He needs no introduction. His nickname – “Red Ken” - is famous everywhere: in the United Kingdom and abroad. Some years ago, Kate Bush wrote a song about him (“Ken is the man that we all need/ Ken is the leader of the GLC”). He appeared on the Blur album “The Great Escape” and Kevin Rowland described him as “a folk hero”. In Kerala, India, somebody gave his name to a coffee shop: Ken Livingstone, like an old, reliable brand.
He was the first Major of London from the creation of the office, in 2000, until 2008. In that year, he was beated by the young conservative Boris Johnson, but he never surrended: “I'll run again for the office of Mayor of London at the next mayoral elections”, he announced. And now, the time has come.
That's for sure: getting in the game, for Ken Livingstone, is a great passion. As they say: when the going gets tough, the tough get going; and “Red Ken” has always been a tough. In the 80s, when he was the leader of the Great London Council, his bitterest opponent was no less than Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady.
Livingstone was a forty-year-old little-known militant, but he had his own ideas and he never hid them. In december 1982, the GLC extended an official invitation to the leaders of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison. But they were denied entry into the mainland (the Prevention of Terrorism Acts were still in effect). So, “Red Ken” decided to go in Northern Ireland and declared that Britain's treatment of the Irish over the last 800 years had been worse than Adolf Hitler's treatment of Jews. He was considered, despite of these polemics, a really practical politician and not, like the majority of the labours, just an empty theorist.
In 1987, he was elected to the Parliament, but he never became institutionalized (some years later, speaking about the President of the United States, George W. Bush, he would have said: “He's the greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen”). He immediatly used parliamentary privilege to raise a number of allegations made by Fred Holroyd, a former Special Intelligence Service operative in Northern Ireland, documenting MI5 collusion with Ulster loyalist paramilitaries in the 1970s. He was re-elected in 1992 and in 1997. And then, in 2000, he reached the goal that would have made him famous: Mayor of London.
Now, the challenge is open. On one side, the old left-wing lion, “Red Ken”; on the other side, his natural enemy: Boris Johnson, of course. So, 4 years after his first defeat, now Livingstone might get his own revenge. His pollsters are quite optimistic, but it won’t be easy. In these weeks, “Red Ken” is carrying on a frantic campaign: transport fares are his key issue. He tried winning back the labour voters who were earlier sympathetic to Johnson – and he succeeded. Is it enough? Probably not. Fares – as some columinists say - can not be the only issue of a mayoral campaign. He should be proactive, tapping into Londoners’ expectations of the world’s capital – never forgetting that the Olimping games are knocking on the door). “To win – writes a blogger - Ken has to confound expectations and surprise people who may normally dismiss him. He has to show them he is refreshed and changed”. Should Ken Livingstone overcome? We'll discover it on the 3rd of May, the election day.
At this moment in time, anyway, “Red Ken” seems to be self-confident, jaunty and perky. Some months ago, joking with the journalists, he said: “The mayoral election? It's a simple choice between good and evil. Those who don't vote for me will be weighed in the balance come Judgment Day. The Archangel Gabriel will say, 'You didn't vote for Ken Livingstone in 2012? Oh dear, burn for ever'”. As they say: he who laughs last laughs longest.
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