The Jimmy Saville of Nation States

 

It reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. Many South Africans are beginning to recognise the parallels to what we went through  . Desmond Tutu

We now have a law that confirms the Arab population as second-class citizens. It therefore is a very clear form of apartheid. I don’t think the Jewish people survived for 20 centuries, mostly through persecution and enduring endless cruelties, in order to now become the oppressors, inflicting cruelty on others. This new law does exactly that. That is why I am ashamed of being an Israeli today.   Daniel Barenboim

The founder of Zionism at the end of the 19th century, Theodor Herzl, was an admirer of the British Empire and wrote to Cecil Rhodes, founder of the white settler colony named after him, He said, “You are being invited to help make history. It does not involve Africa but a piece of Asia Minor, not Englishmen but Jews … I turn to you … because it is something colonial ..”

Chaim Weizmann, who suceeded Herzl added that “Should Palestine fall within the British sphere of influence and should they encourage Jewish settlement … we could develop the country, bring back civilisation and form a very effective guard for the Suez Canal.”

You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist. Prayers at the US Embassy, on the day Trump moved it to Jerusalem, were delivered by Robert Jeffries, a Dallas megachurch pastor who said Hitler was sent by God to drive the Jews to their ancestral land.

The Jewish opponents of Zionism could be found at the same time as Herzl in the Jewish Bund, founded in 1897 in Poland and Russia. They stressed the principles of, socialism, secularism and doyikayt or “localness.”

Doyikayt was encapsulated in the Bund slogan: “There, where we live, that is our country.” One of their early leaders, Viktor Adler, declared “Bundists wish to shatter the existing economic frameworks and show the Jewish masses how a new society can be built not by escape, but by struggle. We link the essence of the Jewish masses’ life to that of humankind.

Here are past and present advocates who have linked their lives to humankind. Perhaps we will now be able to hear their voices more clearly.

Albert Einstein; “The (Israeli) state idea is not according to my heart. I cannot understand why it is needed … I believe it is bad ... There could be no greater calamity than a permanent discord between us and the Arab people … We must strive for a just and lasting compromise with the Arab people … Let us recall that in former times, no people lived in greater friendship with us than the ancestors of these Arabs."

Sigmund Freud: “I concede with sorrow that the baseless fanaticism of our people is in part to be blamed for the awakening of Arab distrust. I can raise no sympathy at all for the misdirected piety which transforms a piece of a Herodian wall into a national relic, thereby offending the feelings of the natives.”

Erich Fromm, social psychologist: “The claim of the Jews to the Land of Israel cannot be a realistic political claim. If all nations would suddenly claim territories in which their forefathers lived two thousand years ago, this world would be a madhouse.”

Primo Levi, a survivor of Auschwitz: “Everyone has their Jews and for the Israelis they are the Palestinians”.

Marek Edelman, one of the leaders of the1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising compared the Palestine resistance to ZOB, the Jewish fighters in Warsaw.

 

Hannah Arendt, political scientist: “The trouble is that Zionism has often thought and said that the evil of antisemitism was necessary for the good of the Jewish people.”

Martin Buber, Israeli philosopher: “How great was our responsibility to those miserable Arab refugees in whose towns we have settled Jews who were brought here from afar; whose homes we have inherited, whose fields we now sow and harvest; the fruits of whose gardens, orchards and vineyards we gather; and in whose cities that we put up houses of education, charity and prayer. . ”

Isaac Asimov, novelist: “I find myself in the odd position of not being a Zionist ... I think it is wrong for anyone to feel that there is anything special about any one heritage of whatever kind.”

Harold Pinter. On Israel’s 60th anniversary said, “We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land."

Uri Avnery, ex-Israeli army officer: “What will be seared into the consciousness of the world will be the image of Israel as a blood-stained monster, ready at any moment to commit war crimes and not prepared to abide by any moral restraints.”

