Muslim’s Labour Party Candidacy Shapes London Mayoral Race
By STEPHEN CASTLE

LONDON — The son of a London bus driver, Sadiq Khan has had a remarkable rise into the upper echelons of British politics. He grew up with seven siblings in a three-bedroom home in public housing and attended state schools before becoming a human rights lawyer and then a senior government minister.

Now Mr. Khan, 45, a lawmaker and former transport minister for the opposition Labour Party, is the favorite in the battle to become the next mayor of London. He would succeed Boris Johnson, the extroverted Conservative who has held the post since 2008 and is a leading figure in the campaign for Britain’s departure from the European Union.

A victory on Thursday would make Mr. Khan the first Muslim to lead the city, where one in eight residents adheres to that faith, and when Britain is struggling to integrate minorities and combat radicalization.

Londoners have elected their mayor directly only since 2000, and just two politicians have held the post: Mr. Johnson and Ken Livingstone, who ran as an independent in 2000 and then for Labour in 2004.

Mr. Khan’s election would be a boost for the Labour Party at a time when Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives are deeply divided on Europe. It would also probably strengthen the position of Labour’s left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who is at odds with many of his own lawmakers, and whose leadership has been embroiled in a dispute about anti-Semitism in party ranks.

But the main policy battles being fought on the streets of London relate to the problems confronting a city that has an acute shortage of affordable housing and a creaking and overcrowded mass transit network. Mr. Khan’s closest rival is Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate, who says he wants to make London “the greenest city in the world.”

The two have battled over issues like transportation and how to build more homes to relieve London’s sky-high real estate and rental costs. Mr. Khan points to the fact that the average rent in London is equivalent to 55 pounds, or about $80, a night — the price of a decent hotel in many European capitals. And Mr. Goldsmith has said the overcrowded conditions endured by London commuters “would be illegal for chickens, pigs and cattle.”

Appropriately, perhaps, for a globalized city that accommodates the extremes of wealth, Mr. Khan and Mr. Goldsmith are living examples of London’s diversity.

Mr. Goldsmith, 41, a son of the tycoon Sir James Goldsmith, inherited a fortune and was educated at Eton College, Britain’s most exclusive school. He edited the magazine The Ecologist, founded by his uncle, and was elected to Parliament in 2010.

The fight between the two main contenders has not been pretty, bringing delicate issues of ethnicity and religion into a mayoral election in a way never seen here before.

Mr. Goldsmith has described Mr. Khan as dangerous and without principle and said it was his job to do everything he could “to prevent London falling into the wrong hands.”

Mr. Khan has suggested that Mr. Goldsmith has run a desperate and divisive campaign, has targeted voters on religious or ethnic lines, and has no track record suggesting he could perform as London mayor.

Mr. Goldsmith has also accused Mr. Khan of giving tacit support to extremists by speaking on the same platform in the past as those who espoused radical views or who had been accused of supporting terrorists, when he was a human rights lawyer and campaigner.

When Mr. Cameron repeated the claims in Parliament, he was met with cries of “racist” and accused by one opponent of “dog whistle” politics.

Part of Mr. Khan’s pitch to Londoners is that, as an observant Muslim (he does not drink), he has a plan to tackle extremism and that like many people in London he has “multiple identities.”

“I’m a Londoner, I’m European, I’m British, I’m English, I’m of Islamic faith, of Asian origin, of Pakistani heritage, a dad, a husband,” Mr. Khan said in an interview recently in a cafe, before accusing his main opponent of seeking to “divide communities.”

Mr. Khan routinely highlights his humble origins, but he has been careful not to attack Mr. Goldsmith over his wealth.

“I don’t hold his background against him,” Mr. Khan said. “None of us are responsible for who our parents are — our families — that’s not fair. My point is: What experience does he have to be mayor of London? What is his vision? What are his values?”

Mr. Goldsmith says his privileged upbringing is irrelevant.

