To ask if it's a good thing that London has a Muslim mayor

[DoesFlossfloss]

Because my London based in-laws are not happy and I've not been following the campaign as I'm not in London so don't really care. However, we're seeing PILs this weekend and it will be up for discussion.

YY, howabout, people quickly forget that Crazy Ken, for all his unstable ideas, was an excellent Mayor. He, like Sadiq, is a Londoner who genuinely knows and loves the city. Posh people like Boris have no fucking clue, and Zac's a thousand times further up the poshness remove.

As you say, Sadiq's practically a Conservative by comparison with Ken. I can't see what everyone's moaning about - unless they're motivated by bigotry.

I dont know for sure yet Bert as the gov is Conservative and I support Conservative for now when the uncertainty of refugee/imigrant policy then I feel safe for now.
I also dont believe in freezing fare policy then where's money to improve service, increase frequency, hiring more drivers especially the population is growing.
I dont find his housing policy is convincing either. His strength is in human right, I dont see him as being as supporting to Business. There is a budget of billions for him to spend however maling a clean, green, safe city and supporting business is what I support

Garlic, Ken was very lucky running his job in a booming economy. Boris had so much less offered to him for the last 8 years London has been on a down. I have no idea about politic however I appreciate Boris bikes and bike lane etc
Zac is very popular where we live, friendly and easy to aproach. We dont care about Khan background why people concern about Zac background.
(Khan could be equally a good MP where he lives)
As I said, only time can tell

YY, howabout, people quickly forget that Crazy Ken, for all his unstable ideas, was an excellent Mayor

Early-stage vascular dementia. Mark my words. Right age, right lifestyle, right symptoms. You know all those MN threads about ageing parents who start talking bigoted nonsense as they get older, and people sagely say "hmm, dementia screening"? Seventy year old man who has a history of heavy drinking and probably doesn't eat very well, starts talking about Hitler whenever he has a Jewish audience. "Hmm, dementia screening".

Did you know London has two Mayors, Greenleave? The other is Jeffrey Evans, Lord Mayor of the City of London. Look him up. Ordinary people don't get to vote for the Lord Mayor, it's a closed vote limited to the members of certain organisations.

If you're concerned about the big business interests of London, he's the bloke you need to look at. He wields a hell of a lot more influence with the government, and is elected basically on the strength of his contacts at very high levels of very big business.

As Mayor of London, Sadiq is responsible for keeping the city working at street level and managing things for everyday residents.

Oh, wow, Ricardian! Very good point!

Ken was very lucky running his job in a booming economy.

Leader of the GLC 1981-1986
Mayor of London 2000-2008

London was 'booming' in the early 80s, if we choose to ignore the desperate unemployment and increasing homelessness increasing as yuppie incomes rose along with house prices.

The first 8 years of this millennium were not a boom by any measure.

As a Financial centre of the world then 2000-2008, London was. The banking crisis started middle of 2008 till...now.
Garlic you are very passionate about the new Mayor I hope you are right!

Greenleave, I live in Richmond too. I think Goldsmith has been an adequate local MP, though I don't have any love for the Tories generally as I consider their policies to be mainly aimed at benefiting the rich when it's the poor that we need to worry about and help.

I am a bit confused about your position on immigration partly because you are clearly an immigrant yourself, British passport or not - my dad was an immigrant too many years ago and is now British, so I'm not saying that you aren't British now, just saying that you clearly grew up elsewhere. And I would imagine that you have come here as an adult given that English is clearly a second language to you. Do you think others should be denied the same opportunities that you have been offered? In what way are recent/future immigrants different from past immigrants, who have been beneficial to the economy as a whole as I am sure you are?

I am also confused as to how the mayor might be likely to affect immigration policy. That's the job of the government not the mayor of London.

I'm not especially passionate about Sadiq. Although he was my MP, and a very good one in a far more challenging constituency than Zac's.

I'm passionate about having an accurate perspective on what's happening to our lives - or, since the full picture's only available to very few, as broadly informed a perspective as possible.

Sorry, I missed my own point there Greenleaves

London already has a Lord Mayor from the 0.1%. It doesn't need a Mayor from that group as well, the Mayor's role is for the ordinary people.

I would say that attacking the excellent Quilliam foundation tells me all I need to know about Pontypines' politics.

More good stuff on SK from Hurry Up Harry:

hurryupharry.org/2016/05/08/sadiq-khan-and-khurram-zaki-stand-with-liberals-against-islamists/

***

The calculus in the past, for many in Labour has been:
“Will I lose more votes in cities than I gain by working with Islamists and Hamas fans and turning a blind eye to antisemitism?”

In London, the answer to that question is “no”. Not even now that the problem has become headline news. Not in safe Labour seats in cities, certainly.

But the size of Sadiq Khan victory prove that you do not need their votes for Labour to win.

By contrast, nationally, the answer to that question is “yes”. You cannot present yourself as an anti-racist, progressive party without opposing racists and theocrats. The voters understand this, even if many Labour activists still do not.

Sadiq Khan, a liberal Muslim on a journey away from a politics which was prevalent, and may now even be dominant with the grassroots of the Labour Party can make a virtue of necessity. It is a strength he can play to.

A hallmark of Sadiq Khan’s mayoralty should be a clear stance against hatred and divisive rhetoric and politics. He should make it clear that he won’t have any truck with organisations and institutions which sponsor and promote hatemongers. If he attends their meetings, he should not simply deliver platitudes, as he did at the conference of the hate preacher promoting FOSIS. Rather, he should take the opportunity to promote the liberal values that he cherishes.

