Sport 18-02-2005 Vulgarian Ken Upsets Olympic Bid who: Ken Livingstone what: Refuses to apologise for allegedly racist comment as International Olympic Committee reps arrive to assess capital`s bid where: LONDON when: This week snippet: At least if London fails in its bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games, Seb Coe and his team will have a scapegoat to blame. Because, as the International Olympic Committee evaluation commission visited the capital this week to decide if it would be a suitable venue for the world`s single biggest multi-cultural event, London`s bid was overshadowed by a row over racism involving Mayor Ken Livingstone and the Jewish journalist from The Evening Standard he compared to "a concentration camp guard". It all started when Livingstone met reporter Oliver Finegold last week and the conversation turned to the subject of The Daily Mail, which Livingstone recalled had supported British fascist Oswald Mosley in the 1930s. He suggested that working for Associated Newspapers made him a "German war criminal" and on hearing that Finegold was a Jew, commented: "You`re just like a concentration camp guard. You`re just doing it because you`re paid to, aren`t you?" "A lot of us in politics get angry with journalists from time to time but, in the circumstances, and to the journalist because he was a Jewish journalist, yes he should apologise," the prime minister said on Channel Five`s The Wright Stuff on Wednesday, quoted in The Scotsman the next day. "Let`s just apologise and move on - that`s the sensible thing." But Mr Livingstone would not. "Despite calls from Holocaust survivors and his own Labour Party colleagues to say sorry, the Mayor remained unmoved by the outcry over his remarks," says The Independent. He refused to apologise because that would be saying "words I do not believe in my heart". What does this have to do with London`s Olympic bid? Well, aside from Mr Livingstone being the city`s leader, not much, but with the contest between London, Paris, New York, Madrid and Moscow finely balanced, there was no need for this kind of distraction from the pageant put on for the benefit of the veteran Moroccan Olympian Nawal El Moutawakel and her inspection team, who arrived in the city on Tuesday. The commission will publish their verdict in May and the final result will be known on July 6th. "Paris is considered the favourite," notes the BBC, but British Olympic hero Sebastian Coe said: "People who watch this closely on a day-to-day basis think we have narrowed the gap quite dramatically in the last few months." Led by Coe, the commission`s tour has taken in some of London`s most famous landmarks - draped in bunting for the occasion - as well as the proposed Olympic Village site in Stratford. They have seen presentations on the proposals for dealing with transport and security for the millions of sports fans expected to visit the Games. On Friday they met with prime minister Tony Blair before having dinner with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. A more fitting welcome is hard to imagine and yet the ugly shadow of racism - cast by a man who by any standards has done an enormous amount to further the cause of equality in the capital - has hung over proceedings from start to finish. "Was I surprised by the concentration camp guard remark?" asks Iltydd Harrington, former GLC deputy leader under Livingstone, quoted in The Telegraph on Friday. "No. I`m afraid statesman Ken still has this tendency to become vulgarian Ken. After all these years he still can`t resist it." [... more]

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