Quotes from Ken Livingstone

If I was courting the Muslim vote, I wouldn't have put establishing the partnership ceremony at the forefront of my first term, would I? I go all around London advocating lesbian and gay rights.

I have met the people who run the world, and I am not in awe of them.

I grew up in Lambeth, I went to normal schools and I've grown up in a city where people say what they think.

Global warming could be solved by shifting three to four per cent of global GDP to pay for it.

The civil service are risk averse.

I've got people handling the media. I employ at the moment two people. No-one is paying income tax on the money they use to employ people.

I became a councillor back in 1971, so if by this stage in politics I'm making lots of big mistakes, then I shouldn't be here.

Politics is not a game. Thousands of people's jobs and services depended on what the GLC did, and they expected us to do the best we could.

I feel like Galileo going before the Inquisition to explain that the Sun doesn't revolve around the Earth. I hope I have more success.

What do we do about climate change bearing down upon us?

I swim three times a week.

Yes, there are lots of individual exceptions. But no one has ever done a study about voting intention without ascertaining that the biggest determining factor is your income and your wealth.

My political beliefs are my moral, quasi-religious framework.

I could not cherish London and not value Jewish London. The contribution of Jews to London is immense - politically, economically, culturally, intellectually, philanthropically, artistically.

Most people wouldn't want to marry a politician.

I'm more interested in politicians who deal with human rights in their own country rather than lecture the rest of the world.

Most politicians aren't allowed to express themselves any more.

There isn't much about my life that's been particularly conventional.

My administration will tackle these issues in consultation with the black communities of London.

I actually think the civil service, who are the malignancy at the heart of public life, have consciously prevented, talked ministers out of, made it difficult regulatory-wise, to allow more pressure on alternative energy sources to grow.

The best way to demonstrate the values of a western democracy is you put Osama bin Laden on trial; you challenge what he says.

Well, I mean, I'm very much a pragmatic person.

Every budget I have ever prepared has been balanced.

If you are running a city you must focus on day-to-day problems.