Ken Livingstone - in his own words

THE LABOUR INCUMBENT IN THE LONDON MAYORAL ELECTION

ON VOTING:
If voting changed anything, they'd abolish it.

ON THE 1981 ROYAL WEDDING:
I can't think of a more appalling contrast between this wedding beanfeast and what is happening in Ireland. - August 1981, Referring to the wedding of Charles and Diana

ON SEXUALITY:
Everyone is bisexual. Almost everyone has the sexual potential for anything. - August 1981, in a speech to the Harrow Gay Unity Group

ON NORMAN FOWLER:
He asked to see me again. I think he wants me for my body. - June 1981, after meeting Tory Transport Secretary Norman Fowler

ON BRITISH JUDGES:
The British judiciary is one of the most corrupt in the world because of politically active judges. - May 1986

ON BUSES:
Only some ghastly dehumanised moron would want to get rid of the routemaster. - 2001 - four years before the bus was withdrawn by Transport for London, a decision he supported

ON BUSH:
George Bush... is not a legitimate president... This really is a completely unsupportable government and I look forward to it being overthrown as much as I looked forward to Saddam Hussein being overthrown. - May 2003, following the US-led invasion of Iraq

ON SAUDI ARABIA:
I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi royal family are swinging from lampposts and that they've got a proper government that represents the people of Saudi Arabia. - April 2004

ON 4X4S:
When you see someone trying to manoeuvre it round the school gates you have to think, you are a complete idiot. - May 2004

ON ASSOCIATED PRESS:
You can't expect to work for the Daily Mail group and have the rest of society treat with you respect as a useful member of society, because you are not. - December 2005, following the controversy over an insenstive remark he was accused of making to a Jewish reported from the Evening Standard

ON CHAIRMAN MAO:
One thing that Chairman Mao did was to end the appalling foot binding of women. That alone justifies the Mao Tse-tung era. - May 2006

ON JULY 7:
This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at presidents or prime ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners - black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. - July 2005

Nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop [the] flight to our cities where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail. - July 2005