Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Mayor's verbal gaffe number 2
Ken Livingstone has waded into the Olympics city row with the Reuben brothers by saying "they can go back to Iran" if they don’t like his "approach". (The brothers were actually born in Mumbai and their parents came from Iraq, not Iran as Ken lovingly states.)
Without having ever met David or Simon Reuben, the Mayor expanded on his views stating they could "try their luck with the ayatollahs" of Iran, referring to treatment they could expect in a country they have no affiliation with.
The Mayor's reason for this incredibly inappropriate attack is that he believes the Reuben brothers to be the catalysts for ongoing problems with the private consortium tasked with the £4 billion Stratford City development. The Reuben brothers have issued a statement saying Ken has got his facts wrong, refusing to be drawn into comment on the Mayor's personal remarks.
Considering the inaccuracy of Mr Livingstone's remarks it's hard to believe that he has due cause to criticise the brothers at this stage. Regardless of the reason, I defy anyone to defend such comments by our glorious Mayor. There can be no reason to make these continued verbal assaults, regardless of whether Ken’s aggressors are businessmen or reporters.
Once again, many people have criticised Ken's comments as being anti-semitic. Whatever thought the Mayor was attempting to convey on this occasion, it is hard to believe that he does not mean to be discriminatory when he says such, lets face it, idiotic things. It is easy to see why people report Ken as being racist or anti-semitic when he seems to discriminate on the grounds of race, particularly toward those from Jewish origins.
2 comments:
I would like to comment on the recent remarks made by Mayor Ken Livingstone in relation to the Reuben brothers’ role in the Stratford and Olympic development consortium. However outrageous his comments were – that if the Reubens were "not happy here perhaps they could go back to Iran and try it under the Ayatollahs" – it seems that we ought to be equally concerned over the one-sidedness of the Mayor’s statements. Livingstone’s inaccuracies and frank willingness to take such a unilateral stance is deeply dangerous. A man in his position should form – and, importantly, should want to form – a balanced view of the Stratford consortium before launching into an assault on one of its members. The Mayor admitted in a recent press conference that he had not even met the Reuben brothers, who are after all the 50% stakeholders in the Stratford consortium. It was reported that the Reubens have extended an ‘olive-branch’ to the Mayor, offering to set right his inaccuracies, and I hope he will use his wise judgement to take them up on this offer and form a non-prejudicial view.
It is surprising and perhaps even more concerning that the Mayor seems not to want to form a balanced view of the Stratford consortium, to the extent that I am inclined to believe he must have some ulterior motive for coming down so hard on the Reuben brothers. Do not his rash attempts to smear the Reubens play nicely into the hands of Westfield, the shopping centre firm, and Stanhope, the privately-owned property company, both of which he has publicly praised?
By Anonymous, at 4:04 PM
He's either an idiot or an anti-semite. Since he has managed to claw his to mayor of one of this great city I cannot imagine he is an idtiot.
By -canuck-, at 8:24 PM
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