“I don’t have to be in a wheelchair to know that it is not just that people in wheelchairs can’t use our public transport system,” he said in an interview, describing efforts he has made to improve access to the subway system. “You either care about issues or you don’t, and if you do you solve them, and I have done that.”

Mr. Goldsmith has also attacked Mr. Khan over policy shifts — including his newfound opposition to the expansion of Heathrow Airport near London — and what he criticizes as opportunism because Mr. Khan, who nominated Mr. Corbyn in last year’s Labour Party leadership contest, did not vote for him and has since distanced himself from his party leader.

On Heathrow, Mr. Khan said that as a government minister, and then as opposition spokesman, he had accepted a collective position favoring expansion, but that he had changed his mind because of new evidence about air pollution.

The personalization of the campaign underlines the lack of deep policy differences confronting Londoners, analysts said.

Neither candidate has challenged London’s existing model of openness to immigration and investment, allied to rapid economic growth, said Tony Travers, the director of a research group on London at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

In policy terms, “it is hard to argue that they are radically different from each other,” he said.

倫敦選舉 有望首位穆斯林市長？

倫敦將在五日選出新市長，目前聲勢領先的是反對黨工黨推出的卡恩。四十五歲的卡恩出身普通家庭，是巴基斯坦裔公車司機之子，與七個兄弟姊妹擠在三個房間的國宅長大，就讀一般的公立學校，當上人權律師、國會議員和交通部次官。如果他當選，將是倫敦第一個穆斯林市長。

卡恩的勁敵、執政黨「保守黨」候選人高史密斯的出身與卡恩形成強烈對比。他是億萬富豪詹姆士．高史密斯之子，繼承一大筆遺產，就讀頂尖的伊頓公學，在他伯伯創辦的雜誌「生態學者」擔任總編輯，二○一○年當選國會議員。

高史密斯指控卡恩「激進又危險」，屢次提供極端分子「宣傳平台、資源，甚至庇護所」。首相卡麥隆也指控卡恩，「一次又一次」與立場極端的伊斯蘭教教長甘尼使用同一個宣傳平台。卡恩反擊說，他擔任人權律師時的確與甘尼用過同一平台，卻反對甘尼的看法，他譴責高史密斯打的是「骯髒下流的選戰」，攻擊對手的族群和宗教信仰，撕裂社會。

倫敦有八分之一人口是穆斯林，而英國正努力讓少數族群融入社會，而不是變激進。對倫敦市民來說，卡恩的吸引力有一部分來自他是滴酒不沾的虔誠穆斯林，有能力解決極端主義問題。

卡恩經常強調自己平凡的出身，但他很小心，不拿高史密斯的財產作文章。他說：「我並不反對他的出身，我和他都沒法決定家庭背景，拿這個來比較並不公平。我要問的是：他有什麼經歷能證明他適任倫敦市長？他有什麼願景？他的價值觀是什麼？」

高史密斯則說，生於富豪之家並不妨礙他治理倫敦。他曾在受訪時談到自己致力改善地鐵的無障礙設施，他說，「我不必是個身障者，就能知道身障者用起大眾運輸系統多不方便，如果有人真的關心身障者，就會出面解決，而我就是這種人」。

倫敦二○○○年才開始直選市長，現任市長保守黨的強森去年當選下議院議員後，就宣布今年不再尋求連任市長，外界認為他有意更上一層樓當首相。法新社說，強森當了八年市長，連黨內同志都認為他的政績乏善可陳，他任內啟用的公共自行車系統和新地鐵「伊麗莎白線」，都是上任市長李文斯頓任內規劃。

倫敦政經學院政治學教授崔維斯說，倫敦市長的權力比不上巴黎或紐約市長。倫敦市長主要權責是交通、警政和住房事務，以及促進經濟發展，大部分公共服務事務都由倫敦的卅三個自治區自行運作。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/world/europe/muslims-labour-candidacy-shapes-london-mayoral-race.html

2016-05-02．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯李京倫