This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/davehillblog/2015/dec/08/london-mayor-zac-goldsmith-must-be-careful-with-his-negative-campaign
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| London mayor: Zac Goldsmith must be careful with his negative campaign | London mayor: Zac Goldsmith must be careful with his negative campaign |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| There are some nervous people in the British capital. Memories of Paris are still chillingly fresh and a major terrorist attack in London is thought highly likely. As Christmas approaches the city’s shopping streets are thronging and commuters are still squeezing on to the Tube. Yet people I know well have become wary of congested public spaces. | |
| They aren’t cowering in their homes but, given the choice, they’re steering clear of crowds and the Underground. The Metropolitan Police say they have recorded a rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes since the Paris atrocities. Muslim Londoners report being spat on and fellow Londoners avoiding sitting next to them on buses. | |
| This is the uneasy backdrop against which Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate for London mayor, has embarked on an out-and-out negative campaign against his Labour rival Sadiq Khan, a London-born Muslim of Pakistani descent. | This is the uneasy backdrop against which Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate for London mayor, has embarked on an out-and-out negative campaign against his Labour rival Sadiq Khan, a London-born Muslim of Pakistani descent. |
| An official Tory website called SadiqWatch, launched on Monday, asks the question: “Who is Sadiq Khan?” This draws attention to Khan’s recent change of position over increasing London’s airport capacity – he’s switched from wanting expansion at Heathrow to enlarging Gatwick – the support he received from unions during Labour’s mayoral candidate selection campaign and his nomination of Jeremy Corbyn to be a runner in the party’s leadership contest. | |
| The site sharply escalates the Goldsmith campaign’s attempts to negatively associate Khan with Corbyn, despite Khan’s not voting for him in the Labour leadership ballot. Its masthead proclaims that it is “holding Corbyn’s candidate to account.” Meanwhile, Goldsmith campaign literature being distributed by Tory activists has described Khan’s politics as a “divisive and radical”. | The site sharply escalates the Goldsmith campaign’s attempts to negatively associate Khan with Corbyn, despite Khan’s not voting for him in the Labour leadership ballot. Its masthead proclaims that it is “holding Corbyn’s candidate to account.” Meanwhile, Goldsmith campaign literature being distributed by Tory activists has described Khan’s politics as a “divisive and radical”. |
| This last accusation has angered Khan’s team, with one member of it telling the Evening Standard it could be read as “code for Muslim” and a “coded racist attack”. Adam Bienkov of Politics.co.uk reported that a SadiqWatch video posted on the Conservatives’ Facebook page attracted a number of unpleasant comments. | |
| At the time of writing, those comments have not been removed. One describes Khan as “a dishonest Muslim” and a “cheap crook” and one complains that “the native population is being diluted on a horrendous scale.” Another declares: “If Khan/Corbyn get in you can expect another 50 mosques in London, more extremists, no thank you there’s too many already. Vote in the Tory candidate.” | At the time of writing, those comments have not been removed. One describes Khan as “a dishonest Muslim” and a “cheap crook” and one complains that “the native population is being diluted on a horrendous scale.” Another declares: “If Khan/Corbyn get in you can expect another 50 mosques in London, more extremists, no thank you there’s too many already. Vote in the Tory candidate.” |
| The Goldsmith campaign has responded that it is “utterly predictable that Labour label their opponents as racists” citing former mayor Ken Livingstone, a backer of Khan, doing the same thing to Boris Johnson in past mayoral contests and concluding: “Now Ken and Corbyn’s cronies are doing it again.” The word “radical” they point out, has been used by others to describe Khan in the past. | The Goldsmith campaign has responded that it is “utterly predictable that Labour label their opponents as racists” citing former mayor Ken Livingstone, a backer of Khan, doing the same thing to Boris Johnson in past mayoral contests and concluding: “Now Ken and Corbyn’s cronies are doing it again.” The word “radical” they point out, has been used by others to describe Khan in the past. |
