Shawcross refuses to defend Ken over al-Qaradawi.
December 29, 2011 Ken Livingstone, London mayoralty Comments Off
Some interesting quotes have been coming in from the Limmud Jewish Conference, at which there was a London election debate this evening. Brian Paddick attended, Andrew Boff represented the Tories and Val Shawcross (Ken’s running-mate) represented Labour. Apparently a Green Party candidate was there too, but such is his/her irrelevance to my life, I can’t be bothered to look up who it was.
Ken has a lot of work to do to restore relations with London’s Jewish community – he’s the man who compared a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard, made anti-semitic comments about the Reuben brothers, welcomed Yusuf al-Qaradawi to London, and casually compared Boris to Hitler (as if Hitler’s actions were in some way equivalent to cutting crime and investing in transport).
The worst of the offences was the warm welcome given to al-Qaradawi, a calculated act which couldn’t be dismissed as a joke or a misunderstanding. The cleric defends Palestinian suicide-bombers, condones wife-beating, favours female genital mutilation, and advocates the persecution of Jews and homosexuals. When his visit received media criticism, Livingstone declared ”Very often those who raise uncomfortable truths are denounced.” In the years since, Ken has continually rejected criticism of his relationship with al-Qaradawi; even as recently as March this year defending the cleric at one of his ‘Tell Ken’ events.
The issue obviously came up at today’s debate and it sounds like, by all available accounts, Shawcross struggled to defend Ken. According to tweets from Barnet Bugle, she asked voters to not punish Ken for the “mistake” and “misjudgement” of inviting al-Qaradawi to London. She also apparently chided him for “not apologising sooner” for the “stupid and unpleasant things” he said when Mayor. Apparently Brian Paddick asked her why Ken has such a “long standing problem with Israel”, with, according to tweets from Andrew Gilbert, Shawcross saying that Ken would “need to reassure Jews himself”. Indeed he will…
[UPDATE: Andrew Gilligan has since written on the same topic. Read it here.]
