Millhouse

Even my desi friends who live outside the UK say that this is a bad idea.

Autonomy

Care to elaborate why you and your friends think this?

Bahtatboy

Bipat, where are you?

Boomhauer

I have't followed the campaign, but didn't Sadiq speak ill (used a racial epithet) of Muslims who are moderate.

iggle

How can you talk about this without coming of Racist?

scrubbedexpat141

Millhouse

Quite easily actually as I'm no more racist than the next person. There are a number of issues with this appointment though - many may not be avoidable with a different mayor, some likely to be.

Due to voter apathy, the worlds second most powerful city now has a second generation immigrant mayor. He probably does not represent many of the cultural values that the population (not of second or third immigrant descent) will hold. Further, a fear I have is that as a Sunni-Pakistani he will come under a lot of pressure from Saudi freeholders in London - and he may also struggle to not bow to their demands (arguably the others would also bow to their demands but maybe for different reasons).

He will also face continual allegations of Islamic sympathy and not protecting certain groups of people (all the Jews in london for instance). This will distract him from the day job.

Let's also not forget that his past as a lawyer was essentially spent helping people screw the police. Poacher now turned gamekeeper.

While I celebrate the UKs democracy let us not forget that this man still has many links (he still sends money home to family apparently) to his home country. These links may not always be supportive of his new job or the values that he is claiming to hold.

The U.K. Is really struggling with an identity crisis and this doesn't help the average angry white man driving a van. The risk is that a man who speaks on their behalf (i.e. A trump) ceases this opportunity and exploits it. We do not need another trump.

DXBtoDOH

Read an article on BoJo a few days ago, which pointed out that under his tenure London's popularity has soared - in the world, not for the British. London has probably never been as disconnected and isolated from the rest of the UK than it is today. The worst part of Khan's election is that it serves as a very visible symbol of this transformation of London from a British city into an international city, a city that seems to owe more allegiance to the rest of the world than it does to the UK.

The problem is that I don't think there's any other country where the capital city has such a dominance over the rest of the country as London does in the UK. Not even New York comes close. So it does fuel the resentment among the white van men. Some will claim it's due to racism, others, like me, will suggest that there's a growing sentiment in the traditional British working - lower middle classes that the country's elite no longer governs the UK for the benefit of anyone else beyond the elite themselves (left and right) and that the concerns and well-beings of large swathes of the British population are fully secondary to the political, social and economic interests of this new establishment and they have repeatedly placed the concerns of special interest groups (minorities, the EU, bankers, globalism) above the rest of the British population. Unfortunately I suspect there's a lot of truth to this.

iggle

I have not followed the election to closely, its something that I wasn't to interested in. I heard comments he is close to radical extremist - which i find hard to believe.

I am disappointed on two folds a) Because Labour won it b) i will never be able to relate to him, or his values (i maybe understand them, but they will never represent what i want from UK). For example would a Second Generation Pakistani decedent want to cut down on immigration? That goes on to the next point, maybe that shows the change in demographics of London and possibly of the UK today. Ie the White man / British values (if that exist any more) is not longer prominent which saddens me most.

It's the little things like this which nails in that i won't be returning to UK unless I have no other option. It's not my home any more

Meow

He original post been deleted?

Seems to me that a lot of the negative comment is simply racist. This is pretty much what I posted on my facebook page yesterday.

London has a new major, democratically elected and whilst I am not a big fan of the man he seems like the least worst option.

What I am truly disgusted by are the comments on news pages and people's timelines which are just nasty, bigoted and racist. Khan was born and educated in the UK, voted for equal marriage, is not in favour of Sharia law and appears to be a modern man who just happens to be Muslim.

Hating someone for their skin colour, religious background or name is so 1970s. Time people got past that kind of thing.


White van man does not represent me and I'd rather have someone like Khan in the role than a Trump type. I don't see that him sending money to family members outside of the UK is a bad thing. If they are struggling and he is well off that's a good thing to do and not just a cultural obligation which in itself is not negative.

Lightandbitter

[QUOTE=Meow;11942429]He original post been deleted?

Seems to me that a lot of the negative comment is simply racist. This is pretty much what I posted on my facebook page yesterday.

London has a new major, democratically elected and whilst I am not a big fan of the man he seems like the least worst option.

What I am truly disgusted by are the comments on news pages and people's timelines which are just nasty, bigoted and racist. Khan was born and educated in the UK, voted for equal marriage, is not in favour of Sharia law and appears to be a modern man who just happens to be Muslim.

Hating someone for their skin colour, religious background or name is so 1970s. Time people got past that kind of thing.


But has he actually been democratically elected?

If there is no credible alternative, and Goldsmith certainly wasn't one and nor was he really endorsed by his party, then is it truly democratic?

Colour is of no issue to me in either the candidate or the van, but this does feel like a cross party orchestrated capitulation to the obvious dilution of the western world.

Bahtatboy

Does he consider himself Muslim first, or British first?

Millhouse

He refers to himself as a British Pakistani. This answers your question.

I have no issue with Brits or Pakistanis. But you cannot be both.

This is one point that all my true desi friends agree on.

Meow

Are you questioning the UK election process? Of course it was a democratic election.

Funny how people who don't like the outcome try and question the process.

Meow

I'll play devil's advocate.

How does that differ from all the Italian Americans, Irish Americans etc?