There are so many reasons why Londoners should kick Livingstone out of City Hall that it’s hard to list them all. For me, near the top of the relevance list is Livingstone’s embrace of the Venezuelan petro-tyrant Hugo Chávez, a failed coup leader who will soon be declared a supporter of a terrorist organization by INTERPOL. It doesn’t bother him at all, nor does it alert his foolish opponents, that his militaristic buddy is committed to constructing an 8,047-kilometer pipeline through South American nature, from Caracas to Buenos Aires, which will destroy thousands of acres of rainforest. The communist mayor is also unconcerned that Hugo Chávez heads one of the world’s largest and most polluting oil companies.
In February of last year, PDVSA and GLA officials signed an oil agreement. Livingstone’s propaganda arm reported: “The historic agreement means that London’s bus fleet will use subsidized oil from Venezuela, leading to a massive 20 percent reduction in fuel costs.” This is a blatant and demonstrable lie, as Venezuela is not providing subsidized oil to London’s bus fleet (TfL), but instead paying TfL, in cash, a 20% ‘subsidy’ on the fuel costs incurred by its contractors. Chávez’s charity does absolutely nothing for Venezuela; GLA and TfL officials can’t even coherently explain what is expected of them in return, although they praise Chávez’s false achievements with total conviction. Livingstone’s publication also lies about the total number of beneficiaries of the program. The linked pdf is worth reading, as it shows how those implementing the program, in Tony Arbour’s words, discriminated against poor Londoners: “The mayor is distinguishing, as they did in Victorian times, between the deserving poor and the undeserving poor. You have made it quite clear in how this money is allocated that those receiving subsidies for job-seeking are undeserving, but those not looking for work are deserving.”
However, Livingstone, in his desperate attempt to cling to power at all costs, promised today that he would “attempt to use £14 million of funds provided by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to subsidize public transport for rejected asylum seekers.” Does this new announcement mean there has been a consultation process with Hugo Chávez or his cronies? If so, how come neither British nor Venezuelan media reported it? Who gave Livingstone the right to use Venezuelan money for political gain? Londoners should consider that, despite the political capital that could be gained, Livingstone did not register the address of the Center for Venezuelan Information, a propaganda tool operated by GLA staff at City Hall, which is presumably the quid pro quo of the oil deal.