Friday, August 19, 2011
Clash of the egos
If anybody ever doubted that the forthcoming London Mayor election was going to be anything but a huge clash of egos between Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnston then this Independent piece should rapidly bring them back to reality.
The author, Andy McSmith writes: In Dante's Inferno, the ninth and innermost circle of hell is reserved for those who have committed vile acts of treachery against people who had reason to trust them, such as Cain, and Judas Iscariot.
And into that same terrifying pit of fire will be cast those London voters who commit the unforgivable act next May of not voting to return their former mayor, Ken Livingstone, back into the office he loves.
At least that is how things stand if you believe Mr Livingstone. The 66-year-old is living up to his reputation for unpredictability and a love of attention by threatening eternal damnation on residents of the capital who fail to give him their vote in his forthcoming showdown with Boris Johnson.
He also suggested that the mayoral contest between him and Mr Johnson will be the clearest choice between right and wrong since Winston Churchill took on the Third Reich.
"It's a simple choice between good and evil," Mr Livingstone said. "I don't think it's been so clear since the great struggle between Churchill and Hitler.
"The people that don't vote for me will be weighed in the balance, come Judgement Day. The Archangel Gabriel will say, 'You didn't vote for Ken Livingstone in 2012. Oh dear, burn forever. Your skin flayed for all eternity'."
Even as a joke that is appallingly bad taste and should give pause to Ed Miliband as to whether he really wants this man representing his party next May. Ken has also compared Boris Johnson's chief of staff, Edward Lister, to the Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic.
Hopefully, these over-the-top comments will give Londoners pause for thought and they will opt instead for a candidate who is serious about how he or she portrays London to the outside World. When will the Liberal Democrat selection process be completed?
The author, Andy McSmith writes: In Dante's Inferno, the ninth and innermost circle of hell is reserved for those who have committed vile acts of treachery against people who had reason to trust them, such as Cain, and Judas Iscariot.
And into that same terrifying pit of fire will be cast those London voters who commit the unforgivable act next May of not voting to return their former mayor, Ken Livingstone, back into the office he loves.
At least that is how things stand if you believe Mr Livingstone. The 66-year-old is living up to his reputation for unpredictability and a love of attention by threatening eternal damnation on residents of the capital who fail to give him their vote in his forthcoming showdown with Boris Johnson.
He also suggested that the mayoral contest between him and Mr Johnson will be the clearest choice between right and wrong since Winston Churchill took on the Third Reich.
"It's a simple choice between good and evil," Mr Livingstone said. "I don't think it's been so clear since the great struggle between Churchill and Hitler.
"The people that don't vote for me will be weighed in the balance, come Judgement Day. The Archangel Gabriel will say, 'You didn't vote for Ken Livingstone in 2012. Oh dear, burn forever. Your skin flayed for all eternity'."
Even as a joke that is appallingly bad taste and should give pause to Ed Miliband as to whether he really wants this man representing his party next May. Ken has also compared Boris Johnson's chief of staff, Edward Lister, to the Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic.
Hopefully, these over-the-top comments will give Londoners pause for thought and they will opt instead for a candidate who is serious about how he or she portrays London to the outside World. When will the Liberal Democrat selection process be completed?
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No my ego could not hope to match Lembit's. The selection is already underway. I am just not sure when they will announce a winner.
A strange comparison by KL and one that may rebound on him: Churchill, a product of a private school and a Conservative, against Hitler, a National Socialist. Commentators are already recalling Livingstone's nasty remarks to a Jewish journalist who criticised him.
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