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BORIS: ‘A dinosaur’ says Ken Livingstone

His comments about black people have come back to haunt him, but far right Tory Boris Johnson, once seen as the joke London mayoral candidate, could shock many by tumbling into the capital’s City Hall.

A recent Ipsos Mori poll put Labour’s candidate and current mayor, Ken Livingstone only one per cent ahead of the Tory party’s Boris Johnson.

Around 40 % of 1000 people polled said they would vote for Johnson. Ken Livingstone got 41 % and Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat candidate, got 14 %.

With the race neck and neck, new calls are being made to urge black and other ethnic minority groups in London to register to vote by April 16 and come out to vote on May 1.

Many in the black community fear that Johnson, who has had to defend several racially charged and offensive comments about black people in the last few weeks, could gain victory – and undermine race relations in London.

“They are right to be worried that a multi-ethnic city like London could be run by someone like that,” leading black barrister, Courtenay Griffiths, told The Voice. “The polls show he’s well supported in the older age groups so it’s a possibility he could win. Whether or not he will be good in the long term for London as a whole and black London in particular, given his association with racist remarks in the past, is another matter.”

Ruqayyah Collector, head of the National Union of Students’ (NUS) Black student campaign, agreed: “He could win if black people are not registered to vote or don’t come out to vote. It means that other [groups) could give him support.”

“what he has said previously…is deeply offensive and shows a colonial type mentality especially what he said about Nelson Mandela [former president of South Africa who fought apartheid].”

Many in the black community have objected to Johnson’s description in the past of Mandela's South Africa as "majority tyranny of black rule".

Boris Johnson was recently forced to publicly apologise after coming under fire over racist articles claiming blacks have lower IQs, which Johnson allowed to be published while he was Editor of the Spectator magazine.

In the Spectator, the columnist Taki, wrote that "Orientals ... have larger brains and higher IQ scores. Blacks are at the other pole." The columnist also described black American basketball players as having "arms hanging below their knees and tongues sticking out".

Johnson was also once criticised by Papua New Guinea, over making negative stereotypes after he wrote a newspaper column in which he compared party leadership contests to "orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing."

Johnson has also come under fire for writing articles in which he referred to black children as "piccaninnies", a derogatory colonial term and which claimed that Africans had "watermelon smiles".

Johnson has denied being racist, telling the Evening Standard newspaper that he was sorry for the articles. He insisted that his words were taken out of context. He also told a black publication he was on holiday when an article in the Spectator claimed that Caribbean people were ‘multiplying like flies’.

Last week, more members of the black community said Johnson, who comes from a wealthy background and has only represented Henley, a wealthy middle class area as MP, did not understand or care about ethnic minority issues.

“It would be an absolute disaster to have someone who holds such strong racial views; someone who cares so little about London’s ethnic minority population; someone who, in his writings…and shows he has no interest in London’s ethnic minority communities” said Joseph Harker, a senior editor at the Guardian newspaper.

Harker warned that black communities would start feeling negative effects very quickly if Boris Johnson gets in. “He has no interest in the black community and had no interest until he announced his candidacy. Ken is not perfect but it would be an absolute disaster if Johnson won. He could come in and shut down funding to the black organisations. Many of us would feel the effects almost from day one.”

However Boris Johnson hit back at his critics. He told The Voice: “I will be a Mayor who unites all Londoners. I will focus on tackling violent crime, which disproportionately affects young black and Asian men.

“ I will set up the first Mayor's Fund for London, which will encourage the wealth creators in London to donate to a range of youth community projects which help to stop young Londoners from making the catastrophic choices that lead to violent crime.”

Published: 13 April 2008
Issue: 1316

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