This is McCarthyism updated for a new age, says Livingstone

telegraph: Ken Livingstone, who was suspended as mayor of London after comparing a Jewish newspaper reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard, yesterday accused leading Jews of pursuing a policy of "McCarthyism updated for a new age".

The mayor spoke out as a High Court judge ruled that his four-week suspension - due to start today - should be delayed pending his appeal.

It was his first public comment since the Adjudication Panel for England found him guilty last Friday of being "unnecessarily insensitive and offensive" to Oliver Finegold, a reporter from the London Evening Standard.

He said that the Board of Deputies of British Jews had previously asked him to "tone down" his views on the Israeli government before last February's incident.

"For decades the charge of anti-Semitism has been used to try to suppress any meaningful debate about the policies of the Israeli government," Mr Livingstone said.

"Londoners who may have seen George Clooney's recent film Goodnight And Good Luck will recognise the tactic of McCarthyism updated for a new age." Read more