Adieu Ken Livingstone
![]() | By Jonathan Hoffman
May 6, 2012 | Share |
Boris Johnson is a supremely gifted man. His command of the written and spoken English language is sans pareil. He writes at lightning speed. He has bucketfuls of charisma - his personality is as powerful at an Afro-Caribbean husting as it is at a Jewish Charity dinner or at Mayor's Question Time. He has impeccable judgment - he knows when to be jokey and when to be serious. And he's very modest. It was not Johnson who told the Press how he had come to the aid of a woman under attack in Camden:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8340865.stm
So congratulations to this thoroughly decent guy (and his campaign team) on a terrific win on Thursday. It was a very different campaign from 2008. Then there was a real bandwagon effect: Johnson started off as a no-hope candidate but as revelations mounted about Livingstone's profligacy at City Hall (eg £36000 for him and his entourage to go to Cuba and Venezuela, and producing "The Londoner", a propaganda sheet read by no-one) so support for Johnson mounted. This campaign was a joyless slog with Johnson doggedly defending his many successes and insisting that Livingstone's plan to cut underground fares by 7% was uneconomic.
What about Livingstone and the Jewish Community?
http://www.timesofisrael.com/livingstone-narrowly-loses-london-mayor-rac...
Undoubtedly Livingstone is unacceptable to the vast majority of Jewish Londoners. He has told me for example three times that Israel should not have been created:
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=93538
The third time he lied that the previous Chief Rabbi said the same thing.
And undoubtedly those Jews who stuck with Livingstone despite all the evidence wil be examining their consciences:
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/66873/labour-jews-still-critical-endor...
Even Jonathan Freedland refused to support him!
But there was a very heartening statistic in an opinion poll in The Times last week (1 May):
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3400464.ece
40% of those who intended to vote for Johnson said that Livingstone's poor relationship with the Jewish Community was either a very or a quite important influence on their voting decision.
(See Table 16 here (Boris Johnson column) for the source of that 40% figure:)
http://www.populus.co.uk/uploads/Times-May-2012.pdf
In other words Livingstone's distaste for Israel and her Jewish supporters was not a vote winner.
It was a vote loser.
I find that very heartening. Antisemitism should never be just a Jewish problem.
Postscript:
Two excellent pieces from a centre Left writer - Rob Marchant - here:
http://thecentreleft.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/difficult-decision.html
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/livingstone-failed-be...
COMMENTS
Mon, 05/07/2012 - 11:31 Rate this: 0 points | This is not about Brian Coleman . It's a commentary on Livingstone , a mayoral candidate for London who deliberately set and succeeded to alienate Londons Jewish community . |
Mon, 05/07/2012 - 15:02 Rate this: 0 points | ARRIVEDERCI COLEMANBALLS. I see your mate and fellow buffoon Colemanballs got the heave ho Hoffie.In addition to being a hopeless " Israel advocate " you seem to be a crap " election agent ". Obviously the Jewish voters of Barnet saw through his faux carpetbagging " Zionism". http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/ The lunatic fringe of the Zionist Federation demonstrating in support of Colemanballs outside Hendon town hall, before going inside and eating the biscuits meant for Barnett Council Standards Committee. http://hoffmanchronicled.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/protest20coleman20b... |
Mon, 05/07/2012 - 15:32 Rate this: 0 points | Gosh, silly me. There was I thinking there was a strong swing away from the Conservatives for essentially national reasons which saw both Richard Barnes and Brian Coleman lose office.... But the brilliant psephologist RRZ - who cannot even get people's names right - thinks otherwise. We are so privileged to have such a rapier sharp brilliant political strategist in our midst. And thanks to Mrs Millis (his Mummy) for letting him play on her computer. |
Mon, 05/07/2012 - 15:57 Rate this: 0 points | Jonny boy please be gentleman enough to spare my blushes |
Mon, 05/07/2012 - 16:56 Rate this: 0 points | Ah yet another pseudo identity revealed, should have guessed the real identity RRZ is just as odious. I ran a continuous run to the polling station for my elderly and infirm neighbours who are mostly not Jewish but hated Red Ken and what he did to London. I sincerely hope that I contributed to Boris's win. |
Mon, 05/07/2012 - 17:09 Rate this: 0 points | Janet honey I am sure you did. If I a) was eligible to vote in that election and b) was sufficiently disordered to vote in elections, I would have voted for Boris too. Boris is at least at where he is at. Ken and Colemanballs are carpetbaggers. Let's hope Boris can go one better than Mussolini, and not be erroniously famous for making the trains run on time but be famous for actually making them run on time !!! |
