Sadiq Khan. Can anyone tell me something positive about what he has done?

[Luckymum20]

So the past few days I've unfortunately gone down a bit of a rabbit hole of clips about the Mayor of London.

From what I have seen the man is an utter buffoon who has done nothing to improve London, in fact quite the opposite.

Strikes increasing. Homelessness increasing. Crime - off the charts. Congestion zone charges etc.

And don't get me started on the deputy who seems to be from another planet!

I am not from London, so just wondering if anyone at all has anything positive at all to say about this catastrophe of man!

No they aren't. The last strike was early last month. And it wasn't just drivers on strike. It was service controllers, engineers, signalling, station staff...all the operational grades.

The strike before that was in November 2024.

It's very difficult to get a mandate for striking now, because of legislation the Tories brought in during 2022.

All of this plus violent crime is at its lowest level ever.

I live in London - didn’t actually vote for him but I think I will next time (if he stands). He’s done a great job.

His implication of ulez was utterly atrocious, and only now are businesses near me starting to recover from it being rushed through. However you can’t deny it’s made a difference.

MIL lives in outer south London and they have a fantastic tram service as well as exccellent bus services.

Anyone moaning about public transport in London wants to try living in a small town in a county council area. My last bus is at 5.50 pm, first is at 8.30 am (useless for any hospital appointment before about 11.00) and there are none at all on Sundays. And the council claim to be trying to reduce congestion on the county's roads...

I don’t have the data on this but the tube strike last week was the first we’ve had for ages. And that was caused by ridiculous demands by the union. I think people were supportive of him not caving in.

Don't think this thread went in quite the way the OP imagined.

It's very telling that, despite admitting that she doesn't live in London, she puts more faith in the "videos" that she has been watching than the comments on this thread from people who actually have their own experiences.

OP, you haven't really acknowledged any of the positive achievements that people have commented on. Why is that?

This. The reality is that however much people say they want/ need a 'visible presence' by way of an actual police base, the public footfall to these places is extremely low, as objectively measured by statistics. I used to work for a police authority and this was a hot topic two decades ago. Personally, I'd rather the police were out solving crimes than filling in paperwork back at the station. The technological revolution, including mobile technology, makes this now possible.

As for Sadiq Khan, a brief foray onto Twitter or Threads reveals just how much islamophobia and baseless (well, racist) hatred this man is subjected to. It's actually really scary. He's been elected three times, so is clearly well liked by most Londoners and doing a good job. From an outsider, he seems like a decent man doing a good job.

I commute to London twice per week. I have never, ever felt threatened there even as a line woman late at night. An American friend visited recently and said she could not believe how clean (and friendly) everything was in London compared to New York. Transport is excellent. It's vibrant, welcoming and people of all backgrounds and languages rub along well together. Would I want to live there? Absolutely not. It's too expensive and busy and I rather like retreating to my reasonably priced, peaceful suburban home with a garden. But as a place to work and visit, it is absolutely brilliant.

Step away from the clips, OP!

All of the above. Much of the hate towards him is pure racism

Definitely. Including Trump's peculiar obsession with him when I am sure there are many UK national politicians that he wouldn't recognise or even know their names. And I suspect it may be the same for the OP

I too have lived in London all my life. And I couldn't disagree with you more.

When I lived and worked in London (1980s), it was commonplace among my colleagues to carry a second purse or wallet with a £5 note and a couple of out of date cards in, so that you could hand it over without any significant inconvenience if you got mugged . We worked in a borough with a high rate of street crime and regularly had evening meetings that went on till near midnight.

My London-dwelling nieces and nephews look at me as though I'm mad when I tell them this. They don't think twice about that sort of thing.

As an actual far left person, Sadiq Khan's milquetoast soft-left politics didn't really impress me when he was an MP. He's been an excellent mayor though. Ulez alone is a greater legacy than most politicians achieve and he pushed it through against a lot of (batshit) opposition.

The Superloop had completely passed me by because I live in Zone 2, but that's a stroke of genius! And if only the Bakerloop had existed when I lived in New Cross...

@Gymrabbit outer and inner London combine to make Greater London.

If you all hate being part of London so much, then organise a vote to rejoin the various home counties.

It's made a visible difference imo.

My drive to the ILs has a stretch where you can see right across London from the south. DP and I often used to comment on the pall of pollution across the centre, now it's astonishingly clear. You can see the sun glinting on the Shard on bright days.

The man is diabolical. He is anti British, sexist tosser.

This is the only thing we dislike about him, here: the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street means a lot of traffic and congestikn for residents (in the side streets) and makes it harder to get anywhere, e.g. my elderly parents can't get the bus to hospital appointnents without difficulty. The air quality has been something we've been desperate about, the pollution was horrific and killing us and nobody seemed to care.

Otherwise, well, nearly everyone I know votes for him.and is very happy about the drastic change in air quality (my asthma has pretty much vanished), free school meals and affordable are obviously essential. His integrity is refreshing and also his bravery – coping with the death threats must be traumatic.

I have only heard negative things about him wrt Oxford Street local residents.

I assume the hatred you see online is mainly racism.

Could you explain the ways he is all these things?

I'll add that I've lived in London all my life, as have most of my friends, family and many of my neighbours, and it really has made a big, tangible difference to central London. It's a much better place to live than ever.

Yes, this too! :)

He’sasanctimonious, do as I say not as I do, little tw@t and crime is rampant under him. Will that do you? Or were you trying to stir up something else with your comment?

The Reform trolling is starting to get really tedious now 🙄 “I don’t live in London” but I’m still going to start angsty mumsnet threads about what the major of London does/doesn’t do… ok then OP.

There is ‘believed’ to be a lot of electoral fraud in London.

@Curlewcurfew I am neutral on pedestrianising Oxford st TBH, it's a bloody dreadful place and I never go there by choice and pedestrianisation is unlikely to change my view. However I think the current situation is unsustainable. It takes forever for buses to get up and down the street, do we need to so many bus routes along there? Or perhaps a partial pedestrianisation could be the solution - similar to the new set up on the Strand?

There really isn't. There was a specific issue with suspected voter intimidation in Towet Hamlets related to a particualr local candidate and local elections. That is is.