British court stops suspension of Livingstone

On Sunday I had posted What happened to British 'Freedom of Expression'? in which I lamented that the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has being suspended by the Adjudication Tribunal, an independent panel that assesses the conduct of British public bodies, for calling a Jewish reporter a Nazi war criminal.

Livingstone was absolutely livid with rage at the Tribunal’s senseless audacity in coming up with an nonsensical and over the top verdict, 4 months' suspension for a man democratically elected by millions of Londoners, just to mollify the feelings of one reporter over what had been basically a non affair.

Livingstone had actually directed his 'Nazi' insult at the newspaper rather than the reporter - he wasn't aware the reporter was a Jew when he made the 'Nazi' comment. He made that remark when he pointed out that the rightwing newspaper the reporter worked for, had in fact supported the Nazis during WWII. Livingstone said:

"The Adjudication Tribunal found that my comment to the Evening Standard journalist had been 'unnecessarily insensitive' and 'offensive' -- those are not grounds for overturning the decision of the voters of London to elect me as Mayor.”

"As far as I am aware, there is no law against 'unnecessary insensitivity' or even 'offensiveness' to journalists harassing you as you try to go home."

Livingstone said that accusations of him being anti-Semitism had no foundation of truth at all, and were mischievously thrown in to lend weight to the charges against him. Without the anti-Semitic accusations, the reporter’s complaint would have been otherwise too trivial to merit the molehill-into-mountain fuss. The affair had been nothing more than a private though robust verbal sparring between him and a pesky reporter from a newspaper he loathes.

But of course, everyone knows that in Europe, when it comes to anything Jewish, Europeans would fall over backwards to prove that they aren’t like the Nazis of WWII. We have seen examples of European over-compensation in the poor Prince Harry arm band affair and the Austrian court verdict on David Irving for a charge against his Holocaust denial, and of course the contrasting and hypocritical behaviour and reactions of the European media in their shameful conduct over the caricature insult.

Britain's High Court has agreed with Livingstone and blocked the suspension, well, at least until Livingstone has had an opportunity to go through the appeal process. If his appeal doesn't succeed, it will be a blow to the 'freedom of expression' we have heard so much about from the Europeans.

Related:
(1) Europe's Dilemma - Holocaust Denial vs Caricatures
(2) European 'Freedom of Expression' took nosedive!