Here's a happy turn of events- Ken Livingstone, after having the party vote rigged against him, is running for mayor. Having had Maggie Thatcher abolish the Greater London Council out from under him when he ran it, I guess he wasn't willing to have another undemocratic system imposed on London. He did write a wonderfully titled book, "If Voting Changed Anything, They'd Abolish It" right after Maggie abolished the GLC.
So Blair is developing opposition and it is appearing on his Left. That is a very nice turn of events. -- Nathan Newman =====================================
Monday March 6, 12:38 PM "Red Ken" defies Blair to run for London mayor By Susan Cornwell
LONDON (Reuters) - Left-winger Ken Livingstone has defied Prime Minister Tony Blair by announcing he will run as an independent for London mayor in the May election.
The popular maverick will be expelled from the Labour party, splitting it between his supporters and those of Frank Dobson, who is Blair's favoured man for the job and the official Labour candidate for mayor.
Livingstone's announcement, in London's Evening Standard newspaper, is a reversal of his previous pledge not to break ranks with the party he joined 30 years ago.
"THE PARTY I LOVE"
"I have been forced to choose between the party I love and upholding the democratic rights of Londoners," Livingstone told the Standard on Monday.
"I have concluded that defence of the principle of London's right to govern itself requires that I stand as an independent for London Mayor on May 4," he said.
Analysts said that despite the limited powers of the mayor's office, Labour party chiefs fear Livingstone could use it to snipe non-stop at Blair's centrist policies.
Conservative candidate Steve Norris crowed: "It's proof there is a God and he must be a Tory."
Some political analysts say a divided Labour vote could hand victory to the Conservatives on May 4 when five million voters will, for the first time, directly elect a mayor for a city with an economy the size of Belgium.
But opinion polls have forecast that Livingstone could win even in a four-way race with Dobson, Norris, and Liberal Democrat Susan Kramer.
LIVINGSTONE WOULD BE "DISASTER" - BLAIR
Prime Minister Tony Blair believes if "Red Ken" Livingstone became the capital's mayor it would be "a disaster for London", the Blair's spokesman said.
As Livingstone faced expulsion from his party for deciding to defy Blair and stand as an independent candidate, the prime minister's spokesman told reporters:
"He believes (Livingstone) would be a disaster for London...It is now for the people of London to decide. It is not the prime minister's responsibility.
"He makes no bones about it...he was very strongly against Ken being the Labour candidate and he's very glad he isn't Labour's candidate."
With Livingstone now out in the open, the spokesman said the time had come for the media to shift debate from "garbage" about personalities to real policies: jobs, transport and crime.
Blair's office said Livingstone would not make a suitable figurehead for London as a financial centre because of his socialist past, lumping him in with past defectors from Labour including miners' union firebrand Arthur Scargill.
Asked to comment on Livingstone's huge lead in opinion polls which indicated that he would win as an independent, Blair's spokesman said:
"The polls are irrelevant."
"THE EGO HAS LANDED"
The Labour party attacked Livingstone immediately after he announced his decision to stand.
"The ego has landed," Dobson said scornfully of his rival.
"Once he signs the nomination papers he'll be straight out, automatically expelled. It's a formality. He has walked away from the party," a senior Labour party source told Reuters.
Livingstone, dubbed "Red Ken" for his left-wing views, narrowly lost Labour's ballot for the nomination to Dobson last month. The ballot was weighted against Livingstone's grass roots supporters.
Both Norris and Dobson said the campaign could now focus on policies -- where they said Livingstone was woefully weak.
Blair says Livingstone is a relic of the left-wing politics of the 1980s that had made Labour unelectable. Livingstone formerly headed the Greater London Council, which was abolished in the 1980s under former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Since then there has not been a governing body for the whole city, although the square mile financial district, the city of London, has a Lord Mayor.
London's new mayor is part of Blair's policy of devolving power to the regions.