Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Livingstone cleared of first 'Jewish slur' charge
The Mayor of London was cleared of a misconduct charge on the grounds he was speaking as a private individual rather than in his official capacity.
Mr Livingstone still faces a second misconduct charge, of bringing his post into disrepute, which will be heard by the Adjudication Panel for England tomorrow. If found guilty he could be disqualified from office...
...The Adjudication Panel decided that because Mr Livingstone had left the reception and was on his way home he could no longer be said to be working in his official capacity.
Under the terms of the conduct rules, Mr Livingstone would have to be speaking as Mayor to justify the charge of failing to "treat others with respect".
However, the charge of bringing the Mayor or Greater London Authority into disrepute can be made irrespective of whether an elected official is on duty or off duty.
There is some discussion over at Harry's Place as to whether such laws should even exist, and, since they should not, therefor Livingstone should be aquitted.
I agree that such laws should not exist, and are an offence against democracy. However, since they do exist, they must be enforced, and especially now that the wheels are turning, he must be judged on the offence or it will give the appearance that what Livingstone did was acceptable. This is a dangerous shifting of responsible decision making out of the hands of ordinary people and into the hands of elite decision-makers -- a bad system that we do not suffer from quite as badly here in the US as they do in Europe with their more intrusive speech rules and hate laws. (I have written more on this before but can't put my finger on the essay at the moment.)
Let's see what the next charge against Livingstone referred to in the article brings.
