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Original poster

Londoners - why don't people like Sadiq Khan?

128 replies

Chicchicchicchiclana · 07/08/2020 20:52

I think he's alright. Certainly an improvement on the previous incumbent!

Can the issues with the congestion charge and removal of free travel for under 18s be laid firmly at his door? If so, how?

Otherwise, I see all these casual references to Sadiq Khan being single handedly responsible for the increase in knife crime and all sorts of other accusations.

Please spell it out for me if you think he is a poor Mayor ... how and why?

OP posts:
sashagabadon · 07/08/2020 22:45

[quote DayKay]@labyrinthloafer no way would I side with Trump. I think he’s awful but I just don’t see the need for Khan to get into twitter spats with him.
Everyone knows Trump is an idiot and Khan should have remained professional.[/quote]
Exactly

toastmeahotcrossbun · 07/08/2020 22:46

I like him and I'd have said the perception of him is that Londoners generally do like him OP

GisAFag · 07/08/2020 23:08

One of my bugbares or bugbears about him is that everytime there's a terror related incident or a knife attack and so e poor youngest is in the morgue he says.. Its part of living in a large city.. EVERY SINGLE BLOODY TIME.. Do something about it rather than trot out the same old shit over and over again.

coronabeer23 · 07/08/2020 23:35

I don’t mind him but I do think the decision to remove free bus travel for under18 is outrageous as is the 7 day congestion charge. He’s a good friend to the Jewish community though and very keen to build bridges so I have real respect for him on that. I’ll vote for him again

InTheWings · 07/08/2020 23:36

In general I am a Khan supporter. The strictures put on TfL services were imposed by Gvt and pretty outrageous when you compare the ‘claw back the money’ Gvt approach to TfL with ‘bail out the airlines at any cost’. It is politically motivated against a Labour Mayor, as is ongoing undermining of the budget for the police etc.

However, I think SK could have stepped up and filled a leadership vacuum when COVID struck. It was terrible in London in the early days, before it hit other areas, the Gvt were useless and SK was v quiet. The measures taken AFTER 29 London bus drivers died were obvious, and should have been implemented in the first place. For example.

DisgruntledSnowman · 07/08/2020 23:43

SE8. Like him.

Most of the dislike appears to be because he's not a Tory and is a Muslim.

NOTANUM · 07/08/2020 23:44

I was hopeful when he was elected but I think he has been weak. Everything is "yeah but the Tories.." as he eyes his next election and he was rubbish about Corbyn and anti-Semitism which is s big London issue given the Jewish population.
He kept banging on about trees just as teenagers were being killed on their way home from school..
For Coronavirus, he was nowhere.. He literally disappeared.
I'm no longer a fan.

elstree2020 · 08/08/2020 07:56

Much better than the part-time predecessor.

Issues to me are the poor response to crime, and the fares freeze.

SerenityNowwwww · 08/08/2020 09:18

I don’t think it’s cut and dried racism - people I know wanted to like him for quite the reverse - his religion, family background, looked like a smart guy who would roll up vis sleeves... maybe the breath of fresh air we needed.

The PR budget for his office has increased 25% but what has he actually done? I’ve seen him have a spat with Trump (why engage with him - just stand back like Obama and let him show himself up) and take his stand on gender politics on social media (clue: it doesn’t benefit women).

Anything happens ‘yes it’s terrible - all the tories fault...’ we need action not finger pointing. As my old boss used to say ‘bring me solutions not problems’.

PerkingFaintly · 08/08/2020 09:39

He shouldn't have lowered himself or his position getting involved in that Trump blimp stuff.

Can you explain in what way Khan "got involved" in the Trump blimp?

Trump Baby was done by a group of protestors. I might have missed something, but what I saw was the group of protestors doing their protest, and a bunch of other interests saying, "It's happening in London where Khan is mayor, so it must be his fault in some unspecified way."

They actually complained that he didn't get involved.

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 08/08/2020 09:50

Can you explain in what way Khan "got involved" in the Trump blimp?
Well Khan gave permission for it to fly.
He also said the U.K. government shouldn’t meet/ welcome the president of the United States. Don’t get me wrong Trump is an absolute scum bag but Khan should have risen above and just hosted graciously.

PerkingFaintly · 08/08/2020 10:09

OnlyFoolsnMothers: Well Khan gave permission for it to fly.

And that's it? People are complaining that he didn't get involved to ask a department to stop the balloon?

Trump in the UK: The rules around aerial protests
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44767349
The protesters got permission for the helium-filled 6m (19.7ft) high balloon to fly again over Parliament Square Gardens. It was cleared by the City Operations Unit at City Hall, where the Mayor of London is based.
The group needed permission from the unit because Parliament Square Gardens is controlled by the Greater London Authority (GLA). You need permission to do a whole range of things there, including holding a public gathering or standing on your own with a placard.
Applicants have to show that they have sufficient insurance and there has to be a full risk assessment.
The GLA told Reality Check that it's not its role to act as a censor, or decide what is or isn't a good protest.
But it says it does work with the Metropolitan Police to reject anything containing illegal content, such as anything racist or homophobic.

