In my memory of the great political war of the first half of the 1980s, the big figures in the Labour Party seem impressively diverse in character and background, if not in gender: Tony Benn, Michael Foot, Eric Heffer, Neil Kinnock, Peter Shore, Derek Hatton, Arthur Scargill, Len Murray, Denis Healey, Gerald Kaufman, Roy Hattersley, Moss Evans - to name just a dozen at random.
And then there was Ken Livingstone, the man who had a more enduring impact than any of them.
Often accused of being a relentless self-publicist, he used the media attention he generated in the GLC days to espouse what was sometimes dismissively known as identity politics. And, despite all the vitriol and venom directed at him, he changed Britain to an extent achieved by very few politicians.
This would be a different country had he not existed. For those who remember the days of the 'loony left' stories, there's something rather ironic in the sight of the Conservative Party advocating gay marriages. As there was about Carol Thatcher losing a BBC gig for using the word 'golliwog'.
In my book on the 1980s, Rejoice! Rejoice!, I cited Livingstone alongside Margaret Thatcher as the political victors of the decade. I still think that's about right: Thatcher won the economic battles, Livingstone won the social struggles.
I voted for Ken as my constituency MP when he was first elected to Parliament in 1987, and I voted for him when he stood as an Independent candidate in the first mayoralty election in 2000. I even voted for him again when he then rejoined the Labour Party.
And now he has announced that he won't contest any more elections, having been defeated by Boris Johnson in the London mayoral election.
I regret that he stood at all this time; it just didn't feel right or dignified. But I regret even more that there was no one else in whose favour he could stand down, and that there still isn't. He was the last leader of the left.
And he's also the last of that great cast from the early 1980s to leave the political stage. It feels like the ending of a personal, as well as a political, era.
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2 comments:
Of course it's a measure of the deep unpopularity of the government that the charismatic Boris should win by such a narrow margin. I agree with your comment that there was something quite undignified about Ken's final pitch at the mayoralty. If I had been a member of the London electorate I would have voted for Ken, but without any real enthusiasm. He looked tired, morally compromised and lacking in the old radical zeal. Still, allowing for all this, it was still a narrow win for the MP for Bullington!
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