Does Khan have the courage to do this. Will he dodge the issue, talk in generalities, and carry on working with the hatemongers, with the justification that we need a “Big Tent” and that you can’t just talk to “Uncle Toms”.

If he does so, it would be the wrong choice. It would also be a betrayal of solidarity with comrades such as Khurram Zaki.

***

SK has shown some encouraging signs over the last couple of days that he has changed. I will be watching with interest. But I would be more reassured if he would stand up and state that his views have changed over the last 10 years and that he will no longer dally with Islamic literalists.

"This is the thing that worries me the most about SK. I get the feeling that some of the dodgy things he said, he didn't believe, but he said them because he thought they would be vote winners with the people he was addressing at the time. I find him insincere and I think he says what people want to hear rather than anything he actually believes. He reminds me a lot of Tony Blair. As do the celebrations for him being elected. I hope he is not such a let down."

I think this is what's concerning. Especially since London's changing demographics mean that there are growing numbers of voters who will be won over by this kind of stuff.

What happens when the numbers of voters who are impressed by "let's drive Israel into the sea" outnumber those who are impressed by "let's legalize gay marriage"? Will SK start to change tack?

Serious question.

The excellent Quilliam Foundation

I'm still waiting for concrete evidence of anything they have actually done.

£1 million pounds of government money down the drain is not excellent.

Erm, Sadiq's new job is 75% about transport in London. Then there's housing policies and enterprise initiatives, both of which he'll have to negotiate with the government and local authorities, security and arts/culture which he's expected to drive although having little say in what actually happens. I'm not quite sure how he's going to impose Sharia law, bring in millions of refugees and force all the women to wear burqa.

"The Mayor of London and the London Assembly are responsible for policing, transport, housing, planning and the environment. The Mayor plays a key role by putting together plans and policies and running and funding projects. Before finalising his or her major strategies the Mayor must consult with Londoners and their elected representatives on the London Assembly."

Some people are acting like he's been granted supreme power.

I'd say he's off to a good start - first public engagement is a Holocaust memorial ceremony. He's making a statement with that.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/londons-new-muslim-mayor-joins-holocaust-memorial/2016/05/08/fd76e2a8-151c-11e6-971a-dadf9ab18869_story.html?postshare=6741462750718024&tid=ss_fb-bottom

My fear now is that he'll be forced to go overboard trying to prove he's pro-Jewish and have less time for everyone else.

How is he "making a statement" by going to an event that is absolutely part of the job of being Mayor of London? "Making a statement" would be not going!

If I had still lived in London I'd have voted for Saddique. I have voted Conservative in every other election since 1979 and have met both candidates in the last 20 years.

It doesn't bother me that London has a Muslim mayor but the behaviour of so.e Londoners of all denominations and of some Muslims worry me. It always will.

I do think there is an issue and that there is an increasing number of muslim people who are resistant to integrating and that can be done whilst recognising individual cultural heritages.

Thirty years ago one rarely saw a hijab in the UK, one rarely saw hordes of Muslims together, my dc went to a primary school with a significant minority of muslim children. Their parents would not mix and in a church school to which they willingly sent their children (there were two secular ones nearby) wanted their own rules around uniform, the cofe children visited the mosque, the Sikh temple, the Buddhist temple, the synagogue. The Muslim children were withdrawn from those trips and did not attend school on church service days. Diwali was celebrated, Ramadan was respected, dietary and cultural sensitivities were respected. There was no mutual respect afforded the host culture.

Something has gone terribly, terribly wrong where the laws of the UK are not being observed, where equality is not being observed and where there appears to be an increasing undercurrent of divisivness driven by the Muslim community.

I don't see saddique as part of that but I hope he will not encourage it.

Beau my family were second generation Irish Catholics. When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, you could have said most of those things about my community too.

My parents weren't particularly hard line in their religion and yet until I went to university, I didn't know a single person who wasn't catholic. Attitudes towards women were grim. Ok we spoke the same language and we weren't visibly different but I can see many parallels between muslim communities now and mine back then.

Integration can take time, especially when the incoming community is treated with suspicion and even loathing.

Incidentally, one event that my parents always said made a big difference was when the USA elected a catholic as president.

Ambro: I said about uncontrolled refugee/imigrant.

There are so many British imigrate to somewhere else suit them better too, it happens both way. 20 years ago, things are different.Its hard to compare. When Cameron accepted only 40 thousand refugees both me and my husband cried out loud, why not more. Then only few weeks later we were appreciated that Britain only accept to take refugee slowly, for their resident to adapt to the change, also for the government having the best support to the new comers. My friends in Munich said everyone is struggling in Munich now, even the new mass refugee.

20 years ago terrorist wasnt something ordinary people were worried, imigrant were mostly looking for work and a better quality of life. They also have to change themself to adapt to the new home and respect the locals. These days if you are wealthy and you are white the you are more likely to receive abuse than the opposite(we neither are either)

20 years ago terrorist wasnt something ordinary people were worried,
IRA?

20 years ago terrorist wasnt something ordinary people were worried

For fuck's sake. In 1996 the IRA exploded a large bomb on Canary Wharf, killing 2 people, injuring 39 and causing about £150m of damage. Manchester bombing, 1996. What the hell are you talking about?

My DM (90) said to me 'What do you think of the Mayor being Muslim?' I said 'Well a lot of people are.' and she rapidly changed the subject. I would rather have a Muslim who has clearly done well by his own efforts than yet another Old Etonion.

"20 years ago terrorist wasnt something ordinary people were worried, "
Blimey. Tell that to those of us working in London at the peak of the IRA's activities.