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Andrew Gilligan

I'm the Telegraph's London Editor. This is where I write about London politics, London life and many other things I'm interested in, well beyond the capital. I'll also post source material for many of my newspaper stories here, so you can read the documents I refer to for yourself. Got a tip or a story? Email me at andrew.gilligan@telegraph.co.uk

Ken Livingstone: Tories should “burn in hell for all eternity”

By Andrew Gilligan November 5th, 2011

I’ve been away doing the day job, so I’ve only just caught Ken’s latest outburst. At a meeting in Hammersmith and Fulham earlier this week, Labour’s cuddly old charmer told one H&F councillor, Peter Graham, that if there was “any justice,” he and all his 30 Tory colleagues would “burn in hell and your flesh will be flayed [by] demons for all eternity.”

And what has consigned these spawn of Satan to Ken’s fiery furnace? Well, it seems that they are proposing to redevelop a council estate. How good it is to know that someone aspiring to lead us has such a finely-developed sense of proportion.

Ken still rather touchingly sees himself as the “serious” candidate. But in the last five months alone, he’s called Boris Johnson’s chief of staff a war criminal, compared Boris himself to Hitler and confessed (voluntarily!) to his own role as chief sperm donor and stud stallion to the free-thinking women of North London. (Anyone who voted for Boris would also "burn forever," you might remember.)

The only demons here are those in Ken’s own head. And the only thing burning right now is surely his election campaign. It’s a meltdown, and it’s starting to feel almost unkind to talk about it.