Shark Attacks Livingstone
Fashion Shark posted a Ken Livingstone 'special' the other day which got straight to the heart of the matter.
Because the original row erupted when Labour MP Naz Shah posted vile, anti-semitic comments on Facebook which she quickly apologised for and withdrew, to her credit, albeit after making a complete arse of herself.
Yet Ken Livingstone tried to breathe new life into the controversy, even though it was none of his business, with his now infamous comments about 'Hitler supporting Zionism before going mad and killing 6 million Jews'.
But don't let me spoil the fun - read what Fashion Shark had to say.
https://wtffashionshark.com
WTF Ken Special
Posted on April 7, 2017by fashionshark
You know what. Readers? I really wasn’t going to write about former London Mayor and now “househusband” Ken Livingstone and his views on Hitler’s support of Zionism before he had a turn and went all murderous. I wrote about it last April when he was suspended. On Tuesday, Livingstone was found guilty of bringing the Labour Party into disrepute and banned from holding any office for another year. But as the week has gone on, I have become more and more outraged. Outraged at Livingstone not only standing by what he said but repeating it ad nauseam on every radio and TV show that would have him. Outraged at idiots glibly tweeting that he was only stating a fact. Outraged at the suggestion that this is all faux outrage by the anti-Corbyn lobby and the Blairite lobby and the Zionist lobby. Outraged that instead of chucking him out, the Party let him stay on terms that made no difference to his life. So I’ve changed my mind. Here goes.
WTF is Jewish. As a child, several of my parents’ friends had tattoos on their arms, people whose parents and grandparents died in the gas chambers. That said, I am not a member of any lobby or caucus (except the Labour Party) although I am a member of a synagogue and even go occasionally. I hate Tony Blair. I hate the Israeli government. My outrage is not faux. It is not prompted by a desire to get Corbyn out or to bring Blair back. I am just fucking furious at the lies attempting to link Hitler and Zionism and angrier still that some people are going along with it.
Last year Livingstone chose to wade into a dispute involving Naz Shah MP who posted antisemitic rubbish about Zionism on Facebook a few years back and proposed a solution by moving Israelis to America. She accepted she was wrong and apologised but after her apology, Livingstone went on the radio arguing Shah had not been anti-semitic, even though she said the opposite, He claimed that Hitler had “supported Zionism” before “he went mad and killed 6m Jews”. Livingstone hates Zionism He wants to link Hitler and Zionism. He wants you to think that the most evil bastard in history was in favour of a Jewish state and that the Jewish State now acts as Hitler once acted. The man who murdered 6m Jews was their former champion. In fact, it’s bollocks. Hitler saw the desire for a State Of Israel as a cynical ploy for Jews to defraud the world in a haven where they could escape censure, not because they wanted to live there. The word support had a genial connotation, in the sense of rendering assistance. It does not apply to a man who alloŵed some Jews to leave only on condition that their goods were confiscated and in effect bought back by people in Palestine buying German goods to beat the international boycott. That is not support, it is blackmail. And while Hitler was supposedly all cosy with Zionists, laws were passed to ban Jews from practising law, from editing papers, from the army, from being teachers, from being pupils. from being vets. They had to wear yellow stars. They had to surrender their passports, they had to surrender their businesses. You think that is supporting Zionism? He was getting a few out, getting some goods sold and biding his time whilst he plotted the final solution.
Equally offensive is the idea that Hitler only started killing Jews after he went mad. Is that supposed to be an excuse? “M’Lud, my client pleads not guilty to murder by reason of diminished responsibility”. Poor chap. If only he had not driven all the Jewish psychiatrists and psychotherapists into exile and gassed the rest, he might have been cured. Again, in fact it is bollocks. This was always his intention. Read Mein Kampf.
So when Jews and non Jews say they are outraged, they are. And that is why they are outraged. It is conjuring up every smear against Jews, just like when Livingstone said London Jews were rich so he wouldn’t bother canvassing them as they wouldn’t vote Labour. That trope of the grasping rich Jew behind every ill. He diminished the Holocaust. I don’t want to hear about other people who haven’t been thrown out. like Blair. What Livingstone said was offensive and disgusting and he is still saying it. Corbyn has to act, which it seems he now will. And those supporting Livingstone, in the real sense of the word, have to stop their specious excuses for him.
