Ken Livingstone, the mudthrower

Here are some of the background stories featured in the video (and others too):

Mayor's BNP outburst at Phillips: London's mayor has accused the head of the UK's race watchdog of "pandering to the right" so much that "soon he'll be joining the BNP" - BBC

Mayor is suspended over Nazi jibe: London's mayor has been suspended from office on full pay for four weeks for comparing a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard - BBC

Attacked gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell: "Unburdened by diplomatic sensitivities, the mayor compared a Jewish journalist to a "Nazi concentration camp guard", called civil rights campaigner Peter Tatchell "an Islamaphobe" and admitted: "I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi royal family are swinging from lampposts."  Livingstone is an arrogant bully. After so many years at the top, he is starting to breathe his own exhaust. His self-regard is becoming self-destructive. What began as a light whiff of dodgy dealings by one of his apparatchiks has rapidly developed into a stench of sleaze at City Hall." - Jeff Randall in The Telegraph

Investigative journalist attacked: After Martin Bright (a married father) had proved Ken Livingstone to be drinking alcohol at 10am, Ken Livingstone attacked Martin Bright as "like a 40-year-old virgin still living with his parents." Source: Guardian.

Attacks on Andrew Gilligan: "Livingstone would seek to divert attention from those uncomfortable facts [on alleged corruption], and those unanswerable questions, by fanning a giant dust-cloud towards his accusers. So I have been accused by the mayor of politically motivated smears, of fraud, of racism, even, quite literally at one point, of murder (of David Kelly, of course - do keep up)." - Gilligan himself writing for The Guardian's Comment is free

Whistleblower is smeared: "A former key adviser to Ken Livingstone today tells how he and others breached the strict rules governing political campaigning, including raising money from donors for the Mayor of London's election campaign.  The claims have prompted a ferocious rebuttal from the mayor's office, which yesterday described Atma Singh, 47, Livingstone's policy adviser on Asian affairs between 2001 and 2007, as an 'embittered ex-employee' who was 'removed' from his job." - Observer

No answers, just smears: "There are also allegations that his London Development Agency made grants to dubious businesses linked to Lee Jasper, a close adviser, a charge that Mr Livingstone dismisses as a smear." - Economist

Smearing The Evening Standard because of its investigations into Livingstone's crony, Lee Jasper: "Livingstone accuses the paper of a "dirty racist campaign" against Jasper." - Guardian

Attacked US Ambassador as a "crook": "Mr Livingstone's style also draws ire. He is truculent, calling the American ambassador to London a “chiselling little crook” for not making embassy officials pay the congestion charge." - Economist

Harassment and bullying of staff: Detailed by Atma Singh in The Times

Watch Ken Livingstone 'lose it' during a General Assembly session:

Add your own in the thread below.  Please give sources or your comment may be deleted.

Comments

[LondonLX]

Excellent.... do you have a image/banner for themudthrower.com to stick on me website?

[bluepatriot]

Great fun; I'll forward it to some friends....

[Leon]

Cheap looking and boring. Can't you come up with something more creative than this?

[Svejk]

The person narrating it has a seriously annoying voice - sounds like a fourteen year old whose balls haven't dropped yet..

[Jennifer Wells]

The voice isn't great but it's a good reminder of Ken's readiness to abuse everyone who crosses him.

[Lambeth voice]

I do not have the precise quotation, or what if anything was the immediate disagreement which caused the outburst, but Livingstone smeared the whole Lib Dem group on Lambeth Council, when they had a LibDem/Tory administration in 2002-06, as racists. Even though they weren't the most competent Council administration known to man, it was a ridiculous charge and has not been forgotten by the local Lib Dems as they ponder their second preference votes.

[dirty european socialist]

Mud, Mud Mud glorious mud. They all tho mud.

[Editor]

We don't have special banners etc but I hope the simple link - themudthrower.com - makes linking nice and simple.

[Conservative Homer]

That second video exemplifies why livingstone is an national embarrassment and those whom elected him a disgrace to London.
Just broadcasting that video in full to the public is the best election advert Boris Johnson could wish to have.

[B.Garvie]

Londoners are fed up with such embarrassing behaviour from a third rate Labour candidate. Livingston is an utter disgrace.

Boris will bring much needed 'fresh air' into London politics. All sections of the community will be well represented by Boris's genuine sense of fairness.

[M. Karim]

Shame it sticks when he throws at Boris :/

[Jill, London]

I would like to add further information on Comrade Livingstone’s anti-Semitism, considering he’s trying to wriggle out of his “concentration camp” comments to the Evening Standard’s Oliver Finegold by declaring that journalists deserve such treatment – although this altercation followed a ‘bun fight’ at City Hall paid for by London taxpayers!

This also picks up on a comment made by Boris at a recent mayoral hustings, and betrays Comrade Livingstone’s ‘form” for anti-Semitism, and likening Jewish people to Nazis:

“Some of the most transparently antisemitic material can be found in the newspaper Labour Herald. Now defunct, the paper was co-edited by Ken Livingstone, at the time leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) and presently Mayor of London. As well as printing gushing propaganda on behalf of the North Korean regime ('It is impossible not to be impressed by the achievements of the Korean people…Pyongyang is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, full of magnificent buildings') (36), Labour Herald, with Livingstone at the helm, ran cartoons which outdid the other Leftists papers when it came to wounding and insulting Jewish memories. During the Lebanon war, the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, was depicted wearing an SS uniform replete with a 'Death's Head' cap, with the Star of David replacing swastika on his armband. His right arm was raised in a Nazi salute and he stood upon a pile of corpses. The cartoon was headed, in gothic script, 'The Final Solution'. A speech bubble has Begin saying, in the rhythms and cadences of a stereotypical Jewish trader, 'Shalom? Who needs Shalom with Reagan behind you?'. (37)” Link: http://www.axt.org.uk/HateMusic/essay_cohen_delegitimisation.htm

In March 2005, Comrade Livingstone claims to have a “long record of opposition to anti-Semitism” [!] but still calls Ariel Sharon “a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office” – Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-ken5mar05,0,1292602.story?coll=la-home-world

It has been written elsewhere about Comrade Livingstone’s ideological blindness such as likening the Tiananmen Square massacre to the ‘poll tax’ riots in Trafalgar Square. But what about his London taxpayers’ funded Cuban visits – this one in December 2006 when he accuses others of double standards in a GLA press release! [Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the biggest hypocrite of all? Clue - initials KL.] But what just about beats all is the assertion that Castro – Communist dictator – is environmentally ‘green’: “'With regard to environmental issues one thing that is very striking is that everywhere you go the Cubans have installed energy saving light bulbs.” Comrade Livingstone is more concerned about saving energy than saving lives! Link: http://www.london.gov.uk/view_press_release.jsp?releaseid=10289