SimonJT · 08/08/2020 10:42

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

Can you explain in what way Khan "got involved" in the Trump blimp? Well Khan gave permission for it to fly. He also said the U.K. government shouldn’t meet/ welcome the president of the United States. Don’t get me wrong Trump is an absolute scum bag but Khan should have risen above and just hosted graciously.
Would you graciously host someone who has not only sexually assaulted women, but brags about sexually assaulting women?
sashagabadon · 08/08/2020 10:45

@PerkingFaintly

He shouldn't have lowered himself or his position getting involved in that Trump blimp stuff.

Can you explain in what way Khan "got involved" in the Trump blimp?

Trump Baby was done by a group of protestors. I might have missed something, but what I saw was the group of protestors doing their protest, and a bunch of other interests saying, "It's happening in London where Khan is mayor, so it must be his fault in some unspecified way."

They actually complained that he didn't get involved.

He was on tbe London news encouraging it! He gave permission for it to fly. They even traded twitter nonsense. Really come on, khan should not have got involved with that. He was playing to a certain crowd for brownie points but it came off as v unprofessional to me
sashagabadon · 08/08/2020 10:48

On the plus side of Khan, he is not a womaniser, he does not seem to bully his staff and i would be surprised if anything like that came out.
He also seems corruption free too so that is a plus.

FizzyPink · 08/08/2020 10:49

I used to like him and actually voted for him. However he’s all talk and not a lot of action. He seems to spend a lot of time on Twitter making demands about what the government should be doing for Londoners but I’ve not seen much evidence of him actually getting anything productive done.

Also raising the congestion charge to basically full time is extremely annoying however I do understand that partly it encourages the use of public transport over driving

SerenityNowwwww · 08/08/2020 11:02

Sorry to bang on but he just doesn’t support women’s rights. That’s a huge no-no for me too.

Squidsister · 08/08/2020 11:09

Londoner here - I voted for him and I like him.
I like how he has been working to unite different groups in London, which is much needed post-Brexit. He works alongside other community leaders and seems very hard working. Tackling problems like knife crime - you need to come at it from different angles, it’s not just about policing.
I just don’t think he is a show-off person like BJ - I don’t like these big vanity projects that Boris gets involved in, like the proposed Garden Bridge (which Boris agreed to and would have cost TfL £30m!! Everyone seems to have forgotten about that....)
If Zac Goldsmith had got in he would have been divisive, his campaign was pitting one community against the other!

Squidsister · 08/08/2020 11:12

Also I agree with the congestion charge actually. A girl from my area died of asthma, me and 2 DCs have asthma, sorry if people can’t drive their old polluting cars anymore but poor air quality affects everyone’s health.

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 08/08/2020 11:22

sorry if people can’t drive their old polluting cars comment from someone who can clearly afford a new car. Some of the biggest gas guzzlers are exempt from the charge. Zone 1 is one thing but extending to the south circular is going to massively push just getting by families onto the bread, £12.50 a day it’s a money making scheme, creating more bailiff jobs. Also just pushes pollution to the outskirts.

areyoubeingserviced · 08/08/2020 11:23

I don’t mind Sadiq Khan. He seems to be a decent man and loves London.
I think that he genuinely wants to do the right thing.
As for the increase in congestion charge. I thought that he was told that he had to this by the government if he wanted a loan

StatementKnickers · 08/08/2020 13:59

I live in London and I think he's great. He is taking back our streets for pedestrians and cyclists. People who don't like him are usually furious gammon types who don't want a brown-skinned Muslim restricting their ability to drive and park selfishly in polluting cars and vans.

SerenityNowwwww · 08/08/2020 14:02

My brown skinned DH is pissed off that the roads have been narrowed for a trickle (and sometimes no biked), traffic builds up (and the air quality drops) and bikes still zap through red lights and ride on the pavements. And he can’t exactly expect his 80 year old mum to hop on a Boris bike to get her groceries.

Don’t try to make this about race.

orangeblosssom · 08/08/2020 14:27

I like him.

jcurve · 08/08/2020 14:37

He’s done sweet FA for air pollution over the last 4 years. Whilst streets are being shut off - conveniently mostly those with million plus pound homes on them in, they haven’t exactly chosen deprived streets - he’s done absolutely nothing regarding idling cars and speeding/nuisance drivers.

We get drivers idling for hours on our street for up to an hour at a time. They increased the fine for idling in March but like most things, you get a warning before a fairly toothless £80 fine (used to be £20).

Bringing in a full time congestion charge whilst telling people to stay off the tube is complete madness. The suburbs and Z2 are now rammed of a weekend whilst Z1 is empty.

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