'Red' Ken does it again!

[InsaneApache]

The idiot just can't help but put in size 12s in his gob, can he?

Ken Livingstone has compared events in China's Tiananmen Square to the history of protest in London's Trafalgar Square during a visit to Beijing.

China's human rights record was raised as he went to the site of the 1989 massacre. London's Mayor said his city also had an "interesting history".

He is in the 2008 Olympic Games host city to build trade and tourism links.

But some human rights campaigners said to compare the poll tax riots to the killings was an "insult" to the dead.

Auntie

and....

The London mayor has kept quiet about human rights abuses perpetrated by his Chinese hosts. I wonder why

KEN LIVINGSTONE would like to install a countdown clock for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, but is uncertain where to put it. I know, I know, but try to keep it clean, will you? Ken’s suggestion is Trafalgar Square. His fear is that it will be opposed by the conservatism of Westminster council, a body he bravely denounced on a fact-finding trip to the host city for the 2008 Games, Beijing. If only all leaders could be as enlightened as the Chinese, eh, Ken? If only the men and women of Westminster could be as foursquarely behind progress as our dear friend Wen Jiabao. Oh, come on folks, you’d pay good money for comedy like this over the West End.

Link

If I was a London ratepayer I'd want to know what he was doing in China, at my expense, in the first place.

I used to think he was just a newt fondling idiot. Now I think he's a newt fondling dangerous idiot.

[Marcellus]

Heh, I was just thinking of starting a thread on this...

I can't believe he did this. He really should have thought a little harder before he made the comparison.

No one died in London's poll tax riots and the police did not use tanks.

I think that sums up the differences nicely.

[English assassin]

Be fair, he was probably disorientated because there are no Jews in Beijing for him to insult.

[Duke Malcolm]

I thought that sort of thing was the duty of the Lord Mayor of London?

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

The political and the cultural background and context are not similar

Heh, understatement of the year. He could probably have added that what actually happened wasn't similar either...

Also-the Peterloo massacre? What the hell?!

[InsaneApache]

As a Mancunian I grew up with the 'Peterloo' massacre. It really doesn't bear any resemblance with what happened in Tiananmen Square. A few drunken (and scared) militiamen on horseback with swords 200 years ago cannot compare with modern day tanks and troops.

Hmmm...I feel a Monastery thread coming on....

[Kanamori]

One does have to admire how well he makes himself look aloof though, and how well it works on voters. At least I hope he intends it. By the way, what's up with "aunty" being a source? Is it Midlands and up thing?

[Duke Malcolm]

Auntie is one of the most reputable news and general broadcasting agencies in the world, and certainly the most renown, so there is no better source...

[Kanamori]

hehe.

[InsaneApache]

Auntie is one of the most reputable news and general broadcasting agencies in the world, and certainly the most renown, so there is no better source...

Stop teasing our American friends.

Auntie Beeb is one of our little jokes about the BBC.

Auntie Beeb

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

As a Mancunian I grew up with the 'Peterloo' massacre.

damn, I knew you were a bit older than most people here, but not that old!

[InsaneApache]

damn, I knew you were a bit older than most people here, but not that old!

haha...bloody leek crunchers....

I meant it was still talked about by my great-Grandmother who was born in 1874. I think some of her (mine) great-Uncles were there. She died when I was 8 years old.



I shall make enquiries from my dad.

[Duke of Gloucester]

Was he referring to the Poll Tax riots or did he have something else in mind? For example:

The original Bloody Sunday

I expect even he knows that Peterloo happened in Manchester.

btw IA, I hope no-one else in Keighley reads this board or they will be expelling you. In a previous thread you described it as being "part of Bradford" and now you have admitted to being a Lancastrian! Your passionate support for Landlord ale is insufficient mitigation.

[InsaneApache]

I expect even he knows that Peterloo happened in Manchester.

btw IA, I hope no-one else in Keighley reads this board or they will be expelling you. In a previous thread you described it as being "part of Bradford" and now you have admitted to being a Lancastrian! Your passionate support for Landlord ale is insufficient mitigation.

hehe I never claimed to be born in Yorkshire, in fact I have often stated that I am a Mancunian, although one of my sons, one grandson and three grand-daughters are Tykes ( ahh bless 'em).

And Timmy Taylors is still one of the best.

people from Keighley are strange though

[BDC]

I'm surprised. I would have expected Ken to have been deported by now, forcibly.

[Don Corleone]

I must give our cousins across the pond due credit. You're doing remarkably well with such a 'scandal'.

If Ray Nagin (the bonehead from New Orleans who decided 2000 busses weren't needed) were in Red Ken's shoes, we'd be apopletic over here. The right would be screaming for his head on a stake for treason, and the left would be falling over themselves defending him. The fact that you all can give each other the business, but in a friendly way, speaks very highly of you.

Have you ever noticed how Idaho lays low when these discussions of how wretched the honorable Lord Mayor truly is come to the surface?

