the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_embeddings huggingface dataset:
Ken Livingstone 
 The plans, although ratified by the GLA and introduced in January 2006 were condemned by those who argued that the increases would increase the cost of travelling in London to tourists and others who do not travel regularly.
Ken Livingstone 
 Civil liberties groups have expressed concern over the way in which Transport for London is able to track the movements of passengers using the Oyster card system.
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone moved to make all bus journeys free for passengers under the age of 18 enrolled in full-time education who travel with an Oyster card and introduced initiatives to enable visitors to buy an Oyster card before arriving in London.
Ken Livingstone 
 One of the key points of conflict between Livingstone and the Labour Party had been the proposed 'Public-Private Partnership' for the London Underground.
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone had run in 2000 on a policy of financing the improvements to Tube infrastructure by a public bond issue, which had been done in the case of the New York City Subway.
Ken Livingstone 
 However the Mayor did not have power in this area at the time as the Underground operated independently of Transport for London.
Ken Livingstone 
 The PPP deal went ahead in July 2002, but it did not diminish Livingstone's desire to re-join Labour.
Ken Livingstone 
 Metronet, one of the winners of the contract for PPP, subsequently went into administration in July 2007.
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone introduced the London congestion charge with the purpose of reducing traffic congestion in central London.
Ken Livingstone 
 Since being introduced the charge has proved to be controversial, though Transport for London maintains that traffic has fallen by 20% within the charge zone since the scheme began.
Ken Livingstone 
 One reason for the controversy is that whilst the scheme has been lucrative for its private-sector operator, Capita, some people argue it has not made enough money for public transport because the money has been spent on other things.
Ken Livingstone 
 However, its apparent success in reducing congestion has led to similar schemes being proposed in other major cities such as New York.
Ken Livingstone 
 In November 2003, Livingstone was named 'Politician of the Year' by the Political Studies Association, which said his scheme was 'bold and imaginative'.
Ken Livingstone 
 The United States Embassy for many years has refused to pay the charge because they argue it is a tax and not a charge on congestion.
Ken Livingstone 
 Ken Livingstone has been called “an environmentalist, a leftist, a lover of newts," and has made a significant effort to reduce London’s impact on the environment.
Ken Livingstone 
 He began by creating the London Hydrogen Partnership  and the London Energy Partnership  in his first term as Mayor of London.
Ken Livingstone 
 The Mayor’s Energy Strategy , “green light to clean power,” commits London to reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide by 20%, relative to the 1990 level, by 2010.
Ken Livingstone 
 However, he does support the Thames Gateway Bridge in East London that Friends of the Earth say "would bring few benefits to the local people and lead to more traffic, more noise and air pollution and an increase in climate-changing emissions".
Ken Livingstone 
 In October 2007, London Councils stated Livingstone had gone back on his promise to help chair the developing London Waste and Recycling Board, and to provide £6 million of funding for the project, because "the government had failed to provide him with absolute control of the Board."
Ken Livingstone 
 In June 2007, Livingstone criticised a planned £200 million desalination plant at Beckton, which would be the United Kingdom's first, calling it "misguided and a retrograde step in UK environmental policy", and that "we should be encouraging people to use less water, not more."
Ken Livingstone 
 In 2001 Livingstone set up Britain's first register for same-sex couples; while falling short of legal marriage rights, the register was seen as a "step towards" such rights.
Ken Livingstone 
 After rejecting the idea for a couple of years, Livingstone hosted a Jewish Hanukkah ceremony at City Hall in December 2005.
Ken Livingstone 
 On 17 March 2002 Livingstone introduced an annual Saint Patrick's Day festival to London to celebrate the contributions of the Irish to London, with around 250,000 people annually turning out for this.
Ken Livingstone 
 On 28 October 2006 he helped organise the first ever "Eid in the Square" in Trafalgar Square, in commemoration of the Eid ul-Fitr festival which marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.