The Times cartoonist Morten Morland has the perfect comment on Jeremy Corbyn's inept leadership of the Labour Party and the apparently uncontrollable narcissism of his great political friend, Ken Livingstone.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk
The craziest aspect of Ken Livingstone's additional 1-year suspension by the Labour Party is that he still doesn't accept his behaviour was wrong or reprehensible.
Whatever the arguments over his 'Hitler was a Zionist' comments Livingstone has been disciplined by his peers (a panel of fellow Labour members) having been found guilty of the charge of bringing the party into disrepute.
Nonetheless, Livingstone is such an arrogant tosser that he has publicly compared Labour's ruling body to the Stalinist regime in North Korea with the following observation:
"It’s absolutely outrageous that such a serious smear is made and then the hearing is going to be in private. I mean, it’s more like North Korea. It’s literally the sort of hearing you’d expect in some dictatorship – not in a modern democracy."
Having heard the judgment of his Labour peers Livinsgtone's response was to insist he has nothing to answer for and that he is instead the victim of a political witch hunt.
If you ask me, Livingstone is completely out of control and his evident lack of remorse can only drag the Labour Party deeper into the mire just weeks away from the local elections.
The Guardian carries a full report which you can read via the link below although it is worth mentioning that Ken Livingstone and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn are big friends.
Pressure mounts on Labour to review Ken Livingstone decision
Senior figures from party and Jewish community condemn decision not to expel Livingstone over comments linking Zionism to Nazism.
By Matthew Weaver - The Guardian
Labour is coming under increasing pressure, including from within the shadow cabinet, to review its decision not to expel Ken Livingstone from the party over comments about antisemitism, Hitler and Zionism.
Lord Levy, the party’s chief fundraiser under Tony Blair, is threatening to leave the party after a disciplinary panel ruled that Livingstone should be suspended for another year for bringing the party into disrepute, but not expelled.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he said: “Do I stay in the party? It is something that I’m going to reflect on very seriously. I am very upset with the party’s attitude. I do not believe there has been a zero-tolerance policy towards antisemitism.”
Like many Levy has been angered by Livingstone’s lack of remorse since the decision. In a defiant series of interviews afterward Livingstone said he had nothing to apologise for and would need to consider whether to challenge the suspension.
Levy said: “The lack of sensitivity by him towards the Jewish community has been outrageous. Many of his colleagues have been outraged by the action of the party. But if all the good guys in the party leave, what is there left?”
Former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband is reported to have told the BBC that he was grieving for the party. He said he never thought he’d see the day when “antisemitism and Labour were discussed in the same sentence”, according to Paul Waugh from the Huffington Post.
While the country waits with baited breath on the outcome of Ken Livingstone's disciplinary hearing for allegedly bringing the Labour Party into disrepute, a wag on Twitter (Dai Lama) imagines how Ken would fare on a visit to Battersea Dogs Home
You know what. Readers? I really wasn’t going to write about former London Mayor and now “househusband” Ken Livingstone and his views on Hitler’s support of Zionism before he had a turn and went all murderous. I wrote about it last April when he was suspended. On Tuesday, Livingstone was found guilty of bringing the Labour Party into disrepute and banned from holding any office for another year. But as the week has gone on, I have become more and more outraged. Outraged at Livingstone not only standing by what he said but repeating it ad nauseam on every radio and TV show that would have him. Outraged at idiots glibly tweeting that he was only stating a fact. Outraged at the suggestion that this is all faux outrage by the anti-Corbyn lobby and the Blairite lobby and the Zionist lobby. Outraged that instead of chucking him out, the Party let him stay on terms that made no difference to his life. So I’ve changed my mind. Here goes.
WTF is Jewish. As a child, several of my parents’ friends had tattoos on their arms, people whose parents and grandparents died in the gas chambers. That said, I am not a member of any lobby or caucus (except the Labour Party) although I am a member of a synagogue and even go occasionally. I hate Tony Blair. I hate the Israeli government. My outrage is not faux. It is not prompted by a desire to get Corbyn out or to bring Blair back. I am just fucking furious at the lies attempting to link Hitler and Zionism and angrier still that some people are going along with it.