Daniel Barenboim, Israeli pianist and conductor: “I don’t think the Jewish people survived for 20 centuries, mostly through persecution and enduring endless cruelties, in order to now become the oppressors, inflicting cruelty on others.”

Lenni Brenner, writer and civil rights activist: “The Zionist leaders were uninterested in Fascism itself. As Jewish separatists they only asked one question, the cynical classic: 'So? Is it good for the Jews?'”

Richard Cohen, US columnist: “The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake … the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare.”

Henry Siegman, Rabbi and director of the U.S./Middle East Project: “Israel has crossed the threshold from ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’ to the only apartheid regime in the Western world.”

Prof Norman Finkelstein: “Every single member of my family on both sides was exterminated. Both of my parents were in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. And it is precisely and exactly because of the lessons my parents taught me and my two siblings that I will not be silent when Israel commits its crimes.’

Richard Falk, former UN special rapporteur on human rights, called Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories “a crime against humanity.” Falk also has compared Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the Nazi treatment of the Jews.

Alexei Sayle: “Israel is the Jimmy Saville of nation states.”

Miriam Margolyes: “My support for the Palestinian cause is fiercer because I am Jewish.’

Noam Chomsky, “The last paradox is that the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story—hard to understand and even harder to solve.”

 

Michael Rosen on the children of Gaza

Don't mention the children.

Don't name the dead children.

The people must not know the names

of the dead children.

The names of the children must be hidden.

The children must be nameless.

The children must leave this world...

having no names.

No one must know the names of

the dead children.

No one must say the names of the

dead children.

No one must even think that the children

have names.

People must understand that it would be dangerous

to know the names of the children.

The people must be protected from

knowing the names of the children.

The names of the children could spread

like wildfire.

The people would not be safe if they knew

the names of the children.

Don’t name the dead children.

Don’t remember the dead children.

Don’t think of the dead children.

Don’t say: ‘dead children’.

The Last Song

I am in the final stages of completing my new book, My World Music, and am doing so while staying in Mostar.  I am writing under the shadow of a contemporary genocide and staying in Mostar, a place of an earlier slaughter. I will be dedicating the book to the people of Palestine.

If you would like to contribute to the final chapter, The Last Song, please send to me at david@davidwilson.org.uk

THE LAST SONG

Imagine that you are only able to hear one song or composition performed or recorded before all music is removed from your life. Perhaps, like Beethoven, you can no longer hear music. Perhaps, like Crusoe, you have been isolated on a desert island. This is the last music you will ever hear. It will be the music that you will only be able to recall from memory. 

Andreea Vas - ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ by Pink Floyd

Whenever I listen to it, the instrumental parts, the (very few, but no less meaningful) words, but mostly the amazing Clare Torry solo, it seems to sum up the human condition, from birth to death and with all the dichotomies of life in between: hope and desperation, love and sorrow, conflict and resolution.

Claudio Menci - ‘Bella Ciao’

My middle name is Antonio Donato, after Antonio Gramsci. My father was on the Left and I had Partisan relatives. My uncle, Donato, was part of the Resistance in Florence and he was my godfather who taught me from a very young age to hate weapons, armies and wars and to stay away from religion. My grandfather played the trumpet and told me to love music and that the best weapons are musical instruments. Antonio Gramsci is part of me and my family.

Christian Marti-Menzel - Talk of the Town" by The Pretenders

So evocative that contains all my memories, maybe because the song, like our lives, is gentle and harsh at the same time.

Merilyn Moos - Johann Sebastian Bach's ‘Prelude and fugue in B major’.

I wasn't even five when I listened, enraptured, to my mother playing Bach as if her life depended on it, on our beautiful old German piano. I would have dissolved myself into the sound if I could have. I took the piano for granted. It was not till decades later that I started to wonder how it had ever been got out of Nazi Germany. It took me even more decades to realise that my mother was playing for the ghosts of those whom she had left behind and who were later murdered by the Nazis. Now I listen to the music against the noise of bombs and missiles falling on the Palestinians in Gaza: another genocide.

