Ken Livingstone
I'm not a huge fan of Ken Livingstone's politics, but I do admire his willingness to stand up and say what he thinks. In an age where principle is conflated with unelectability, he's managed to consistently speak his mind and get away with it.
His remarks in this case are unremarkable - the only remarkable thing about the whole incident is how extreme his remarks appear to be because of the inherent pro-Israeli bias in the mass media. That Ariel Sharon is a war criminal is virtually incontrovertible according to any objective metric.
It's also pretty interesting the way his earlier 'concentration camp' remarks have been taken out of their context. The reporter in question works for a paper with a long history of supporting Fascism (the Evening Standard), and that very paper had been responsible for a long-running vendetta against gays and lesbians, as well as a long-running vendetta against Mr. Livingstone himself. The mayor was assailed outside of a party commemorating the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith becoming Britain's first openly gay MP.
He was questioned repeatedly in a very obstreperous, antagonistic manner. When the journalist justified his behaviour with the old standard 'I was just doing my job', Mr Livingstone likened him to a concentration camp guard who was just in it for the money.
Sure, the comment wasn't the smartest thing to say, and it's unsurprising that it has been blown up into a massive slight against the Jewish community... but still, let's not forget there were two sides to the exchange. Everything I read these days leaves the impression of a poor Jewish journalist who was spontaneously SLANDERED by Livingstone, rather than the more accurate impression of an exasperated insult against the typical tabloid-thuggishness of the reactionary press.
His remarks in this case are unremarkable - the only remarkable thing about the whole incident is how extreme his remarks appear to be because of the inherent pro-Israeli bias in the mass media. That Ariel Sharon is a war criminal is virtually incontrovertible according to any objective metric.
It's also pretty interesting the way his earlier 'concentration camp' remarks have been taken out of their context. The reporter in question works for a paper with a long history of supporting Fascism (the Evening Standard), and that very paper had been responsible for a long-running vendetta against gays and lesbians, as well as a long-running vendetta against Mr. Livingstone himself. The mayor was assailed outside of a party commemorating the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith becoming Britain's first openly gay MP.
He was questioned repeatedly in a very obstreperous, antagonistic manner. When the journalist justified his behaviour with the old standard 'I was just doing my job', Mr Livingstone likened him to a concentration camp guard who was just in it for the money.
Sure, the comment wasn't the smartest thing to say, and it's unsurprising that it has been blown up into a massive slight against the Jewish community... but still, let's not forget there were two sides to the exchange. Everything I read these days leaves the impression of a poor Jewish journalist who was spontaneously SLANDERED by Livingstone, rather than the more accurate impression of an exasperated insult against the typical tabloid-thuggishness of the reactionary press.
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