Last year Livingstone chose to wade into a dispute involving Naz Shah MP who posted antisemitic rubbish about Zionism on Facebook a few years back and proposed a solution by moving Israelis to America. She accepted she was wrong and apologised but after her apology, Livingstone went on the radio arguing Shah had not been anti-semitic, even though she said the opposite, He claimed that Hitler had “supported Zionism” before “he went mad and killed 6m Jews”. Livingstone hates Zionism He wants to link Hitler and Zionism. He wants you to think that the most evil bastard in history was in favour of a Jewish state and that the Jewish State now acts as Hitler once acted. The man who murdered 6m Jews was their former champion. In fact, it’s bollocks. Hitler saw the desire for a State Of Israel as a cynical ploy for Jews to defraud the world in a haven where they could escape censure, not because they wanted to live there. The word support had a genial connotation, in the sense of rendering assistance. It does not apply to a man who alloŵed some Jews to leave only on condition that their goods were confiscated and in effect bought back by people in Palestine buying German goods to beat the international boycott. That is not support, it is blackmail. And while Hitler was supposedly all cosy with Zionists, laws were passed to ban Jews from practising law, from editing papers, from the army, from being teachers, from being pupils. from being vets. They had to wear yellow stars. They had to surrender their passports, they had to surrender their businesses. You think that is supporting Zionism? He was getting a few out, getting some goods sold and biding his time whilst he plotted the final solution.
Equally offensive is the idea that Hitler only started killing Jews after he went mad. Is that supposed to be an excuse? “M’Lud, my client pleads not guilty to murder by reason of diminished responsibility”. Poor chap. If only he had not driven all the Jewish psychiatrists and psychotherapists into exile and gassed the rest, he might have been cured. Again, in fact it is bollocks. This was always his intention. Read Mein Kampf.
So when Jews and non Jews say they are outraged, they are. And that is why they are outraged. It is conjuring up every smear against Jews, just like when Livingstone said London Jews were rich so he wouldn’t bother canvassing them as they wouldn’t vote Labour. That trope of the grasping rich Jew behind every ill. He diminished the Holocaust. I don’t want to hear about other people who haven’t been thrown out. like Blair. What Livingstone said was offensive and disgusting and he is still saying it. Corbyn has to act, which it seems he now will. And those supporting Livingstone, in the real sense of the word, have to stop their specious excuses for him.
Corbyn's Labour Party (06/04/17)
The Times cartoonist Morten Morland has the perfect comment on Jeremy Corbyn's inept leadership of the Labour Party and the apparently uncontrollable narcissism of his great political friend, Ken Livingstone.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk
Looney Tune Livingstone (05/04/17)
The craziest aspect of Ken Livingstone's additional 1-year suspension by the Labour Party is that he still doesn't accept his behaviour was wrong or reprehensible.
Whatever the arguments over his 'Hitler was a Zionist' comments Livingstone has been disciplined by his peers (a panel of fellow Labour members) having been found guilty of the charge of bringing the party into disrepute.
Nonetheless, Livingstone is such an arrogant tosser that he has publicly compared Labour's ruling body to the Stalinist regime in North Korea with the following observation:
"It’s absolutely outrageous that such a serious smear is made and then the hearing is going to be in private. I mean, it’s more like North Korea. It’s literally the sort of hearing you’d expect in some dictatorship – not in a modern democracy."
Having heard the judgment of his Labour peers Livinsgtone's response was to insist he has nothing to answer for and that he is instead the victim of a political witch hunt.
If you ask me, Livingstone is completely out of control and his evident lack of remorse can only drag the Labour Party deeper into the mire just weeks away from the local elections.
The Guardian carries a full report which you can read via the link below although it is worth mentioning that Ken Livingstone and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn are big friends.
Pressure mounts on Labour to review Ken Livingstone decision
Senior figures from party and Jewish community condemn decision not to expel Livingstone over comments linking Zionism to Nazism.
By Matthew Weaver - The Guardian
Labour is coming under increasing pressure, including from within the shadow cabinet, to review its decision not to expel Ken Livingstone from the party over comments about antisemitism, Hitler and Zionism.
Lord Levy, the party’s chief fundraiser under Tony Blair, is threatening to leave the party after a disciplinary panel ruled that Livingstone should be suspended for another year for bringing the party into disrepute, but not expelled.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he said: “Do I stay in the party? It is something that I’m going to reflect on very seriously. I am very upset with the party’s attitude. I do not believe there has been a zero-tolerance policy towards antisemitism.”
Like many Levy has been angered by Livingstone’s lack of remorse since the decision. In a defiant series of interviews afterward Livingstone said he had nothing to apologise for and would need to consider whether to challenge the suspension.
Levy said: “The lack of sensitivity by him towards the Jewish community has been outrageous. Many of his colleagues have been outraged by the action of the party. But if all the good guys in the party leave, what is there left?”
