Ken Livingstone Should Remember LGBT Rights Are Not Like Karma

Ken Livingstone has been a constant friend to the movement for LGBT rights. He fought against Section 28, he brought in the London partnership register (which earned him a great deal of respect from me!) and he's been there by our side when the going has gotten tough. No one can take that away from him. But like many people in Labour, he suffers under a major delusion. Because of his past unblemished record he thinks that he is immune to doing something wrong. Ben Bradshaw fell into that trap this weekend, and now Ken Livingstone has clearly shown his opinion of himself.

'I was getting a load of abuse, openly campaigning for lesbian and gay issues,' said Livingstone.

'Loads of people assumed I was gay and I got a lot of flack for all that because I wasn’t going to insult the gay community by saying there’s something wrong with being gay.

'And he [Paddick] was in the closet. I was doing it for decades before he came out.'

I'm going to ignore the rather nasty implications of that comment (Straight person dictating that Paddick should've come out sooner*) as I don't think that's actually what Livingstone was trying to say (ditto for his gay banker comments and his very recent "riddled" with gays comment about the Tory party, yes I'm stretching "benefit of the doubt" to it's limits here). However it's clear Ken Livingstone thinks his past actions make him untouchable on LGBT rights. That, I'm afraid to say, is not the case. It's not karma; you don't build up brownie points. Being in favour of LGBT rights should be the default not something that makes you better than others.

The thing that bothers me most is Livingstone's defence of Yusuf al-Qaradawi. I understand politicians often have to engage with people who they'd rather not. David Trimble and Gerry Adams for example! And there's nothing wrong with someone reaching out to another community, even to people who aren't all that pleasant. There's quite a difference though in defending their actions and refusing to accept the evidence that they aren't pleasant. All Livingstone had to say was "Yes, I understand the concerns but I felt it better to engage with him than to shut down a conversation". Instead he says:

"“No. I made no effort to change it, this is what he said, and if I’m asked to judge a person on what I hear them say, or what I read about them in The Sun, sorry but I’m going to believe what I hear.”

I.e. I don't believe he is homophobic! al-Qaradawi has called for the death penalty for homosexuals and this is well-known and documented here. Livingstone's continued defence of these comments shows that either he's not listening or worse he's lying!

He wants to be a Mayor for all Londoners, he even got my 2nd preference at the last mayoral election, but he is unable to admit his mistakes. This makes me very concerned for what he might do in the future and who he might welcome to London.

Livingstone does not deserve to be Mayor again. He suffers from foot-in-mouth syndrome even more than Johnson does (and that's an achievement!) and seems unable to back down once he's said something that comes out the wrong way. He has none of the characteristics of a good leader, and all the characteristics of a very divisive one. 

Keep Ken out, for the good of all the communities of London.

*I'll admit I've had my issues with people not coming out in the past on this blog but at all times I was keen to stress it was because their actions (i.e. Nigel Evans) were hypocritical. People not coming out but also not doing anything to hurt others isn't something that bothers me, and I completely sympathise with why they may wish to stay in the closet.

If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist

STUPID!

Back in April my mate Russell from TVW sent me an email regarding the £100m Mosque in London. It took me two seconds on www.snopes.com to uncover the lie and I sent a rude email back to him suggesting he check his facts before forwarding emails. I will mention I hate getting forwarded emails...

Then over 3 months later and suddenly there is a petition on the 10 Downing Street site against the plan (and as far as I can tell it's one individual organisations plan with no Government backing nor planning permission).

The petition is framed with the statement:

"We the Christian population of this great country England would like the proposed plan to build a Mega Mosque in East London Scrapped. This will only cause terrible violence and suffering and more money should go into the NHS."

I am not even going to start on their use of the word "England". Dear Constant Readers will know how much that word annoys me.

I think the 268,840 people who signed the petition should be ashamed of themselves. Why? Because they are the kind of dumb arses who haven't even researched a subject that they supposedly feel so strongly about.

Here's Ken Livingstone's response.

Here's a part of the message I sent Russell which I stole from somewhere and can't remember where so sorry to the source!

Quote from LCGB forum in response to similar thread. Make of it what you will

“I've seen similar stories over the past year.

It's only right to point out that Ken Livingstone is NOT planning to use tax/ratepayers' money for such a mosque. And he has nothing to do with it either way.

Although no formal planning application has yet been made (and it may never be made), any decision would be taken by the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, a body formed on the basis of laws passed in 1980 under the previous Tory administration and used back then to set up the London Docklands DC.

IF it were ever approved in its talked-about form by the LTGDC, a big if, the organisers are planning to build it using private donations.

The mosque is planned to hold 10,000 worshippers, not 70,000 as has been mentioned, although up to 70,000 might fit in the grounds.

Slightly smaller numbers of up to 50,000 people can fit in the grounds of the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in north west London, the largest Hindu temple in the West, so something of this size is not unknown. I lived in the area both when it was built and for a couple of years afterwards and it never bothered the people of NW London in any way.

Moreover, this is an old story, which has become embellished over time by some people who, for their own reasons, don't have much time for Ken Livingstone.

Here is a link to the story, which first appeared in 2005: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article597161.ece

Sometimes I wonder if democracy is a good idea...