Luna Maslo - ‘This Woman’s Work’ sung by Kate Bush

I imagine myself being 70 and listening to this song. As the song is playing beautiful melodies, I would be looking back on my life and questioning if my life's canvas was painted with bold enough strokes. Many people are concerned about whether they are going to accomplish enough in terms of a career or if they are going to have the biggest house on the block. My concern is if I am going to be brave enough to actually embrace life's very pulse. This song is full of being and feeling.

Dorothy Byrne - ‘Feeling Good’, written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse, and sung by Nina Simone.

A song of ecstasy and empowerment. At first, the lyrics are an ode to personal happiness, speaking of the joy of a new day and the freedom of nature. But the music builds in power to a climax at the line ‘Freedom is mine’ and becomes an anthem for all those who have suffered oppression and are determined to grasp their rights.

Pay-Uun Hiu - ‘4.33’ by John Cage

The piece I would choose would be ‘4’33’ by John Cage. I hope l will never lose my ability to hear the sounds that surround me as music, because that's what this piece is all about. I hope I will still be able to enjoy the chirping and twittering of birds as melodies, to feel the healing power in the drumming sounds of the waves, to hear the sparkling rhythmical patterns in the water of a brook. To unravel the songs of the wind. And let all of it bring harmony into my heart and soul. Then I will live happily after, hearing music all the time.

Senad Šuta - ‘My Life’ by The Beatles

I grew up with The Beatles, Elvis Presley and many others, but my first memories are related to the The Beatles, the greatest band of all time, My mother is guilty because had their records and she loved to sing their songs with my father whistling beside her. Aged 5 or 6 years old in Bosnia Herzegovina I didn't have any idea what the song was about, but the melody was enchanting. After I studied English in primary school I figured out that the song is about; love of life and love of friends, family, and lovers both past and present. A song for all of us, for all time.

Anthea Norman-Taylor - Karl Jenkins ‘The Armed Man’ (a Mass for Peace)

it is not music for the head or limbs, but for the heart. It makes me think of my daughters: Darla, whose beautiful voice rang out in a choir in Edinburgh at the first performance of the piece I heard. And the sentiment of the piece is for Irial and her endless work towards peace and justice for Palestine. I also like it because it makes me want to sing along, which is pretty rare in classical music.

Edwin Maynard - ‘Sans Frontière’ by Congolese singer and dancer M’bilia Bel.

A love song that celebrates the African diaspora from which we all stem. M’bilia Bel’s voice modulates effortlessly between languages - Lingala, French, and a wordless humming that speaks directly to the heart, concluding in a long ummmmmmm that feels like a breath of the Earth dancing out its dream.

Andrew Williams - Cello Suite No. 1 by Benjamin Britten (Opus 72)

This work, written in 1964 for the charismatic cellist Mstislav Rostropovich beautifully illustrates Britten’s ability to integrate classical and contemporary principles to create a work that is grand, sublime, and truly enigmatic. The rich harmonies make it easy to forget that it is all played on a single instrument. For me, this piece illustrates the ways in which music can enter right into us and resonate with the strings of our soul.

Russell Mills - Edward Elgar’s ‘Sospiri, op 70 (1914’

It was a close call between Elgar’s Sospiri (1914), Arvo Part’s Solfeggio (1963), and Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Fólk fær andlit (2020). In the end I plumped for the Elgar.

Javier Fariñas - Dietrich Buxtehude ‘Herr, wenn ich Nur Dich Hab’

This is a song to bless the soul and the lives of the dearest friends. Only the most special people.

Alison Martin-Campbell - ‘The Lark Ascending’ by Vaughan Williams

when I heard this for the first time when I was 20 and I couldn't move, I couldn't hink and I couldn't breathe. To this day, despite its popularity, if I hear it on the wireless or see it being performed on the television, I have to stop whatever I am doing takes over my whole soul, my whole being. I always cry when I hear it as it as it reminds me of so many things that have passed: my late parents, the ex-boyfriend who first played it to me and how fleeting life is.