Former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband is reported to have told the BBC that he was grieving for the party. He said he never thought he’d see the day when “antisemitism and Labour were discussed in the same sentence”, according to Paul Waugh from the Huffington Post.
Don't Mention 'You Know Who' (31/03/17)
While the country waits with baited breath on the outcome of Ken Livingstone's disciplinary hearing for allegedly bringing the Labour Party into disrepute, a wag on Twitter (Dai Lama) imagines how Ken would fare on a visit to Battersea Dogs Home
Labour in Denial (01/05/16)
The Labour Party has been plunged into crisis because of a stupid, yet deliberate attempt by Ken Livingstone (one of Jeremy Corbyn's closest allies) to claim that Adolf Hitler was a Zionist.
On top of that, Ken went on to share his view that someone can only be anti-semitic if they hate all Jews across the world, not just those living in Israel.
Noe there's been some powerful writing over the weekend about the background to this latest Labour farce and here are there examples from The Scotsman, The Observer and The Independent newspapers.
I think that the piece by Andrew Grice (Independent) is perhaps the most factual and even-handed, Nick Cohen's (Observer) the most passionate, but I would say the most telling is Euan McColm's (Scotsman) who gets to the heart of the problem facing the Labour Party with the following paragraph:
"None of this will, I fear, put an end to Corbyn’s leadership. He is supported by an overwhelming number of halfwits who are content to believe their man’s a victim of the malign actions of others."
I admire people who don't pull their punches.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/euan-mccolm-corbyn-the-last-person-to-tackle-anti-semitism-1-4115550
Euan McColm: Corbyn the last person to tackle anti-Semitism
Ken Livingstone is mobbed by journalists outside Millbank following the controversial comments which led to his suspension. Picture: Anthony Devlin/PA
By EUAN MCCOLM - The Scotsman
IT’S not Jews, they say. They’re always adamant about that: they don’t hate Jews.
And then they say things that suggest they hate Jews. Instead of Jews, of course, they say Zionists.
But they mean Jews, don’t they? After events of the past few days, that’s a reasonable assumption to make, isn’t it?
The Labour Party hasn’t had controversy to seek since members last year took the, still baffling, decision to elect the incompetent Jeremy Corbyn as their leader.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2016/apr/30/labour-antisemitism-ken-livingstone-george-galloway
I saw the darkness of antisemitism, but I never thought it would get this dark
The party faces a huge problem that must be surmounted, if only for moral reasons
On top of that, Ken went on to share his view that someone can only be anti-semitic if they hate all Jews across the world, not just those living in Israel.
Noe there's been some powerful writing over the weekend about the background to this latest Labour farce and here are there examples from The Scotsman, The Observer and The Independent newspapers.
I think that the piece by Andrew Grice (Independent) is perhaps the most factual and even-handed, Nick Cohen's (Observer) the most passionate, but I would say the most telling is Euan McColm's (Scotsman) who gets to the heart of the problem facing the Labour Party with the following paragraph:
"None of this will, I fear, put an end to Corbyn’s leadership. He is supported by an overwhelming number of halfwits who are content to believe their man’s a victim of the malign actions of others."
I admire people who don't pull their punches.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/euan-mccolm-corbyn-the-last-person-to-tackle-anti-semitism-1-4115550
Euan McColm: Corbyn the last person to tackle anti-Semitism
Ken Livingstone is mobbed by journalists outside Millbank following the controversial comments which led to his suspension. Picture: Anthony Devlin/PA
By EUAN MCCOLM - The Scotsman
IT’S not Jews, they say. They’re always adamant about that: they don’t hate Jews.
And then they say things that suggest they hate Jews. Instead of Jews, of course, they say Zionists.
But they mean Jews, don’t they? After events of the past few days, that’s a reasonable assumption to make, isn’t it?
The Labour Party hasn’t had controversy to seek since members last year took the, still baffling, decision to elect the incompetent Jeremy Corbyn as their leader.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2016/apr/30/labour-antisemitism-ken-livingstone-george-galloway
I saw the darkness of antisemitism, but I never thought it would get this dark
By Nick Cohen - The Observer
The party faces a huge problem that must be surmounted, if only for moral reasons
Ken Livingstone claimed Hitler was a Zionist. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images
Racism is not a specific illness but a general sickness. Display one symptom and you display them all. If you show me an anti-Muslim bigot, I will be able to guess his or her views on the European Union, welfare state, crime and “political correctness”. Show me a leftwing or Islamist antisemite and, once again, he will carry a suitcase full of prejudices, which have nothing to do with Jews, but somehow have everything to do with Jews.
