LONDON (AP) — London's mayor says a fellow member of Britain's governing Conservative Party was talking nonsense when he criticized the Olympic opening ceremony as too political.
Aidan Burley, a 33-year-old legislator, posted a message to his Twitter account accusing Friday's ceremony of being too "leftie" — slang for politically left wing — and criticizing its use of rap music.
Director Danny Boyle's ceremony hailed Britain's National Health Service, begun in 1944 under a center-left Labour Party government, and celebrated the nation's ethnic diversity.
London Mayor Boris Johnson, a member of the center-right Conservatives, said Burley's comments were "nonsense," and the event had left him with "hot tears of patriotic pride."
Burley last year lost a junior government role after he attended a party in France where a guest wore a Nazi uniform.
