Ken's Comedy Hour

Who knew city politics could be so much fun?

The group waiting in front of London City Hall

Wednesday morning I went to possibly the most entertaining meeting I've ever been to. Once a month the Mayor of London (currently Ken Livingstone, also known as 'Red Ken' for his far-left views) has to sit through "Mayor's Question Time" and answer questions from the London Assembly - essentially the city council.

So that's where the Modern Britain politics class met for class. London City Hall is shaped like a big glass egg, with the main chamber on the second floor.

The big topics this time were the Olympic budget and a recent trip to Cuba and Venezuela on taxpayer money (£30 to £35,000 or so). It was amazing how inept some of the questions were and how good of a speaker Ken (he's known in London as Ken, not Mr Livingstone or anything like that) is.

It's quite obvious that there is a lot of dislike and animosity between the Mayor and some of the Assembly members. There were many comments from Ken basically saying "Hey, I know you hate me and want me out as Mayor, but here I am. Tough luck for you. And I know I'm gonna win the next election, so it's not getting any better for you."

Part of Ken's reason for going to Cuba was to talk to them about how the Cubans are so successful in terms of medals and then also to talk about ideas for a Cuban festival in London sometime before the 2012 Olympics. I guess he wants to have some sort of celebration for all 202 Olympic countries, and one of the more annoying Conservative Assembly members (Ken is a member of the Labour Party) asked him if he was going to visit all 202 countries or if he was going to delegate that out. He responded, "Yeah, I'll send you to North Korea right now." There were many other quips back and forth that I wish I could remember (or repeat for a family audience... yes, some were that bad). There was more laughter at that meeting than anything I can remember... And this was supposedly serious politics. It's not supposed to be that fun.

One of the observations my teacher has made this term is that Americans have a hard time holding politicians accountable - they don't like to ask the tough question - while the British have no problem with it. In fact, it's kinda a national obsession. He told us that when America goes to war, we get patriotic by all shutting up and getting behind our President. The idea is that it hurts our troops to have dissent at home. In Britain, however, when they go to war, that's when the politicians face even more heat and even more tough questions with the idea that if they're held accountable for their actions, they'll be more likely to make the right decisions to protect the troops. It's an interesting contrast and we got a view of the British style of politics Wednesday.

Classes are starting to wrap up for us NCSA kids (ILACA has two weeks after us, I believe). Finals start Monday. It's hard to believe we've all been here for 10 weeks already, but the term ends Thursday (with a Thanksgiving dinner at school!). A lot of people are ready to go home next weekend (or right now, if they could). I don't have that luxury because I've got 2 1/2 more weeks of travel once I finish up here. I'm sure it'll be fun, but at the same time, it'll be good to get home. Even if the weather has been way better here.

Cheers, all.