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Knife Ban Not Enough for London Mayor. Now He's Going After Dangerous Cars.

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I love London Mayor Sadiq Khan — not because of his policies but because his predictable and frequent bouts of political doltishness have paid for more than a few orders of pizza delivery in the Zeal household. And not just Domino’s, either — we’re talking the A+ stuff.

I’d hate for him to run my city, mind you, but his economic stimulus package for pizza bianca should really be studied in depth by Paul Krugman. Just putting that out there.

Khan’s contributions to the pizza kitty are vast and multifarious, from his Twitter battle against Donald J. Trump to his war on guns (and then knives … and then kitchen knives).

That hasn’t stopped terrorism in London, however, so he has a brand new target: cars.

“London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Wednesday he wants to ban cars from certain areas of Parliament Square in response to a suspected terror attack on Tuesday,” Politico reported.

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“Three people were injured after police say a car collided with a number of cyclists and pedestrians before crashing into barriers that line the Houses of Parliament.”

Khan didn’t waste long before calling for more stringent Vauxhall control.

“Khan told BBC radio that making certain areas only available to pedestrians would provide more safety to both citizens and buildings in the surrounding area,” Politico said.

“But he also said the city would need to ensure people ‘don’t lose one important thing about our democracy: People having an access to parliamentarians, people being able to lobby parliament and being able to come and visit parliament.'”

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“I think there would be lots of challenges if we would do the whole square. It is a thoroughfare for cars, vehicles and commercial deliveries going through London,” he said.

“So it’s possible to have a designed solution … in keeping our buildings and people as safe as we can do. And also not losing what is so wonderful about our city that is a vibrant democracy, people can walk around safely.”

“Police arrested a 29-year-old British citizen originally from Sudan — whom British media have identified as Salih Khater — on suspicion of committing the attack,” Politico reported.

“Police say he drove with his Ford Fiesta from Birmingham to London late on Monday night. Just before the attack, police say he had been driving around the area of Westminster and Whitehall for about and hour and a half (sic).”

Euronews reported that he wasn’t a practicing Muslim and that there was no evidence of radicalization thus far. That doesn’t mean that he wasn’t self-radicalized but it’s too quick to jump to that conclusion. He also wasn’t known to security services.

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Now, this all being said, let’s review the most critical part of the report from Politico: “Three people were injured after police say a car collided with a number of cyclists and pedestrians before crashing into barriers that line the Houses of Parliament.”

Firstly, the security measures in place seem to have worked in this instance. Westminster wasn’t threatened. Cyclists and pedestrians were injured — but they could have been injured literally anywhere in England by any crazy person with a car. Are we to put up barriers all around London so that no car can risk injuring pedestrians or cyclists?

Of course not. But Sadiq Khan is an implausibly big fan of Sadiq Khan, which means he loves seeing Sadiq Khan in the headlines. His Vauxhall control campaign will work every bit as well as that the above anti-knife campaign — which makes D.A.R.E look as manipulation-proof, even-handed and sensationalism-free as an episode of “Firing Line” (the William F. Buckley version, not the Margaret Hoover reboot).

But it keeps Sadiq Khan’s name in the BBC News 24 crawl, and isn’t that what really matters? Just be aware this will work every bit as well as their gun ban.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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