Greater London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been a disaster for the city. He’s been an economic disaster with worthless grandstanding projects such as the ultra low emission zone which has killed and is killing businesses that need to travel within the area of the North and South Circular Roads. Transport for London is on its knees with massive losses that cannot all be blamed on a drop in passengers during the pandemic but can also be blamed on the mismanagement of TFL which Khan is also responsible for.
Then there is the cost of Khan’s vanity such as the excessive levels of security that he claims to need, something which is pretty doubtful bearing in mind that his predecessors, even controversial ones like Ken Livingstone travelled around with minimal security. I suppose I should also mention Khan’s role as Police and Crime Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police which has seen the Met become more interested in hurty words on Twitter and less interested in preventing or even properly policing the public disorder caused by the BLM/Marxists and the eco-fascists of Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain.
But for me the biggest indictment of Khan’s complete and utter failure as a city leader must be the ongoing and horrific levels of street violence that neither Khan nor his political correct and politically bent Met Police seem to be able to or want to deal with. Khan is fiddling around with virtue signalling over things like continuing a mask mandate that has been abandoned by the national government whilst London’s teenagers and in particular London’s Black teenagers bleed out in the streets due to almost unprecedented levels of knife crime.
Sky News has published a list of those teenagers and young people killed by street violence and it makes horrific reading. Every name on this list is a familial tragedy. Every name is a life cut short. Every name is an indictment against Khan and the failure by him and his Met Police to get a grip on massive levels of street violence.
Here’s the list of the victims of street violence under Khan’s misrule of London during one year that of 2021.
19 January: Anas Mezenner, 17, found with stab wounds in West Green Road, Haringey.
25 January: Romario Opia, 15, was found stabbed in Holland Walk, Islington.
11 February: Hani Solomon, 18, was killed during a fight between two groups of men shortly after 6.30pm in Ackmar Road, Fulham.
18 February: Drekwon Patterson, 16, London, was stabbed in Preston Road, Brent.
26 February: Ahmed Beker, 19, was stabbed in Paddington Green.
3 March: Tai Jordan O’Donnell, 19, bled to death after being stabbed a number of times in the legs at a house in Alpha Road, Croydon.
6 March: Mazaza Owusu-Mensah, 18, died when he was stabbed in the chest during a fight in Edington Road, Abbey Wood.
6 March: Ezra Okobia, 14, was fatally injured by fumes from a fire at his home in Russett Way, Lewisham.
8 March: Nikolay Vandev, 19, was stabbed in Penshurst Road, Tottenham
17 March: Hussain Chaudhry, 18, was stabbed in Lea Bridge Road, Walthamstow.
10 April: Levi Ernest-Morrison, 17, was stabbed in Sydenham Road, Sydenham.
23 April: Fares Maatou, 14, was stabbed in Barking Road, Newham.
26 April: Abubakkar “Junior” Jah, 18, was found in Coolfin Road, Newham. He had been shot and stabbed.
7 May: Daniel Laskos, 16, was stabbed in Church Road, Harold Wood.
8 June: Taylor Cox, 19, was shot in Hornsey Rise Gardens, Islington.
10 June: Denardo Samuels-Brooks, 17, was stabbed in Prentis Road, Streatham.
11 June: Jalan Woods-Bell, 15, was stabbed in a fight during the school run in Blyth Road, Hayes
25 June: Tashawn Watt, 19, was stabbed in Miall Walk, Sydenham.
1 July: Camron Smith, 16, was stabbed in Bracken Avenue, Shrublands, Croydon.
5 July: Tamim Ian Habimana, 15, was stabbed in Woolwich.
5 July: Keane Flynn-Harling, 16, was stabbed in Oval Place.
9 July: Damarie Omare Roye, 16, was stabbed in Bensham Manor Road, Thornton Heath.
1 August: Stelios Averkiou, 16, was stabbed at a skate park in Lordship Recreation Ground, Tottenham.
1 September: Alex Ajanaku, 18, was found in Beaumont Road, Leyton, east London, with shotgun wounds.
12 October: Hazrat Wali, 18, was stabbed to death in a playing field in Craneford Way, Twickenham.
28 October: Kamran Khalid, 18, was stabbed to death in Harrow Road, Ilford.
18 November: Jermaine Cools, 14, suffered stab wounds and died after a fight in London Road in Croydon.
24 November: Rishmeet Singh, 16, stabbed in a fight in Raleigh Road, Southall.
30 December: 15-year-old boy stabbed in Ashburton Park, Croydon.
30 December: 16-year-old boy stabbed in Philpotts Farm Open Space, Yiewsley
To a certain extent many of these deaths could be prevented by better provision for young people, not just youth facilities but also opportunities to catch up on education that they have missed out on, mentoring from older men who have seen the error of their youthful ways and effective policies to divert young men and teenagers from gang activity. None of this seems to have been done in London. Instead Khan has wasted money that should have been spent on making the lives of Londoners better on more bureaucrats at City Hall, cultural events that have little impact on the ordinary residents of the city, losing money for TFL by bans on ‘junk’ food advertising on TFL, business destroying and emergency service impeding low traffic neighbourhoods and personal grandstanding on the international stage inappropriate for a mayor. There’s also been a rise in public relations spending and spending so much money on perks for ex-TFL employees and their families and friends that the amount spent would have paid for 700 extra police officers.
Khan is wasting money on worthless guff that could be spent on policing London better and preventing young people from getting involved in crime in the first place. Whilst the ultimate responsibility for these murders are with the murderers themselves, Khan’s failed policies have contributed to the rise of lawlessness in the capital. London needs a better leader and when it’s time to go to the polling station to vote for London’s mayor then consider the long list of deaths under Khan’s watch and the money that could be spent on preventing and investigating real crime but which has been frittered away by Khan with all the enthusiasm of a drunken sailor on shore leave.
Note also that unless you watch local London news or other sources you would not even know the names of most of those young MEN.
Compare and contrast with how Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa and Aisling Murphy (who is not even British) have been portrayed in national media.
Yes, but you’re implying that Khan has obstructive neo-socialist policies which have somehow prevented private enterprise from sorting it all out. Would a Tory Mayor have done better with tougher policing and less waste on ‘diversity programmes’?
Probably not without addressing some of the root causes of crime. For a start the youth unemployment rate in the UK is quite high isn’t it? Around 10-15% as opposed to around 4-5% for the population as a whole. Of course then activities like drug dealing seem preferable to going on the dole, and some of the murders might be between rival drug gangs, although I say this reservardly with no evidence.
What about if every young person on leaving school not taking the academic route was offered a real job with prospects or a real apprenticeship to qualify in a skill or trade? It could take some public investment as opposed to just worshipping the free market. London could lead the way on this with a truly radical leadership.
I believe much of this is caused by shear hopelessness. If you take up an apprenticeship and become an artisan you will never earn enough to buy yourself a house and raise a family. Contrast that with the easy money and high life offered by dealing drugs etc. Trying to do the right thing in UK today is often seen as a mugs game and until we positively show young people that’s not the case things will only get worse. I know one young man that works 40 hours a week and after paying his rent, council tax, electric, water, gas, food and tv license is left with 40 pound a fortnight, that’s the reality of doing the right thing in UK today.