page article three years didn't even dare to stand.
Probably the opinion
poll exaggerates a bit, and we go press before Thursday's GLC byresults COlIC through, but there is no doubt that Livingstone is for electoral triumph in Paddington.
wal is vilar Decause Ken Livingstone's name itself makes dington result a referendum on the its existence, and its policies.
In the constituencies other Livingstone's there was some initial confusion causel the 'pro-GLC' But EXISTING ARRANGEMENTS SCE SERP PROPOSED ARRANGEMENTS ago. Today the Sun's election seat shows 84 per cent supporting Ken and 14 per cent for his Alliance opponent. The Tories Elsewhere in London, the Tories, aided by the Aliense Ine press, have done everything DossIbie to obsenre the reg issues at stake in the campaign. For such important by-elections, whose results will be given huge TV press coverge of the campaign has been The reason for this is that the Tories precisely want the campaign to about anything but the GLC. The desperate lengths to which Thatcher is prepared to go to cover Over wilal ner real intentions are was shown in last week's Sunday rules.
Here it was 'leaked' that From simplicity to chaos - how the Govt, intends to "streamline" planning arrangements in London.
DIP the government is considering setting Grand Parliamentary Committee' on London -which would have 84 Tor MPs compared to 25 for This crazy scheme has of getting off the ground bui it shows the real issues of the campaign seem now to be getting through.
Even Haye Harlington, whicl was considered le most allficult of the seats for the latest POlL shows GLC Deputy Leader John McDonnell leading his Alliance oppo lent by 61 per cent to 32 This is despite strong and open backing given to the Alliance by local Tories.
But there is no room for complacency. There is still going to be a big effort ІГОЛ the Tories Alliance to win in the last for low resources to the stories of neglect and bad workers, WiLl food preparation. But the local union's constant work to discover the truth has forced all parties agree that a public enquiry is the only way to reveal the truth.
Betty Rhodes, NUPE shop steward at Stanley Royd. who pointed Oul days of the campaign. Labour only needs to lose two seats to lose overall control of the GLC and various dirty tricks can be anticipated towards polling day.
activists in London have to go all out for the final days of the campaign.
just how embarrassing the government is finding it to propose that London should be the only major city in Europe without an elected council. The whole issue of the existence of the ult las Decome an elec toral disaster for the Tories. that not all the deaths be attributed to Almonella, This told Socialist episode shows the need for Action: an isolation hospital in the Wakefield as the unions have maintained since the AHA shut Snapethorpe Hospital. If Snapethorpe were still VIl 1u scots verkel that this outbreak have been contained fas sooner'.
And doubtless this renewed faith will last...
...until another person is hit on the head with a plastic bullet. the sinking of the Belgrano.
of nutter with a one-track mind.
When the General Belgrano wen down several hundred Argentinian sailors lost their lives The gutter press's respons to this will be remembered for a very / long time 'Gotcha!', 'Wallop!' and so turning the stomachs even of many ar dent supporters of Thatcher's war effort in the Falklands.
But the whole tionalistic frenzy that was whipped up at the time will now be remembered with even more horror as the truth comes The General Belgrano had been steaming steadily away from the British tasi force and the 'total exclu sion zone' for a good five hours when the order to atlack was sent Irom Lon don, and for at least hours by the • hme the cruiser was sunk.
The order was sent by Thatcher's 'war cabinet' in order tinued attempts at negotiated settlement.
The war in the Falklands was a war Thatcher knew she could win -particularly with the military backing she received from the United States. Despite the semiarctic condítions, and the existence of the Exocet missile on the Argenti nians side, it was clear from the outset that Britain - which remains one of the top four military in the world would have to make a whole series calas trophic mistakes to lose.
And that is what guid ed the Thatcher governme Belgrao, in sinking Belgrano. general election in their sights, the sudden escalation of the Falklands issue presented a golden opportunity.
It's a sad fact that the old phrase, "The world loves a winner', contains more than a germ of truth: To lose a war would have been the end for Thatcher who by then was shown in the polls as the most unpopular prime minister in post-war history.
'Our lads sid cruis BOYCOTTS WAR THERE ARE two skeletons rattling round in the closets of the Thatcher and Reagan administrations. One is the real story of the Korean spy plane, the truth of which has yet to come out, and the other is Tam Dalyell has waged one of the most magnificent backbench campaigns in history to get the truth about the Belgrano out into the light of day, despite constant media abuse denouncing him as every kind But a win that created surge of enthusiasm that helped carry successfully through the last General And it asserted British imperialist power against a semi-colonial state good lesson to teach the others.
The sinking of the Belgrano is not the first time that cynical political costing numerable lives have been made for similar motives Perhaps the classic case is when the USA dropped the alull bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki The war in the Pacific hac already been well and truly won. Japan was even seek. ing The OUTDOSE was simply to demonstrate the superior militar capability of the United State and give a lesson to we soviel UnIon Moreover, precisely because was SUC cessful' bombing, it did not lead to a generalised outcry against the use of nuclear weapons was not born on a tide of horror. Again, it is rather a sad fact that the anti-nuclear movements in the West only really developed USSR had also got the bomb - when it appeared that in a nuclear war we might all lose, and not just the other side!
the Falklands, the real outcr came when 'our' Sheffield went down, not over the Belgrano.
Perhaps the movement will realise that to have made a clear statement against the Falklands war would have brought its reward in the Tong term. It was a Labour backbencher not the leadership, that has brought out the truth on the Belgrano.
even when the facts out it looks like Owen and the SDP will steal a march on Labour by demanding the truth.
That's where a bad conscience and nauseating politics gets The revelations now must be the occasion for total reversal of Labour's policy on the Falklands.
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'THE MOST odious man in Britain.' That was how the Sun described Ken Livingstone in a famous front
chickens are coming home to roost. The lastest opi- nion poll in Ken Livingstone's Paddington GLC by-