Ken Livingstone .... Mayor of London .... lets loose .....

Ken Livingstone.

Mayor of London.

There was a time in what now seems like the distant past when This Old Brit, like lots of others, looked upon Ken Livingstone as a member of the 'loony-left'. That was long before he ever became Mayor of London, of course.

Over the years though, as old 'Red' Ken [as he was once called] gradually moved more to the centre -- This Old Brit moved further & further from the right - to the left. And it seems that somewhere along the line we both met and/or merged - at least, our minds did.

That is not to say that there aren't still certain subjects upon which we beg differ. After all, only the very vainest or most misled amongst us imagine infallibility - in anyone. Having said that, I can't see much evidence of anything he's said this week, to the BBC, meriting anything worse than millions of nods of agreement. Take a peek at this and see what you think.

Mayor blames Middle East policy

Decades of British and American intervention in the oil-rich Middle East motivated the London bombers, Ken Livingstone has suggested.

The London mayor told BBC News he had no sympathy with the bombers and he opposed all violence.

But he argued that the attacks would not have happened had Western powers left Arab nations free to decide their own affairs after World War I.

Instead, they had often supported unsavoury governments in the region.

The fact of the matter is, This Old Brit could just as easily have used those exact words when addressing the same issues. Indeed, the probability is that he already has - on numerous occasions - and continues to do so - and no doubt will again in the future.

Here's another piece of old Ken's mind - so to speak.

"And I think the particular problem we have at the moment is that in the 1980s... the Americans recruited and trained Osama Bin Laden, taught him how to kill, to make bombs, and set him off to kill the Russians and drive them out of Afghanistan.

"They didn't give any thought to the fact that once he'd done that he might turn on his creators."

Well, that's something else I can't disagree with, Mr Mayor. Many, many millions including myself have been saying the same, for years. Sadly, some still haven't heard us - while others merely pretend they haven't. Sadder still, there are those who do hear but, clearly still can't quite comprehend. Then, there's the 'none so deaf as those who will not listen' lot - so what's the point of wasting any further words on them?

Right? .... Right! .... There ain't .... so I won't.

Anyway, here's a last little excerpt cut & pasted from the BBC website.

Mr Livingstone said he did not just denounce suicide bombers.

He also denounced "those governments which use indiscriminate slaughter to advance their foreign policy, as we have occasionally seen with the Israeli government bombing areas from which a terrorist group will have come, irrespective of the casualties it inflicts, women, children and men".

He continued: "Under foreign occupation and denied the right to vote, denied the right to run your own affairs, often denied the right to work for three generations, I suspect that if it had happened here in England, we would have produced a lot of suicide bombers ourselves."

This Old Brit suspects Mr Mayor's right again, too. Don't you?

Now, hit the link to read the rest.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4698963.stm