Innes Sibun - Aretha Franklin’s ‘Amazing Grace’

It reduces me to tears every time I hear it because she pours her heart and soul into the performance and it is sublime.

Sue Dowell - Jean Sibelius ‘Symphonyin D major, Op. 43’

first heard it at the Proms in my 20s and it’s been my favourite piece of classical music ever since. Sad in places, but always hopeful, the music sweeps you along as it builds and recedes by turn, To me it has always felt like a perfect soundtrack for life.

Michael Walling - Pat Nixon's Aria, ‘This is Prophetic’, from Nixon in China by John Adams.

A strange musical memory, because it's about looking forwards. It uses the evocative power of a solo voice in an orchestral echo chamber to reach deep into experience and envision a genuinely humane society, one based on humility and trust.

John Claassen - Ennio Morricone, main theme from ‘Cinema Paradiso’.

I have always found this music surprisingly moving and emotionally resonant. It sneaks up on you and by the last marvellous sequence of the film, it provides a primal fusion of music and cinematic art. If it had to be the last piece of music I could ever hear it would always stay with me as a welcome earworm.

Alastair Hatchett - Beethoven’s ‘9th Symphony’

I first heard this symphony as a teenager in the mid-1960s and was overwhelmed by the music and especially the stirring fourth movement. In that movement a huge choir sings Schiller's ‘Ode to Joy’ (An de Freude) , with the chorus "all men are brothers". When the Berlin wall came down in 1989 there was a performance of the Symphony in Berlin at Christmas conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The 'Ode to Joy' was sung as the 'Ode to Freedom', so the word Freude was replaced by Freiheit. For many of us around the world, that was a moment of real hope

.Kevin Jefferies - ‘Nice and sleazy’ by the Stranglers.

An incredibly dark and beautifully produced record that grabbed me and made me pick up a bass.It is politically way ahead of its time and still sounds very relevant today...and the bass inspires me still.

Ben Wilson - ‘Drop The Pilot’ - sung by Joan Armatrading

This reminds me of the first ever concert my dad, David Wilson, took me to at Wembley Arena in for my 10th birthday in1983.

Dorothy Hughes - 'California Dreamin' by The Mamas and the Papas.

I love the group's music, but the harmonising in this piece transports me.

Alaistair Fraser - ‘The Strangest Dream’ by American folk singer-songwriter Ed McCurdy.

A great anti-war song and I remember singing it unaccompanied in various places - once in a tiny Irish pub on the banks of the River Shannon in Ireland, and a few years later at the ColBar in Singapore. When I was teaching at a boys’ school in Bournemouth in the '70s, I often wrote bits of drama performed by the students for the school assemblies. One year my piece was to celebrate the anniversary of the United Nations. As the boys laid down their mock rifles and uniforms on the school stage they sang this song. “I dreamed the world had all agreed ‘to put an end to war’.

Cecily Bomberg - ‘Stardust’ sung by Nat King Cole and 'Strange Fruit' sung by Billie Holiday

May I have two songs? The first I would like to hear in my last days is ‘Stardust’ and the other is ‘Strange fruit’. The first in memory of finally coming to terms with a great loss in a peaceful setting in my early youth. The second, when I began to understand something of the real world outside and what fear and hatred can bring about if we don’t fight it every day of our lives.

.Victoria Brittain - ‘We Shall Overcome’ sung by Joan Baez

It was the song of the US civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam war movement which inspired me to take my little son and go to Vietnam as a young journalist and thereafter has been with with me in opposition to US backed wars from Angola and El Salvador to Iraq and Palestine.