Mon, 05/07/2012 - 17:23 Rate this: 0 points | Speaking of elections. When are the next ZF elections due ? |
Mon, 05/07/2012 - 17:43 Rate this: 0 points | Jonathan you are so sexy when you draw attention to someone's misspelling |
Tue, 05/08/2012 - 10:53 Rate this: 0 points | excellent summary, jonathan, with links to back everything up (except that the Times article is behind a paywall just one caveat …
… statistically, this is of very doubtful value … the question is telling the respondents that he had a poor relationship, something which they might not otherwise have been aware of, or have believed a better question would have been …
|
Tue, 05/08/2012 - 12:01 Rate this: 0 points | Jonathan linking to sources quoting Jonathan backs everything up? |
Tue, 05/08/2012 - 12:52 Rate this: 0 points | I think goldfish has persuaded herself that she has house trained Jonny. He is lying again of course. |
Tue, 05/08/2012 - 13:10 Rate this: 0 points | " He has told me for example three times that Israel should not have been created:" |
Tue, 05/08/2012 - 13:25 Rate this: 0 points | RRZ maybe he did. Ken and J.Hoff would have worked in the same building for a long time I'm guessing. Maybe they took their lunch together in the break room.... |
Tue, 05/08/2012 - 14:12 Rate this: 0 points | By far the best news last week is that Brian Coleman was booted out. |
Tue, 05/08/2012 - 14:14 Rate this: 0 points | Sorry RRZ - I notice that you had already posted the demise of Coleman. I was so busy rejoicing I didn't notice. Hoffman's brothers in arms - the far right - did real bad also. Thankfully. |
Tue, 05/08/2012 - 14:20 Rate this: 0 points | Hoffman - what has Boris done in the past four years for London? (You didn't mention any of his achievements in your short hagiography) |
Tue, 05/08/2012 - 14:27 Rate this: 0 points | Or maybe Kenny did all the work and Hoffie did all the blogging. Or maybe they took it in turns. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 10:02 Rate this: 0 points | suzanna frankly I could not care two hoots what Boris has or has not done for London over the past four years only that his being mayor has meant that the rabid supporter of an anti-Semitic homophobic mysogynist Mullah has not! |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 13:15 Rate this: 0 points | Thank the lord that Brian Coleman has gone. Rejoice, rejoice. Adieu Coleman you rabid, misogynist hater. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 13:50 Rate this: 0 points | Brian Coleman was voted out 'cos he is not fit for purpose. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 14:02 Rate this: 0 points | Please provide proof of your libellous allegations - oh you can't - what a surprise - Not They are yet again the febrile ramblings of a demented antisemitic mind, directed at a man whose support of Israel and of his 130,000 Jewish constituents against antisemitism was unstinting. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 14:08 Rate this: 0 points | ".....directed at a man whose support of Israel and of his 130,000 Jewish constituents against antisemitism was unstinting..." Well we can conclude that they saw through his faux carpet bagging Zionism or we can conclude that these constituents are a pretty ungrateful bunch. Or maybe that they tired of an oaf who was totally incapable of behaving in accordance with the standards expected of an elected official. Hmmmm do we know anyone else like that ? Ask not for whom the bell tolls Jonny boy. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 14:09 Rate this: 0 points | 'Libellous allegations'? That's all you do. You can't do anything else. You are incapable of doing anything other than libelling people. Thinking that Coleman was a d**k head does not make me - or all the other thousands who voted against him - antisemetic. To think otherwise is 'febrile' and 'demented' |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 14:14 Rate this: 0 points | Libel, misrepresentation and smearing Typical of the anti-Israel bigots Finkelstein called you a 'cult' but he was too kind........ |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 14:40 Rate this: 0 points | Oooh - you are so manly making reference to the C word. Why don't you just come out with it, the C word. And don't quote Finkelstein. That would be dumb. We mind quote him back at you. Have I been promoted from an anti semite to an #anti-Israel bigot' now? |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 14:53 Rate this: 0 points | You obviously are not aware that Finklestein called them a cult so your mind automatically searched under the stone you inhabit and came up with the C word. You are in good company with RRZ he speaks the same language. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 15:00 Rate this: 0 points | Jonathan you have been good ( ish ) for a few days. I was even thinking there might be some hope after all. You even wrote a half decent blog. Except you just had to spoil it by over egging your case merely in order to get the word " me" in. And now look at you...... |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 15:04 Rate this: 0 points | I am well aware what Finklestein said - it's repeated ad nausea. I think JH was playing with words and insinuated that I was a C. But he is not man enough to say it. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 15:21 Rate this: 0 points | On 2 May Advis3r asked Mary:
Mary failed to respond. No surprise at all. That's the BDS mob for you: slander, smears and lies |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 15:25 Rate this: 0 points | Hey Jonathan - how many times have people asked you to outline your vision on israel / Palestine? How many times? And have you ever provided us with one? No None. Come on. What are you waiting for? Now is your time to let us in on your vision for Palestine / Israel. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 15:29 Rate this: 0 points | Or he could go back to work and stop blogging on taxpayer funded work time.... |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 15:30 Rate this: 0 points | Jonathan I wouldn't be a member of any BDS that would have me. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 15:33 Rate this: 0 points | Jonathan - what is your vision for Israel / Palestine? |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 15:38 Rate this: 0 points | Jonny boy, just for the record Finklestein did not call ME a cult. The cult to which he was referring will always be bigger than your cult. How many do you number now? 4? 5? 6? Or have things gone down hill since these figures were appropriate? Suzanna, Jonny's not going to answer you, but very shortly I will answer for him. Just for the moment I will say this. It's not pretty. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 15:39 Rate this: 0 points | Joshua - haven't you worked it out yet? J. Hoffman only does hate, badmouthing, gloating, libel, hate, rants, hate . . . If he has a vision - why doesn't he divulge it? I think I know why. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 15:42 Rate this: 0 points | RRZ - Jonathan could quite easily impart some positives and let un into his vision for Israel / Palestine. But he can only seem to operate on negatives and hate. Come on Jonathan - tell us your vision. It can't be that difficult. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 15:45 Rate this: 0 points | Sharon Klaff? Who is she? (A quick search and I discover she is another hater) |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 16:00 Rate this: 1 point | I'm betting Jonathan is a no borders anarchist. That he is a no stater. Come on Jonathan it's nothing to be ashamed of. Some of my best friends..... |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 16:05 Rate this: 0 points | Come on Jonatahn don't keep us waiting. Tell us how you see the future for Palestine / Israel. |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 16:20 Rate this: 0 points | anything yet? Any update on JH's vision for Israel / Palestine? |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 16:22 Rate this: 0 points | According to the Bds face book wall the brothers and sisters over in N5 are advertising an event with the Golden Dome on the flyer . The only problem is they call it the al Asqa Mosque |
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 16:23 Rate this: 0 points | No nothing. One way to shut the haters up is to ask them to explain how they would solve the Palestine / Israel issue. |
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Harvey
Mon, 05/07/2012 - 11:23
Rate this:
It's an utter disgrace that Labour deliberately ignored the concerns of Londons Jewish community in their selection of Livingstone as mayoral candidate . Livingstone alienated the community long ago when he labelled a news reporter a concentration camp guard , refusing to apologise even when he was told the reporter was Jewish . He followed that up by embracing an antisemitic homophobic hate preacher now banned from the UK .
Other jibes included telling Jewish businessmen to go back to Iran and live with the Ayotollahs . Quite ironic as he was prepared to work for Press Tv , state propaganda mouth piece for a vile cruel regime . His true colours were further exemplified by telling a group of prominent Jewish Labour supporters that ' he did not expect the wealthy Jewish community to vote for him . Much of this was pure cynical political calculation , Londons Muslim population being five times the size of the Jewish community . Thankfully , Londons Muslims saw through this and rejected him on policy alone .
At least with Galloway , while he set out his stall based on winning the Muslim vote , he did not alienate one section of the community unlike Livingstone .
It's interesting to note that MPAC are mourning his loss .
That in itself says everything you need to know about Livingstone .
Thankfully he is gone now . For that we can rejoice .