Martin Jay
strategic-culture.org
Martin Jay is an award-winning British journalist based in Morocco where he is a correspondent for The Daily Mail (UK) who previously reported on the Arab Spring there for CNN, as well as Euronews.
Sadiq Khan is doing his best to destroy free speech and accountability to politicians. Part of the cancel culture which is destroying the UK, he looks set to win again the mayor’s post.
“Browning High Power 9mm pistol…safety off, pull the slide back and you’re good to go, sir”, the young British soldier said to me before handing me the pistol.
Of course it was unloaded and the event was a private briefing in the British camp in Kabul where the “VIP” at the centre of attention behind me was a diminutive British Asian figure in a grey suit with an open neck, who was making the soldiers and even his own entourage cringe as he donned army fatigues and a helmet.
The British MP was really quite underwhelming and the army sergeant who gave the talk had the expression on his face when he looked across at me as if to say “where do they find these people?”
The MP was of course Sadiq Khan and it was the spring of 2008 which found me the guest of these fine young men and women risking their lives going out on night patrols ON FOOT to take on the Taliban, being dropped off in flimsy Land Rovers which could not sustain roadside bombs.
But to my surprise Mr Khan had little to say about the bravery or the stellar work of the Cold Stream Guards who had even hosted him. I set up my camera and gave him twenty minutes of tape. But all he could harp on about was supporting “mooslims” as he called people there. It all felt a bit odd and his presence all the more incongruous. Was he there to support the people of Afghanistan but not British soldiers fighting the Taliban?
I remember being seriously underwhelmed with him and his patent lack of confidence and wondering how much money must have been spent on getting him and his sycophants who worked for him out to Kabul, which was the most dangerous place in the world at that time. Just a few days after I flew back to Dubai, a sports stadium which hosted the President and a league of high profile dignitaries was blown up in a horrific terror attack which killed many.
Mr Khan was embarrassing to all of us as we stood around him in the army tent as he donned the fatigues that day in April 2008. His people struggled to fill the long pauses. He smiled awkwardly at them in silence. They smiled back in silence before one of them finally said something nervously. It was all really very awkward.
The soldiers didn’t even know who he was and so were not fussed. And the whole event felt terribly disingenuous at best, probably set up for him to fly the “mooslim” card back home with his constituents. From what I can remember, he didn’t plan on going south down to Kandahar where British soldiers were being killed in the fight against terrorism.
Looking back, it leaves me wondering if he could play the race card then in 2008, then is he also playing a similar nefarious game in London now as he heads for the polls? The rejection of a perfectly civil debate with Laurence Fox, who he pigeon-holed somewhat ludicrously as “right wing” was not very convincing. Many Londoners, like Laurence, who do not sign up to the woke left, might argue that he has squandered money left, right and centre and will soon bankrupt the office which serves him leaving anyone who is voted into take his place with the bills and a mess.
Has he really done so much for Londoners? From a distance it would seem that his record on violent crime and London transport aren’t very impressive. For Londoners I would guess, these are huge subjects. And new levies he is proposing for motorists entering central London seem to be very unpopular. The lesson we have all learnt by Mr Khan’s period in office is surely that any fool can spend money. Spending money wisely is much harder.
London motorists generate half a billion pounds in taxes for the government to spend on infrastructure around the country – which Mr Khan fervently opposes. He would like it pumped into his office for him to spend as he sees fit as the debt of his own department heads beyond the £5bn mark.
Mr Khan’s point blank refusal from Laurence Fox should not surprise us. He doesn’t seem to be a great fan of accountability and facing tough questions, but rather prefers to dodge the real issues.
His justification is preposterous as, even if he genuinely believed that Fox was “right wing”, that should be the very justification for debating with him. Khan has shown the world what a truly backward country Britain has become as now it has become the norm for politicians to dodge any scrutiny, even from opponents who have perfectly valid questions, let alone the press.
In my interview with Mr Khan in Kabul, which was well over 20 minutes, I couldn’t get him to answer a straight forward question. He dodged every one and just kept repeating the “mooslim” messages. I didn’t even use 10 seconds of it in my final 8 minute report. It seems not much has changed in 13 years. Mr Khan desperately needs media training as he needs solid policies as cheap PR stunts is all he seems to be capable of even today. But playing the race card to wriggle out of a debate with Laurence Fox? It should tell you all you need to know about him and where the woke republic of London is heading come the 6th of May. Don’t Londoners deserve more bang for their buck?
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