The latest spat between Ken Livingston and Trevor Phillips is the most recent in a long line of confrontations between the two, and I guess has to be seen in this context. Read about it HERE.
When Ken was in the Labour Party first time round and expressed a clear interest in standing as the Labour candidate, Trevor Phillips was one of those "New Labour" loyalists who spoke openly against Ken. Indeed, through various Quango's and other organisations within the Labour Party, Trevor Phillips was openly touted as the futire Labour candidate for Mayor of London at the time.Of course, when Ken went and left Labour, Trevor Phillips must have known he could not win and his campaign floundered after this.
I have to say that I think Trevor Phillips has done a poor job as head of the Commission for Racial Equality because his speeches and comments on issues appear, at least to me, to be all about Trevor Phillips making the headlines and do little for true equality.
Is Phillips "a dud", as Ken suggests, to my mind, yes he is.
2 comments:
I rarely disagree vehemently with anyone on my 'regular reads' list but I have to be honest - I do disagree with you on this.
Ken is an old school, unreconstructed lefty - he still adheres to the 'my enemy's enemy...' doctrine which is why he can comfortably share a platform with someone who defend domestic violence and advocates summary executions for homosexuals (Al-Qaradawi) - this doesn't trouble Ken because his guest was also vehemently anti-American.
His issue with Philips is that he (Philips) is prepared to acknowledge the complexity of race as an issue, the links between race & identity and the fairly straightforward notion that racism and discrimination isn't the preserve of white people alone. Ken's adolescent outlook on politics doesn't allow him to countenance this...
I wrote about one of their previous spats here...
You are right in what you say. In my opinion Ken acts in a childish and petulent way, he does not like cross examination and has some strange bedfellows.
However, I also dislike Phillips. A New Labour crony, best known, to my mind, as a self seeking, self important pompous "politician" (not meant to be a compliment). The question is, what has Trevor Phillips actually done ever ?
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