Ken Livingstone 
 After the 7 July 2005 London bombings Livingstone, from the 117th IOC Session in Singapore, where it had recently been announced London would host the 2012 Olympic Games, delivered a speech.
Ken Livingstone 
 I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others - that is why you are so dangerous.
Ken Livingstone 
 But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail.
Ken Livingstone 
 In the days that follow, look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfill their dreams and achieve their potential.
Ken Livingstone 
 They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves.
Ken Livingstone 
 They do not want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another.
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone defended the police after the mistaken killing of a Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes, who police believed was a suicide bomber.
Ken Livingstone 
 He believes that this, along with other anti-racist policies, is why London has seen a 35% decrease in racist attacks.
Ken Livingstone 
 In September 2005 Livingstone came out in support of placing a statue of Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa, on the north terrace of Trafalgar Square.
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone said "There can be no better place than our greatest square to place a statue of Nelson Mandela so that every generation can remind the next of the fight against racism."
Ken Livingstone 
 He was highly critical of the Planning and City Development Committee of Westminster City Council who refused planning permission.
Ken Livingstone 
 In 2008 Livingstone's race advisor Lee Jasper resigned after being accused of corruption and inappropriate behaviour.
Ken Livingstone 
 Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote has said the 2008 Mayoral campaign has seen a "wholly disproportionate" focus on Jasper, Doreen Lawrence (Livingstone supporter and mother of Stephen Lawrence), and others.
Ken Livingstone 
 On 23 August 2007, at 12pm, Mayor Ken Livingstone formally apologised for London's role in the transatlantic slave trade.
Ken Livingstone 
 In a bicentennial day memorial event, he also called for the 23 August to be named as a national day for remembrance in the UK for the "horrific crime against humanity of the transatlantic slave trade."
Ken Livingstone 
 "It is because it is the anniversary of the biggest slave revolt in history, that UNESCO officially marks this day, the 23 August, the anniversary of that outbreak in Haiti, as slavery's official remembrance day.
Ken Livingstone 
 We are therefore here to initiate London's annual slavery memorial day, and call for the establishment of a national, annual memorial day.
Ken Livingstone 
 In March I invited representatives of London's institutions to join the City of Liverpool and the Church of England for formally apologising for London's role in this monstrous crime.
Ken Livingstone 
 As Mayor, I offer an apology on behalf of London and its institutions for their role in the transatlantic slave trade."
Ken Livingstone 
 Rejecting the idea that it is not possible to "meaningfully apologise for something a former generation did," Livingstone emphasised that London and by implication the rest of the developed world still profited enormously from the assets accumulated in the slave era, adding "It was the racial murder of not just those who were transported but generations of enslaved African men, women and children.
Ken Livingstone 
 In March 2002, while still independent, Livingstone was accused of "cronyism" by some Labour party members in the London Assembly after he had appointed six officials as special advisers at a salary level which seemed to them excessive, and a manoeuvre to help his chances of being re-elected.
Ken Livingstone 
 In December 2007, the Evening Standard published news of an investigation into grants worth £2.5 million paid to organisations in which Ken Livingstone's adviser Lee Jasper was involved.
Ken Livingstone 
 Following Mr. Livingstone’s defeat in the 2008 Mayoral Elections, The Daily Mail reported that “Eight 'cronies' of Ken Livingstone are to receive £1.6 million in pay-offs following his defeat in the London mayoral elections.”
Ken Livingstone 
 Mr. Livingstone changed the rules for political appointees who would otherwise not have been eligible for severance packages, which paved the way for the eight City Hall advisors to receive an average of £200,000.
Ken Livingstone 
 Liberal Democrat Leader Dee Doocey stated that the payments were “completely inexcusable” and added that “It seems like there's one law for the ordinary working person and one law for the political class.”
Ken Livingstone 
 Tony Travers, local government expert at the London School of Economics, said: “I think most people will be shocked.
Ken Livingstone 
 It is odd indeed that the full benefits of labour laws designed to protect the vulnerable are being claimed by courtiers who knew they would lose their jobs if their master lost the election.”