Carole Vincent - ‘Unconditional Love’ by Gentlemen Without Weapons

As a lover of nature and its creatures great and small, I have chosen this song. GWW took sounds from the natural world & mastered them into a wonderful song. They set up the "Earth Love Foundation" in 1989 to encourage musicians to support rainforest conservation. We all know how important that is, perhaps even more so now.

Dilshini Sandhu - Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’

‘Für Elise’ is important to me, because of its simplicity and complexity. The juxtaposed feelings, from minor to major, capture someone's sadness and playfulness that can often exist simultaneously. It resonates with me because music is what feelings sound like and we often have several emotions existing within us simultaneously.

Murray McCullough - Bob Dylan’s ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’

I was at a social event in Mostar in ‘95 and a local chap said this song, which everyone there was singing, was the unofficial Bosnian anthem. When I asked why he replied , “because we have all been to Hell and now we are knocking on heavens door’.

'Brian O’Reilly - ‘Workers Song' written by Ed Pickford and sung by the Scottish socialist folk singer Dick Gaughan from his LP 'A Handful Of Earth'

An anti-war song that says everything about the lunacy of capitalism and war.

Steve Day -‘ The Beatles ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’

This Beatles song is a drone, an endless vibration. It speaks to everything we can’t see, but still feel. It has fed my desire to make music ever since I was a teenager, and still does.

LiljanaRadulj - the Dalmatian folk song, ‘O Marijana’

This song reminds me of hanging out with friends on summer nights.

Clifford Thurlow - Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’

In this song we learn that old men and rich men and politicians make war for young men and young women and good people to be sacrificed. The song's themes never go out of date.'

Nina Lobmer - Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

.All music in one song

Jan Woolf - Beethoven’s ‘Piano Sonata No. 21 in C, Op. 53 -"Waldstein" - 3. Rondo (Allegretto moderato)’, played by Alfred Brendel

Many layers here . I heard it at Dartington hall some years ago. Brendel was too elderly to play and he introduced the piece played by a much younger pianist - and I thought how sad that must have been for him. The piece was sublime and helped transform a depression - so I downloaded it by Brendel and played it over and over later during the night.

Gillian Howell - Mozart’s ‘Clarinet concerto, A-Major 622’

It is one of those pieces of music that offer an unbroken connection between the past and the present.

Joanna Harrison - Mozart’s ‘Piano Sonata in C Major’ K 545’

As we get older music means more and more so this piece makes me think of the nostalgia of childhood but at the same time is uplifting.

Liz Huhne - Mozart’s ‘Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467’

I played this for my husband Peter whilst he was in bed shortly before he died. A guitarist visited regularly and played this for him as well as Fats Waller’s “Your Feet’s too Big” and Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.

Sebastian Balfour - Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suite No 1

It evokes a powerful memory of my mother. She was once a professional singer and had harboured musical ambitions for her three children. She wanted my brother, sister and me to form a piano trio. My brother was encouraged to learn the violin, my sister the piano and me the cello. My brother soon abandoned the violin for the trumpet. His passion became New Orleans Jazz and he formed a band. My mother was acutely embarrassed. My sister could play the odd Chopin Mazurka on piano, but never developed beyond amateur level. My teacher was a professional cellist and one of Pablo Casals’ pupils. I remember struggled to learn the Bach Suite. My memory is a mixture of disappointment and pleasure at the complex beauty of this magnificent piece of music. 

The train to barbarism

 

I remember attending a meeting 50 years ago when Tony Cliff was talking about capitalisn and imperialism. Born Ygael Gluckstein in Palestine in 1917, his anti-Zionism and revolutionary socialism left him stateless for many years.

At that meeting he said that many people don’t realise how horrific war is. Of Russian ancestry,  his grandfather was conscripted into the Tsarist army to fight against Turkey. His mother was upset that he had to leave home. After he made it clear that he had no choice she told him, ‘Ah well son. If you must go you see you must go. Kill a Turk, have a rest. Kill a Turk, have a rest.’

