No one can say that Ken Livingstone doesn’t care what people think. A convocation of Londoners descended on the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster for a day-long set of talks and Q&A sessions around many of the issues that excite Londoners these days.
After coffee, it was time for Red Ken. In his younger days, Ken was a radical, let’s-ban-the-bomb-and-smite-the-capitalists kind of politician. In recent years he seemed to have mellowed. Our Red Ken has now become Our Green Ken. Much of his speech to the assembled multitudes (and there must have been 1000 or more people in the hall we were in, with another lot in the overflow hall downstairs) dealt with climate issues. He was witty about it, of course, and very un-self-conscious. He referred to his comments about the Evening Standard reporter (comparing him to a Nazi concentration camp guard even though the reporter was Jewish) and also referred again to the American ambassador as a “chiseling little crook” who doesn’t pay the congestion charge. Most of his speech was taken up with telling us about the coming ecological crisis and how we as Londoners can and must assist in lowering our use of water and the amount of carbon we release into the atmosphere.
“We all know that when you defecate you must flush; however, if you’ve only urinated, there’s no need to flush. After all, it’s well known that gardeners pee into a bucket, dilute the urine with water and use it to water their plants. Urine is rich in nitrogen and nitrogen is fertiliser.” Green Ken has spoken! He did admonish one questioner who asked if Ken’s advice extended to the yobs who pee in his (the questioner’s) garden. Ken replied that dilution is essential and that undiluted urine harms plants. Who knew that Ken had a green thumb?
Ken also discussed the need to turn away from large nuclear and coal/oil/gas-fired power plants toward localisation of power generation to cut down on the amount of power lost from transmission lines. He disagrees with the government’s tendency toward looking for more nuclear power plants to supply our electricity.
He blames our housing mess on Thatcher refusing to let councils build more council flats, and on Blair’s continuation of that policy. He himself is overseeing the building of up to 25,000 houses in London this year and is looking for 50,000 by a few years’ time.
The people in the room were a mixture of the curious and the neighbourhood activist or one-issue-Charlie. So some of the questions were political polemics disguised as questions. One or two questions were actually sensible, though. Ken referred most of the substantive questions to his staff, who were on hand to ensure that no question was left unanswered. This is a good thing.
After another cup of coffee we were off to the transport section, which had Peter Hendy, the Commissioner of Transport for London as the chief whipping boy. The questions here were very local, down to the bus number. For example, one lady said that she had been unable to board the number 11 bus to get downtown today because the driver had not stopped close enough to the kerb. One gentleman complained about people who put their feet on the seats. In fact, in the last year he had taken over 200 pictures of people with their feet on bus seats. He was disgusted by this. I think he has the makings of a kitsch website there, if he has enough bandwidth for it.
Mr Hendy answered every question and seemed to have most of the facts at his fingertips. One question, about the closure of the loos at Vauxhall Transportation Centre (that structure across from MI6 that looks like an airport runway in the sky), he knew straight off what the situation was (without consulting his minions) and answered the question robustly (something on the order of: “They’re closed because they were destroyed by the users.” His solution was closer police observation. I don’t suppose they need a lavatory attendant in the gents who could help the gents ensure that their clothing was arranged… Hendy is a hands-on manager who takes his policy cues from Ken and the Assembly and robustly carries them into action.
He had a few unkind words for Metronet…look for some fireworks there in the next few years. I think they’ll be looking for damages due to the over-run of repossessions of the tracks for repair work. Hendy has summoned not the bosses of Metronet, but the bosses of the companies (many foreign-owned) who own Metronet for a dressing-down.
There were a lot of gripes at this session, and not many specific actual sincere questions. Transport advocates can be wankers at times, I fear.
The feed at lunch was pretty good if simple (orange juice, sandwiches, and fruit).
On the other hand, the last session I went to, on the Olympics, with Lord Sebastian Coe as the front person, was very soporific. I fell asleep during his talk, and the questions again ranged from the sycophantic to the hostile (“What are the Olympics going to do to help revive Barking and Dagenham in East London?” was a typical question. There is nothing you can say to that except “Loads, we think.” and that’s basically what Coe said).
