Londoners - why don't people like Sadiq Khan?

[Chicchicchicchiclana]

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?

@TinnedPearsForPudding

Sadly, I suspect that racism & Islamophobia plays a part as to why he is disliked

Sadly, you're wrong. It is fucking lazy to say that anyone who criticises Khan is racist and islamophobic. The man is an utter catastrophe. One bus lane and a lane for traffic changed to one very wide cycle lane and a bus/traffic lane along one of the busiest roads in central London So buses full of commuters vying with traffic in to one lane while cyclists get a fat wide lane to themselves. I had to go in to work today and the congestion along the Euston Road is utterly incomprehensible because of the cycle lanes with barely a handful of cyclists in for the length of time I was stuck in traffic. I know that there is a huge cohort that think if you live in London you shouldn't drive. But a lot of us need to.

Would you graciously host someone who has not only sexually assaulted women, but brags about sexually assaulting women? I would graciously host the president of the United States- you are grossly naive if you think Khans spats with Trump are anything but media point scoring. He should see the bigger picture, god knows the number of corrupt leaders we’ve hosted in the U.K.

i know that there is a huge cohort that think if you live in London you shouldn't drive. But a lot of us need to exactly, we don’t all live in zone 1, we don’t all have access to a tube- and even if we do so what. It’s quite probable to live in zone 4, 10min drive to zone 2 with 2 kids under 5 and need a car.
Not to mention all the people who make their living driving.

Khan should stop picking battles with Uber and Trump for publicity and instead focus on making London safer, more liveable/ accessible, financially viable for its people.

I think that job’s s bot of a poisoned chalice

London crime is up and he does oversee the met police, he is the Police and Crime Commissioner for the city, the man tasked by law to come up with a plan. Since he came in to term four years ago

Robbery up 73%
Street muggings up 56%
Homicides up 34%

The disastrous cross rail he is running

The ultra low emission zone is going to price people out of jobs

Why doesn’t he get rid of 90 per cent of City Hall bureaucrats and hire thousands of new police officers – or even private security guards – to flood the streets and drive away the gangs?

All he does is blame the government when things go wrong.

There isn’t a point to him.

he has a £18billion budget!!! Yest as @LizzieBlackwell has pointed crime has increased massively.

City Hall employee costs have also increased by 86% since he became Mayor.

He approved a 3.6% Council tax increase on us to pay for more police and for what why has city hall staff costs almost doubled?

The extension of ulez is gonns hit those who cannot afford to switch cars including me yet we need those cars more, south london is a good example of where public transport is always the 'poor cousin' to rest of London. All this money for safer cycle lanes and where are they all in central and North London and theb you wonder why people South of the river drive more! We dont eveb have the choice of a tube.

No doubt the bakerloo lone extension is now going to be cancelled because he has decimated TfL funding by not fighting for the goverment grant to stay, by not increasing fares because it was a vote winner and presiding over the disaster that is cross rail and he failed at getting cross rail 2 approved

His stupid spats with Trump have done nothing to help Londoners, I actually lost respect for him because its just unprofessional. Your the mayor of London focus on our issues and sort them out you have £18bn!

As for his comments well London has to get used to terror attacks wtaf no we should never have to. Spend your budget on the police you do have authority over you fool.

They put in a wide bike lane along the main road next to us during lockdown - so we have a slightly wider single lane road when it had been a 2 lane road. It literally came up from one day to the next as I am there everyday. So not only is traffic crawling now (god help us when traffic gets back to normal levels) but it also means that our street is now a ratrun. The whole borough has now gone to all 20mph too. Plus bus routes cut and changed (they all seem to be to my detriment for some reason) and road directions changed willy nilly.

We don’t all ride bikes. We don’t all want to ride bikes. Public transport is generally crowded and slow - and expensive. It’s getting worse to travel around London - I walk where I can.

It’s getting worse to travel around London - I walk where I can.

I agree, it's one reason I'm considering moving. Everything is so congested, if you want to leave it takes an age to get out. Tubes are packed. I love walking & walk as much as I can but sometimes it's not practical.

Our borough has been 20mph for years. The only 30mph roads are the TfL managed roads. Surely those decisions are your local council rather than mayoral?

@annabel85
"London is a cesspit of violence and stabbings and general lawlessness."

My part isn't! Don't you think your statement is rather sweeping? Yes, some areas have issues with knife crime. That doesn't make the whole city a "cesspit of violence". Do you live in London?

