Here it is:
Comments to Oliver Finegold
Ken Livingstone was publicly criticised in February 2005 when he compared an Evening Standard reporter to a concentration camp guard after the reporter had tried to interview him following a reception marking the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith's coming out as gay. The reporter, Oliver Finegold, was in fact Jewish and said he took offence at the comparison, but Livingstone refused to withdraw the remark and was subsequently accused of anti-Semitism. Finegold had an audio recorder running. At the end of the exchange on the tape there is a five second gap. Livingstone claimed this is where Finegold swore him following his comments. Livingstone also claimed Finegold had deleted this part of the tape - the Standards Board for England refused to make a ruling on this, considering the claim to be irrelevant. The Evening Standard decided not to run the story at first but the following transcript of the conversation was leaked to The Guardian:
Finegold: Mr Livingstone, Evening Standard. How did tonight go?
Livingstone: How awful for you. Have you thought of having treatment?
Finegold: How did tonight go?
Livingstone: Have you thought of having treatment?
Finegold: Was it a good party? What does it mean for you?
Livingstone: What did you do before? Were you a German war criminal?
Finegold: No, I'm Jewish, I wasn't a German war criminal and I'm actually quite offended by that. So, how did tonight go?
Livingstone: Ah right, well you might be [Jewish], but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard, you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren't you?
Finegold: Great, I have you on record for that. So, how was tonight?
Livingstone: It's nothing to do with you because your paper is a load of scumbags and reactionary bigots.
Finegold: I'm a journalist and I'm doing my job. I'm only asking for a comment.
Livingstone: Well, work for a paper that doesn't have a record of supporting fascism.
This last comment was a reference to the Standard's owners, the Daily Mail and General Trust, which endorsed Oswald Mosley's fascists in 1934 and supported the Nazis until 1939. Livingstone also claimed the Standard was guilty of "harassment of a predominantly lesbian and gay event"[5]. Peter Tatchell commented that this explanation "came across as patronising. Gay people don't need the Mayor's protection to fend off a journalist asking simple questions."
After listening to the recording supplied by Finegold, the London Assembly voted unanimously to ask Livingstone to apologise. Livingstone responded by saying "the form of words I have used are right. I have nothing to apologise for". Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, herself the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, said of Livingstone: "These were inappropriate words and very offensive, both to the individual and to Jews in London".[25] The Board of Deputies of British Jews referred the case to the Standards Board for England, the body responsible for English local government standards, which passed it to the Adjudication Panel for England, which has the power to ban individuals from public office for five years.
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Reaction to Ken Livingstone suspensionThe Adjudication Panel addressed the case over two days on the 13 & 14 December 2005 [6][7][8], and adjourned the hearing for two months. On 24 February 2006, Ken Livingstone was found guilty of bringing his office into disrepute and suspended from office for four weeks, stating that he seemed "to have failed... to have appreciated that his conduct was unacceptable". [26] Livingstone attacked the decision on the grounds that the Adjudication Panel members ought not to suspend a democratically elected official from power, describing their actions as "striking at the heart of democracy". The ban was due to begin on 1 March 2006, but on 28 February 2006, a High Court judge postponed it pending an appeal by Livingstone. [27] During a Mayor's Question Time evening at the Hackney Empire a vote was put forward to the few hundred people in the audience asking if them if they supported the decision to ban the Mayor from office; the London audience showed their disapproval and responded with their full backing for the Mayor.
The decision was later quashed by the High Court when on October 5, Justice Collins overturned the suspension, regardless the outcome of Livingstone's appeal concerning the breach of standards. [28] The final judgment upheld Livingstone's appeal and stated that the Adjudication Panel had misdirected itself. On 7 December 2006, at a City Hall reception marking the launch of the London Jewish Forum, Livingstone apologised for any offence that he had caused the Jewish community
