Richard Barnbrook on a Ken Livingstone comeback
Richard the Lionheart
Foreword by The Green ArrowIt is no secret that I am an ardent admirer of the British National Party London Assembly Member Mr Richard Barnbrook. In my opinion he has the charm of David Niven, the heart and courage of a lion and his nickname Richard the Lionheart is well deserved.
Whilst speaking to him at the 2009 Red, White and Blue, I asked him how he could daily go into that pit of filth known as City Hall in London and take the endless abuse after delivering yet another hard hitting and truthful speech. He replied that he had developed the skin of a rhinoceros. Well apart from all these atributes I am also pleased to note that he also retains a stiletto style sense of humour as you will discover when you read the articles beneath, that I have shamelessly taken from his site here. Whilst there, why not leave the Lionheart a comment of support, because even lions like to be patted now and again. The rest is all Richard.
Ken Livingstone(top) and friend
A Ken Livingstone comeback? He can’t be serious!
Strange how politicians seem to assume that the majority of voters suffer with amnesia. Or maybe they put it down to the pendulum effect which can be described as follows:
A government, from one (or even maybe two) of the half-baked main parties gets elected.
- Everyone feels a warm glow of optimism.
- That cheery feeling soon fades.
- The government shows itself completely inept.
- The voters groan.
- Time for an election- let’s give the other guys a chance!
- This time, the former party in opposition is elected.
- The people feel optimistic again.
- The optimism soon fades as the pre-election promises are disregarded.
- The country sinks further into bankruptcy and chaos…..
Presumably Ken Livingstone thinks we’ve forgotten all the disasters of his mayoralty in the general reaction against the inadequacy of bungling Boris!
However, a quick canter back down memory lane should serve to remind us just what a disaster the reign of Mayor Livingstone was!
- Remember who introduced the congestion charge?
- The £200 000 pay-offs received by 8 of his City Hall advisers?
- The scandal that surrounded his race advisor Lee Jasper with grants from the Mayor’s office?
- The money wasted on zany multi-culti projects like the Rise music festival?
- The celebrations for the Muslim festival of Eid held in Trafalgar Square for the first time?
- And his ridiculous, tearful and nonsensical apology for the slave trade of 200 years ago.
- And don’t forget the 27 teenage murders that took place on the streets of London.
- All the money wasted on his ludicrous promotion stunt in Venezuela.
And after all this, instead of hanging his head in shame, Ken’s now eyeing up the mayoral contest in 2012. Maybe he thinks that Londoners will be so deliriously punch drunk with having to stump up for the Olympics that they won’t mind forking out for him to deliver yet more of his mad ideas!
It’s about time that Red Ken, Up-in-the-clouds-Blue-Boris, and anyone else from the main parties that has their sights on the Mayoral throne got the message:
Londoners need less government, not more!
We want less interference from the pen-pushers at the GLA.
We want to keep more of our own money, instead of being fleeced with higher congestion charges and exorbitant council tax.
We want less regulation, surveillance and interference in our daily lives, not more of it.
We want the burden lifted from small business, currently over-regulated and priced out of existence.
And we want a London that we can be proud of, that reflects the character and input of the past generations of British people that built it, not one that bends over backwards to reflect the diversity of newcomers at the expense of the people who already live here.
That’s the sort of London I believe that Londoners want. Both Ken and Boris have shown by their past records that they are clearly not up to the job!
By the way, as a keen supporter of animals and wild life I fully applaud Ken as a newt fancier, and. I also appreciate Ken’s support for rare endangered Australian Rhino Iguanas, so I do hope that he has a licence for them now!
The Mayor’s ‘State of London Debate’ is just another talking-shop!
This event, due to take place this month, has apparently been upgraded this year,”to enable the highest number of people to take part and put their questions to Mayor Boris Johnson and senior members of his administration.” For the first time, Londoners will be able to question the Mayor by using Twitter, and the GLA website.
I wish all Londoners who take the trouble to participate, the best of luck!
From my experiences in confronting Boris in the Assembly Chamber face to face, all I get in response to my carefully aimed questions are bluster, avoidance and dismissal. Nothing constructive in the practical sense that would address the concerns of ordinary people of London about immigration, overcrowding, rising crime rates and lack of jobs. And, come to think of it, nothing seems to have been done by the Tories about the programme of affordable (council) housing which was apparently going to be implemented in the Boroughs. But I expect when he’s in front of the cameras in this well publicised and stage managed event, Boris will probably make more of an effort to pander to the points made by members of the public than he does to me! After all, he’s got his beady eye fixed on the 2012 mayoral election already, as indeed has Ken Livingstone.
The purpose behind what are effectively carefully orchestrated public events like this, is simply to placate the voters by giving them the illusion that they can be personally involved in formulating policy, when nothing can be further from the truth. I can tell you from my first hand experiences in the Chamber that Boris and this cronies simply don’t want to know! They know what they think and they certainly don’t want to want to know what you or I think, save to pay lip-service to a choice few voters’ aspirations in order to get themselves voted in again.
Unfortunately, words come cheap, and under the current political system where so much of our daily activity is regulated by Europe, and politicians are never held personally accountable, talking-shops are seen as a useful tool for diffusing voters’ frustrations and getting the politicians themselves trowel-loads of publicity at the same time. Meanwhile, the wheels of a bloated, ineffective and wasteful bureaucracy grind inexorably on, ever more restricting our lives, and strangling personal initiative and freedom. The end result of all this is that nothing changes- to the delight of the top echelons of civil servants who continue to clandestinely run the show and get paid handsomely for doing so.
Enjoy the debate by all means, and do try to bait Boris and get him in a twist if you can! But don’t be surprised when all is said, there’ll be next to nothing done, if anything!
We need to roll back regulation and reduce unnecessary government. The BNP sees the importance of limiting legislation, cutting bureaucracy and restoring power to where it truly belongs- the people!
