Ken Livingstone | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 2018-12-06

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Ken Livingstone


00:03:31 1 Early life
00:03:40 1.1 Childhood and young adulthood: 1945–1967
00:07:36 1.2 Political activism: 1968–1970
00:10:07 1.3 Lambeth Housing Committee: 1971–1973
00:12:25 1.4 Early years on the Greater London Council: 1973–1977
00:15:15 1.5 Hampstead: 1977–1980
00:19:00 2 Greater London Council leadership
00:19:10 2.1 Becoming leader of the GLC: 1979–1981
00:22:29 2.2 Leader of the GLC: 1981–1983
00:26:21 2.2.1 Fares Fair and transport policy
00:29:39 2.2.2 GLEB and nuclear disarmament
00:31:19 2.2.3 Egalitarian policies
00:33:50 2.2.4 Republicanism, Ireland and the iLabour Herald/i
00:41:52 2.3 Abolition of the GLC: 1983–1986
00:45:01 3 Member of Parliament
00:51:01 4 Mayor of London
00:51:10 4.1 Mayoral election: 2000
00:54:17 4.2 First mayoral term: 2000–04
01:04:34 4.3 Second mayoral term: 2004–08
01:15:39 5 Post-mayoral career
01:15:49 5.1 Unsuccessful election: 2008–14
01:19:48 5.2 Under Corbyn's leadership: 2015–present
01:21:41 5.2.1 Suspension from the Labour Party
01:25:37 6 Political views
01:29:08 7 Personal life
01:31:19 7.1 Family
01:32:57 8 Legacy and influence



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SUMMARY
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Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office in 2000 until 2008. He also served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent East from 1987 to 2001. A former member of the Labour Party, he was on the party's hard left, ideologically identifying as a democratic socialist.
Born in Lambeth, South London, to a working-class family, Livingstone joined Labour in 1968 and was elected to represent Norwood at the GLC in 1973, Hackney North and Stoke Newington in 1977, and Paddington in 1981. That year, Labour representatives on the GLC elected him as the council's leader. Attempting to reduce London Underground fares, his plans were challenged in court and declared unlawful; more successful were his schemes to benefit women and underprivileged minorities, despite stiff opposition. The mainstream media gave him the moniker "Red Ken" in reference to his socialist beliefs and heavily criticised him for supporting controversial issues like republicanism, LGBT rights, and a United Ireland. Livingstone was a vocal opponent of the Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which in 1986 abolished the GLC. Elected as MP for Brent East in 1987, he became closely associated with anti-racist campaigns. He unsuccessfully stood for Labour Party leader on a leftist platform in 1992 and 1994, in the latter losing to Tony Blair. Livingstone became a vocal critic of Blair's New Labour project that pushed the party to the centre and won the 1997 general election.
After failing to become Labour's candidate in the 2000 London mayoral election, Livingstone successfully contested the election as an independent candidate. In his first term as Mayor of London, he introduced the congestion charge, Oyster card, and articulated buses, and unsuccessfully opposed the government's privatisation of London Underground. Despite his opposition to Blair's government on issues like the Iraq War, Livingstone was invited to stand for re-election as Labour's candidate and was re-elected in 2004, expanding his transport policies, introducing new environmental regulations, and enacting civil rights policies. Initiating and overseeing London's winning bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics and ushering in a major redevelopment of the city's East End, his leadership after the 7 July 2005 London bombings was widely praised. He stood unsuccessfully as Labour candidate in London's mayoral elections of 2008 and 2012, losing both to the Conservative candidate Boris Johnson. A longstanding critic of Israeli policy regarding the Palestinians, his comments about the relationship between Adolf Hitler and  ...