From his disastrous anti-car obsession to his would-be thought-policing, Londoners are sick and tired of their Mayor
When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life. So said Samuel Johnson in 1777. Now – nearly 250 years later – it is London that is tired of one man. And his name is Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of our capital city.
Khan won the title in 2016 after Boris Johnson’s reign at City Hall – a triumphalist regime remembered for the 2012 Olympics and the introduction of Boris bikes. But while Boris was a popular Mayor despite his politics, his Labour successor appears to be growing ever more unpopular with every month that passes.
Not content with harassing motorists with every 20 mph speed camera, low traffic neighborhoods, Ulez zones and miles of cycle lanes, the Mayor has moved into policing our behaviour as well.
Every underground station is festooned with signs that bark out messages to worn out commuters, including the instruction to “be kind” and the warning that “staring is not tolerated”. To the uninitiated tourist, it gives the impression that our Tube network is one huge sexual harassment zone where “unwanted touching” is the norm.