By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 06 May 2016 • 17:09
Ballot paper
A NIGHTMARE has come to pass for the little Englanders of Great Britain who will be settling down for an evening of furrowed brows and kitchen grumbling following the election of London’s first Muslim mayor.
With the majority of first preference votes counted, Sadiq Khan is expected to reclaim London’s mayoralty for the Labour Party, after soundly defeating Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith, whose campaign has been roundly condemned as divisive and outrageous.
As things stand the 45-year-old MP for Tooting is on course to secure a solid 12 point lead over his rival, who oversaw a doomed attempt to link Khan with Islamic extremists backfire before an unimpressed electorate.
It was a fascinating election campaign that saw its fair share of amusing moments, not least Polish candidate Prince Zylinski’s sword wielding antics, but took a far darker tone when Goldsmith’s management realised that their candidate was seriously lagging behind in the polls.
In a spectacular farce of a last-ditch appeal to the basest of instincts, the Eton educated son of a billionaire financier teamed up with the Daily Mail, the corporate incarnation of Joseph Goebbels, to portray Mr Khan as a terrorist and trade union loving fanatic dead set on converting the capital into some kind of dystopian communist caliphate.
The sheer desperation of the claims, which reeked of tabloid McCarthyism, was to be expected. After all the Conservative party has been stirring up latent hates and fears for generations.
What made the move the final nail in Goldsmith’s coffin was the unforgivable editorial judgement on the Mail’s part to juxtapose a photo of a blown up bus from the 7/7 terrorist attacks onto the piece in a disgusting attempt to link Khan with Islamic terrorism.
An unprecedented number of senior Conservative peers immediately condemned Goldsmith’s fear-mongering move before the voting began as they sought to control the damage, which in one fell swoop almost handed Khan the minority vote on a silver platter.
Khan, the son of a London bus driver, is an uninspiring candidate but has made a name for himself standing up against the conservatism which plagues segments of the Muslim community, fighting for marriage equality and women’s rights despite receiving death threats.
The former solicitor, of Pakistani descent, was also quick to denounce former Labour mayor Ken Livingstone following his controversial remarks last week, ironically attacked by a race baiting right wing media as anti-Semitic, as he sought to prove his independent credentials.
Goldsmith meanwhile dragged his party to a new low by sending a targeted letter to Sikh and Hindu families suggesting that Khan supports a wealth tax of ‘family jewellery’ thus implying that all Indians have a stash of gold in their attics.
That may or may not be true but it did Goldsmith no favour to align himself with the conservative wing most despised by the general electorate, especially in multicultural London which has a short shrift for those who ply ethnic hatred and lies.
Goldsmith’s chances were initially considered favourable precisely because of his independent streak which often saw him at odds with the Tories on environmental policies in particular.
He was portrayed as smart, young and visionary, about as distinct from the shrieking Katie Hopkins brigade as possible, and it was his unholy alliance with her and her ilk that ultimately sealed his downfall.
Mrs Hopkins vowed in her Daily Mail column to ‘run down Regent street naked with a sausage where the sun don’t shine’ if Khan was elected.
We shall soon discover whether, like her sociopathic idol, the lady is not for turning.
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I’m, sorry, does all this impassioned ranting and raving of yours serve any useful purpose Mr Elliott? It all seems meaningless to me: the election is over.
Everyone has heard of Dev Patel the actor who is english and Hindu. Anyone heard of him described as Hindu? No. So leave Sadiq Khan’s religion alone. He is British and was elected because he was the Labour candidate. He looks and sounds more english than most people. Now the fact he happens to be Muslim might be a problem given the rise of islamic radicals and risk of terrorism. I believe the Government should ban the burka, niqab, hijab, madrasa schools and prevent any islamic laws and customs from the UK. Let’s see how Mr Khan deals with what is the major problem which is integration into British society which he seems to be the perfect example
Mr Fieldman, bravo! What you write is spot-on: leave Mr Khan’s religion alone.I would disagree with you on one issue only ⦠if the EWN moderator lets it pass because it very much needs saying: as a journalist I know that the persistent labelling of this current rabble of murderous gangs in the Middle East â and, sadly, more widely around the world as well â as âÂÂISLAMISTâÂÂ, coming from some self-titled âÂÂISLAMIC STATEâÂÂ, is something that newspaper, TV and radio news editors are doing very deliberately because âÂÂIslamicâ makes for the ooh-ah, oh-my-god reading and viewing that keeps their circulation and viewing figures high ⦠which is very agreeable to the business advertisers who pay the wages of the editors and their proprietors.After many years in the Middle East I KNOW these thugs have absolutely nothing to do with âÂÂIslamâ â¦ all their abhorrent activities (and their atrocities within the middle eastern lands about which we scarcely hear in our âÂÂwesternâ news media) are positively forbidden â absolutely forbidden â in the QuâÂÂran.There are only a scant few thousand of these mobsters doing all the murder and destruction in the Middle East and elsewhere around our planet. BUT THERE ARE THOUGHT TO BE MORE THAN TWO BILLION TRUE MOSLEMS PRESENTLY IN THE WORLD, almost all of them making wholesome, constructive, useful, peaceable contributions to the communities which they form and in which they live ⦠âÂÂwesternâ editors rarely mention these non-controversial followers of the Islamic faith.
