London underground

Bob Crowe may have passed on but his spirit lives on. The militant Marxist’s Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) trade union is on a 24-hour strike today in a dispute over changes to drivers’ rotas as Sadiq Khan seeks to bring back the night Tube. Union heavies on the Jubilee, Victoria, Piccadilly, Central and Northern lines started a 24-hour walkout at 4.30 a.m. in a move that has brought much misery and strife to London’s long-suffering commuters. According to RMT general secretary Mick Lynch, the Tube strike action is solely down to ‘management failure to recognise and address the anger of their staff at the imposition of damaging and unacceptable

In this world nothing can be said to be certain except for death, taxes, and Ken Livingstone banging on about Hitler. The former London Mayor rang up Talk radio this morning to discuss anti-Semitism in Labour, but couldn’t help bring up the German dictator at the first opportunity. He told a visibly exasperated Julia Hartley-Brewer: ‘I still get people come up to me on the street and say, ‘I’m Jewish why did you say Hitler was a Zionist?’ and I point out, of course I never said that, that’s all just this fake news’ Ken Livingstone: "I still get people come up to me and ask 'why did you say

Oh dear. Of all the figures to come out against Boris Johnson over his comments comparing women wearing the full face veil to ‘letterboxes’, Ken Livingstone is perhaps the most audacious. Despite his penchant for talking about Hitler and zionism at every broadcast opportunity, Red Ken has today declared that Johnson has gone too far and must go. Speaking on LBC, he said: ‘He isn’t really a politician, he just wants to be a famous celebrity. Frankly, I think the Tory Party should dump him.’ Not the most obvious candidate for taking the moral high ground…

There are few sights more pitiful than Labour ‘moderates’ – I prefer to call them what they are: Corbyn-enablers – plating up meagre scraps as a feast of optimism for the party’s future. Last week, it was the routing of Momentum – and Unite-backed candidates for the Lewisham East by-election. That didn’t last long. Now, it’s Ken Livingstone, allowed to resign rather than risk possible expulsion. In its ‘all out war’ on anti-Semitism, Labour sued for peace on the enemy’s terms without firing a single shot.  Expelling Livingstone would not have undone the bias and abuse the party has inflicted on British Jews. It would have been a hollow gesture in

The row about Jeremy Corbyn and a Czech spy shows no sign of dying down. Following a former Czech spy’s claim that Corbyn was paid by the Eastern bloc to spy on Britain in the 1980s, the Labour leader has denied the claim and instructed solicitors to respond to ‘any false and ridiculous smears’ appearing online. Meanwhile, Tory MPs are calling on Corbyn to give permission for the publication of the Czech intelligence file on him. While that looks unlikely, one man who is happy to talk about his Communist dealings in the eighties is Ken Livingstone. Red Ken tells the Daily Mail that he met a KGB spy posing as

Ken Livingstone caused a stir this week when he blamed Venezuela’s problems on the United States. Now, the former Mayor of London has a new reason for the country’s desperate state – and it isn’t the fault of the leader Nicolas Maduro. Instead, Red Ken said one of the explanations for Venezuela’s woes is simple: they failed to listen to his pearls of wisdom. During an interview this morning on Talk Radio, Livingstone said that he had offered economic advice to the country’s minister of finance back in 2008. But instead of taking his suggestions on board, Ken said his wise words were brushed aside – and now the country is reaping the consequences. Here’s

Venezuela is on the brink of collapse, with thousands taking to the streets and the government locking up those who dare stand in its way. Yet while Jeremy Corbyn has been all too eager to voice his support in the past for Venezuela, the Labour leader is keeping a radio silence on the current situation. Corbyn has said that the country’s previous leader, Hugo Chavez, showed ‘a different and better way of doing things’. Having been called on today to condemn the country’s current regime by Labour MPs, Corbyn has so far kept schtum. But Mr S was curious to note that Jezza isn’t afraid to speak out on some matters close

The French have their uses, don’t they? They offer us their food, their wine and their bankers, and they also offer some reassurance. No matter how demented our politics may seem, things are never quite as dramatic, as emotional, as they are over the Channel. The best Britain offers Nigel Farage is an embarrassed slap on the back in the hope he’ll move down the bar to tell his war stories to someone else; the French are considering making Marine Le Pen head of state. As if that wasn’t mad enough, they’re now taking Jean Luc Melenchon, the Gallic Chavez, seriously, or at least seriously enough to ruffle the markets. More proof

Ken Livingstone’s Labour membership card remains valid – but for how long? The former Mayor of London avoided being booted out of the party following his comments about Hitler. But he was told by Jeremy Corbyn yesterday that he faces another investigation into remarks he has made since the party’s decision to suspend him. The newspapers are unanimous: this sorry mess is doing the Labour party no favours at all. We should be grateful, suggests the Daily Telegraph that Ken Livingstone reached for another dictatorial analogy yesterday rather than his usual choice. But his suggestion that being in the disciplinary hearing deciding his future place in the Labour party was

The sorry saga of what Labour decides to do about Ken Livingstone isn’t over yet. In the last few moments, Jeremy Corbyn has released a statement saying Livingstone will now face a fresh probe into comments that he made about Hitler since yesterday – when he avoided being booted out of the party for doing exactly the same thing. Corbyn said that it was ‘deeply disappointing’ that Livingstone had refused to apologise for his remarks. He also criticised the former London mayor for continuing to do what he seems to do best these days: talk about Hitler. The Labour leader said: ‘Many people are understandably upset that he has continued to make