Ken Livingstone visits Ridley Road Market
Ken Livingstone with Labour’s byelection candidate Ben Hayhurst at Ridley Road Market. Photograph: Andrew Connelly
In little less than a month, Londoners will go to the polls to choose a mayor from a familiar list of candidates, almost the same as those standing at the last mayoral election. And at the end of last month (Saturday 31 March) it was Hackney’s turn to receive the Ken Livingstone campaign wagon.
The wagon, heavily laden with metaphor, was an old, battered red London bus emblazoned with the tagline ‘Better off with Ken’, not to be confused with the newer, shinier, white double decker that can be seen elsewhere in town that reads ‘Better off with Boris’.
They say a week is a long time in politics, and following the recent wrangling over pasties and petrol panic, the last few have seemed longer than most. But on a grey Saturday morning in Ridley Road Market, there were more pressing issues to address. So, flanked by supporters, Mr Livingstone took to his soapbox to hammer home his key policies.
It was only a matter of minutes until he railed against the current mayor and his perceived cosiness with the wealthy: “Boris Johnson has spent the last two years campaigning to cut the top rate of tax for the richest 1%, and half a million pensioners in London will end up paying more to compensate. Rates of murder and rape are up in London. The police are not immune from cuts, but what you don’t do is take them off the street. If you cut police numbers, crime goes up. Boris has admitted cutting 1700 police officers and if I am elected mayor I will reverse this.”
However, the overarching theme was Mr Livingstone’s ‘Fare Deal’ policy, which he has put at the heart of his campaign. Attacking the increase in London’s public transport fares, which he called a ‘stealth tax’, he promised a 7% cut, saving the public an average of £1000 over four years, and if this is not in place by October 2012, he will resign. The policy will be paid for with an apparent £729 million surplus in the TfL operating budget, a surplus TfL strenuously deny the existence of.
“Politicians at TfL deny it,” Mr Livingstone said, “meanwhile Boris wants to increase fares by 2% each year for the next twenty years. I believe that if you put some money back in Londoners’ pockets, the more they will have to spend on goods and services and the more you can improve the local economy.”
The strawberry sellers, irate at the small gaggle of supporters blocking their stall, erected a small ‘We love Boris’ sign, and one trader bellowed out: “No propaganda in the market”, but that was probably the closest to a dissenting opinion that the former mayor faced. This contrasts with recent controversies that seem be dogging the political veteran.
As a self-proclaimed champion of working people, Mr Livingstone has struggled to defend himself against recent allegations that he avoided paying tax by channelling his earnings through a company. When pressed on this, he replied: “I pay the standard rate of tax on everything I earn, what I don’t do is pay income tax on the money we use to employ people.”
As the procession finally came to the end of the market, a member of the public asked about this issue. “Don’t believe everything you read in the daily Telegraph!” Mr Livingstone shouted back.
“what I don’t do is pay income tax on the money we use to employ people.”
What, like your wife, Mr Livingsone? You don’t pay income tax on earnings you put through the company by employing your wife to supposedly type up your memoirs?
Livingstone set this company up to manage ‘his’ media earnings. It’s supposed to be a business but no-one else on the list of shareholders brings money in. They are used (his wife in particular) in order to minimise the amount of income tax & NIC paid on the money only he earns.
To try and sell it as a philanthropic exercise in creating jobs is a cynical & misleading exercise. He thinks voters are total mugs.
but his wife pays income tax on the money she is paid
should they pay it twice? would you?
Candidate A earns money for media work and writing and sets up company to employ himself and his wife and pays himself dividends on the ‘profits’ from his earnings so avoiding tax at full PAYE rate.
Candidate B earns money for media work and writing, and pays the full PAYE rate.
Quiz: Which candidate accuses people who set up companies to avoid paying tax “rich bastards?”
“but his wife pays income tax on the money she is paid
should they pay it twice? would you? ”
There’s the thing. She’s ‘paid’ the money but she doesn’t ‘earn’ the money. He does.
