The battle for London

Unpacking the political and cultural conflict over England’s capital...

London is a city of many myths.

Plenty of them are promulgated by Elon Musk’s X brigade, who have monetised the idea that the English capital is one of the most dangerous places to live outside Greenland.

This view has crystallised in political form through Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and its candidate for London Mayor, Laila Cunningham, who used her campaign launch to claim that the capital is “no longer safe” and that people “pity” Londoners.

The data says otherwise. The homicide rate in the capital just hit an 11-year low, and if you ask actual Londoners if they feel safe in their city, they generally do. London’s Gotham-like reputation is a delusion created by 1) people who don’t live in the capital, and 2) those who profit from spreading lies about the UK’s most diverse, progressive city.

I’m a northerner, but I lived in London for seven years until very recently and found it completely safe. Sure, I heard the typical stories of bag and phone thievery, but this petty crime was easily avoided with a few basic precautions.

I’m not in the habit of victim-blaming, but the way people walk down London’s arterial roads in a zombified state, their phones dangled tantalisingly in front of them, makes me assume they must have excellent insurance.

In fact, I often joked to my parents that my tiny hometown hamlet in Yorkshire was more dangerous than my council estate in south London. There were definitely more burglaries in the former than the latter, while I was living in London.

And yet, I don’t recognise the idealistic view of London that’s imagined by its current mayor, Sadiq Khan.

Khan writes up London as a cradle of prosperity, harmony and opportunity – the nation’s emotional nerve-centre and its economic switchboard.

Ergo, no-one’s telling the truth about the city.