Thoughts on Barnbrook Suspension

BNP member Richard Barnbrook has been suspended by Barking and Dagenham Council for bringing his office into disrepute. He has also been censured by the GLA. See here for the full story and here for the report concluding that he had breached the Code of Conduct.

Here are two thoughts. The first is that this was clearly politically motivated. Apparently Barnbrook lied saying that three people had been murdered in Barking and Dagenham when actually one had been killed in a different borough and the other two were on life support and later recovered.

Now, I have no time for the BNP - they're racist. But we all know that politicians lie. And in the year of the great MPs expenses scandal, Barnbrook's lie pales into insignificance. To abuse the Code of Conduct in this way brings far more disrepute onto the GLA and Council than Barnbrook's statement ever did.

Another interesting point is how this will relate to the suspension of Ken Livingstone. Will those who protested against Ken's suspension also protest against this one and vice versa? True the situations are not the same but it is interesting nonetheless.

I should point out that I was not entirely against Ken's suspension largely because he could and should simply have apologised for what he did yet stubbornly refused to. But there too, since the action was politically motivated it was wrong and I should have said so at the time.

Ken Twists

Ken was on a walkabout in Islington on Saturday with "peace and anti-war campaigners", according to a Press Release. It's a slightly fascinating statement for a number of reasons, not least it's aim. I'm going to try a little deconstruction.

Firstly, then, is the opening line:

Ken Livingstone will join Tony Benn and other peace and anti-war campaigners today on a walkabout in Angel Islington.

That's an interesting expression - "peace and anti-war campaigners". Perhaps Team Livingstone can explain what the difference is between these two breeds? The simple implication is that quite a number of those campaigners aren't interested at all in peace.

The next paragraph reads:

To reinforce the need to keep the forward-looking approach that London has seen over the last eight years, Londoners for Peace activists will be highlighting the clear differences between Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson's record on war and nuclear weapons.

Ever heard of this group "Londoners for Peace"? A Google search reveals that the only sites mentioning the group are those reporting on this event. The same result comes from Yahoo and MSN. So does this group really exist or was it conveniently set up for the Mayor's outing?

Next we have:

Veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent said:
"Ken Livingstone has worked tirelessly for community harmony and international peace. He is my first choice for Mayor."

This would be Bruce Kent formerly of CND. One wonders why Ken might be his first choice? Could it have anything to do with Ken's allowing the CND to use City Hall for free? And how about "community harmony"? Won't take long for most of you to think of at least one community in London that Ken seems to have worked tirelessly to antagonise - to the extent that he was suspended for a while because he couldn't bring himself to apologise for the offence he had caused. And international peace? Well, if you include cosying up to certain unpleasant people like Castro and Chavez.

Ken Livingstone said:
"London rejected the war in Iraq from the start and subsequent events have shown that they were right.

From the start? That would be why according to GLA commissioned poll more Londoners supported the war than opposed it? [see here pdf]

But it's the end of the statement that is the most twisted:

The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, created a firmer basis for terrorist organisations in Iraq and made our city more of a target for terrorist attacks.
I am proud as Mayor to support the anti-war movement and to join the millions of people who demonstrated against the war in Iraq. The majority of Londoners, and every major candidate at previous elections opposed the invasion of Iraq - as do myself, Brian Paddick for the Lib Dems, and Sian Berry for the Greens. Boris Johnson enthusiastically backed the invasion of Iraq.

If Boris "enthusiastically" backed it, what did the Labour party do? Of course, Ken wasn't an MP at the time so he didn't have to vote in favour of the war but isn't it just plainly dishonest to try and portray himself as some bastion against the war when he's very happy to be the candidate of the party that took us to war?

The statement finishes:

It would be grotesque if Londoners, who oppose the Iraq war by an overwhelming majority, were to have a Mayor who supported it.

And so what about a Mayor from the Party that instigated it? The duplicity is incredibly thick here. Ken himself might be opposed to the war but he's running for the Party that started it and is still the biggest supporter of it. And he claims it would be grotesque to have Johnson as Mayor - surely it would be worse to have Labour in charge from that argument?

Poll Trouble

Ken Livingstone's campaign has thrown something of a political fit over YouGov polls suggesting that Boris Johnson is way ahead. They have released a press statement calling into question the methodology of these polls and declaring that:

Ken Livingstone's campaign therefore states clearly that it does not accept this poll as accurate and, in light of its continuing errors, it does not regard YouGov polling on London as accurate.

One is inclined to tell them to chill. Only one poll really counts, the one on May 1st. But if the Livingstone campaign is so threatened by a YouGov poll that they feel the need to attack its results and methods, well, what does that tell you about confidence levels at Labour HQ?

Crime Claims

On Friday Ken Livingstone unveiled his crime manifesto. At the time we reported on his claim regarding engaging with religious leaders who are unequivocal in their opposition to terrorism. This time, though, it is the crime statistics that are the problem.

Many of the claims from Livingstone's campaign hide important facts.

Ken cites murder as an example of improvement in policing. He claims a 28% reduction in murders. This may well be, but murders account for less than 0.1% of violent crimes against the person in the capital. Focusing on murder hides the fact that since he was first elected ABH is up a whopping 80%, Harassment is up 90% and in total violence against the person is up 12%.

Ken cites rape as being down 25%. But here too rape accounts for less than 25% of sexual offences, and the other kinds are up. Overall during his term in office sexual offences have fallen by less than 1%.

Ken claims that in 11 boroughs there has been a 50% reduction in gun crime and a 26% reduction in knife crime. But what he doesn't tell you is that overall crime involving an offensive weapon is up by nearly 10% since he became Mayor.

In his manifesto he says:

Much of the crime that still takes place in London, including that involving gangs, is linked to the trade in illegal drugs. I will ensure tackling this is another top priority for the Met.

What he doesn't say is that since he started drug trafficking has increased by just under 20% with possession sky-rocketing by nearly 200%. Overall drug related crime is up 165%. And what's more, it has increased by over 25% every year for the last three years. If Ken recognises that drugs fuel crime why has so little been done to tackle it?

When one reads through his manifesto two crimes come up again and again - murder and rape. Why? Because in these areas the crime rate has fallen. But murder and rape combined accounts for just one quarter of one percent of all London crime.

In many of the areas that really matter crime is increasing. Violent crime is up 12%, sexual offences are basically unchanged, drug crime has soared by more than 150%.

We should not be fooled by Ken's carefully selected stats. Despite investing heavily in extra police officers large areas of important crime remains out of control.

Please note that all data in this report come from the Metropolitan Police Service's crime statistics, available here: http://www.met.police.uk/crimestatistics/ and that all years refer to the end of the financial year so that 2003, for example, refers to the financial year ending in 2003.

Ken's Admission to Letting Londoners Down

Ken Livingstone released his crime manifesto today. Discussing terrorism he says the following:

I will continue my policy of engaging with and seeking support from all community and religious leaders who make clear their unequivocal opposition to terrorist attacks. To do otherwise would be to let Londoners down and increase the risks the city faces.

Indeed it would be. And yet that is precisely what Ken has done. This is the man who invited Yusuf al-Qaradawi to City Hall. Does al-Qaradawi "make clear" his "unequivocal opposition to terrorist attacks"? Of course not. He supports terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. And Ken knows this and knew this before he invited him. And he knew it when he said he would invite him back and he knew it when he wrote that he should not be banned from entering this country.

So, if it "would be to let Londoners down" to not engage with "religious leaders who make clear their unequivocal opposition to terrorist attacks" how much more of a let down would it be to engage with leaders who are equally unequivocal in their support of terrorist attacks?