There is nothing wrong with Sadiq other than that the Tories hate him and regard him as an interloper who has nicked the crown which rightfully belongs to them. Oh, and he's a dodgy Muslim and a bit brown but those are secondary. The Tories treat him with utter contempt, as they do the rest of us, because he isn't 'one of us' and is in the wrong political party.

Yes my borough is 20mph too, and these decisions are made by the local council, same as the local road closures, not the Mayor’s Office...

GARDEN BRIDGE. £40 million spaffed up the wall by Boris and no bridge. Bugger all to show for it except a very large bill. But that's OK of course as it was Bozo and his mates doing it.

longwayoff wait who’s defending Boris- this is a thread about Khan. The bar is pretty low: an antisemite, Boris and now Khant !!

I find him a disappointment. Leaps on every bandwagon and chants mantras at us. TWAW apparently and if you say it enough and click your heels together three times it will become true and all the mean women will disappear in a puff of smoke.

I've heard alot of racist comments about him and not much in the way of specific criticism of his policys.

Most of the people who dislike him (and many who do, to be fair) have a very ropey idea of what powers the Mayor has and what is and isn't in his remit.

The Mayor does now set strategic direction for the Met and Khan has.increased council tax as much as he was allowed in order to combat crime: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47252505

What else could he do to tackle knife crime?

Most boroughs have gone for 20 mph speed limits - again, not Khan's fault - though improving central London air quality has been a Government priority for years seeing as it was breaching international law.

Persuading people to invest in London is a big part of the job and will be even more important in future - I'm not sure how Khan is seen there, though some colleagues say he has more respect than Boris did.

Mostly inner London votes Labour and likes public transport and bikes, outer London votes Tory and likes cars.

He's brown and Muslim. Have a look at the comments on his Facebook page, they're a seething cesspit. Mostly from people who live nowhere near London.

I am another one who just isn’t sure what he has actually achieved during his mayoralty.

I receive the Mayor of London email updates, and what he says is not exactly inspiring. He could have taken a much more prominent role this year, he could have got Londoners to wear face coverings on public transport in March for example, and yet his main message seems to be to say the government hasn’t done enough. I agree with a PP that the Mayor of London needs to be extremely charismatic, and also passionate about London. If SK is, it hasn’t come across to me at least

Also I think TFL Is an overweening organisation. They have overruled our local council on a few issues affecting us and there seems to be very little democratic accountability. Local councillors - for whom we voted - say ‘the residents don’t want this’. TFL say ‘Tough. We are doing it anyway’. Our entire streetscape was made unrecognisable because TFL wanted a bike lane. In the year or so since it’s been running I’ve not counted more than a handful of people on it. I’m all for cycling but this is heavy handed and tends to ignore residents local knowledge.

I like him too! He has been a good mayor in my view.

I would have liked to have seen some inventive initiatives to tackle knife crime: maybe those metal sensors being placed on entrances to shopping centres and public transport hubs. Banning sale of sharp knives in shops. Yes, maybe not workable ideas, but I really would have liked to see a range of initiatives tried.
Very upsetting about the loss of lives among public transport workers during pandemic. Would have loved to have seen more radical and inventive measured tried: more buses put on - definitely something done to facilitate distancing on the tube. It's not easy, but there must be bodies, think tanks etc suggesting ideas for leaders to consider and trial.

Khan would mnt have had to increase council tax ro make up for his shortfall if he hadn't increased city hall staff costs by 87% thats almost £36m. What have all those staff done? Do you see a difference? I don't. How comes Boris could manage without all those people?

I cannot even think of one good thing he has done.

Can anyone link to info on the expansion of the congestion charge zone next year please? We live in SE23 and need to buy a new car so this may have a big effect on it!

The under 18s need free travel because it keeps them safe. Deciding to walk, because they don't have the bus fare, could be dangerous and could encourage them to accept lifts from strangers. I don't want to think of them struggling with heavy book bags on foot and being tired when they get home and, therefore, reluctant to do homework.

If a journey takes longer than an hour, in traffic, then the hopper saving won't be available to them, and without this ability to change bus but only pay one fare, the cost of getting to school, or to a Saturday job could be significant. I think that if period poverty affects a proportion of girls, then we can safely assume that many families would struggle to supply bus fares to one, two, three or four children in the family. These costs mount up. Some parents might decide it will be not much more money or worthwhile to drive the kids to school - then, more traffic on the roads.

Getting youngsters into the habit of using public transport early on predisposes them not to buy a car and learn to drive, and so be fitter adults and have a smaller carbon footprint. It's just an awful piece of policy. Cheap public transport ought to be made readily available to everybody.