Last month, Ken Livingstone said that he would be "quite happy" to crush the car of the American Ambassador with the Ambassador inside over the fact that the US Embassy refuses to pay on the Congestion Charge on the basis that it considers it a tax and so cites diplomatic immunity.
You can bet though that Livingstone will not be saying the same thing about the ambassadors of Cuba, Nigeria, Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Mauritiana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Tanzania who, between them, have 15.775 outstanding congestion charge fines.
The Bexley councillor, David Leaf, who obtained the figures under the FoI Act, said that Livingstone's "lack of even-handedness in his criticism demonstrates that he is doing nothing more than using his Mayoral office to make anti-American political statements."
13 comments:
I'm surprised any of the embassies pay, given that Livingstone has been totally unable to bring anyone to heel over it.
That said, in my view it's not a tax because it can be easily avoided by not driving into central London. But then again all of Labour's taxes can be avoided if you have an expensive accountant...
Mendacious ****.
I think it is reasonable to go after the Americans preferentially actually. They are rich. They are being a pain. Give them hell Ken!
It's strict liability so the US owe the cash whether XY or Z pay anyway.
They don't pay their UN subs, they won't sign treaties, they back OBL, SH and whoever next until they turn on them and face blowback.
Go Ken go.
"They don't pay their UN subs"
hahahah go ignorance! The UN is propped up by American money.
'The UN is propped up by American money.....If this is so - then why not stop paying some of this 'prop up money' - and pay their outstanding subs instead? - This might buy them a little goodwill....which let's face it - they could do with ;)
Newbury Blogwatcher
chris paul:6.39.
Go Ken go. If only.
Piss Crawl-Your barren little posts keep providing the more cold hearted amongst us with amusing examples of why thick people are always unaware of their own limitations. Its just one rehashed student cliche after another- Have you ever thought about using Scientology to fill that yawning gap in your self-esteem? It has the same delusional dogmatic architechture as Socialism, but without the childish Utopianism.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - BORIS FOR MAYOR!
Is it not the case that the reason that the UN is based in NYC is part of the whole setup deal by which the US is also paying the most?
It is true that the US has been behind on its UN contributions in the past (and has periodically threatened to withhold dues), although I doubt they're close to alone in that. According to an article I found from 2005 (link below), the US provides 22% of UN funding:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/un_reform/paying_dues.html
The US may be "behind" but they pay nearly all of its costs. Chris Paul and Ken Livingstone are in a fantasy world where America causes all the world's problems - but in fact the US props up the most of the rest of the world. When the music stops and the bubble bursts it's going to be Labour that bears the brunt here so perhaps Labour should be careful what it wishes for.
Oh and by the way CP you have given us an interesting insight into the socialist attitude to equal application of the law - the law is only for the big guys right?
22% isn't 'nearly all of its costs', ed. I imagine that it's a bigger per-capita contribution than most (all?) and it may be bigger when compared to GDP, but it's not 'nearly all'.
Are you referring to costs specifically relating to the UN building in NYC?
When this story about the Congestion Charge broke on Drudge, there was a link there to some Indian news site and there was a bunch of people claiming that the UK owed the UN a whole lot of parking ticket monies. I checked on that and it was completely untrue (all NYC parking tickets from the British UN mission, if there are any, are paid).
I am not sure why the Congestion Charge is significantly different to paying for parking at a meter, from an Embassy's point of view (and presumably they do pay that when there isn't one of the Diplomatic parking spaces around). London, like NYC and other cities with diplomatic representation from foreign powers, will just have to suck it up, thouogh. Such is the price of diplomatic intercommunication.
A relatively small price to pay - but the point is that Livingstone is going up against the supposed bad guys the Americans because Bush is a hate figure of the Left. Of course he just loves Mugabe so he is left alone. Now I'm not suggesting that the poor of Zimbabwe should be forced to pay for the Congestion Charge but a little consistency might go a long way.
I'd be more concerned about diplomats who drive drunk and end up killing people like they have in the past in New York City. Diplomatic immunity is a cunt isnt it?
Ken's statement is for the comsumption of the intellectually void and/or urban hicks. They eat it up like flies on shit.
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