It’ll take me a while to go through all the bumpf I got from the various tables and displays. There is at least one CD-ROM business card, as well as lots of stuff from TfL. It’ll also take me a while to process everything I heard today. But I enjoyed it, and hope to be invited again next year.
Oh, and Ken as much as said he’d run for re-election in 2008, so watch out for that! Someone suggested that he go back to Parliament and run for Prime Minister. There was quite a bit of applause at that. But Ken has found his niche in London, and if this group is anything to go by, he’ll be around for years to come keeping us amused.
You know, it is not that hard to create an indestructible bathroom. Ok, so it is abit hostile in metal and concrete, but it can be done.
It’s absurd and typical Ken to use the phrase “chiselling crook” for Americans, They are by no means the worst offenders:
In total, the Angolan embassy owes
Oh, as a dual US/UK citizen I agree with Ken wholeheartedly. I’m sure that he thinks that the Angolans, Sudanese, and Nigerians are chiselling little crooks, too. However, getting at the Americans is a good way to raise publicity for the effort to get all the embassies to pay their congestion charges, and belittling the others might seem a bit like kicking the poorest countries around. The US can take the criticism. Maybe they’ll even discover that the only way to not be chiselling little crooks is to pay up and shut up. I’ve had dealings with the Embassy staff (over my lost passport in 2000) and they act like supercilious twerps, disdainfully tossing my British passport back at me when they discovered that I was a dual citizen. The only other place where something like that happened was at the border between Hong Kong and China where the Chinese immigration official nearly threw my passport in my face.
I agree; maybe they will try that route when they renovate it. There is a men’s outdoor urinal next to the bus stop so most of the drunks use that. It’s a bit daunting to whip it out and pee as a double-decker goes by and you think, “I wonder if the people on the top deck can see?”
Yes, Livingstone is certainly full of piss and vinegar, isn’t he? 😉
I suppose the row over the congestion charge is probably due to a squabble over diplomatic immunity, much like parking tickets at the UN, no?
LOL good points, but I’m not sure if it’s really fair to charge diplomats. Personally I think the Americans have a good case, and they are right to argue it. Perhaps it can be settled in court. But now I know of your experience with embassy staff, I feel that the US and China should be punished in some way….
I heard Ken say on ITV London debate the other night, that he considers the American ambassador to be a very nice man.
my understanding is that the US (and other) embassies are avoiding local debts by claiming diplomatic immunity to local laws, so don’t pay parking tickets (and that’s pretty world-wide, I understand. I’m sure that New York, home of the UN, has a significant hole in their revenue stream from unpaid tickets).
the congestion charge in central london is essentially a road toll, which everyone pays, as opposed to a fine for breaking a rule [eg parking tickets], paid only by those who commit infractions.
If the UK embassy in Washington pays road tolls for its staff using the expresways around DC, it seems to me that the US paying the London congestion charge is directly analogous.
Well, the difference between parking tickets and the congestion charge is that with parking tickets, you break the law, you get fined. With the congestion charge, you pay and if you don’t pay, you’re breaking the law. It’s like a toll road, really. If a diplomat wants to use a toll road, they have to pay. This one will go on and on.
It’s arguable whether this is a toll. The mayor of London has refered to it (according to the US ambassador) as a municipal tax, and therefore under the Vienna convention, diplomats are exempt (to enable them to freely go about their dipolmatic business). Over 50 countries have refused to pay the congestion charge, including Switzerland and Germany. Sweden has a congestion charge, and they have specifically exempted diplomats.
I have to side with your (US) ambassador on this one. (See my comment above). And he does appear to be a very nice man! (as seen on Sunday AM) US diplomats already pay any toll charges. I personally consider the congestion charge as an additional tax. I like it because I don’t drive! On the other hand, I don’t think that diplomats (of any nationality) should pay.
…Ken replied that dilution is essential and that undiluted urine harms plants…
I attest to this.
When I was 7, I planted a rose plant.
And everyday, when I got home from school, I’d march up to the plant, and pee on it.
For somehow in my 7 year old mind, I knew that pee had some good stuff as far as plants were concerned.
But needless to say, the plant died. I guess too much of a good thing is bad for you.
Lesson learnt: Drink in moderation…
(=