Livingstone’s channels some of his earnings to her in order for them to benefit from a double tax-free threshold – his and hers – & thus pay less tax overall than if he operated on a self-employed basis & paid the full whack of tax & NI.
That’s not the only ‘tax-efficient’ dodge in this whole set-up, but it’s a big one.
Do you think it’s ethical?
I wouldn’t channel my personal earnings to my spouse. Would you?
He doesn’t just employ his wife
Personally, I think Londoners ought to be more concerned about some of the company Ken keeps, rather than his tax arrangements…
Personally, I think Londoners should be more concerned about the frightening thoughts of Boris Johnson. Owen Jones has a good piece in today’s Independent. He talks about how Ken was a pioneer in gay rights, and then he goes on;
“Contrast to Boris Johnson, who lauded Section 28 on the basis that “we don’t want our children being taught some rubbish about homosexual marriage being the same as normal marriage”, referred to “pulpit poofs” in the Church, and suggested that if two men could tie the knot, why not “three men and a dog”? Not that anyone is scrutinising such bigotry: it’s just Boris being Boris, it’s just his clownish manner. It’s presumably for the same reasons that so few journalists mention his slights against black people: all that talk of “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”, or slamming the Macpherson Inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence case for “hysteria”.”
Get this dangerous lunatic out of office!
@benjamin is best read accompanied by the sound of a barrel being scraped. Not exactly ‘riddled’ with contexts.
Benjamin the Barrister who has lived in Hackney for 8 years WOW! pi$$ off What about Ken and his homophobic fanatical muslim friends??
@andrew boff
Give us the explanatory contexts then. Do you mean the apologies he’s regularly forced to issue after he realises he’s spoken his mind too cleary?
While your at it you could give us the vital context that explains why Boris, as editor of Spectator, published an article by his friend Taki who stated that “Orientals … have larger brains and higher IQ scores. Blacks are at the other pole.”
Explain to me why I’m wrong in feeling disgusted when I read Boris’ words; “I am more than happy to support Section 28”.
Over to you Andrew…
@benjamin you attribute to the editor the opinions of the contributors.
@andrew boff
er, no andrew. I’ve made clear distinctions between direct quotes made by Johnson and quotes made by Taki.
You accused me of not supplying explanatory context to Johnson’s quotes. I asked you for such explanatory context. You have not given any.
I also asked why Johnson deemed a definitively racist article written by his friend to be fit for publication. You have not given any reason.
We eagerly await your contextualisation of your colleague’s racist and homophobic words and his editorial judgements.
If you can’t do that, why are you supporting him, and why do you think Hackney’s residents should vote for him?
@Benjamin – this is not a forum for a dialogue – 07778 059 290
@Benjamin: you attribute quotes to Boris Johnson, yet fail to provide either the dates of the quotes or the contexts in which they were – then add insult to injury by suggesting to Andrew Boff that HE ought to provide us with the contexts of the quotes which YOU have provided! Barrels being scraped indeed…
GSOB/Andrew Boff
Rather than me posting umpteen links, here’s an old piece from New Black Magazine with the sources of these and other quotes at the bottom;
http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=1368
These have more recently been reported in the mainstream media and Johnson hasn’t denied anything to my knowledge.
Here’s a link relating to Johnson’s decision to publish the racist article by his friend Taki;
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/mayor/boris-says-sorry-over-blacks-have-lower-iqs-article-in-the-spectator-6630340.html
You’re the man scraping the barrel in trying to persuade Hackney residents to vote for him, so over to you Andrew…
@benjamin If we’re just going to post links on candidate’s friends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhkwGnbXD-k&feature=youtu.be
Andrew
“If we’re just going to post links on candidate’s friends:”
Yes, “if”, but I’m not. I’m posting direct quotes from the man that you propose we vote for. Can’t you tell the difference?
@benjamin you have my number sweetheart
How did Ken get to Ridley Road?I didnt see any photos in the press of him travelling on train or bus.Perhaps this campaign he will leave that out.
Not by bicycle, the old fart. Boris rides all the time. Ken is an haggered old political dinosaur. He should retire to Cuba or with his chum Chavez in Venezuela