Subscribe‘Offensive’ Conservative Ousts London Mayor
From a deeply saddened Associated Press:
Outgoing mayor of London, the Labour Party candidate Ken Livingstone, left, stands beside the capital’s new mayor Conservative Party candidate Boris Johnson as the results are announced at City Hall in London, in the early hours of Saturday, May 3, 2008.
Eccentric opposition lawmaker ousts Labour mayor of London
By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press
LONDON - A Conservative lawmaker with a knack for offensive remarks ousted the left-wing mayor of London in an upset that capped the ruling Labour Party’s worst local election showing in four decades.
Results released early Saturday showed Boris Johnson defeating Ken Livingstone in Labour’s first test at the polls since then-Prime Minister Tony Blair handed the reins last year to Gordon Brown, who has since been dogged by accusations of indecision and incompetence…
“I do hope that it does show that the Conservatives have changed into a party that can again be trusted,” Johnson said, shortly after the result was announced to cheers from raucous supporters. “Let’s get cracking tomorrow and let’s have a drink tonight.” …
Livingstone — a staunch leftist who courted Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and faced off with the U.S. Embassy for unpaid congestion charges — said the blame for his defeat must rest at his door, not Brown’s.
“I accept that responsibility and I regret that I couldn’t take you to victory,” the veteran politician said, looking pale and crestfallen. He leaves office immediately…
Uncombed and often awkward, Johnson is known both his wit and for remarks that are have offended minority communities and others.
He labeled members of the Commonwealth “piccaninnies” — a derogatory term for black people, referred to Africans as having “watermelon smiles,” and likened his party’s internal conflicts “to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing.”
Johnson’s scorn has also been directed at gay marriage, which became legal in Britain in 2005. In his book “Friends, Voters, Countrymen,” he said that if homosexuals could marry then why not “three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog.”
Ex-party leader Michael Howard ordered Johnson to visit the northern city of Liverpool in 2004 to apologize after he wrote an editorial accusing the city’s people of “wallowing” in victimhood after Liverpudlian Ken Bigley was taken hostage in Iraq and beheaded.
Johnson has cultivated a befuddled, rumpled image and was often seen clumsily pedaling his bicycle to Parliament.
His campaign billboards featured silhouettes of his iconic poses — scratching his unruly thatch of blond hair, ambling along a road with hands stuffed in wrinkled pockets, gesticulating wildly to make a debating point…
Johnson said it is likely “there will be the odd ill-chosen expression” in his future…
Yes, Mr. Johnson is “eccentric” and given to offense.
But “Red” Ken is the cat’s whiskers according to the Associated Press. (After all, he has “courted” Mr. Chavez and stood up to the Americans.)
What media bias?
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13 Responses to “‘Offensive’ Conservative Ousts London Mayor”
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May 3rd, 2008 at 1:24 am
Did I miss something here? Almost everything about this guy in the article makes me wish he was running for POTUS. I love the spin in the article as to how this is a repudiation of conservatives when muslime a**kisser Livingstone got his a** handed to him. As you said SG, no bias here whatsoever. This is a promising sign and I can only hope that England finally awakens before it’s too late.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:30 am
Is this the same Ken Livingstone who compared a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard, and then REFUSED to apologise?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/eng.....286633.stm
Whereas Boris’ offence against Liverpool was blown all out of proportion (you can read the original article here):
http://www.spectator.co.uk/the.....fate.thtml
Yet Boris DID apologise for that:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3749548.stm
I once wrote to Boris Johnson to complain about a minor speeding offence, and he wrote me a brief yet gentlemanly reply. I don’t have the reply immediately to hand, but it was along the lines of ‘bad luck, it can happen to any of us’.
I am so pleased that Boris has won the Mayoral office … what this means is that in spite of the best efforts of the UK’s drive-by-media, Boris has managed to win the support of Londoners (because he’s the better man for the job).
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:36 am
“a staunch leftist” Take that!
and….
“courted Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez” That!
Well put Mr. Stringer! You have answered your own question as to how
lefties in Europe have been going down over the past few years. Also, what was stated above
is not working anymore, MSM. Neither is this:
“Uncombed and often awkward, Johnson is known both his wit and for remarks that are have offended minority communities and others”
Must make the MSM very sad and frightened to find that their insults and innuindos have no influence anymore. Also, the lefts lack of tolerance is shocking. I too am uncombed and awkward most of the time and this article makes me feel as though I am the target of hate speech.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:53 am
Here’s the British lefty press laying into Boris over his cannibalism remark:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/poli.....servatives
Here’s the quote:
“For 10 years we in the Tory party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing, and so it is with a happy amazement that we watch as the madness engulfs the Labour party”
Are you appalled by this? As far as I am concerned, all he is doing is using a simile. Yet liberals took offence, as if he was insulting the whole nation of New Guinea. Look, I have no interest in upsetting people in New Guinea. But it is what it is.
