The loony left is a pejorative term used to describe those considered to be politically hard left. First recorded as used in 1977, the term was widely used in the United Kingdom in the campaign for the 1987 general election and subsequently both by the Conservative Party and by British newspapers that supported the party, as well as by more moderate factions within the Labour movement to refer to the activities of more militantly left-wing politicians that they believed moderate voters would perceive as extreme or unreasonable.
Neil Kinnock, the Labour Party leader when the term became widely used at the 1987 general election
Kenneth Robert Livingstone is an English retired politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office in 2000 until 2008. He also served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent East from 1987 to 2001. A former member of the Labour Party, he was on the party's hard left, ideologically identifying as a socialist.
Livingstone at the World Economic Forum in 2008
Margaret Thatcher, leader (1975–90) of the Conservative Party, prime minister (1979–90) of the United Kingdom
County Hall in Lambeth, then home of the Greater London Council
Livingstone's willingness to meet publicly with Irish republican leader Gerry Adams (above, pictured in 2001), caused outrage within his own party and the British press