He went on to suggest that the world is heading towards barbarism and used a train metaphor. “We are all on the same train. The upper class have couchettes and are eating in the dining car. The middle class are in the carriages and the working class are crowded in the corridors. But everyone is on the same train and it’s heading towards barbarism."

I was reminded of Cliff after reading this from someone else who was also politically active half a century ago and still is today, Tariq Ali.

“The US/UK did nothing to disrupt the Judeocide during the Second World War. They and most other Western states are actively aiding the genocide taking place in Palestine. Yes, actively. In order to do this they have wrecked their own international legal system. Anything we do, goes the refrain, is not subject to an international law. These laws are for our 'enemies.' The same applies to the institutions agreed after the last world war. The UN is virtually defunct. It's the US that decides. What we are witnessing is the break-up of the international order. Nothing will be the same again after the Gaza genocide. The ICC is dead. The ICJ is dead. The UNSC is dead. Western 'civilization' is seen in most of the world as a barbarism. The consequences will be dire.”

It’s getting very late,  perhaps too late, but how do we stop the train?

Sunderland - now and then

 

Jeremy Corbyn addressed a large crowd in Sunderland in August 2016. It was just one of many that took place across the country. He used his rally there to announce that if he became PM, his government would create a ‘Bank of the North’ with sufficient investment to unlock 100,000 jobs.

Of course this was never going to happen. Theresa May was Prime Minister at the time and told Corbyn to his face that “we will never let you rule.” Her ‘we’ included the whole of the UK Establishment who then set about destroying Corbyn, along with former London mayor, Ken Livingstone. They were labelled as ‘racists’ and ‘anti-semitic’, a campaign abetted by the corporate media.

This ‘pogram’ was aimed at removing not only Corbyn, but those that remained of the Left in the Labour party. This included a large number of anti-zionist Jews.

Now with Keir Starmer as Labour Party leader, the door has been opened to violent racism and the spectre of fascism.

With racists rampaging the streets of Sunderland and other cities, and that Corbyn rally a distant memory, Keir Starmer is off on holiday.

A personal note. I am alive today because my brain surgeon was Nigerian and my heart surgeon Egyptian.

The City of London is an Offshore Island

After collaborating with Ken livingstone on the 'Thanks Ken' pamphlet I started to read his book, 'Livingstone's London' (Muswell Press 2019). A great read. Did you know why we drive on the left side of the road? Because horse carriage riders carried their whips in their right hands and endangered pedestrians if riding on the right side. That is an interesting snippet from his book, but the excerpt below is both interesting and shocking.  No wonder they got rid of Jeremy Corbyn and defamed Ken.

"When the Bank of England was created in 1694, it was largely to provide credit for the building of our navy and ushered in a financial revolution that led to the creation of mortgage markets, Lloyds of London insurance, a stock exchange, a financial press and the rapid expansion of overseas trade. Although Atlee’s government did nationalise the bank in 1946, the bank had powerful cards to play, in particular its control over the nation’s money. Interestingly, when Labour lost the 1951 election, Winston Churchill’s government did not repeal the nationalisation of the bank. That may well be because Churchill had discovered that during the Second World War, the governor of the Bank of England had transferred a substantial portion of Britain’s gold reserves to Nazi Germany because we owed them the gold, and the Governor of the bank never consulted the government before he did this…. When Harold Wilson’s Labour government was elected in 1964 and discovered that our trade deficit was twice what the outgoing Tories had admitted, he gave into pressure from the bank’s governor to slash most of his spending promises, causing him to say, “Who is Prime Minister of the country, Mr Governor, you or me?” …. Before Tony Blair came to power 8,000 residents living in the City of London had one vote each, but businesses in the City could vote as well, and had 23,000 votes between them. Blair allowed them to increase their votes to 32,000. Now City Bank of China, Moscow’s Narodny Bank, KPMG and Goldman Sachs are voting in British elections. Tony Benn said, “We are considering a corrupt proposal. We are being asked to legalise the buying of votes for political purposes. The City is an offshore island moored in the Thames”.

