Conservative defeats "Red Ken" Livingstone in London mayoral race

There are other elections besides next week's North Carolina and Indiana Democratic Presidential Primaries. Municipal elections were held in England and Wales today, and in the first major electoral test since becoming prime minister, Gordon Brown's Labour Party performed poorly. The Conservatives were the benefit of Labour's demise, and the Tories won today's big prize--the mayor's office in London.

"Red Ken" Livingtsone is out as mayor of Great Britain's largest city. And that's good news.

Among the lowlights of Livingtone's long career:

In 2005, the mayor compared Muslim-bomber apologist Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi to Pope John XXIII.

That same year, Livingstone told a Jewish reporter he was a concentration camp guard.

A year prior, Red Ken said that President Bush was "the greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen. The policies he is initiating will doom us to extinction."

Here's a whole list of anti-Semitic statements made by the mayor. He apologized for those statements in 2006.

To his credit, Livingstone spoke eloquently in favor of civilization after London's 7/7 terrorist attacks.

Technorati tags: UK Britain united kingdom London england Wales Ken Livingstone Boris Johnson anti-Semitism Gordon Brown