Early indications suggest that there is at least some good news emerging from yesterday’s elections. Despite standing still in England where Labour needs to improve massively to stand even the slightest chance of returning to government, not least because of the cataclysmic defeat to the SNP north of the border, it looks like Londoners have shone some light through the gloom. It looks like Labour’s Sadiq Khan is the new mayor.
There are many good stories about Khan which you can read elsewhere, but the working class, comprehensively educated son of a bus driver has given hope to everyone that the dream to make it to the top is alive. Better still, Khan is a muslim who voted for equal marriage and even though he doesn’t drink campaigned for a pub to be kept open in his constituency.
Khan stood on a platform of hope and on a manifesto that addressed the needs of the people: housing, transport, crime and social mobility. His opponent in the election, Zac Goldsmith, ran the filthiest, most racist campaign anyone has known for many years, more than suggesting that no muslim was fit to hold any kind of power in the capital, or anywhere else for that matter. Using the images of the 7/7 bombings, Goldsmith presented Khan, a mainstream muslim who has succeeded in life due to his talents and abilities, as a friend of the terrorist. The far right Daily Mail opened its pages to Goldsmith and he was supported by most fellow right wing papers, but it looks like the electorate in London has seen right through it.
But don’t take my word for it. Read the words of Andrew Boff, the Conservative group leader on the Greater London assembly: “Well, I don’t think it was a dog whistle because you can’t hear a dog whistle. Everybody could hear this. It was effectively saying that people of conservative religious views are not to be trusted and you should not share a platform with them. That’s outrageous.” He added that Goldsmith’s campaign had “done real damage” to the Tory party in London and “blown up bridges” with London’s muslims.
I do not pretend to be close to the London political scene so all I heard about the mayoral campaign was in a few newspapers and on the internet, but right from the start Goldsmith came across as a political lightweight with nothing much to say on anything. Perhaps it wasn’t all his fault.
Goldsmith’s vile campaign was run by Lynton Crosby who, coincidentally, today collected his knighthood from Prince Charles as a thank you gift from David Cameron for getting him elected last year. I am guessing that Crosby’s award was for services to bigotry and racism because he has shown to be an expert in both.
This is the face of politics today, where a ruthless spin doctor like Crosby is prepared to say absolutely anything, no matter how offensive and untrue, to secure the election of the favoured candidate. Well, the people of London have seen through Goldsmith and Crosby and they are the big losers, as they richly deserve to be.
Zac Goldsmith is either an idiot or an unprincipled racist and bigot. I am more than prepared to believe he is both, but regardless of that his defeat and Sadiq Khan’s win is great news for the capital and the country.
Finally, Khan’s likely election sends a message to the terrorists for whom this result would be terrible news. If you are a mainstream muslim who integrates into British society, whilst retaining the beliefs and principles that you hold, you can be successful and we are not the enemy.
Go Sadiq and go away Zac Goldsmith.
