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@moth
I've long admired Ken Livingstone's previous success with the busses and the congestion charge. As a student around 2001 / 2002 my dose of daytime telly included the UK parliament channel, which sometimes showed the London Assembly meetings and their questioning of Ken. Compared to the national parliament it was a breath of fresh air, and it was always clear there was a lot of positive change happening.
I was only dimly aware of other aspects of his political identity, and have been finding people's cryptic condemnations of him confusing. Trying to understand has been like swimming though mud of claims and counter claims, vapid arguments and attacks on the validity of sources i lack the time or language skills to unravel.
It is clear though from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-vF-VHemlE
speech that Ken is a firm supporter of the Palestinian people. So at last i begin to understand what's divisive about him. I can't find much to argue with in his speech, but i can see a lot of people wouldn't be comfortable with their Mayor holding such a forthright position on such a polarising issue.
It's clear he cares for London's Muslims, but i don't for a moment believe they're the only segment of London he cares for.