Is Sadiq Khan a good Lord Mayor of London?

I think how one views London depends on individual demographics and experiences. My black friend of 50 years, moved out of south east London when her child was in junior school. Having been brought up in that area herself she knew the possible risks to a teenage black boy being sucked into gang life and moved down to rural Hampshire to pre-empt that becoming a possibility. She had a job and the means to be able to do that. Diane Abbott took a different route for her son and placed him in a private school, but for the same reason. Black boys are more likely to be pressurised into that underbelly, their mothers know that and I can understand their rationale in trying to protect their children from those risks. There are certain areas of London that are divided up along different racial demographics. Just because the common denominator in London is its diversity of make up that doesn't necessarily meld all immigrants together sometimes its the complete opposite hence we, like other multi ethnic cities have developed turf wars that spill over on to the streets, making certain areas pretty unsafe. Of course that's a million miles from the parallel universe that exists in the comfortable enclaves of London, where never the twain will meet.

I don't know where in London you live woodenspoon, but I just don't see it in the same way from my corner of it. Labour borough council, Conservative MP, and lots of things aren't brilliant, but I wouldn't live anywhere else.

Primrose53

I can’t bear the man. I agree with woodenspoon above. I have relatives and friends who live in London and none of them think he has done a good job. The quicker he is gone the better. Sean Bailey would have made a much better Mayor.

I read an interview with Sean Bailey in the ST a good few years ago, in which he wrote about his experiences of growing up with a single mother who was pretty tough on him otherwise he may well have gone off the rails. This was on a rough estate in White City where most of the kids around him also didn't have fathers. He could pretty much define how easily it was in that environment to be sucked into a life of crime, indeed many of his peers were, when all the odds were stacked against young black boys like himself right from the outset. Whether he would have made a good mayor or not who knows, but I certainly think he had a pretty good insight into gang culture, I think he could have brought something more to the table on that.

HousePlantQueen

Primrose53

I can’t bear the man. I agree with woodenspoon above. I have relatives and friends who live in London and none of them think he has done a good job. The quicker he is gone the better. Sean Bailey would have made a much better Mayor.

The same Sean Bailey filmed dancing snd drinking at a party during lockdown?

And Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner - or had you forgotten them?

There is more knife crime proportionately in Birmingham and other cities. Is Khan to blame for that too?