They’re taking the mick!
What’s Khan getting knighted for – screwing up the capital?
Finally, Sadiq Khan has unified London. This great if fragmented city is as one this morning. Borough to borough, on buses, in buzzing WhatsApp groups, the same cry goes up: ‘A knighthood for Sadiq?’ So thank you, Sadiq, for bringing together Londoners of all ages, all religions, all sexualities and all classes in a shared experience of utter bafflement that a mayor as useless as you is to be knighted by the king.
Sir Sadiq? They’re taking the mick. ‘For services to what? Knife crime?’, quipped a friend on WhatsApp. Even Khan’s supporters are likely to be a bit miffed. As Andrew Neil asks, why would a ‘self-styled anti-establishment left-winger’ accept such a feudal gong? One envisions mass confusion among Sadiq’s millennial champions in gentrified East London upon discovering that this brave (lol) basher of Brexit and taunter of Trump turned out to be an establishment lackey like the rest of them.
The FT has the skinny. According to insiders who’ve had a sneak preview of the Labour government’s New Year Honours list, Sadiq has secured the highest decoration. As have other Labour heavyweights, like New Labour-era health secretary Patricia Hewitt and long-serving Labour MP Emily Thornberry. She’s already Lady Nugee, now she’ll be Dame Emily too, which is likely to make her even more insufferable, if such a thing is possible.
But it’s the prospect of Sir Sadiq that has most alarmed folk. With good reason. He’s in his third term as mayor and what do we have to show for it? Crime feels worse than ever. In the year ending March 2016 – the year he became mayor – there were around 33,900 incidents of theft from the person. By 2023 there were 66,600. There were 4,200 robberies involving a knife when Khan first rocked up to City Hall. In the year ending September 2023 there were 8,300. Then there’s shoplifting. It’s risen by 20 per cent under Sadiq. I know the head-tilting wets of the patrician left think shoplifting is not a big deal, but normal people prefer to live in cities where armies of scamps don’t nick stuff with impunity.
Jack’s Note: I’m wondering if Khan bought his knighthood. You can do that kind of stuff in Britain.
