14 May 2012 With your support, we helped ensure that London didn't lurch back to the era of waste and cronyism under Ken Livingstone.
Many thanks to all our loyal readers and volunteers for your efforts.
The full results from the 2012 Mayoral election can be found on the London Elects website here.
Here's to four more years without Ken again!
2 May 2012 Lord Desai has joined the ranks of Labour Party members lacking enthusiasm for Ken Livingstone's mayoral bid.
The Labour peer accused Ken of "living in the past" and said that he lacks "new ideas." The damning comments come despite the fact that Lord Desai defied the party 12 years ago by backing Ken rather than Labour's official mayoral candidate.
In an interview with the Evening Standard, Lord Desai said that "London is changing so fast that I wish the Labour Party had found a better candidate…London does need a dynamic, innovative Mayor — there is no doubt about that. Ken just does not have it. It’s a lack of new ideas. When I see him talking, he is still talking about what he did before. He’s still living in the past."
Read the full Evening Standard article here.
Ken Livingstone, Labour, Lord Desai, Not Ken Again, NotKenAgain 2 May 2012 Part 2 of what key Labour Party members and supporters really think of Ken Livingstone:
"So we vote, and we campaign. But we do so without enthusiasm. It is stretching that loyalty an awful lot to ask us to continue to support a man who, in his recent history, has shown precious little to us."
Rob Marchant, March 7th 2012
"Your relentless cynicism and negativity is matched only by your hypocrisy. And I mind all three. London is one of the greatest cities in the world...I want to walk into that voting booth and know "this guy is the real deal".
"I don't feel that for you. I love Labour but more importantly I love London my country. I do not think you are good for either."
Jonathan Roberts, Labour Parliamentary candidate for Thirsk and Malton at the 2010 General Election, Labour Uncut, March 8th 2012
“...in the years since his defeat, Livingstone has, if anything, got worse, stubbornly refusing even to recognise, let alone apologise, for the hurt he has caused - and then adding to the pain”
“I am among the one in three Labour supporters in London who...cannot bring themselves to vote for the party’s candidate for Mayor.”
Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian, March 23rd 2012
You can win elections with the politics of divide and rule. You can ignore some communities, some areas, some demographics. You can win elections that way. But you cannot lead a city. You cannot command its respect. Unless you are willing and able to bring it together. 7 years ago, London was united under Ken Livingstone.
Now it feels divided, and I fear that Ken does not realise that he is aiding some of those divisions himself.
Mark Ferguson, Labour List, March 24th 2012
Referring to his Livingstone's tax avoidance: “If Labour’s candidate for mayor immolates himself over this issue, what does it say about the judgement of the party’s leaders who have backed him so strongly? And what does it mean for the image of the Labour party if one of its most senior figures becomes a walking talking model of “do as I say, not as I do”?
Atu Hatwal, Associate Editor, Labour Uncut, April 6th 2012
“I will assume that he has been engaged in a deliberate strategy of dividing one community from another. How better to tie up the vote of London’s million Muslims than by offering a story countenance to London’s 200,000 Jews? I don’t want a mayor anywhere whose politics pit one people against another. In the most diverse and tolerant city in the world it is a disgrace.”
Phillip Collins, Former Speechwriter to Tony Blair, The Time, March 30th 2012
“After its defeat in Bradford, Labour will be tempted to follow Livingstone’s lead and outflank Galloway on the religious right. It is for this reason that it is important that Londoners reject Livingstone, not just for London’s sake Britain’s sake but for the sake of the Labour Party.”
Nick Cohen, The Observer, April 1st 2012
I don’t really understand how we’ve arrived [in] the Labour Party at choosing Ken Livingstone, who has been shown to be quite a tricky sort of customer. I’d have thought we might have had a fresher view about how London might be led by Labour… I think the person who represents London, their personality is actually very important… I think [Ken’s] espoused some disastrous causes and some of his comments on international politics seem to me to be extremely unhealthy."
Lord Winston, April 24th 2012
I’m at a total loss as to why the Labour Party has decided to back Ken Livingstone in the mayoral election. In my opinion he is a driven, power-crazed egomaniac who will do anything to regain the power he once had...My advice to Londoners is to think carefully about where you put your cross on Thursday. I encourage people not to vote for Ken Livingstone but a candidate who cares about the community and will work in the interests of all Londoners and not just their own.
Lord Sugar, April 29th 2012
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.
Dan Hodges, May 2nd 2012
1 May 2012 On the Daily Politics show today former Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke openly criticised Ken Livingstone, said he should not have been selected as the Labour Mayoral candidate and that he is a figure of the past:
Question - Well Charles Clarke there is this strange sort of situation where Boris Johnson who wants to be the next Mayor and carry on his reign in London is more popular than the Conservative Party and Ken Livingstone, Labour's candidate, is less popular. Did you think that it was the right decision to keep Ken Livingstone as the candidate?
Sorry Ken, Not Again
