“If Cameron gets re-elected I would probably emigrate, so that my children have a chance for survival and [don’t] fall back into cannibalism. The last thing people do in a society if it is collapsing is eat their own children. The archaeologists tell us this all the time – when every other chance of life is gone, you eat your children. It happened in Egypt when the Nile dried up, and has happened much more recently in recent societies.” So says Ken Livingstone, not the Tories’ biggest fan.
Politicians are often described as having an affinity with reptiles. In the case of Ken Livingstone this is more relevant than you may have first thought. He has been Leader of the Greater London Council, a Member of Parliament, and the Mayor of London, but had originally planned to be a zookeeper.
Dropping out of school at the age of 17 with 2 O-levels, Ken entered an apprenticeship programme. “If I had been accepted on the course, then I would have probably stayed there for the rest of my life. I am still involved in the Zoological Society, and I meet people who started at the same time as I did and have been working as zookeepers for 50 years.”
Having dropped out of education, I was interested to hear what he had to think on universities, and in particular the Oxbridge system. “I think we need these top institutions. In Russia they had special academies for the top few percent of the population. These hot houses turned out geniuses. My problem with the system is that admission into them is still unfair. Black students are underrepresented, and private schools still dominate. I remember in the 1980s, when girls first started attending, there was this one story about a professor who lay on the couch and made his female student lie on the ground behind him so he didn’t have to look at her as he found her presence that strange.”
Ken has often been admired for his ‘everyman’ style of politics; there is no polish, no veneer. He swears, he grumbles, and is not afraid of speaking his mind. He is as far from the airbrushed, model career politician as it is possible to be. As he bumbles out of Oxford station, rucksack fixed around his shoulders, he draws the attention of those around him; but he appears to have no interest with chumming up to the public.
This is the striking thing about him; he is a man who seemed not to care about how he is perceived. When told that I was interviewing him, there is no change in demeanour, just a single “whatever”. He seemed no more impressed that he was doing a brief interview with the BBC later that evening. He does not seem to care about how he is perceived, yet when it comes to policy and debate he is never short of something to say. The job of being a politician seems to bore him, yet politics is still at the centre of his life. Before we have started the interview, he has rattled through Europe, the proposed congestion charge in Bristol, air pollution, and the “right wing media’s control of public opinion”. This is in the three minutes between the station and the Union where he opposed the motion ‘This House remembers New Labour fondly’.
“It was style over substance. Britain was ready for change, and they wanted a transformation in 1997. Except Blair and Brown had spent all their time making sure they got elected. When they got in, they had no idea what they wanted to do. I mean, Tony Blair is a very nice guy; he just didn’t know anything about politics. This is the tragedy of New Labour, they squandered their opportunity.”
His contempt for New Labour is in complete contrast to his faith in Ed Miliband’s party. He seems to have a genuine belief that the ‘Eds’ as he calls them, have a real opportunity to change the course of politics; he compares their prospects to Thatcher and Attlee.
As a strong opponent of Thatcher, I was intrigued that he would make this comparison. “I respected the fact that, unlike so many other prime ministers, she believed in something and wasn’t afraid to risk her job to get it done.” He added, “I think Ed is going in the right direction. Whenever I knocked on Tony’s door, he always said ‘yes’ to whatever I had to say, and then just ignored it. Ed is not afraid to say ‘that’s bollocks.’” He quickly corrected himself. “Well, not bollocks, but ‘I disagree with you, and this is why.’”
The conversation turned to his previous job, and I asked him about the prospects of Eddie Izzard, who has announced that he plans to run for London Mayor. “Oh yes, Eddie – he worked for me on the last campaign. He says he wants to run in 2020, but I keep saying that he should run in 2016. If Boris honours his promise to resign, then that is the ideal time. If he waits another four years, he will be facing someone seeking re-election. Everyone knows who Eddie Izzard is. No one cares about his sexuality. No one gave a damn about Boris’ women. No one cared about my five children by three different women.
“Elections are about personalities rather than issues. It’s crap ‘politics’. ‘Politics’ is about ideas.” He cites Nigel Farage as his perfect example of this. “Everyone loves him. He is great fun – but do I want him running the country? No I don’t, He’s loveable, but completely mad.
“Boris makes them laugh. When he first announced he was running, my staff and I went through all of his writings and speeches, and we concluded that he was the most hardline right-wing ideologue in British politics. But in the end it turned out Boris doesn’t believe in anything except that Boris should be prime minister.” I asked Ken about the infamous Eddie Mair interview a few weeks ago. A wry smile tinges his mouth. “I wish we had the interview the week before the election.”