Ken Livingstone 
 Ken Livingstone was publicly criticised in February 2005 for remarks made to an Evening Standard reporter, comparing him to a Nazi concentration camp guard, after the reporter had tried to interview him following a reception marking the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith's coming out as gay.
Ken Livingstone 
 The reporter, Oliver Finegold, was in fact Jewish and said he took offence at the remarks, but Livingstone refused to withdraw the remark and was subsequently accused of antisemitism.
Ken Livingstone 
 The Evening Standard decided not to run the story at first but the following transcript of the conversation was published by guardian.co.uk:
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone: Ah right, well you might be Jewish, but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard, you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren't you?
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone: It's nothing to do with you because your paper is a load of scumbags and reactionary bigots.
Ken Livingstone 
 The epithet "German war criminal" and Livingstone's subsequent jibes refer to the Standard's owners, the Daily Mail and General Trust, which endorsed Oswald Mosley's Fascists in 1934 and supported Nazism until 1939.
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone also claimed the Standard was guilty of "harassment of a predominantly lesbian and gay event".
Ken Livingstone 
 Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell suggested in the Evening Standard that this explanation "came across as patronising.
Ken Livingstone 
 After listening to the recording supplied by Finegold, the London Assembly voted unanimously to ask Livingstone to apologise.
Ken Livingstone 
 Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, herself the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, said of Livingstone: "These were inappropriate words and very offensive, both to the individual and to Jews in London."
Ken Livingstone 
 Some two dozen complaints were referred to the Standards Board for England, the body responsible for English local government standards, which passed it to the Adjudication Panel for England, which has the power to ban individuals from public office for five years.
Ken Livingstone 
 The Adjudication Panel addressed the case over two days on the 13 & 14 December 2005 and adjourned the hearing for two months.
Ken Livingstone 
 On 24 February 2006, Ken Livingstone was found guilty of bringing his office into disrepute and suspended from office for four weeks, stating that he seemed "to have failed... to have appreciated that his conduct was unacceptable".
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone attacked the decision on the grounds that the Adjudication Panel members ought not to suspend a democratically elected official from power, describing their actions as "striking at the heart of democracy".
Ken Livingstone 
 The ban was due to begin on 1 March 2006, but on 28 February, a High Court judge postponed it pending an appeal by Livingstone.
Ken Livingstone 
 The decision was later quashed by the High Court of Justice when on 5 October, Mr Justice Collins overturned the suspension, regardless of the outcome of Livingstone's appeal concerning the breach of standards.
Ken Livingstone 
 The final judgment upheld Livingstone's appeal and stated that the Adjudication Panel had misdirected itself, although the judge stated that the Mayor should have apologised.
Ken Livingstone 
 On 7 December 2006, at a City Hall reception marking the launch of the London Jewish Forum, Livingstone apologised for any offence that he had caused the Jewish community.
Ken Livingstone 
 Criticism of Livingstone by the Evening Standard intensified during the 2008 campaign, with daily front page articles attacking him, under the direction of editor Veronica Wadley who originally urged Johnson to stand and who is closely linked to Tory leadership.
Ken Livingstone 
 According to articles in The Guardian and Time Out London, she is strongly influenced by the need to renew Associated Newspaper's multi-million pound contract to deliver the Metro free paper in London Underground stations in 2010, a decision within the gift of the Mayor.
Ken Livingstone 
 In 2004 Livingstone said "I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi Royal Family are swinging from lamp-posts and they've got a proper government that represents the people of Saudi Arabia."
Ken Livingstone 
 In a March 2005 commentary in The Guardian he accused Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon of being a "war criminal", citing his alleged personal responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982 and accusations of ethnic cleansing.
Ken Livingstone 
 Accusations that Sharon was implicated are frequently made by other organisations and leading politicians including the official Israeli Kahan Commission investigation into the massacres in 1982.
Ken Livingstone 
 On 20 July 2005, Livingstone made the following comments in a BBC interview about the role of foreign policy as a motivation for the London bombings of two weeks earlier:
Ken Livingstone 
 "I think you've just had 80 years of western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of the western need for oil.
