Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstoneis an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Councilfrom 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office in 2000 until 2008. He also served as the Member of Parliamentfor Brent East from 1987 to 2001. A suspended member of the Labour Party, he was on the party's hard left, ideologically identifying as a democratic socialist...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth17 June 1945
voice sound ministers
I would like to sound like James Mason. I reckon if I'd had a better voice I could have been prime minister. It is the most irritating voice in public life.
gay rights london
If I was courting the Muslim vote, I wouldn't have put establishing the partnership ceremony at the forefront of my first term, would I? I go all around London advocating lesbian and gay rights.
giving long want
The market is a brilliant system for the exchange of goods and services, but it doesn't protect the environment unless it's regulated, it doesn't train your workforce unless it's regulated, and it doesn't give you the long-term investment you want.
years differences leader
When I was leader of the GLC, by the time I had been in control for three years, the difference in pay between the cleaner and the director general was a four-to-one ratio. I find that attractive.
voting income done
Yes, there are lots of individual exceptions. But no one has ever done a study about voting intention without ascertaining that the biggest determining factor is your income and your wealth.
class self tradition
I spent the 1960s and 1970s seeking myself - the working-class tradition of self-education.
swim three week
I swim three times a week.
real thinking issues
I think democracy's undermined when those who own newspapers fill them with trivia rather than real issues.
mistake lying thinking
I think I have gone through my entire public career never telling a lie. I have made mistakes but I never knowingly lied.
thinking people important
I think it's much more important to keep people in work than have pay rises.
interviews
I've never declined to do an interview.
issues community black
My administration will tackle these issues in consultation with the black communities of London.
family long lamps
I just long for the day when I wake up and find that the Saudi royal family are swinging from lamp-posts.
climate climate-change
What do we do about climate change bearing down upon us?