SINCE POSTING THIS QUOTE FROM LIVINGSTONE'S BOOK I DISCOVERED THIS ACCOUNT OF THE CITY OF LONDON'S SPECIAL AND UNDEMOCRATIC INFLUENCE INSIDE THE UK PARLIAMENT

The Remembrancer is one of the City of London’s Chief Officers and the role dates back to 1571. He acts as the channel of communication between the City and Parliament. The Remembrancer's responsibilities include monitoring legislation introduced into Parliament, and reporting to the Corporation anything that is likely to influence the City of London's interests.He also offers briefings to MPs and submits evidence when select committees are investigating matters of interest to the corporation.The Remembrancer is a parliamentary agent and observes thr House of Commons proceedings from the under-gallery near the chair of the Sergeant at Arms.

On Saturday 20th April 2024, Jan Woolf organised a 'Thanks Ken' afternoon at the Gatehouse pub theatre in London's Highgate.  Family and friends wanted to celebrate his life and honour his legacy as Mayor of London.  On sale was a pamphlet which included my conversation with him over a takeaway curry and contributions acknowledging his many achievements  as an honest, good and effective politician. A few are included below  

In Conversation with David Wilson]

My father used to tell me that you can always tell who is the honest politician. He’s the one wearing the pink hat. When leader of the Greater London Council, Margaret] Thatcher accused Ken of introducing an “eastern European” style “tyranny” for crimes such as lowering bus fares and organising anti-racist celebrations. When I met with him recently in  a north London restaurant, a woman sitting at a nearby table came over, shook his hand and thanked him for all he had done for her city. That was fifteen years after the end of his time as Mayor. The last word must be given to the man in the pink hat and this conversation over a take-away curry allows him to do just that.

DW How are you feeling, Ken?

KL I have a very bad memory. My diagnosis is ‘early onset dementia and

Alzheimer’s disease’ and ‘just the beginning’. I also have arthritic knees, but

my earlier cancers (expand) haven’t amounted to anything. Other than that,

my doctor tells me I’m in good health. But I’m an old man now. How old

are you?

DW The same age as you.

KL At the time you and I were born, the average life expectancy was 63. We

are products of the Welfare State and our marvellous National Health Service.

DW I’d like to ask you a few questions. Maybe the best place to start is with

your health.

KL Might be very short because I might not be here much longer.

DW You mustn’t talk like that. We’re here while we are here. Chrysippus,

a Stoic philosopher, said ‘Where there is life there is no death, and where

there is death there is no life.’ And he died from a fit of laughter. Are you a

happy person?

KL I am right now. It’s very nice to get out and socialise. I spend so much

time at home reading and watching documentaries as nobody contacts me

for work since I was accused of anti-semitism.

DW You used to write a food column for the Evening Standard, but you’ve

hardly touched your curry. Why?

KL I’ve lost my appetite. I eat a banana for breakfast. At lunch I have some

prawns or fried onion rings with salad and the same for dinner.

DW And drink?

KL I go to the pub every day and like to meet other old men who don’t have

a workplace any more. I enjoy maybe two or three beers during the day.

DW You talk about your own extinction, but you were quoted a few weeks

ago saying that you thought humans would be extinct this century. Can you

say more?

KL I know that sounds dramatic, but all politicians must take this seriously

– it’s the biggest issue we face – it dwarfs everything else. When people do

things right, like cities introducing the congestion charge and ULEZ type

schemes, set up wind farms, reduce plastics and recycle, it gives people

a sense of agency, and we must praise these actions and be positive. But

it’s the politicians who are not doing enough. Now it’s about promoting

themselves and getting rich, and it’s at the expense of the environment, like

the destroyed forests and new oil extractions in the ocean. Governments

should be investing green with laser panels, etc, rather than seek to make

themselves and their friends rich. If I wasn’t an old man with arthritis and

‘early onset’, I’d be out with Just Stop Oil.

