BBC.
Ok once we get passed the absurdity of any politician actually making it into heaven, just what exactly was he thinking? The joke wasn't even that funny, there was bound to be some sort of reaction vs the Godwins Law effect, so I suspect Ken as usual knew exactly what he was doing, he's way too experienced a politician to be caught off guard this way.London mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone has compared his battle to regain City Hall from Boris Johnson with the "great struggle between Churchill and Hitler".
Mr Livingstone's comments feature in Total Politics magazine.
Croydon Tory MP Gavin Barwell said: "Comparing rival politicians to Hitler is in incredibly poor taste."
But Mr Livingstone's aides said his comments were "light-hearted". City Hall declined to comment.
In comments, reported in the latest issue of the magazine, the former London Labour mayor said next year's mayoral race was "a simple choice between good and evil - I don't think it's been so clear since the great struggle between Churchill and Hitler."'Burn forever'
"The people that don't vote for me will be weighed in the balance, come Judgment Day," he continued.
"The Archangel Gabriel will say 'You didn't vote for Ken Livingstone in 2012.
"Oh dear, burn forever. Your skin flayed for all eternity.'"
Mr Livingstone added he would "come round with a serious pitch nearer the time".
Ken of course has form on various "blunders" of this type, the Jewish journalist he accused of being like a concentration camp guard being the most famous. He also claimed that "capitalism has killed more people than Hitler". But for sheer offensive idiocy it is hard to beat his comparison of the hardline Egyptian cleric Yusuf Qaradawi with Pope John XXIII. He also claimed once that "what Britain did in Ireland was worse than what Hitler did to the Jews". Even John Prescott said: "I wouldn't trust him as far as I could bloody throw him."
So, I have to figure as ever that Ken is playing to some sort of audience, I know the hard left will have loved it as they consider anyone not of the hard left to be some sort of fascist, they've practically debased the term to the extent that a lot of people don't realise what an actual fascist is, simply regarding it as an insulting term for a racist. Still, comparing your opponents to Hitler or Nazi's though is a staple tactic of the left, the SWP and the UAF do it all the time, though a quick check will actually tell you just who the real fascists or Nazi's are their very tactics give them away. So all I can think of is that it was some sort of sop to the "Tory Cuts" campaign I suspect he's going to try and base his campaign on the back of and putting the thought of the Tories in some peoples minds to be the equivalent of some sort of titanic struggle with the powers of darkness.
Either that or he's just an utter dickhead.
5 annotations:
"Either that or he's just an utter dickhead" ...
Absolutely QM .. and he should have been put down years ago for it ..
He's about as funny as penile warts ..
Boris should thank Ken for saying he is like Churchill
The last two words you write are the most probable truth: Red Ken is an utter dickhead. OR...only last week (or earlier this week?) he said that now there was a Labour leader that liked him...knowing how having Miliband minor as an ally is probably not the best thing Ken has decided to force Red Ed to come out and denounce him; only such utter dickheadedness would suffice.
He's just handed Boris the advantage.
The really vicious little worms like Livingstone should never be given a free pass on the "ha ha, only serious" pitch. He's vermin, a truly, thoroughly morally-reprehensible human being. People like that always feel they can retreat, having said something odious, under the cover of its having been 'ironic' or 'light-hearted' or 'a joke'. The whole point about irony is it's not ironic if you actually mean it.
Post a Comment