Ken Livingstone Quotes
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My administration will tackle these issues in consultation with the black communities of London.
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I Kenneth Robert Livingstone, having been elected to the office of mayor of London, declare that I take that office upon myself, and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties of it to the best of my judgement and ability.
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Well, I mean, I'm very much a pragmatic person.
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When reporters say to me I'm only doing this because it's my job... that's the same abdication of moral responsibility at the thin end of the wedge that in its most extreme and horrific version ends up with others being prepared to stand as a concentration camp guard.
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You lose power in Britain and you are just Joe Public again.
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All the politics of the post-war period was about the clash between the Soviet Union and America, and virtually all issues ended up being subordinated to that. Now, the question is, what is the most a socialist can achieve in a global economy?
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Press TV is one of the few TV channels anywhere in the West that fairly presents the Palestinian case.
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I swim three times a week.
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When you see someone trying to manoeuvre it round the school gates you have to think, you are a complete idiot.
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I have met the people who run the world, and I am not in awe of them.
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Politics is not a healthy lifestyle.
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The world is run by monsters and you have to deal with them. Some of them run countries, some of them run banks, some of them run news corporations.
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The civil service are risk averse.
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Some US journalist came up to me and said: 'How can you say this about President Bush?' Well, I think what I said then was quite mild. I actually think that Bush is the greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen. The policies he is initiating will doom us to extinction.
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I actually think the civil service, who are the malignancy at the heart of public life, have consciously prevented, talked ministers out of, made it difficult regulatory-wise, to allow more pressure on alternative energy sources to grow.
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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.
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I was a weedy kid, not like one of those working-class men who can accommodate not being academically clever by physical strength and prowess.
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I can't understand why anyone would want to live the life of a politician if you can't say pretty much what you think. You are not in it for the money: there's unremitting pressure on your life, you give up so much of your privacy. It can only be because of the things you want to do and the things you want to say.
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The press keep asking me, 'What was your biggest mistake?' But if I had made a big mistake, they'd all be writing about it, wouldn't they?
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My only regret is the media's obsession with the past.
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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.
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I came into politics because I wished to change things. You can't do that by lying to people; you have to educate, and persuade, and carry them with you - and it's often a long haul.
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I can only admire people who I have never met and are dead - because you know so much about anyone who is alive.
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Most politicians aren't allowed to express themselves any more.