The Labour party does not have a “problem with antisemitism” it can isolate and treat, like a patient asking a doctor for a course of antibiotics. The party and much of the wider liberal-left have a chronic condition.
As I have written about the darkness on the left before, I am not going to crow now that it has turned darker than even I predicted. (There is not much to crow about, after all.) I have nothing but respect for the Labour MPs who are trying to stop their party becoming a playpen for fanatics and cranks. It just appears to me that they face interlocking difficulties that are close to insoluble.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/corbyn-s-leadership-has-heightened-labour-s-jewish-problem-only-he-can-bring-this-row-to-an-end-a7005836.html
Corbyn’s leadership has heightened Labour’s 'Jewish problem'. Only he can bring this row to an end
Racism is not a specific illness but a general sickness. Display one symptom and you display them all. If you show me an anti-Muslim bigot, I will be able to guess his or her views on the European Union, welfare state, crime and “political correctness”. Show me a leftwing or Islamist antisemite and, once again, he will carry a suitcase full of prejudices, which have nothing to do with Jews, but somehow have everything to do with Jews.
The Labour party does not have a “problem with antisemitism” it can isolate and treat, like a patient asking a doctor for a course of antibiotics. The party and much of the wider liberal-left have a chronic condition.
As I have written about the darkness on the left before, I am not going to crow now that it has turned darker than even I predicted. (There is not much to crow about, after all.) I have nothing but respect for the Labour MPs who are trying to stop their party becoming a playpen for fanatics and cranks. It just appears to me that they face interlocking difficulties that are close to insoluble.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/corbyn-s-leadership-has-heightened-labour-s-jewish-problem-only-he-can-bring-this-row-to-an-end-a7005836.html
Corbyn’s leadership has heightened Labour’s 'Jewish problem'. Only he can bring this row to an end
Corbyn is on a fast learning curve. A half-hearted approach by the Labour leader would not only lose Jewish voters but repel others too
By Andrew Grice - The Independent
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, addresses the Commons PA
A debate inside the Labour Party over Israel, which has simmered for years, has suddenly exploded into Jeremy Corbyn’s biggest crisis in his seven months as party leader.
With the Conservatives advertising their deep divisions on Europe daily, it should have been a moment for Labour, broadly united in support for EU membership, to make progress – not least in next week’s elections to local authorities, the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and for London Mayor. Instead, Labour has somehow managed to give the impression it is just as divided as the Tories.
After a costly 32-hour delay before suspending the Labour MP Naz Shah for suggesting in 2014 that Israeli Jews be transported to America, Corbyn learnt his lesson and acted swiftly to bar his long-time ally Ken Livingstone. Bizarrely, the former London Mayor leapt to the defence of Shah when she was no longer defending herself. The story became a farce as Livingstone suggested that Hitler was a Zionist and clashed on the stairs of a TV studio with the Labour MP John Mann.
Livingstone, who was co-chairing a review of Labour’s foreign policy, claimed in a round of media interviews that, in his 47 years in the party, he had never come across anti-Semitism. This, too, was bizarre, since a series of such allegations have had a high media profile in recent weeks.
A debate inside the Labour Party over Israel, which has simmered for years, has suddenly exploded into Jeremy Corbyn’s biggest crisis in his seven months as party leader.
With the Conservatives advertising their deep divisions on Europe daily, it should have been a moment for Labour, broadly united in support for EU membership, to make progress – not least in next week’s elections to local authorities, the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and for London Mayor. Instead, Labour has somehow managed to give the impression it is just as divided as the Tories.
After a costly 32-hour delay before suspending the Labour MP Naz Shah for suggesting in 2014 that Israeli Jews be transported to America, Corbyn learnt his lesson and acted swiftly to bar his long-time ally Ken Livingstone. Bizarrely, the former London Mayor leapt to the defence of Shah when she was no longer defending herself. The story became a farce as Livingstone suggested that Hitler was a Zionist and clashed on the stairs of a TV studio with the Labour MP John Mann.
Livingstone, who was co-chairing a review of Labour’s foreign policy, claimed in a round of media interviews that, in his 47 years in the party, he had never come across anti-Semitism. This, too, was bizarre, since a series of such allegations have had a high media profile in recent weeks.
