Jealousy.
I appreciate that this suggestion is unlikely to meet with universal agreement. Jealous of Sadiq Khan? That virtue-signalling pipsqueak? The Leftie London Mayor who’s constantly trying to politicise public spaces by filling the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square with sculptures of transgender “sex workers”, giving London railway lines woke new names, and using New Year’s Eve firework displays to turn the London Eye into the EU flag? Why would anyone on the Right be jealous of him?
The answer is simple. They’re kicking themselves because they’ve belatedly realised that they should be doing exactly the sort of thing he does.
Quite blatantly, Khan uses his position of power to promote his own ideological values. And yes, it’s utterly insufferable.
The aim is to to replace one purveyor of mimsy political grandstanding with another of a slightly different shade.
It’s to return to a politics and government that does only what it is necessary that government does and then fucks off and leaves the rest of life alone.
But, guess I should wish for a unicorn at the same time, right?
Kick what you Khan and can what you Khan’t.
Yawn.
Khan has to maximise his time in the limelight. He will only be offered a seat in some shithole should he cease to be mayor. If he were any good at the job, he wouldn’t need all the aggrandisement, his results will speak for themselves.
In this perverse realm of Clown World in which we live, his time as Mayor will be seen and promoted by Labour as a triumph and he will be feted as a safe pair of hands for a ministry.
Londoners will just shrug and have to explain to their bosses why they are late for work again.
I’d only be jealous of the Kahn if I enjoyed executing gays or stoning women to death. Strangely, because I have to admit to being “far-right”, nether of those things interest me…
Ottokring,
In reality, the Mayor of London is a bit of a non-job. People talk like they’re King of London but really, they run London Transport and not much else. He doesn’t run most council stuff, like social services, housing, parks, trading standards etc. The home secretary appoints the chief of the met.
So outside of transport, they just do clownworld stuff.
Otto,
With the near certainty that Labour get a three figure majority infighting to replace their boring straight white centrist (by today’s standards) male leader with something more radical and diverse will start soon enough. Khan with his London and Muslim powerbases in the party membership will take some stopping. I very much doubt his period in the limelight is going to end anytime soon.
Who else remembers Andrew Macintosh, the relative moderate who served his purpose as leader in winning Labour the 1980 GLC election only to be replaced by Ken Livingstone within 24 hours. I’m not saying Starmer will be ousted anything like so quickly but by early 2026 he might be relieved to go having realised that being leader in opposition is a whole lot easier than governing with a bunch of your own rabid nutters snapping at your heels 24/7.
I well remember that GLC coup. I met Ken Leninspart about 3 years later. He was actually very charming and quite upfront about the whole thing. All of which made me trust him even less.
Labour needs a plausible front man. Corbyn was not, the 2017 election result was an aberration being all Treason May’s doing. They won’t make the same mistake again ( well… Perhaps not ) and Khan will scare too many horses.
“So outside of transport, they just do clownworld stuff.”
So abolish the Mayorality and turn the Assembly into a Joint Transport Board with a member from each of the Boroughs.
Then set about Holyrood and Cardiff Bay…
The Margaret Thatcher Line would be quite a thing though, wouldn’t it?
Sam Duncan,
It’s what I’d do, but lots of people think it’s the King of London because they keep watching Clownworld TV that tells them that.
I think a point is being missed.
He saw his predecessor use the platform to achieve higher office, the highest in fact, and he believes he can or will do the same.
I’m afraid it’s not so implausible in an era where boxes ticked matter more than competence.
– It’s to return to a politics and government that does only what it is necessary that government does . . .
This approach is why we’ve ended up with left wing governments dragging the country left and cooperative Conservative governments working politely to conserve that trend. Sorry, we don’t need Jacob Rees-Mogg, we need the bastard offspring of Milei and Trump to do bastard things to leftists and their agenda.
Democracy is an alternative to civil war. It’s not just naive to expect the other side to be nice and civil; it’s suicidal. For leftists, the details of their various impositions are not important; the purpose of them is to demoralise and to keep a momentum of political initiative. So they keep piling them on, setting the agenda and forcing their opponents to have to constantly try, but never quite be able, to react.
Any effective opposition must do the equivalent.
And when our unicorns arrive they’ll rainbow-fart in our faces and tell us we’re fuckety-fucked.
Well said PJF
As PJF said, the right needs to fight fire with fire, not just happy to be ‘in office but not in power’ or to ‘loose with honour’
It is effin unbelieveable. I’ve just been reading about the cornershop boy’s speech outside No10. “Extremists” & ” undermining democracy”. Extremists & undermining democracy? He’s leading an extremist government undermining democracy. For a start he wasn’t the prospective PM was elected. He’s the second replacement. He isn’t even the party’s chosen leader, by election. And he hasn’t delivered on the manifesto the government was elected on. He hasn’t even tried. His policies are nothing remotely like the manifesto. How extreme & undermining of democracy do you want to get? I gather at some point he was badmouthing Nick Griffin. At least Griffin has some shred of honesty. That was proved in court. More than the police had. You might not like what George Galloway represents. But at least you know what he represents. Anyone know what Gunga Din represents? If you do perhaps you’d like to share it with us.
Milei’s approach is to return to a government that does only what it is necessary that government does…
Yes, TomJ, but he isn’t doing it by pretending you can be nice about it. And the empty space where a government ministry used to stand is the small c conservative equivalent of a twatty statue to corrosive bullshit, except with way more “fuck you, asshole”.
PJF,
“Yes, TomJ, but he isn’t doing it by pretending you can be nice about it. ”
All of this comes from people with no real sense of ideology, or wanting to make a difference. People who want to make a difference don’t care about being nice to the people in their way. The thing is too important.
Because while government workers losing their jobs is rough on them, it is equally as rough to force other people to pay for them. Why should people be forced under threat of violence to subsidise rail, particular artists or to have a TV license?
And if you have your ideology thought through, you aren’t weak, you don’t have U-turns under public pressure. You’re not popular at the BBC or the Guardian for this? So fucking what? Apart from questions of why you should surrender to people defending what is immoral, are they ever going to vote for Conservatives anyway?