Oh dear!

This does not seem to have hit the airwaves just yet but it seems that dear old Ken Livingstone is being his cuddly self again. This guys stuff is normally - I think I can say this without a problem - kosher and he reports thus:

During the course of a press conference this morning in which the Stratford City Consortium was being discussed, Ken Livingstone apparently expressed the following views on the Reuben brothers - a pair of jewish property developers who are involved in the project:

"If they're not happy here perhaps they could go back to Iran and try it under the Ayatollahs"

I haven't the full context of the quotation: but it seems to be connected to a falling out between two of the property companies involved in developing the Olympic Village site in Stratford: one of which is headed by the Reuben brothers. Ken Livingstone seems to be backing the other property company in the dispute. Some background on that story is here.

This seems to me to be unfortunate, at least, for the following reasons:

1. The "Ayatollahs" have a record of doing this sort of thing to Iranian jews; while Ahmadinejad says this sort of thing.

2. Ken is in the process of appealing against the Standards Board's suspension, which arose from his comparison of a jewish reporter to a "concentration camp guard". A sensible person might think now was a good time not to go round making quips about jews and the sorts of people who might want to do them in.

3. The Reuben brothers were born in Bombay to Iraqi parents of Jewish descent. Indeed, a quick search suggests that they are supporters of the charity Medical Aid for Iraqi Children.

4. It is a bit off when politicians go round telling any immigrant to "go back" to anywhere "if they're not happy here".

I wonder what the Ken spin on this will be. My money is on:

(a) I had no idea that these well known jewish property developers were jews;

(b) They are plutocrats, and the plutocrats supported Hitler, dontchaknow; or

(c) This all is really about Israel.

UPDATE

I've spoken to somebody who was at the press conference.

Basically, the context of this quotation is the business deal that I mentioned above.

Livingstone started by talking about other transactions in whcih the Reuben brothers have been involved. He goes on to suggest that, whereas other property developers he has worked with - and he names two with jewish names - are genuine Londoners, who care about jobs and creating great buidlings - the Reuben brothers are all about "how much money they can squeeze out of every single deal".

In the next question on the Reuben brothers, Ken Livingstone says that they have never come to see him personally. Then he speculates that they are "not happy" and suggests that they go back to Iran and see if they do better under the Ayatollahs.

I expect there will be an official transcript against which this can be checked.