This evening sees a huge celebration in Hyde Park to mark Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday.
It’s exciting that Mandela should choose London over all other world cities to hold such a prestigious event.
So, is the Mayor of London going to be there? I ask, because I don’t know. There’s certainly no mention of him in any of the coverage in which I’ve just searched for his name and title.
But after all, in what possible circumstances could a city’s Mayor not want to turn up to such an event?
Oh, how about when the Mayor in question has previously described Mandela’s leadership of South Africa as “the majority tyranny of black rule”? Hmm. Perhaps he didn’t get an invitation.
Tags: Mandela · offensive writing · race relations1 Comment
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Wouldn’t expect Johnson to be invited, nor actively seek to be. BTW the main reason Livingstone used to get Mandela invites was that Mandela, while being gracious to former opponents including Thatcher (who as Prime Minister described him as a terrorist) is loyal to those who supported him. To some extent this includes London itself, where the ANC in exile based its leadership (Oliver Tambo) and where significant anti-apartheid demonstratrions took place in Trafalgar Square, right on the front doorstep of the South African embassy. A regular speaker at those demos, consistent opponent of apartheid and supporter of Mandela, was Ken Livingstone as leader of the GLC; indeed, Mandela warmly and explicitly thanked Ken for this in his speech at the unveiling of the statue to himself in Parliament Square. In other words, the previous Mayor’s pro-Mandela and anti-apartheid credentials are pretty much impeccable, while those of Johnson appear somewhat unclear.