UK Politics
  Best for London  Diane Abbott
  Published 27 March 2008
    
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  Without its current mayor, the capital would be a far less diverse and progressive city
     

  London needs Ken Livingstone for many reasons. The first is that he is far and away the most qualified candidate. First elected to a local authority in 1971 (six years before Boris Johnson went to Eton), Ken has forgotten more about issues such as local government finance, transport economics and housing than most of us will ever know. And sheer volume of knowledge matters in a London mayor because they wield so much direct power (although, compared to the old Greater London Council, with a limited budget and a narrower range of legal powers).
  A mayor without Livingstone's history would have found himself at the mercy of City Hall and Whitehall bureaucrats. Instead, his unsurpassed experience in local government helped give him the confidence to override officials and go for the congestion charge. His experience also enabled him to use his limited legal powers to maximum practical benefit for London. He has even persuaded government to increase his powers.
  By contrast, Boris Johnson knows absolutely nothing, and cares even less, about local government. As for Brian Paddick, while he would make an excellent candidate for Metropolitan Police Commissioner, he knows almost nothing about issues such as local government finance.
  Of the three white men standing for the three major parties, Livingstone is the one best placed to lead a city in which half the ethnic minorities of the entire country live and whose diversity is the foundation of its economic, social and cultural success. His commitment on race and diversity has been unswerving over a long career.
  The leadership of all the major political parties now pay lip service to dialogue with Sinn Fein, race equality, feminism and gay rights. Yet much of the abuse that Livingstone received in the 1980s (and not just from the right) was precisely because of his stand on such issues.
  And he has not just talked. He transformed the employment policies of the old GLC, opening up the top tiers of the council to women and black people and creating a cohort of senior officers, like Sir Herman Ouseley, who now occupy top positions in the public sector all over the country. The media sneered at the grants the GLC gave to black groups, but those grants empowered thousands of black Londoners and provided practical help to millions more.
  The forceful leadership that Ken and others gave on race in the GLC era has ensured that London is at peace with its diversity, unlike many of our northern cities. In his first term as mayor, he introduced civil partnerships in London. Only then did the government find the courage to make such partnerships legal nationally. Would Boris Johnson have shown similar leadership? More recently, in the aftermath of the 7 July bombings in London, Ken's leadership helped to avert an anti-Muslim backlash. The idea of Boris Johnson (who is tone-deaf on race matters) in the same situation is alarming.
  Some have tried to trash Ken's reputation on race and other matters, depicting the black-led voluntary sector as a cesspool of corruption. In the 1980s, the London Evening Standard (and its sister paper the Daily Mail) attacked him relentlessly on race equality, gay rights and feminism. Now they realise that, in London at least, the left has won the debate on those issues and are reduced to the politics of personal destruction.
  One day a Barack Obama-style figure will blaze across London's firmament. Then it will be time to consider London after Ken. In the meantime the city needs him and his strong commitment on race and diversity. He brings experience none of the other candidates can match and results they could never have achieved.
  When Livingstone stood for mayor as an in dependent he took on the new Labour machine at its most brutal and defeated it. It is 27 years since he emerged from the pack of London left young guns and seized leadership of the GLC. 
  He remains one of the best politicians of his generation. 
  Diane Abbott is MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington
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    2 comments from readers    
stander 
27 March 2008 at 11:50   
     diane, no comments on Kens failings though: excessive waste/ excessive initiatives whose real purpose is to push secret agendas and give money and power to his supporters, all driven by having too much money to spend/ failings on transportation - please explain how congestion charge is a success?? 1bn of londoners cash for what a 1% drop in congestion?? / and now a class war with the £25 charge,, and we all know the LEZ will develop into city wide congestion charging/ you all like to tar johnson with the racist brush but in your heart of heart do you really believe this - what about ken's remark on nazis and mullahs? inviting islamist hardliners and tea with sinn fein (when they were bombing innocent londoners??), these actions reveal the real man behind the spin. And some of us havent forgotten how ken supported the unions while london tubes and buses were stopped by strikes. Ken will lose the Mayoral election, thank god! dont worry not complacent - just the anti-ken
 vote is highly motivated. its not his fault - ken has always been ken, people should have better understood consquences and not just believe all the spin. the rest of the labour movement however comes of looking worse, an inability to be self critical but instead wiling to do anything to keep their grip on power. supporting ken without addressing all his weaknesses is just a loss of integrity - ken should be given early retirement so should gordon, labour wont do that so the electorate will.
  
harold53 
28 March 2008 at 15:41   
     Dianne, I agree with you about Ken and his ability to change London and the Evening Boris rubbish and all the unsubstantiated attacks on his administration are frightening as to how much of a smokescreen has been orchestrated by the Boris camp (and people who should know better) in order to help Boris Johnson avoid any serious debate. 
  However, whereas you refer to his stance against Blair, nevertheless, Ken is a Labour candidate, even though he is far better than anything else the Labour leadership can provide. Ken has not only to fight the Thatcherite Johnson, the Standard, Channle 4 but also convince voters that he is not responsible for the government's disastrous economic policies whereby they are more concerned on spending billions to help out Northern Rock sharegholders, rising energy prices, food prices etc. Because the tories are infinitley worse, doesn't excuse the government for their policies which many natural Labour voters turn away from

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