KEN Livingstone is not everyone's knight in shining armour, but he may be about to save Cllr David Phythian's career.
As reported in this week's Advertiser, Red Ken's landmark legal ruling could get Cllr Phythian off the hook over his comments about black footballer Pascal Chimbonda living in a mudhut.
Linvingstone himself once very indiscreetly likened a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard, but managed to overturn a suspension from office because the incident happened while Livingstone was not carrying out his official mayoral duties.
Cllr Phythian's case happened under the very same circumstances so Labour's expected him to be let off.
Dodging the Standards Board for England's wrath is the most important hurdle because they have the power to kick him off the council. Labour, which is holding its own internal inquiry, can only stop him from being a Labour councillor. And all indications are that if they withdraw the whip from him, he'll carry on as an independent.
As I said in an earlier blog posting it's going to be a tough call and if it was up to the local party, I think he'd be fairly safe even though there are many who are deeply uneasy about his comments.
However, regional office is quite strict about these types of incidents so his future - as a Labour member at least - is still up in the air.
Even with Congestion Ken's help, I think it's a case of watch this space...
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Sir Humphrey wrote...
How fortunate for Cllr Python that a better-resourced politician has already made such racist comments and his highly paid lawyers have wriggled out of it for him. Precedent is a wonderful thing, is it not? I wonder how you go about being off duty as a councillor when strictly speaking you don't have any hours when you're on duty.
Posted by: Sir Humphrey | June 20, 2007 12:36 PM