Ken Livingstone 
 And I think the particular problem we have at the moment is that in the 1980s ... the Americans recruited and trained Osama Bin Laden, taught him how to kill, to make bombs, and set him off to kill the Russians and drive them out of Afghanistan.
Ken Livingstone 
 A lot of young people see the double standards, they see what happens in Guantanamo Bay, and they just think that there isn't a just foreign policy."
Ken Livingstone 
 "Under foreign occupation and denied the right to vote, denied the right to run your own affairs, often denied the right to work for three generations, I suspect that if it had happened here in England, we would have produced a lot of suicide bombers ourselves."
Ken Livingstone 
 Commentator Mark Steyn described the interview as Livingstone "artfully" attempting "to draw a distinction between Muslim terrorists blowing up his own public transit (which he didn't approve of) and Muslim terrorists blowing up Israeli public transit (which he was inclined to be sympathetic to)."
Ken Livingstone 
 In November 2003, Livingstone made headlines for referring to US President George W. Bush as 'the greatest threat to life on this planet,' just before Bush's official visit to the UK.
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone also organised an alternative 'Peace Reception' at City Hall 'for everybody who is not George Bush,' with anti-war Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic as the guest of honour.
Ken Livingstone 
 In July 2007 Livingstone suggested that Prime Minister Gordon Brown needed to explain to Bush "that US governments need to return to a realistic view of the world.
Ken Livingstone 
 The US is the world's single most powerful country, but much weaker than the rest of the world put together.
Ken Livingstone 
 The attempt by one country to unilaterally impose itself on the rest of the world is not only undesirable but simply won't work."
Ken Livingstone 
 In February 2007, Ken Livingstone signed a deal with Venezuela to provide cheaper oil for London buses.
Ken Livingstone 
 In return, the Greater London Authority advises Venezuela on recycling, waste management, traffic and reducing carbon emissions.
Ken Livingstone 
 This deal came under criticism from the London Assembly Conservatives including Richard Barnes, who stated that the "money would be better directed at the poor of Venezuela," and journalist Martin Bright, who said that the deal "effectively takes from the poor of Latin America to give to one of the richest cities in the world."
Ken Livingstone 
 Prices have been slashed by 20%; following this, half-price bus travel became available to Londoners on income support.
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone stated the plan "rises on the suggestion of President Hugo Chávez and builds on the work his government is doing around the world in tackling the problems of poverty," and also said, "This will make it cheaper and easier for people to go about their lives and get the most out of London.
Ken Livingstone 
 The agreement... will also benefit the people of Venezuela, by providing expertise in areas of city management in which London is a world leader."
Ken Livingstone 
 The deal was discontinued by incoming mayor Boris Johnson (effective from September 2008), a decision criticized by Livingstone.
Ken Livingstone 
 A dispute with the US Embassy in London over payment of the London Congestion Charge escalated on 27 March 2006 when Livingstone criticised the Embassy's decision not to pay.
Ken Livingstone 
 The Embassy argued that the charge is a form of taxation, not a charge for a service, and diplomats and their staff are therefore exempt under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone, however, alleged that the decision was made by Robert Tuttle, who took up the post of Ambassador in July 2005.
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone described Tuttle as "one of George Bush's closest cronies and a big funder of his election campaign" and said he was trying to "skive out of [paying] like some chiselling little crook".
Ken Livingstone 
 The group Liberty and Law reported this remark to the Standards Board for England as a breach of its code, but the board chose not to investigate it.
Ken Livingstone 
 Germany stopped paying the charge in 2005, Japan followed in 2006, and in 2007 France, Russia, Belgium, and 50 other missions followed suit when the zone extended to their missions' locations (Iran, Sweden and Syria continue to pay the charge).
Ken Livingstone 
 Asked about Japan's refusal to pay in a March 2007 interview on LBC Radio, Livingstone responded, "I think there are several problems with Japan that we could go on about here.