As an aside, I strongly suspect your man Ken is holed up at the Grand Hyatt (about 2 blocks from Tianamen and a very swank hotel) and the Party has seen to it several rather attactive young ladies have joined him for evening cocktail parties in the bar. Such public statements are one way to ensure the 'tea-parties' continue.... The nationalistic Chinese (and actually, I've found most aren't) love hearing two things out of Westerners 1) we have misjudged them and maybe human rights aren't so bad 2) we could stand to learn a thing or two from their models of capitalsim. I can stomach the latter, as there's more than a little truth there. Being as he's "Red" Ken, I imagine he couldn't bring himself to that and had to focus on the former.

[InsaneApache]

The thing is Don, (BTW congrats on gettin' bail , and I got that money I owe you, it's in the post )we British have a healthy scepticism and distrust of our 'overlords', personally I think it comes from our republican days, so when they act like imbeciles and onanists, we are seeing what we expected anyway.

Now a politician that actually listened to and acted upon the wishes of the electorate after they get elected would be nice, but not remotely in sight, sadly.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Now a politician that actually listened to and acted upon the wishes of the electorate after they get elected would be nice, but not remotely in sight, sadly.

Run for office then...

It's a real shame about Ken, he's quite a character, and I quite like some of his policies, but he's unfortunately a bit of a numpty when it comes to some things.

[Marcellus]

It's a real shame about Ken, he's quite a character, and I quite like some of his policies, but he's unfortunately a bit of a numpty when it comes to some things.

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

"numpty"

beautiful Scots word, I'm glad to see it has made its way elsewhere.

Now "teuchter" must be popularised too.

oh, yeah, to keep it on topic, Red Ken is definitely a numpty but I'd be shocked if he were a teuchter.

[lancelot]

I hate Ken with a passion, even more after he got repremanded for his jew comments and yet has still somehow escaped any real punishment....

Didnt he appeal or something? and lo and behold his punishment was overturned?

And what does he actually do? apart from insult various cultural groups and tax raod users for a public transport system that still doesnt get any better.

[InsaneApache]

He keeps newts.

[JAG]

He is in China on an official visit along with other members connected with the Olympics - Lord Coe included, but then again, he is a Tory so doesn't get the same harrassing and damnation.

He said a couple of silly remarks, but as ever it has to be plastered all over the press and news as some terrible statement etc, which is bollocks. So what if he says some silly things sometimes, the fact remains he does a lot of good and does them for the ordinary worker on the street of any London town - which is why we vote for him and why he was easily our Mayor. Also why he will be in the position for a long time to come, the more the right wing press blow his comments out of all proportion the more ordinary people don't give a flying....

[Ice]

Also why he will be in the position for a long time to come, the more the right wing press blow his comments out of all proportion the more ordinary people don't give a flying....

It is very interesting what you classify as "ordinary".

[Red Peasant]

I wouldn't bother JAG.

Somebody keeps churning out these kind of threads for a bit of what passes as 'commie-bashing' fun in these parts. It's a cheap and easy way to get your threads noticed on this forum. The good'ole boys take the bait and bash away! Yee-hah!

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

I wouldn't bother JAG.

Somebody keeps churning out these kind of threads for a bit of what passes as 'commie-bashing' fun in these parts. It's a cheap and easy way to get your threads noticed on this forum. The good'ole boys take the bait and bash away! Yee-hah!

If by "good'ole boys" you are implying Americans then I think you should look at the thread more closely. Only 2 Americans have made any comments (Kanamori and Don) and the rest have been English Scottish or Welsh members.

[Don Corleone]

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, Red Peasant, but any discussion of Josef Stalin as a 'less than perfect' leader could be equally dismissed as

'commie-bashing' fun in these parts. It's a cheap and easy way to get your threads noticed on this forum. The good'ole boys take the bait and bash away! Yee-hah!

I'm not making a straw man comparing Ken Livingstone to Josef Stalin, such a comparison would be ludicrous. My point is that just because Ken Livingstone happens to be a member of a political party most Americans philosophically disagree with, does not mean any criticism we level at the man for whitewashing the brutal putdown of a student protest can be swept under the rug as McCarthyism. Sorry, just because he's a socialist doesn't mean he can publicly defend a massacre and not be called for it.

[Red Peasant]

You assume wrongly Taff, and maybe you feel left out . I was giving the term a more generalized, internazionale touch. There are lots of homegrown rednecks here in the UK (and elsewhere) to offend as well!

[Red Peasant]

Stalin!? What are you on about?

Oh dear, the tragi-comic descent of another thread into a complete farce continues apace, and my role was only minor ... maybe a best supporting actor nomination at the best.

[Don Corleone]

Oh Red, I had so much hope you'd be able to step past the siren's call of screaming 'Straw Man', and I even tried to help you along in my post.

Okay, so since 1) Ken Livingstone is a socialist and 2) we all agree that anyone who's not a socialist is a greedy neanderthal... then we should assume that anything Ken says must be good? I think there's a syllogism in here somewhere.... but, which premise could it be?

Your entire defense of Ken Livingstone's statement is (paraphrasing here) "Well, people that criticize Ken Livingstone are rednecks that like to bash socialists'? Am I missing anything? Please tell me a bright, engaging fellow such as yourself can do better than this...