Britain: Behind the suspension of London Mayor Ken Livingstone

The suspension of London Mayor Ken Livingstone by the unelected Adjudication Panel is one such episode. In its own way, it is indicative of a political system in which relatively small groups of wealthy and influential people are able to pursue their political vendettas behind the scenes and entirely divorced from any democratic control by the population.

On Friday, February 24, the Adjudication Panel announced it intended to suspend Livingstone from office for four weeks. Its patently anti-democratic decision was made not because Livingstone had broken any laws, but because of a private exchange he had with Oliver Finegold, an Evening Standard reporter, which the panel deemed “unnecessarily insensitive and offensive.”

The three-body panel is an adjunct of the Standards Board for England, which was brought into being by the Local Government Act of 2000. Supposedly part of the Blair government’s commitment to tackle political sleaze and corruption, it is another example of how political power has been further shifted into the hands of unelected and largely unaccountable organisations and individuals.

Charged with investigating potential breaches of the code of conduct for local authorities, the Standards Board, whose chairman and 11 lawyer-members are appointed by the Lord Chancellor, is invested with sweeping powers, including disqualifying a person from office for up to five years.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/livi-m04.shtml