The success of the capital should be a source of pride. But the right wants to use it to stoke division\u00a0 <\/p>\n
When I was growing up in the suburbs of London half a century ago, the city was a symbol of our country\u2019s post-war decline. <\/p>\n
Critics declared that Britain\u2019s capital \u2013 with its crime-ridden streets, empty buildings, dire restaurants, dismal schools, declining docks and falling tax revenues \u2013 was doomed.<\/p>\n
And when I went into town with friends on filthy British Rail trains, we saw few signs of any ethnic minorities unless we ventured into \u201ctheir\u201d areas, such as Notting Hill, which was far from the smart enclave it is today.<\/p>\n
It has been glorious to see my home city emerge from decay to erupt back into life and regain its greatness. <\/strong>The capital is a cultural and financial powerhouse \u2013 and the engine of Britain\u2019s economy with the fastest growth, best productivity and highest number of businesses per capita. <\/p>\n From the air that we breathe through to the city\u2019s restaurants, schools<\/a> and transport, there has been a dramatic surge in quality. <\/p>\n It is a stunning success \u2013 fostered by Margaret Thatcher\u2019s \u201cBig Bang\u201d that deregulated the City of London \u2013 that should make the heart of any true British patriot swell with pride. <\/p>\n Instead a torrent of loud voices on the hard right insist London is doomed again, portraying the capital as an urban hellhole. Reform UK Party leader Nigel Farage, who usually likes to pose as a man of the people, claims it is no longer safe to wear a Rolex watch<\/a> since the \u201clawless\u201d city is \u201cin a state of collapse<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n Tory tough guy Robert Jenrick says rampant crime makes the law-abiding majority \u201clook like mugs\u201d. Former academic turned nativist rabble-rouser Matt Goodwin keeps saying \u201cLondon is over\u2026 a city in visible decline\u201d with unsafe streets, mobile phones being stolen and demographic change due to illegal migrants. <\/p>\n The writer David Goodhart fumes that London is \u201cin danger of trashing its own brand\u201d, its proportion of white Britons declining while \u201cdiasporas fight it out on our streets\u201d.<\/p>\n This dystopian image \u2013 reliant on dodgy data, selective statistics and fickle personal anecdotes \u2013 is far removed from reality. London has big problems, of course, with pockets of deep poverty and a housing crisis intensified by both the city\u2019s success \u2013 making it a magnet for migrants \u2013 and gross political failure in response. Although most of its streets are remarkably safe, there is rising concern over shoplifting and knife crime. <\/p>\n Yet for all its flaws, the city is a triumph of globalisation and tolerance. It has even bounced back from the Brexit disaster opposed by most residents. However, such is the toxicity of current political debate poisoned by the hard-right and their fascist fellow travellers that London \u2013 with its multicultural vibrancy and Muslim mayor \u2013 is being used as a weapon to drive division and stoke community tensions.<\/p>\n This strategy \u2013 imported from America, where attacks on \u201cdeadly inner cities\u201d run by Democrats are a key component of Donald Trump\u2019s mendacious style of populism \u2013 must be resisted for our national wellbeing. Crime has crashed over the course of my adult life. The annual number of murders \u2013 the most devastating offence \u2013 has almost halved in London over the past 22 years, and that\u2019s despite a population rise of nearly two million in that time.\u00a0<\/p>\n