Category Archives: London

Previously in the Ken Livingstone no-one has done anything wrong, honest guv, it’s all been made up by horrible journalists saga: Lee Jasper, one of London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s top aides, was forced to quit after he failed to declare his links with the recipient of a grant from City Hall.

And now: the police have arrested on suspicion of money laundering Greg Nowell. He ran the Green Badge Taxi School, one of the schemes which received funding from the London Development Agency and which has been under fire over allegations that it didn’t actually carry out the work it …

First we have Ken Livingstone reporting Lee Jasper to the police for investigation, saying that he hasn’t done anything wrong, but the police should investigate anyway.

Then we have Ken Livingstone today saying Lee Jasper’s computer was broken into, but he hasn’t reported it to the police.

In other words: when he thinks there hasn’t been a crime he calls in the police, but when he thinks there has been a crime, he doesn’t call in the police.

And the logic behind this is…?

The day before he was due to face questioning from London Assembly members, Ken Livingstone’s top aide Lee Jasper has quit:

Ken Livingstone’s key aide Lee Jasper dramatically quit his job this evening after damaging sexually charged e-mails he sent were revealed by the Evening Standard. (Evening Standard)

This morning’s story explains:

The Mayor’s senior aide sent a string of messages to Karen Chouhan, the company secretary of the 1990 Trust and director of the Black Londoners’ Forum….

Days later the 1990 Trust was given £65,000 by City Hall.

Mr Jasper did not declare his relationship with Mrs Chouhan or any

…

Ken Livingstone tells the world he is getting the police to investigate he senior adviser Lee Jasper.

Except that he doesn’t then give the police any specific criminal allegations to investigate.

Result? The police say

To date there have been no criminal allegations reported to us in connection with this individual.

All a bit odd you might think. Why tell the world you are reporting to someone to the police if you don’t then give them something proper to investigate?

The answer may well be in this bit of spin on one Labour blog, that of Tim McLoughlin:

The police have decided that Ken Livingstone’s

…

When it’s Ken Livingstone it would seem.

The story so far: Ken Livingstone says he’s called in the police to investigate allegations against Lee Jasper and, as a result, has suspended him. He also says the allegations against Jasper are nonsense, which did cause a few people to ask the question of why he was reporting someone to the police when he didn’t think they’d done anything wrong…. (wasting police time, anyone?). But anyway, he says that someone under police investigation has to be suspended for their job, so suspended Jasper was.

And now: the police say actually, despite Ken’s comments, they …

I’ve commented before on the at times bizarre group-think mentality that seems to be gripping many in Labour circles over any criticism of Ken Livingstone. Their response is either to say:

• Hey, you are a left-winger, you treacherous scum, how dare you criticise beloved Ken!, or
• Hey, you are right-wing scum and part of a nasty conspiracy, how dare you set foot in our town?

(I paraphrase only slightly).

So what of Rosemary Emodi’s resignation earlier this week? You’d have thought that the resignation of one of Ken Livingstone’s aides for lying over whether or not she took a luxury overseas trip might …