Coins, Cannabis and Clubland: What Does a Sadiq Khan Mayoral Win Mean for LDN’s Youth?

Khan is notably quiet on this issue compared to his opponent Goldsmith who was thrown out of college (read: that’s Eton College, not Roadman Sixth Form) for smoking weed.

Cannabis may nevertheless be put back on the agenda tomorrow in the form of Lee Harris, Mayoral candidate for Cannabis is Safer Than Alcohol whose nomination has put the conversation around the failing war on drugs in the headlines once more #FreeMaryJane

Although use of stop and search has been falling steadily, the police tactic is still disproportionately used against Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities. The latest figures suggest that black people are 2-3 times more likely to be stopped if they are black. The result? In the words of Kehinde Andrews for The Guardian “uneasy relationships between the police and the community, which go beyond stop and search to include issues such as deaths in custody and harassment. Urban police have, at times, been compared to an occupying force, overseeing black communities. “

Khan’s thoughts? “It undermines public confidence in our police if Londoners are being stopped and searched for no good reason”.  His manifesto pledges to review stop and search and ensure that it is used in an evidence-based and targeted manner, as well as rolling out the use of body cameras worn by the police. 

Some of you might have seen some of the coverage of #VentYourRent, a social media campaign aiming to highlight the squalid, rank and insanely overpriced conditions that many young Londoners are living in. To describe London’s housing market as a racket is probably being kind to the situation. Houses to affordably rent are few and far between, and should you be out of work it’s unlikely the housing benefit available to you as a young person would fully cover the rent (there are different rules of entitlement for younger people and older people because apparently that’s fair and not because older people are more likely to vote Conservative). 

On the homeownership front, the situation for young Londoners is equally dire with affordable houses for first time buyers nowhere to be found, or almost exclusively in lower-income, often immigrant communities. Thus, gentrification and bye bye brown people you have to live somewhere else now.

Khan, a self-confessed ‘council estate boy’ has pledged to introduce a 50% affordable homes target for London and promises to block any housing developments where homes were not “genuinely affordable”. This follows an earlier pledge from the Conservatives on affordable housing…which in practice was only affordable to those earning around £77k a year. 

London’s young people aren’t just great for our physical prowess and reproductive abilities but also for our constant leadership and championing of new styles, aesthetics and creative forms. Did I mention it also makes a ton of money for the country? It’s made London, and the UK as a whole, the envy of cities around the world but recent years has seen funding for creative projects—particularly for young people—slashed heavily.

Khan’s manifesto addresses this offering up “a Cultural Infrastructure Plan for 2030 to identify what we need in order to sustain London’s future as a cultural capital”. Khan mentions the fashion industry specifically several times so he seems to be pretty serious about that—which is funny because I’m pretty sure he’s still wearing snapback caps.

Some of you may have seen the coverage of rival Zac Goldsmith’s campaign. The controversial campaign has been battered by accusations of racism after it attempted to smear Khan for previous instances where, acting as a human rights lawyer, he had debated with extremists. Whether you believe that the Goldsmith campaign was intentionally attacking Khan for being a Muslim or not is neither here nor there—the fact remains it’s a pretty big deal if he wins. A Muslim. A not white, not billionaire dude who can regularly be found in a Nando's. A normal Londoner who worked hard and did okay.

In these troubling times, where reports of racism are on the up and non-white young people are growing increasingly frustrated and alienated, isn’t this the kind of person London wants to get behind? To show the world what kind of city we are, where anyone, no matter the colour of their skin, can be somebody?