As a UK national I have to pay for the BBC to preach to me what an evil white imperialist I am for daring to have running water, and I am expected to spend the rest of my life wallowing in liberal guilt over the slave trade, and plastic bags, and light bulbs, and fairtrade, …..
Yet Boris makes a historically accurate if politically insensitive comparison (New Guinea really HAS had a cannibal history) and he is slammed by the liberal media as if he is a monster.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Guinea
——————————————————–
Can we assume that the Guardian is even handed with its attitudes to race relations?
What about its attitude towards Jeremiah Wright’s hate speech:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....ctions2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....aryclinton
“Wright, whose fiery sermons on America and race relations have stirred anger among some critics.”
Oh, so all he was doing is making intelligent discussion about race relations. I’m glad the Grauniad cleared that up … I thought he was preaching hatred against whites.
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:41 am
This is such good news! England was right on the precipice of falling from silly socialism (liberalism) into an islamic theocracy. Maybe this will turn the ship slightly back on course. Europe itself is starting to show great signs of life with France, Germany and Italy all righting right. We better pay attention as the creeping cancer of socialism eats away at our freedom…..
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:04 am
Great posts GE!
“Uncombed and often awkward, Johnson is known both his wit and for remarks that are have offended minority communities and others”
Johnson reminds me of the late great Wm. F. Buckley, Jr.!
Alright London!
May 3rd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Good for England! Looks as though they are waking up to reality at a faster pace than America is.
Thanks for the links, Greg England. If the MSM is at odds with him then that’s a good sign of his character and leadership.
“Yes, Mr. Johnson is “eccentric” and given to offense.”
My favorite type of people. :-)
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
@ LMGS
You beat me to it, would be awesome to have a President like him.
May 4th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Uh! Oh! The MSM is not the only one that’s not tickled pink that Boris Johnson won the election. Looks like Brown had to borrow Clinton’s “I feel your pain” speech.
From the BBC:
‘I feel voters’ hurt’, says Brown
Gordon Brown: ‘It’s not been the best weekend’
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he understands people’s “hurt”, in the aftermath of Labour’s worst local election results in 40 years.
Mr Brown told the BBC it had “not been the best weekend”, adding that voters were worried about rising petrol and food prices and utility bills.
“I do understand this and I feel the hurt that they feel,” he said.
Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said the government appeared to be short of ideas and in a “political vacuum”.
Labour’s poor local election results were topped by Ken Livingstone’s defeat by Boris Johnson in London’s mayoral race.
In his first interview following the results, Mr Brown told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “Of course we can recover from this position and I’ll tell you how.
“First of all by sorting out the immediate problem with the economy and showing people we can come through as we have in the past very difficult economic times.
“Secondly by showing people that we have the vision of the future that will carry this country optimistically in my view into its next phase.”
Labour suffered a net loss of 331 seats in local elections in England and Wales on 1 May and their projected share of the vote at 24% put them in third place behind the Liberal Democrats.
Left-wing MP John Cruddas wrote in an article in the Sunday Mirror that the party was “sinking fast” and working-class voters felt “let down” as Labour sought the middle-class vote.
Various newspapers have speculated about plans to oust Mr Brown as Labour leader - but the prime minister told the BBC: “I don’t believe many MPs are saying that” and said he did not accept that voters had deserted him.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_.....382674.stm
May 5th, 2008 at 2:57 am
So he was born in NYC and wants to be our POTUS one day?!?! Bring him over.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:16 am
“Insults” minorites?!? What did he do tell them to shut up and get a job?!? ROFLMAO. We definitely need to “insult” a lot of people over here also! Hmmmm…… President Johnson, has a nice ring to it doesn’t it?!?
May 5th, 2008 at 4:56 am
Boris Johnson has a complex political outlook that is not easily labelled:
For example, here’s a column he wrote about Iraq in 2005 criticising the invasion:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opi.....do2201.xml
Yet he’s also on record taking a strong stance against Islamist terrorists:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....ebate.html
Regardless of whether you share his views, he is … dare I say it … a maverick.
Now here’s a column written in the Grauniad claiming that he is a “hardline rightwinger”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/poli.....ves.london
John McCain take note!
May 9th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
“A Labour MP has triggered outrage when he said Londoners would have only themselves to blame if Boris Johnson mishandled the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the capital. ”
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6fby6y