Ken Livingstone in bed with Chavez and... with Gaddafi!

Colonel Gadaffi seems to the running out of friends [link]. His gross human rights violations of late [link] have galvanised all sides of the political spectrum, in their condemnation of atrocities in Libya [link]. There is, however, a small clique of thugs, and tyrants that are fully behind him: Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez [link]. Chavez's front man in the UK is Ken Livingstone [link]. In his capacity as President of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign [link], Livingstone is ever so eager to praise the "wonders" of the Venezuelan caudillo. For such task, he counts with the assistance of Diane Abbott MP, Tony Benn, Rodney Bickerstaffe, Bruce Kent, Caroline Lucas MEP and Ann Pettifor. The campaign, which he presides, seems to be run by Unite The Union, at least, that's the address given out in their solicitations for donations (link), though the phone number in the about page is that of the Trades Union Congress. Chavez, who thinks that Gadaffi is confronting a civil war [link] and has refused to condemn him [link], is trying to oxygenate is old chum, by making a peace proposal. This, coming from someone who got famous by leading a coup d'etat and has based his so called revolution on hatred and persecution, is risible. But Livingstone has not uttered a peep [link], about Chavez's association with Gadaffi, has he? So where does Red Ken stand on this issue? How about Unite the Union, and Ken's associates in the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign? And ultimately, what about Labour, what's Red Ed's position on connections of his man for London's mayoral race?