's. He's an expense we could all do well without.

Dick the Prick said...

Hiya Kenny. How's tricks me ol' cobber, ol' bean, ol' sack du meird? How could they do it to you? How could they be so ungrateful? You won WW2 after all - oh, hang on a minute....

Anonymous said...

Sorry - Ken could n't write anything without input and advice from all his "Equalities Advisors".

Mind you isn't he shacked up with an ex GLA Womens Advisor? Sacked now but with big payoff - so maybe she could lend him a hand for free? (At least till she gets head hunted by some Local Authority/Government Agency which believes that it's purpose is social engineering and not delivering services to residents).

Anonymous said...

Norman wrote: "it appears that Alan Sugar is much interested in the mayoral candidacy and whatever the rump of New Labour left then after 2010 defeat, would like to be interested in him."

Labour Party members in London are unlikely to select Sugar given that he endorsed Boris.

Iain, I don't know about Ken doing a blog, but my Guardian sources say his ex-Chief of Staff Simon Fletcher was recently seen having lunch with the Comment is Free editor Matt Seaton and has been meeting other hacks there.

May mean nothing of course.

Anonymous said...

Iain, you're such a tart!

Anonymous said...

Ken, when can we expect you to make an appearance on HIGNFY again? I hear the fee is £5000 a pop, so not bad for a couple hours "work".

BTW, you may wish to visit Guido Fawke's blog, orderorder.com. You may enjoy the comments made there about your good self from time to time.

Anonymous said...

Ken ran a racist campaign - he assumed he had the muslim vote - appeared to deliberately antagonise the jewish vote (in order to get the muslim vote) and he also decided that the suburbs were crap. He miscalculated on just about every count.. I will be voting labour at the next election - but i am so glad Livingstone and his racist tactics failed

Anonymous said...

Simon Fletcher and Ken's other cronies are gearing themselves up to secure Ken's nomination as labour candidate for the Mayor. Rest assured the rest of NuLAB are onto him - it aint going to happen - Ken is a loser and he aint coming back

Anonymous said...

anon.3.19.

"I will be voting labour at the next election."

I admire the sort of loyalty that verges on mental illness.

Anonymous said...

Screensaver said:

"Labour Party members in London are unlikely to select Sugar given that he endorsed Boris".

Alan Sugar in June:
http://www.channel4.com/news
/articles/arts_entertainment/
alan+sugar+for+mayor/2299077

New Labour did not support Ken, the 'independent' originally and put up Frank Dobson, and finally got round to accept Ken even though Blair and Brown hated him then. Brown shamelessly made a U turn since then

If New Labour thinks, Sugar a Labour supporter has a good chance next time, they will select him.

Tapestry said...

reply to anonymous

Livingstone I presume?

Anonymous said...

There is one thing that I would like to know and that is why Gordon shook everyone in the Olympic Teams hand but signally failed to shake Colin Moynihan's as they walked off the plane at Heathrow into the V.I.P Suite In fact it was quite noticeable as he shook the hand of the person in front and then appeared to "blank" Moynihan and deliberately shook the hand of the person behind him which seems either grossly rude or a calculated snub.

Watch the TV coverage again if you don't believe me

John M Ward said...

Well, I'd certainly be interested in Ken's writings if he were to include a recommendation on the best Merlots. I currently have a Hardy's Varietal waiting to be opened...

On the political side, I'd probably read it occasionally, mainly if I needed a good laugh on a depressing day.

Anonymous said...

But if Ken started a blog, would he dare to have a comments section?

If he did, he'd spend all his time deleting abusive comments.

Though I do have a picture of Ken, hard at work on his computer...

Anonymous said...

Ken will not start a blog because it effectively leaves an audit trail.

Ken skewered Boris by mining his audit trail over at the Telegraph.

He is way too clever to be held to account by his own blog.

Anonymous said...

He likes Conservative home as it represents the small-minded, eurosceptic, anglo centric, metro centric views of the NUTTERS who run it and post on it.

Don't be fooled Ken.

Anonymous said...

I read Con Home too, though from a Tory perspective it is quite horrifying to see this influential group of people who think we should ape the more religious (Evangelicals) sections of the US Republicans.

I can see why Ken would read it to encourage him in his convictions about Tories but hopefully that sort of thing will be restricted to Tim Montgomerie and the member for Narnia in the next Parliament.

Anonymous said...

Glad you read this Ken.......Well you LOST...ha ha hah ha hah

Anonymous said...

I see ken was furious that Boris kept his £250k gig at the Telegraph. But even Ken can't afford to keep four children and two houses on the mayoral £137K...

So, in 2000, he hired Emma Beal from the Evening Standard and gave her a £95k non-job - as well as couple of kids.

Funny how that was NEVER reported in the eight years he was at the GLA...

Anonymous said...

Kenneth - how did you feel recently watching Boris wave the Olympic flag?

Anonymous said...

Boris Johnson doesn't know how to be Mayor. I never voted for him but at least Livingstone did.

Tom said...

"henry said...

anon.3.19.

"I will be voting labour at the next election."

I admire the sort of loyalty that verges on mental illness."

Yes. Voting for people who you won't be voting for is a strong indication.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't there a story on BBC News about Ken working as a consultant for Chavez?

Ah yes, here it is:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7585330.stm

Does this mean he'll go to Venezuela and we'll finally be rid of him?

Merseymike said...

Its rather entertaining just knowing that Johnson is going to make some almighty boo-boo - just a matter of waiting and enjoying.

Considering the meltdown of Labour Ken did remarkably well

Its interesting that only 'eccentric characters' appear to be considered by either main party. Alan Sugar? Come on! I know Labour have swung so much to the right that no-one will notice any real differences when there is a change of government, but he isn't remotely labour in any way at all.

As for ConservativeHome, they certainly represent a very unpleasant underbelly of the Tory party. Their influence will depend on how long it takes for the moralistic Right to try and gain influence for some of their pet projects. There are certainly Tories like Gove and bercow who will oppose them.