The conservative fear machine that has been created by DC is in part why Sadiq won, I am not saying it is why he won but it helped. People are now catching onto the current methods used by DC’s conservative party or at least many of them are using. If you cannot win people over through legitimate means then lie, cheat and scare…
Dave changed his speech today after Number 10 briefed the press last night that a Brexit could bring on world war III, after seeing the negative response on social media DC toned down his speech to try and back track on the brief ‘reported to the press’, if leaving the EU is so going to damage our trade, security and bring us to the brink of war then why did DC give us a referendum? Dave might as well say ‘I am a fool’ or ‘I am an idiot’.. because that is actually what he is saying if he listened to what he was coming out with!
I now feel UK politics has reached an all time low with conservative tactics under DC’s control, fear used in Scottish referendum, fear used in Brexit & fear used in London mayor elections… these are the tactics that mafia and back street hoods use to get what they want! (It is the same politics Brussels uses just in case people hadn’t noticed) I have been ashamed to be British because of some of the things British holiday makers get up to but David Cameron’s thug like behavior and influence over his partys members behaviour makes me ashamed to be British!
Mike in ESP ⦠hopefully to finish this off. I’m not in the least bit concerned with the mess that UK politics may have become. But I am very gravely concerned about what has become the relentless media poisoning of the public perception of Islam ⦠and I dare to think that Peter Feldman feels the same way in broad principle: Mr Elliott’s diatribe prowling menacingly around the fact that Mr Sadiq Khan is a Moslem was grossly, grossly unnecessary ⦠more gratuitous media mouthing-off just for the sake of it.
And while I’m about it, let me also challenge this apparently popular media sounding off about burkas and hijabs. It is all made up ⦠there is no real reality to it. I find it so sick that whole communities take it up.
My sister-in-law is deeply (Proterstant) Christian and, in the fashion of all kinds of Christian nuns, she and a whole group of her friends are often moved to wear what Christians call a âÂÂveilâ â which is no less than a âÂÂhijabâ called by just another name. And I went to a school alongside many Jewish boys: many of them, and almost all their fathers, wore kippahs, aka yamulkes. Media editors have the means to stop associating all the present murderous outrages coming from the Middle East with ISLAM ⦠they need only to say: “Let us always call it some other name from now on”. They do not need to keep inferring that these people are Moslems just because it has become popular to do so. TAKE THIS CREDIBILITY THEY DON’T DESERVE AWAY FROM THEM.
Well as you appear to be addressing me!
I have no problem with people with other religions. People that want to ware hijabs as far as I am concerned can, after all they are not much more than a scarf that is normal headgear for a woman in the society that I was brought up in might ware, but I would have a problem with people waring burkas and the reason is because a burka is not something that is akin to my society. British culture is built around visible contact with people, reading people, communication including visual and bodily expression while a burka reflects exactly the opposite, even suppression. If I had to deal with someone that was wearing a burka in a shop or otherwise I would avoid the contact because as I mentioned being British I am accustomed to having the trust and ease that visible contact and expression gives.
As far as you comment on the media sounding off about hijabs and burkas I actually think you are getting carried away. I watch a lot of news and I have never heard any media mention on hijabs! Burkas have been but not on any grand scale. Anyway… In the case of a burka worn in a country where it does not reflect the culture then what would you expect if it was! Personally it sickens me that a someone would expect a person to accept something like a burka in a culture it does not fit in with, maybe if you understood and embraced the culture of the country I suspect you live in you might have an easier time with your emotions. 😉
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