Livingstone Humbled
Reader comment on item: My Debate with London Mayor Ken Livingstone

Submitted by Ryan Shevlane (United Kingdom), Jan 24, 2007 at 14:52

Pipes was actually superb - tore Ken and his little sidekick Little Booba (Salma Yaqoob, some Mohammedan extremist chick from Galloway's "Respect" party) to pieces. His second was a guy called Douglas Murray, quite a posh young chap, but excellent nonetheless.

The audience was mainly composed of lefties, but thankfully enough right-wing Jews, Americans, conservatives and neutrals to ensure good support for Pipes. He is truly a legend, and the way he thought on his feet when they opened it up to audience questions was impressive. At times, "Red" Ken truly lived up to his nickname, such were his blushes, and Little Booba likewise looked aghast in places as Pipes/Murray
ripped her arguments + past statements + terror-supporting record to shreds.

But it was conducted good-naturedly, although of course the obligatory Palestinians in the audience got shouty and you had doddery old folk ... standing up to warble on about "What I believe in is Peace and Love...I think that's what we should all believe..." cue audible snoring noises. The place was so stuffed with moonbats it almost stank if you can imagine the smell of diarrhoea from someone who has been living on rotten eggs and goat's cheese for the past fortnight - guys in Chavez T-shirts, "anti-racism" campaigners with smug, self-righteous expressions on their student faces as they handed out leaflets, innumerable conspiracy theorists of every stripe (I overhead one earnest Pakistani with a Scottish accent proclaiming that the 9/11 hijackers were actually alive, that it was all a Bush/CIA plot...), bearded old vegans in flowing robes, loads of wheelchairs speeding about, wabble-arsed mammas swaying around in full African tribal regalia.

Diversidee in tha Communidee!!!

Afterwards there was a free lunch (cheers, Ken), and various seminars, but I decided to leave since they were blatantly gonna be triumphalist tosh led by the likes of Lee Jasper. "Is Britain Becoming More Segregated?" ... But to hear Ken speak you'd think London was a
muldi-culdural Paradise City with all manner of ethnic richnesses "embracing" and "celebrating" by slapping each others' Third World buttocks in the most non-homophobic way possible.

What planet does he live on? Does he actually live in London?

But to give the devil his due, Ken was a very good speaker, witty and self-deprecating with a neat argument for a progressive, "World Civilisation" - albeit one unbased in historical or present reality and violent, divisive human nature. I was almost afraid for Pipes when his turn came - but I needn't have been, as it soon became apparent that this was not unlike a Cup-Tie between, say, Charlton Athletic and a resurgent Arsenal under Wenger, with Thierry Henry in sparkling form as he dices up the opposing team's defence. Pipes was soft-spoken, a master of detail and conveyed his arguments with an intellectual lucidity which...well, ya'd just have ta be there, y'know?!?!

Yaqoob ... was a different prospect, eyes spitting satanic fire - the Fire of Allah! - as she railed against "Uh-Me-Rikka" and the "neocons" and "Israeli apartheid" (the usual suspects) for causing so much grief to innocent and peace-loving Muslims the world over, who despite their warlike founding father only ever really wanted to bond with the sympathetic hippies such as were to be found in that there conference hall.

Pipes asked repeatedly if, if according to them America/UK/Israel were responsible for all the world's problems, those not belonging to the aforementioned nations did in fact have free choice, power, and the ability to do anything, ie were they in fact adults at all? Pipes took everything that was thrown at him from the audience (as did Murray), sliced it up thinly, put it through a cheese-grater, and threw it right back in
more digestible and coherent form. I've read all his ideas before, but it was great to see him put them across live, in the lefty lions' den, thinking on his feet and talking eloquently and rationally.

So, well worth taking the day off work. The place was rammed (I got there early to get a good seat, row 10 centre, just behind the press allocation), the atmosphere was electric, and all in all it was grand entertainment. I didn't learn anything I hadn't heard already - apart from certain unsavoury aspects of Little Booba's past - in a thousand blogs, op-eds, articles, books and whatever, but I guess that's not the point.

Daniel Pipes is one of the most high-profile commentators defying politically-correct orthodoxy to call things as they are, publicly, and we ought to support him if the opportunity arises. Plus it was fantastic to see Ken get a pasting!

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