ABSTRACT

During the late 1970s, national tabloid newspapers seldom paid any attention to local government, save for fleeting references during local election campaigns. Councils were viewed in Fleet Street as being part of a dull, fustian world where local worthies dealt with parochial, uncontroversial issues. However, some national papers reported in May 1981 that Ken Livingstone had been elected leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) by his council colleagues, shortly after the local election, ousting the right-wing Labour veteran, Andrew McIntosh. Livingstone's supporters justified the switch on the grounds that newly elected councillors were entitled to choose a new leader, and that Labour's GLC manifesto was the basis of their democratic mandate. However, the event that put the tabloid press on full 'Red Ken' alert was a fresh outbreak of disorder in Brixton in July 1981. Following the Brixton disturbances, Livingstone and his GLC colleagues were subjected to a sustained press assault.