Sadiq Khan has no idea what grooming gangs are.

[NoNever]

Sadiq Khan either really doesn’t know which makes him incompetent or is pretending not to know which makes him complicit.

https://x.com/sammywoodhouse1/status/1879943683082186847

"Proud feminist", too.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/16/sadiq-khans-first-100-days-as-london-mayor-how-is-he-doing

You'd think politicans do not want to be seen as if they don't know what is going on and what the current topics are, but apparently not.

Though the video is cut and I'm looking for a complete version. At first I thought they looped his answers as they were almost identical.

It's a bit disappointing we in London effectively had a choice between Khan and Hall. Susan Hall is an abhorrent person.

I'd like to see more context here. Susan Hall is an awful, awful woman. She was the Tory candidate for Mayor last year and she went on the radio and claimed that she'd been pickpocketed on the tube. She was yelling about how awful crime in London was and it turned out she'd dropped her Oyster Card and someone had picked it up and given it back to her. She wouldn't admit she was wrong.

And what reason would that be? I voted for him (three times). If the alternative was Zac Goldsmith or Shaun Bailey you would too.

At the last election it was well-known that a lot in the Tory party wanted Khan to win, not sure if this is because they are all establishment or Khan winning is easier politically etc.

How does her being an “awful woman” change the fact that either Sadiq Khan actually doesn’t know what grooming gangs are so he is incompetent or is pretending not to know what they are so he’s complicit?

Or are you saying that it’s okay for Sadiq to either not know or pretend not to know because you feel Susan Hall is awful?

I saw that Susan Hall is a Trump supporter 😵

However, diversity and inclusion surely includes that even people we don't like can have a point or a good argument. She sounds bossy and assertive, and in a man they are leading qualities, but in a woman they make her disliked.
Reminds me of the Blake Lively / Justin Baldoni lawsuit, people arguing that Blake is not nice and thus can't be right about her claims.

What I miss is some sort of weighing the arguments, being not nice or a demanding person - if it is even true, which is hard to say - is in my view a lot less of a problem than the criminal behaviour of both cases.

I'd like to see more context here. Susan Hall is an awful, awful woman.

Sadiq Khan is an awful, awful man.

True

https://webcasts.london.gov.uk/Assembly/Event/Index/b6c327e0-234b-434f-9544-e08547e71fde

The video from today, I think the topic starts at around 2.20 hrs but I haven't watched it fully yet.

Why was she asking such a ridiculous question in the first place?
”How many grooming gangs do we have in London?”

Like he’d know exactly how many of these gangs are in London bc he’s of Pakistani descent…right? So he’s going to know all about them and be “complicit” or “covering it up” by not answering with a #

All the cherry picked examples Hall gave were of majority British-Pakistani grooming gangs, even though 70-85% of group based CSE are by white gangs.
https://news.sky.com/story/wrong-to-say-group-based-child-abuse-is-predominantly-committed-by-pakistani-men-police-chiefs-13286550

so she was very clear she was asking only about grooming gangs by people of his heritage.

It is a racist dog whistle, akin to asking a mayor of German descent
”How many Nazis do we have in London?” justifying it by well in the news there is a sharp rise in antisemitic attacks on British Jews.

Or asking a mayor in 1980 who’s got an Irish parent
”How many IRA do we have in London?” Oh, well in the news this bomb went off and that assassination happened…how can you not know how many IRA are in London? And how dare you avoid answering the question!

Of course there are grooming gangs in London being investigated and arrested.
Hall knows that group based CSE is everywhere. London isn’t the Emerald City of Oz where only happy munchkins live, every city has CSE gangs.

No mayor is going to know how many there are currently operating in their city as hello they are criminals and he’s not going to know about criminals not yet caught, and no he’s not incompetent either as he isn’t allowed to even say how many current investigations the police are doing as that is not publicly disclosable information.

Hall knew she was asking a shit question that was a racist dog whistling trap and his responses were the only polite way to deflect them.

She was asking specifically about grooming gangs , a topic that has been in the news recently due to the involvement of Musk and is a specific issue that differs from general CSE abuse in the same way for example county lines differs from general child abuse.

yes white men are more likely to be abusers however grooming gangs specifically are predominantly Pakistani Mirpuris.

He should know because he’s the mayor.

Deflecting that it’s racist to ask about grooming gangs just goes back to why they were able to run with impunity for so many years.

Him pretending not to know what a grooming gang is does nothing but protect those gangs from scrutiny.

ok, it's from 2.24 hrs forward, and it's the same as in the twitter clip, though they might have edited a few milliseconds of breaks in between speakers, but the sentences are the same and in the same order.

Agree. It would be a valid point if he was a random Pakistani man but he is mayor of London and is being asked about a known UK issue

What a pathetic, petty and odious individual.

I hate him and what he is doing to london.

And I 💯 agree with this

He should know because he’s the mayor.

Deflecting that it’s racist to ask about grooming gangs just goes back to why they were able to run with impunity for so many years.

Him pretending not to know what a grooming gang is does nothing but protect those gangs from scrutiny.

I have no doubt grooming gangs are being run by men other than pakistanis in london. The key point is vulnerable girls and children are being grossly failed in the name of point scoring and political game playing

READ the link I posted. That is racist propaganda according to our own police chiefs.

Like he’d know exactly how many of these gangs are in London bc he’s of Pakistani descent…right?

He's the man in charge of the city, so he should be across crime @SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice hth

Agree. It would be a valid point if he was a random Pakistani man but he is mayor of London and is being asked about a known UK issue

X posted.

Agree @SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice it’s because he’s the mayor

They were talking about policing in London before this topic came up. The mayor delivered statistics about how crime was reduced across various types of crimes. Then Susan Hall mentioned the new budget and that there seems to be planned a cut in the number of officers, to which SK replied that the government cut his funding. Then SH moved on to her question.

Then she should have had the guts to say that. There has been loads in the press, both at the time this issue came to light, and during the current furore. The specific ethnicity of the gang members, and that of their victims has been a key feature of every enquiry that has taken place.

Asking if the met had identified similar patterns of men of Pakistani heritage abusing young white girls in the last 20 years, and what action had been taken would be reasonable.

By asking the question in this way she is demonstrating that she doesn’t give a shit about the many girls who are sexually exploited by London gangs. Many of them are not white. She is throwing a dog whistle and it is sad to see members of the FWR board running to it.

How can he know the exact # of grooming gangs in London? In what way does being mayor give him omniscience over a city of over 9 million? And btw, please recall that even if he has been briefed on the # of ongoing police investigations he cannot publicly disclose that number.

He didn’t pretend not to know what a grooming gang was, he pretended to not understand what Hall “meant” by her asinine dog whistle questions.

It was racist to ask him “how many grooming gangs are in London”

She wasn’t asking about grooming gangs. If she’d asked, “what steps as mayor are you taking to address group based CSE in London?”

That’s a fair question. But asking “how many?” And the when he asked what she means by that to respond with what she considers a grooming gang to be. She wasn’t answering his question either.

All the cherry picked examples Hall gave were of majority British-Pakistani grooming gangs, even though 70-85% of group based CSE are by white gangs.

Pure spin, as has been discussed in other threads. Why do you think Labour have had to throw this inadequate bone of "local inquiries" to appease people in a dizzying reverse ferret? Because no one is buying your spin.

Yeah, but the # being investigated by the police is not a publicly disclosable # which Hall knows. He cannot publicly state any #.