Ken Livingstone 
 So if they've not got round to doing that, I doubt they're too worried about the congestion charge."
Ken Livingstone 
 London's Japanese embassy responded that their government had already apologised for previous war crimes.
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone acted as a stand-in presenter on London talk radio station LBC 97.3's Jeni Barnett for a week beginning on 30 June 2008.
Ken Livingstone 
 In July 2008 he announced his intention to run again for the office of Mayor of London at the next mayoral elections and signalled his intent to organise a "progressive alliance" of political parties (such as the Labour Party and the Green Party), trade unions and interest groups to defend the progress which was made during his terms as Mayor and to prepare for the next mayoral elections.
Ken Livingstone 
 On 28 August 2008, it was announced that Livingstone will be an adviser on urban planning to Caracas, Venezuela.
Ken Livingstone 
 As a friend of Hugo Chávez, Livingstone was appointed personally by him to advise officials and mayoral candidates in Caracas, in order to help transform the city, which journalist Rory Carroll described as suffering from, "Gridlocked traffic, a crumbling centre, hillside slums, horrific murder rates, corrupt police and inept local government".
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone reckoned that in twenty years a "first-world city" can be made out of Caracas, stating, "I have a very extensive network of contacts both domestically and internationally which I will be calling on to assist in this."
Ken Livingstone 
 No decision on a salary for the ex-mayor has been made, although he mentioned that, "The whole cost of this trip has been paid for by the government of Venezuela and as an unemployed citizen I would not be able to pay for my own fare otherwise."
Ken Livingstone 
 The appointment follows on from the controversy surrounding the deal brokered by Livingstone in February 2007 for the Greater London Authority and Transport for London to provide advice to Venezuela in exchange for cheap fuel to help with bus subsidies.
Ken Livingstone 
 The deal was later overturned by new mayor Boris Johnson, and Livingstone offered his services to Chávez so that Venezuela gets the "advice that we promised".
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone played down any accusations that his close relationship with the Venezuelan President was controversial, "unless you believe American propaganda", while a spokesperson for Johnson said, "Ken Livingstone is free, as a private individual, to offer his advice and services to whomever he wants."
Ken Livingstone 
 Livingstone is now being touted as a key asset for Chávez in the upcoming November elections in the country.
Ken Livingstone 
 Mayor of London, the London Assembly and the Greater London Authority - official London government website
Ken Livingstone 
 Mayor condemns 'cowardly' attack (7 July 2005)BBC video of Livingstone's statement (Realplayer format)
Ken Livingstone 
 The Observer Profile: Ken Livingstone - Capital chap by Jay Rayner, published in The Observer, 10 July 2005
Ken Livingstone 
 A left-wing critique of Livingstone, by Charlie Kimber, published in International Socialism journal
Ken Livingstone 
 You can't believe in everything Guardian opinion piece and Livingstone's response in a letter to the paper
Vatnajökull 
 The average thickness of the ice is 400 m, with a maximum thickness of 1,000 m. Iceland's highest peak, Hvannadalshnúkur (2,110 m), is located at the southern tip of Vatnajökull, near Skaftafell National Park.
Vatnajökull 
 Vatnajökull has been shrinking for some years now, possibly because of climatic changes and recent volcanic activity.
Vatnajökull 
 According to Guinness World Records Vatnajökull is the object of the world's longest sight line, 550 km from Slættaratindur, the highest mountain in the Faroe Islands.
Vatnajökull 
 GWR state that "owing to the light bending effects of atmospheric refraction, Vatnajökull (2119m), Iceland, can sometimes be seen from the Faroe Islands, 340 miles (550 km) away".
Vatnajökull 
 The validity of this record is analysed/undermined in mathematical and atmospheric detail by J.C. de Ferranti
British Rail 
 After the smaller firms were merged in 1923 under the Railways Act 1921, there were four large regional railway companies.
British Rail 
 The Big Four were the Great Western Railway (GWR), the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and the Southern Railway (SR).