Posted on 11/06/2006 12:40:00 AM PST by Stoat
London mayor blasts US during Cuba trip |
Reuters |
Havana: Like many events in communist Cuba, a cricket match for children on Saturday turned into a denunciation of the United States, but this time from London's leftist Mayor Ken Livingstone, not Cuban leader Fidel Castro. While Cubans played a game that is a novelty in their baseball-mad homeland, Livingstone praised Castro and blasted US policy toward the small nation 145km off its shores. "What's amazing here is you've got a country that's suffered an illegal economic blockade by the United States for almost half a century and yet it's been able to give its people the best standard of health care, brilliant education," Livingstone told reporters on a visit to a Havana baseball field converted for cricket. "And to do this in the teeth of an almost economic war I think is a tribute to Fidel Castro and his government," he said. The United States, which has maintained a trade embargo against Cuba since 1962, has pushed for free elections in the country Castro has led since a 1959 revolution. But Livingstone criticised the 2000 US election that gave George W. Bush the presidency on a legal decision, despite getting fewer votes than Democrat Al Gore. "Given the problems there where you had a judicial coup d'etat imposing a candidate whom the American people rejected, who then launched an evil war [in Iraq], I have to say I'm not sure the Americans should cast the first stone on these things," said the man popularly known as Red Ken for his leftist politics. Livingstone, on his way to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, gave little notice of his Cuba visit, which angered critics back home who questioned his motivations |
The Sun Online - News Ken Livingstone in U.S. rant
|
|||||
Ken Livingstone in U.S. rantNovember 06, 2006 LEFTIE London Mayor Ken Livingstone has launched an astonishing anti-US rant while sunning himself in Cuba.
He praised communist Cuban leader Fidel Castro and denounced President Bush. And he claimed Cuba had been able to give its people the best standard of health care, brilliant education, despite an illegal economic blockade by the US. America has called for free elections in Cuba since the 1959 Castro-led revolution, and imposed a trade embargo in 1962. But Livingstone said the US shouldnt cast the first stone on these things considering they had launched an evil war in Iraq. Leader of the London Assembly Tories Angie Bray said: Its all the loony left stuff that people thought hed packed away. |
The Sun Online - Sun Says A criminal's end
|
ping
Ken Livingstone - BiographyKen Livingstone, Mayor of London The Mayor's Standing Register of Interests entry. Ken Livingstone was born in Lambeth in 1945 and educated at Tulse Hill Comprehensive School. After eight years working as a technician at the Chester Beatty Cancer Research Institute in London, he entered Phillipa Fawcett Teacher Training College, qualifying in 1973. He was a Labour member of Lambeth Council between 1971 and 1978, holding the position of Vice-Chair of the Housing Committee from 1971 to 1973. From 1978 to 1982 he was a member of Camden Council, where he was Chair of the Housing Committee from 1978 to 1980. In 1973 he was elected as a Labour member of the Greater London Council. He was Vice-Chair of Housing Management from 1974 to 1975 and was elected Leader in 1981. He remained Leader until March 1986 when Margaret Thatcher abolished the GLC. From 1987 to June 2001, he served as Labour Member of Parliament for Brent East. He was elected as member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party between 1987 to 1989, and from 1997 to 1998. He was elected to the position of Mayor of London in 2000, having been expelled from the Labour party for running as an independent candidate. He was readmitted to the Labour party in 2004, shortly before re-election as Mayor. He has written two books, If Voting Changed Anything They'd Abolish It (1987) and Livingstone's Labour (1989).
|
||
totalitarians stick together
And one would expect nothing else from the b@stid! I got fed up with his Bush-bashing during the 2004 campaign and fired him an e-mail re his usual line about the world having more to fear from Bush than from the terrorists, asking him what color the sky was in his world! I started it out "Oh wise and wonderful mayor of Oz:" Got me nowhere, but it felt good to let him know how I felt.
Yes....I wonder how many Cubans or Venezuelans starved to death, were tortured or were 'disappeared' by Fidel or Hugo during Red Ken's sumptuous, champagne-washed little junket?
Our British Friends have my great sympathies for having to deal with this embarrassment of a human being..
Red Ken, indeed.
Good for you! Hopefully many others have and will follow your excellent example. I found this email address, but if you have a better one please feel free to post it. He needs to be reminded that Americans hear him, and they don't like him at all.
Mayor of London - Consultation
"I want to encourage the fullest participation and engagement by all London's communities in developing the policies and strategies we need to improve our city", Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London.
That's been his nickname for quite some time....given to him by Britons who understand who he is far better than those who voted for him.
I lived in London for a couple of years in the 90s so Red Ken's proclivities are well-known. I guess I thought being Mayor of such a cosmopolitan city where Americans make very substantial contributions to the vibrancy and vitality of that great city might have changed his spots.
I guess not.
Livingstone wouldn't know the difference between an economic blockade and a trade embargo if they bit him on the bottom.
Frankly, I'm surprised the Met didn't show up at your door. Seems you can't criticize anyone anymore!
Yeah, maybe their health care system looks good compared to your sorry state-run system, but both pale in comparision to ours.
brilliant education,"
Only if the objective is brainwashing children into Marxist robots. Oh, that's right, you're a Marxist robot yourself.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.