- Born
- Birth nameKenneth Robert Livingstone
- Nickname
- Red Ken
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Ken Livingstone is a socialist politician and former Mayor of London. Having been politically active since the late 1960s when he joined the Labour party, he was regarded as part of the "hard Left" of politicians, and dubbed "Red Ken" by some tabloids. He made two unsuccessful stands for Leader of the Labour Party in the 1990s.
In 2000 he campaigned to be the Mayor of London as an independent, successfully winning the polling twice, and holding the role from 2000-2008. He has published books, including memoirs, and acted as a fictionalised version of "himself" in three separate television series: Snakes and Ladders (1989), Faith (1994) and Trevor's World of Sport (2003). Showing willingness to send himself up, Episode #1.7 (1989) had him portray himself as "Red Ken", a psychiatric patient who rubs his legs passionately after hearing the word "strike", while reading a copy of "Marxism Yesterday".
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous
- SpousesEmma Beal(September 26, 2009 - present) (2 children)Christine Pamela Chapman(1973 - 1982) (divorced)
- His decision to run for the London Mayoral election of 2000 against the official Labour Party candidate, Frank Dobson, contravened Labour Party rules and his membership of the party was terminated. He had to run as an independent. On 5 May 2000, he was elected Mayor of London. His campaign for Mayor was supported by celebrities such as actors Neil Pearson and Harry Enfield and the pop singer Damon Albarn.
- He was the Labour Member of Parliament for Brent East.
- A big Doctor Who (1963) fan, he was interviewed for the 30th anniversary special Doctor Who More Than 30 years in the TARDIS (1993) and the 50th anniversary special Me, You and Doctor Who (2013).
- In 2016, he caused an outrage and was suspended by the Labour Party after stating during a radio interview that Adolf Hitler supported Zionism.
- [in 2009] It used to be politics was a serious debate about the issues. Increasingly, it's "Are they good-looking? Would you like to sit next to them at a dinner party?" The two politicians who most changed the last sixty years are Clem Attlee (Clement Attlee), who people didn't even know he was in the room but he was hard as nails in doing the job, and Margaret Thatcher. No one liked Margaret Thatcher but they respected her. Now we've got to like politicians.
- If you look at the history of the Post War world, in 1945 a Labour government and also the Truman administration following on from Roosevelt, set in place 30 years of Social Democracy, wealth differential was narrowed and lifespan improved. In the 1970s everyone said things were terrible, it wasn't, it was a bloody wonderful time. Womens' wages caught up with mens massively, the length of holidays went from two weeks to three or four, the average working day was cut by 40 minutes and crime levels were nothing compared to now. It was in a sense a much fairer society. And then Thatcher (Margaret Thatcher) came in here and Reagan (Ronald Reagan) in America and wrenched it into rebuilding inequalities of wealth, huge profits to corporations, and there were going to be casualties. And we're still suffering. When Cameron (David Cameron) talks about a Broken Britain he's right, but quite a lot of it he's not being honest with admitting who broke it.
- Thatcher (Margaret Thatcher) so divided society that you were one side or the other, there was no middle ground.
- I think Margaret Thatcher is a severely damaged individual. She had a grim childhood, cold baths, discipline, order. There was no happy childhood there, and that's the case with most people who are political monsters. But, when she dies she's just another human being who dies. If we could go back and prevent her being born, that'd be a different matter, we'd all have been saved, but if it hadn't been Thatcher it would most probably have been Tebbit (Norman Tebbit), someone would have come up and done the same.
- Everything that is wrong in society - drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, crime - is directly related to inequality of wealth.
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