| Most of this is regulation red-scare-by-association stuff and pretty thin. Khan’s record clearly shows that he is from the Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband strand of Labour thinking, not the party’s Outer Left where we find Corbyn. He’s also supported by London Labour politicians from the party’s Blairite wing. More perturbing is that, whatever its intentions, the Goldsmith line of attack as a whole ascribes to Khan characteristics ascribed to all Muslims by dedicated Muslim-haters and seeks to create anxieties about him that some Londoners, perhaps especially those inclined to vote Conservative next May, have about Muslims in general. | Most of this is regulation red-scare-by-association stuff and pretty thin. Khan’s record clearly shows that he is from the Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband strand of Labour thinking, not the party’s Outer Left where we find Corbyn. He’s also supported by London Labour politicians from the party’s Blairite wing. More perturbing is that, whatever its intentions, the Goldsmith line of attack as a whole ascribes to Khan characteristics ascribed to all Muslims by dedicated Muslim-haters and seeks to create anxieties about him that some Londoners, perhaps especially those inclined to vote Conservative next May, have about Muslims in general. |
| The word “radical” has long been used, approvingly and otherwise, about all sorts of politicians, including Tory ones. But when applied to Muslims in the present British and global context its connotations for most are sinister. Simply asking “Who is Sadiq Khan?” directly questions the Labour man’s trustworthiness as an individual, encouraging suspicion about his true intentions, motivations and loyalties. Such doubts are daily raised about Muslims everywhere, not least in London. | The word “radical” has long been used, approvingly and otherwise, about all sorts of politicians, including Tory ones. But when applied to Muslims in the present British and global context its connotations for most are sinister. Simply asking “Who is Sadiq Khan?” directly questions the Labour man’s trustworthiness as an individual, encouraging suspicion about his true intentions, motivations and loyalties. Such doubts are daily raised about Muslims everywhere, not least in London. |
| Labour has now stepped up its riposte to Goldsmith, with shadow employment minister and Islington South MP Emily Thornberry accusing him and the Tories of “running a divisive and dog-whistling campaign - trying to turn London’s communities against each other.” | Labour has now stepped up its riposte to Goldsmith, with shadow employment minister and Islington South MP Emily Thornberry accusing him and the Tories of “running a divisive and dog-whistling campaign - trying to turn London’s communities against each other.” |
| Given that Goldsmith’s campaign is being run by associates of Lynton Crosby, the hard-right election strategist often attributed with perfecting the “dog-whistle” technique - sending broad election messages which have a specific, veiled meaning for targeted subgroups of voters - Labour’s ire is unsurprising. The Eurosceptic Goldsmith will be hoping to secure many votes from Ukip supporters, who cast 10% of the votes in London at the general election and seem unlikely to flock to an Asian Muslim candidate, no matter that he calls Tooting his home. | Given that Goldsmith’s campaign is being run by associates of Lynton Crosby, the hard-right election strategist often attributed with perfecting the “dog-whistle” technique - sending broad election messages which have a specific, veiled meaning for targeted subgroups of voters - Labour’s ire is unsurprising. The Eurosceptic Goldsmith will be hoping to secure many votes from Ukip supporters, who cast 10% of the votes in London at the general election and seem unlikely to flock to an Asian Muslim candidate, no matter that he calls Tooting his home. |
| Whatever you make of Labour’s claim about Goldsmith’s campaign there is, distressingly, a festering potential for this mayoral contest to turn ugly over issues of ethnicity and faith. Neither of the two frontrunner candidates should want that to occur, especially with the city in its present, discomfited state, not least because both of them in their different ways personify the inclusive, cosmopolitan London they seek to lead. | Whatever you make of Labour’s claim about Goldsmith’s campaign there is, distressingly, a festering potential for this mayoral contest to turn ugly over issues of ethnicity and faith. Neither of the two frontrunner candidates should want that to occur, especially with the city in its present, discomfited state, not least because both of them in their different ways personify the inclusive, cosmopolitan London they seek to lead. |
| Khan is an impeccably mainstream and socially liberal Muslim, who has urged his fellow Muslims to participate more widely in British society and lead the fight against extremism. Goldsmith has Jewish-German ancestry and is not, I am quite sure, a bigot of any kind. But the Conservative’s campaign must take care with its tactics and its language. And if it fails to do so, it could be Goldsmith’s true intentions, motivations and loyalties in relation to Britain’s triumphantly multicultured capital and its people that invite the more disapproving scrutiny. |