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Welcome to the Mildew Line

Okay, I'm a bit miffed that they didn't go with my suggestion of the Olympic Line for the local Overground branch, but I think they have made a bit of an error with calling it Mildmay.Worthy as the intention is, very few people in this part of London will be aware of the hospital and it will inevitably become the Mildew line.

Mark Evans ● 322d18 Comments

YouGov's popularity rating has 17% thinking positively of Khan, 46% with a negative view. https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/explore/public_figure/Sadiq_Khan

Vlod Barchuk ● 299d

This exchange took place five years ago so I'm not quite sure why it is being dredged up.Sadiq Khan is a lawyer and will have chosen his words carefully so when he said in 2019 London was safer than when he took office he was able to point to reductions in homicides, knife crime against under 25s and terrorism offences. As he says, "It depends which metrics you use".I haven't seen him make the claim that London is safer recently which is probably because he can't find any statistic to show that it is any more. What he can say is that, in the context of increasing crime rates across the country, London's crime rates have risen comparatively less.He is Mayor so he shares some of the responsibility for every crime that happens in London but no local leader has managed to reduce crime over the last years as police force numbers have been reduced. Comparatively he has done an okay job and I don't get the impression that Londoners generally have any confidence whatsoever that Susan Hall would do better.

Mark Evans ● 300d

'ere yer go.........  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nUdf-2A3mA"London is safer since I took office" - Mayor Khan 🤣

Rosco White ● 300d

I didn't say supporting him was a sensible position rather that it is difficult to justify a particularly strong opinion on him either way. When set against his likely main opponent, who is so confused about the issue of crime that she thought she was a victim when she wasn't, it is clear why Londoners generally consider him to be the better option.I haven't seen the interview you refer to but elsewhere I have seen consitently Khan try to be scupulous in his use of data even if, like the lawyer he is, he will present it in the best way possible for his case. I suspect that the exchange you referred to boiled down to semantics.The subject of crime statistics is a complex one and crime has gone up in London under his tenure but less than the rest of the country and the national crime survey also shows Londoners are less likely to experience crime than the national average. The notion that Sadiq Khan has allowed London to sink into anarchy doesn't stand up to any scrutiny. What seems to drive crime statistics more than anything is police numbers which mainly controlled by national government who supply most of the funding. While the Mayor has to take some responsibility if crime is rising, he can't be made to shoulder all the blame.

Mark Evans ● 301d

Have you seen the infamous grilling where Khan, with a straight face, laughably maintains crime is down in London during his tenure, whilst being presented with the facts that various crimes are actually up between 20 to >30%I wouldn't call supporting Khan a "sensible position." Not by a country mile.

Rosco White ● 301d

The latest personal popularity ratings I could find showed 40% of people had a positive view of him, the same as Keir Starmer. The rate for Rishi Sunak was 26%.The only sensible position to have on Sadiq Khan is that he might be an uninspiring politician of no great ability but he is honest, decent and conducts himself well and he has been a good advocate for London through difficult times. Anyone who claims he is destroying London is living in a parallel universe or worse is finding it hard to come to terms that we have a Muslim mayor of Asian origin.

Mark Evans ● 301d

One of the ironies of Boris, which I point out to my fellow Tories, is that he was a big government Conservative, hence his extravagant schemes. Khan is also happily wasting money on vanity projects, including his ridiculous night time tsar, personality tests for police officers, increases in his comms budget and the £200m on the ULEZ expansion. Why is Khan ahead in the polls? Probably a reflection of national politics. His own personal rating is low.

Vlod Barchuk ● 303d

you have to do better than that, policies and ideas please      try not to personalise matters all the time-

Gareth Sinclair ● 307d

A Khan Lover, says it all............. 🤣

Rosco White ● 310d

You mean like Boris and his vanity projects such as the garden bridge and back ended buses-by all measures Khan out performs Boris's tenure as mayor and I hate to break it to you but Khan by all accounts from the polling data is heading for a very big win.  what is his obvious agenda?

Gareth Sinclair ● 310d

So consulting communities isn't democracy in action? And what do you mean sensible? Why don't you put some names forward and lets assess whether they are "sensible."

Gareth Sinclair ● 310d

Bang on Vlod. Khan HAS to go, he has an obvious agenda and is destroying London. This naming of overground lines at vast, unnecessary expense being just one of his myriad, profligate, vanity, virtue signalling idiocies.He's REALLY tackling knife crime isn't he.

Rosco White ● 312d

The purpose of naming should be to make recognition easy for passengers, not to virtue signal. One could think of more sensible and memorable names for these lines in 10 minutes, without spending much time and taxpayer's money 'consulting' on this.

Vlod Barchuk ● 313d

it does seem odd that the line hasn't a direct association with the hospital I agree, Regarding your last point , well we're discussing it and surely people will ask why is it called the Mildmay line? But on the other hand I've never heard anyone ask why about the origins of any tube line so maybe not!

Gareth Sinclair ● 314d

I'm not one of these people getting worked up about the intention of giving these lines names or the names chosen. The Mildmay hospital seems perfectly worthy of recognition.It is however going to be confusing that it isn't actually on the line it is named after - it is between two stations on the Windrush line. The suspicion would have to be that the Mildmay name was originally allocated to that line but the Windrush designation was deemed to have a better claim.I'm sceptical that the new name will catch on or increase awareness of the work of the hospital but I hope I am proved wrong.

Mark Evans ● 315d

As someone living with HIV I appreciate the gesture. The Mildmay was a wonderful hospital that was a beacon of hope for people living with the virus operating in a sea of prejudice and hostility in the 80's/90's. The stigma still exists today. 38,000 people in London have the virus and many Londoners have died from it. So this isn't a woke gesture it just reflects a period of our national history that's relevant to some Londoners and their families.

Gareth Sinclair ● 321d

Yerright, the Conservatives lost the plot years ago, particularly in Acton, they're headless chickens without a clue and have given up.They're so thick they haven't even brought Lynton Crosby back in for advice.Not yet anyway, AFAIK.

Rosco White ● 321d

I guess I shall be voting for Count Binface. Again.As a matter of interest, why do the Conservatives field only no-hopers for this job? Susan Hall gives us Susans a bad name!

Susan Kelly ● 321d

Victor Meldrew line?!

Lee Harding ● 321d

And the tfl Chief Twat spunked around £6 Million I believe (?) on this Grand Virtue Signalling Gesture.  😲Vote this Money Wasting Waste Of Space OUT.You don't have to vote CON, just vote ANYONE but The Useless & Ineffective One.  😉

Rosco White ● 321d