Features

Should a politician's private life affect their public role?

larry iles
Not on sexual matters,unless violence obtrudes.But definitely if venal corruption monetarily excessive is involve.Or even if religion affects their votes,policies like Blair,s unsocialistic warrior Crusader Christianity distorts his stance towards Bush on the ongoing Iraq and Afghan war pointlessnesses

tolani azees
too much concentration on families and no focus on london. not acceptable. london needs new people,like boris. i suggest ken to resign

Peter Tromp, Netherlands
Yes of course it should. But first of all Ken Livingstone is a man and father of his time, a time where policy promoted divorce is both cultural and rampant in 50% of marriages, while Livingstone doesn't deny being affected by it in his private live and most probable not by choice. Second and far more important, he is reported to care and invest into staying in regular contact and being involved in all of his children's lives.Being a divorced father myself and by no means a fan of Labour's broken family and father-child exclusion policies nationally, I would immediately have to admit in this case that his stand in private live should not damage him, but instead add to his public electability. Livingstone in this case proofs to be a man of flesh and blood and not running away from it or trying to uphold a fake public Maccleans toothpaste picture but instead dealing with it both privately and publicly with dignity and to the best of his abillities. I would even vote for him if in his public live he were to also raise within his reality-estranged political party nationally, his stand on the importance of fathers having regular postdivorce contact with their children and would call for a Labour culture and policy change on that. That would make him the man and father in public live that he allready is in private live.

general ID
He cheated on his long term partner with not one, but two woman, who had his children in the same year. While he continued to co-habit. what consenting adults want to do in this secular society is fine, if it tickles your fancy. but please don't kid yourself if you believe his behaviour has no impact on how he conducts himself generally. and as such the public have a right to know the nature of who they are voting for. Some less enlightened folk, like me, may wish to consider his behaviour as deceitful (even immoral) both at the time and now and hence not vote for him based on this fact, no matter his policies.You may not agree, but hey, thats DEMOCRACY.

Cate
I am so pleased that so many are commenting here to similar effect... don't insult our intelligence by trying convince us this is important. This is NOT America, it is NOT Daily Mail, or the Evening Standar, come on BBC, you are better than this! Leave the man alone, or...if you do want to give him a hard time do it on policy issues, law and order, transport, poverty in London, enviromental degradation.....

Susan
Ken's private life is his own and, importantly, he makes the point that he does not lie to anyone involved in his circle. It's a big jump to suddenly start calling him a bad parent because we don't know the circumstances of raising these children. Think of the children when you call it "seedy". Seedy is $4000-a-night hookers.

Adam
Good on you Ken, there is no reason whatsoever that you should have to come out with this stuff before.I agree there is a huge difference between private and secret, and personally, it makes no difference to me how many children he has.

Guy London
So he has 5 kids, I am not going to vote for him as he is doing nothing for London and it is time for a change

alex
Of course it has a bearing. We are all a sum of our parts. Why should the children with Ms Beale be acknowledged and yet the others go without mention. It seems that the public only needs to know what they want us to know. Don't blame Boris or the BBC for this that really would be trying to make some kind of political gain out of the situation, wouldn't it.

frank W1
wow... so we discovered that he has not been taking care of his newts... he has come out ... as a hypocritical promiscuous lothario....

Jonathan Dunne
Personally I don't think Ken Livingston's private life is a subject that we "the voting public" should concern ourselves with at the Mayoral elections in May. I am sure Ken didn't bring in the congestion charge because he has 5 children by 3 partners! I will be voting for someone who I consider fit who has the ability to run the Capital for the next 4 years.

Sacha, 13
I am writing to give you my views on the story of Ken Livingstone. I don't understand why people have to take into consideration his personal views for the election. It should be his political opinions which count. People are saying that it matters because he needs to be trusted, but he's done a good job so far, so nothing's changed.

Celia Blair
I think Ken has explained things well and he's right.He has clearly not been impeded in his professional and political roles by being the father of 5. It could be argued that he is likely to be more "grounded" by his role as an involved parent.

Anthony Casserced
Shame to the BBC for stooping to the level of the gutter press. God knows I am not going to vote for Ken as I do not trust the guy one bit.... but stirring the muck about his private life is as low as it gets. I expected better from the BBC

K Tan
Not really, unless their private life is affecting/hurting/harming people in their private life, or if it is a criminal offence. If so, it would be something they will have to deal with with people in their private life, or the police, not with the media/journalist. All I am interested is for the politician to do what he/she promised to do for the people, not how may children they have fathered over the last whatever years, how many women they have slept with, if if they have tried cannabis in unversity 20 years ago. So, please leave Ken alone and perhaps focus on other more news worthy story. I am sure some where out there, there is some other more important story the media like to report. Londoners do not really care how many children our Mayor has. It is his business and the media should respect that.

Ben
I'm surprised and disappointed that our beloved BBC is stooping to the level of broadcasting this nonsense. It simply isn't news. Why would any self-respecting viewer, or London voter come to that, be interested in this non-story?

Hilary
Is this the worst Boris's bunch can come up with on Ken? The fact that the man, like the majority of the world's adult population, has had children?! If so, it strikes me as a fairly desperate barrel-scraping act by a hollow Tory campaign that has run out of ideas.Pathetic.

Norman Houlder
No,if they are happy with it what business is it of the press I sdont want to know

john smith
there is definately a moral to the story. cheaper by the dozen.

Dave Heaven
Your interview with Ken Livingstone concerning his private life was little more than a transparent attempt to goad him into a reaction. As far as his private life goes, he does not appear to have anything to apologize for, either to Londoners or the God Almighty BBC. The vacuousness of your reporter's "questioning" and his inability to draw any conclusions from his talk with the Mayor simply emphasized what a non-story this was.Is it that the BBC has its own agenda against Livingstone and is looking to run a smear campaign in the run-up to the election? Perhaps thay are scared that in the absence of any genuine news (or they're inability to find any), they are going to have to make up stories of their own.

John
Yes

sheilamensah
Dear BBC,for God sake grow up and stop been petty towards Ken. He has five children with different women so what. Has he not done enough for londoners through thick and thin.why should his private life be an issue in this election. Go ken you have my vote

Miss Monroe
Yes,they all talk about transparancy yet they keep the seedy side of their lives hidden.

Val Daniels
What possible reason could the press or the BBC have to poke their noses into Ken Livingston's private life. You dont need three guesses to know which papers are involved. Could it be the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail? Lets have equal treatment here. What about Boris Johnson's private life; his alleged relationship with Petronella Wyatt, and his sacking by David Cameron. Could this 'revelation' about Ken have come about because Boris's lead has been dramatically reduced?

Alastair Roy
Absolutely not! As Livingstone said, a politician's private life, (provided, of course, nothing illegal is involved!)is private, period and nothing to do with Joe Public, however much the revolting media try and pretend otherwise...

Derek in central london
A man's private life is his to have and keep private. It's just the media looking for some scrap of news to waste our time with. Why don't you talk about something important for a change.

Helen Golden
I can't see what this has to do with Ken Livingstone's mayoral abilities but I hope you are as tough when you interview Boris Johnson about his real infidelities

Neill
For goodness sake! Since when has the number of children someone has reflected their suitability for public office, even if they are with more than one partner? The press in this country needs to grow up and find something more worthwhile to report on.

soren ramsing
no,what a waste of air time to broadcast something, that has absolutely no influence on roads, crime, environment or employement, issues that matters.

Ian Tea
Virile Ken, or foppish mummy's boy Boris? I know who gets my vote!