London’s Politicians Can Teach America’s

The recent race for the job of Mayor of London was a hard fought and sometimes nasty campaign led by Labour’s incumbent Ken Livingstone and the Conservative’s Boris Johnson. In the end, Mr. Johnson won with 1,168,738 first and second preference votes to Mr. Livingstone’s 1,028,966. After the winner was declared, they acknowledged that they were all Londoners first, and party members second. It is an excellent lesson for the supporters of Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama.

Mr. Johnson has made a name for himself by saying outrageously bigoted things with a smile. Yet on the matter of Mr. Livingstone’s service, he was gracious and even dignified. He said to his rival, “You shaped the office of mayor. You gave it national prominence and when London was attacked on 7 July 2005 you spoke for London.” Mr. Johnson spoke of Mr. Livingstone’s “courage and the sheer exuberant nerve with which you stuck it to your enemies, especially in New Labour." And he floated the possibility of a job of some sort, telling his rival that he hoped to “discover a way in which the mayoralty can continue to benefit from your transparent love of London.” This praise for a lefty comes from the country’s most obvious rightist.

Mr. Livingstone took the blame for his loss entirely on his own shoulders. He said, “There is absolutely nothing that I could have asked from the Labour Party that it didn't throw into this election, from Gordon Brown right the way down to the newest recruit, handing out leaflets on very wet, cold days. I'm sorry I couldn't get an extra few points that would take us to victory and the fault for that is solely my own. You can't be mayor for eight years and then if you don't at third term say it was somebody else's fault. I accept that responsibility and I regret that I couldn't take you to victory.” It is significant to note that he ran against Labour for his first term and beat the official Labour candidate. Labour readmitted him shortly thereafter.

A few others got their tuppence in with much the same tone. The Liberal Democrat’s candidate Brian Baddick (who used to be a policeman in London and probably would have made a great mayor) described Mr. Livingstone as “an amazing mayor.” Justice Secretary Jack Straw of Labour said, “I disagree with Ken in one particular only, that we all share the responsibility for the defeat that he suffered yesterday.”

No sour grapes, no blaming external forces, and no insults. That will be the challenge for Mrs. Clinton and Messrs. McCain and Obama along with their supporters. America has suffered in the last generation from a case of politics by character assassination, and it must end. The example set by London’s politicos is the only way forward for all Americans on January 20, 2009. No more questioning a politician's patriotism or faith because in the end, Ben Franklin’s words still ring true, “We must hang together or we shall be hanged separately.”

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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