Greater London Council
Livingstone's high-spend socialist policies put the GLC into direct conflict with Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government. Livingstone soon became a thorn in the side of the sitting Tory government.  He deliberately antagonised Mrs. Thatcher through a series of actions (including posting a billboard of London's rising unemployment figures on the side of, and endorsing a statue of Nelson Mandela whilst Thatcher regarded the future South African president as a terrorist.