DW You are on record as saying that this government is the worst in our life-

time. What should Keir Starmer be prioritising to help the working people

of this country?

KL I see that Keir is now chatting away with Tony Blair. Might they discuss

a massive redistribution of wealth by cracking down on all the tax dodgers?

that we don’t increase tax on ordinary people, but on the corporations

and super rich? He should be reinstating child benefit for all children as

it’s working class people and different ethnic groups that have the bigger

families. Keir should just be a proper socialist and dismiss the legacy of Blair

who stopped the Labour Party being a socialist party.

DW As GLC leader and Mayor of London, your legacy seems to be secure

as the London politician whose progressive policies made a real difference to

the lives of ordinary Londoners.

KL Of course I was always controversial. Break the word down – contra-

versial means an opposing story. I had different policies from many in

the establishment – whether Conservative or Labour – and had to fight

democratically to get them through. As leader of the GLC, my Fares Fair policy

and Freedom Passes for the elderly are examples, and as Mayor the congestion

charge and efficient city transport. My transition from GLC leader to Mayor

is well documented in my books, Livingstone’s London (Muswell Press), Being

Red (Left Book Club) and my autobiography You Can’t Say That (Faber). Let’s

just say, as a working class Londoner, I fought for progressive policies for all

Londoners, whether they were born here or not. The policies and details of

political shenanigans to get to power to get them through are all in the books.

I think I’ll have some of that rice and dal now.

DW As Mayor of London, you played an important role internationally,

speaking out for peace and reconciliation. What is your take on the

international situation right now?

KL I want to return to this. The biggest climate polluter on the planet is

the war machine. Governments need to be doing all they can for peace,

not stoking war scenarios that only benefit the arms manufacturers. No

government in the world is tackling climate change. I’m so worried about

my kids. We grew up in a world where there were socialist governments

everywhere, and even conservative governments were making concessions

to the working class. Churchill actually said you either give people reform,

or they will take it in the form of revolution.

DW Thank you very much.

KL You’re welcome. I just love talking about myself. It helps me remember

what I did. These days I have to check my autobiography to find out. Another

beer?

DW Yes please

Richard Kuper, publisher, Dartmouth Park

“Ken’s period at the GLC was an inspiration. Constantly on the radio and in the news, he was always able to explain what he was doing in simple, no-nonsense terms. No-one could box him into a corner. To put it another way –with a hat tip to Antonio Gramsci – he made socialist ideas and policies sound like the common sense they were (and are). He was a real leader, not out for self-aggrandisement but using power to empower others, encouraging and facilitating people’s ability to organise themselves. And always willing to stick two fingers up to the Tories in the nicest possible way. Just by being at the GLC. As the title of his book would have it, ‘If voting changed anything they’d abolish it’. As they did.”

Merilyn Moos, writer, retired teacher, Archway

“I’m glad you were willing to stand up against John Mann’s Zionist onslaught against you. As you said at the time, ‘There’s been a very well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby to smear anybody who criticised Israeli policy as anti-semitic.’ ”

Matthew Deveraux, performer, teacher, Archway

“Arthur Schopenhauer once said, ‘All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; second, it is opposed; and third, it is accepted as self-evident.’ This puts me in mind of many of the innovative policies of Livingstone when in office, both as leader of the GLC and later as Mayor of London.”

Keirion Carroll

“It was 1984 and I was going on my first Gay march. I was sure all straight men hated gays and then came along Ken Livingstone. Ken didn’t just tolerate gays he actually supported us and believed we were equal to all. A straight man that didn’t hate us was new to me. And he became like a father figure, unlike our own fathers who had disowned many of us. I began to feel that maybe I didn’t need to feel ashamed anymore that if one regular man could see me as equal then why not more. I dared to dream. With Ken's support we were fearless.”