When the number of crimes in London has reached over one million a year, it is clear that the situation is out of control. The Mayor just offers gimmicks.
For there to have been only eight stabbings at this year’s Carnival is remarkably low, given that two million people attended.
With calls for even more segregated lanes in towns and cities, effectively banning cars, isn’t it time to adopt a Road Fund Tax for cyclists? It could include some form of driving licence.
Public safety is the right basis for regulation, public outrage is not. Yet time and again, politicians have brought in new laws tailored to the magnitude of the outcry, not the facts of the crime.
Concern about net immigration figures tends to eclipse the significant number of people on course to gain citizenship, and thus the right to vote in general elections.
We need visible policing to deter criminals, neighbourhood policing to support local residents and businesses; putting resources where they will make the most difference.
It is my job to champion the police, and I am both energised and reassured when I speak to coppers, so many of whom do truly heroic work. But is also my job to hold them to account. And trust has been lost.
The Government has already done the hard yards by committing to giving options. I am now imploring Ministers not to let the legislation fall short at this final hurdle.
Why am I spending taxpayers’ hard-earned cash on a larger police presence – when the rates of traditional crimes are falling?
Perhaps the most unforgivable failure of Khan’s time in office is one that affects every single person in this city, from Hillingdon to Havering, from Enfield to Croydon: crime, and the state of the Met Police.
We will break down barriers, improve skills, get more people into better-paying jobs, and ensure support reaches those that need it.
There has been a decline in their strength within the Metropolitan Police Force, amounting to a reduction of 18.5 per cent – from 4,373 in 2020 to 3,688 in 2021.
They now amount to almost half of all crime – and is my job to co-ordinate the battle against the fraudsters across the range of Government departments and regulators.
I will amend the London Plan to promote an increase in affordable family homes, instead of tower blocks and one bedroom flats.
Amidst generally woeful scores, the Conservatives still lead on terrorism and defence, and run Labour close on law and order, asylum, and – still – the economy.