I always felt that David Cameron’s idea of a Big Society was a fantastic policy that never quite took off in the way it deserved. The concept that the state cannot afford – and should not try – to do everything but that ordinary people and charities often have a huge willingness and capacity to step up and deliver enormous benefits to our communities is truly brilliant.
Regrettably, the Big Society was sold as being a new thing when it should have been explained as building on a vast network of positive examples which were already in place. That allowed its opponents to mischaracterise it as an ideological cover for a smaller state.
Nevertheless, there remain many wonderful examples across London and the whole country of charities and volunteers which do great work for our communities.
One of these is Hatzola, which, as per its website, was “established in 1979 to provide pre-hospital emergency medical response and transportation at no cost, to the North London community.”
Hatzola is a Jewish organisation, in the sense that it is run, staffed and funded by members of London’s Jewish community, but it serves the public across North and East London and works with all the major emergency services. Contrary to the ill-informed claims of some far-right and far-left Twitter accounts, it is entirely complementary to the St John’s Ambulance Service.
This morning, we awoke to the appalling news that four Hatzola ambulances had been set on fire in an arson attack. A self-described ‘militant collective’ called Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand has claimed responsibility.
Keir Starmer has rightly described this as an “horrific, antisemitic attack”, whilst Sadiq Khan has said it was “cowardly”. However, words are very easy, and we should judge the Prime Minister and the Mayor by their actions.
Jewish Londoners should not need to guard their schools and synagogues. There should not be parts of London which are no-go areas for British Jews. London should not be seeing record numbers of antisemitic hate crime incidents. Things must change.
First, the Government and the Mayor must ban the antisemitic hate marches, which have plagued central London for far too long.
It is to my immense frustration that, although I have raised this with Sadiq Khan on multiple occasions, he has refused to act. The Mayor has even claimed that the chant “from the river to the sea”, which refers to a desire to wipe the state of Israel off the map, is not antisemitic.
For all his warm words about London’s Jewish community, the Mayor’s lack of action and unwillingness to confront reality on this remains a stain on his character.
Words are empty when hate marches go unchallenged. Antisemitism thrives on moral cowardice - Susan Hall | Getty Images
Secondly, the Government and the Mayor need to recognise that there is a very real failure of integration amongst some communities.
This is not solely the fault of Labour. The Conservative Party recognises that mistakes were made when we were in Government, and Kemi Badenoch was absolutely right to say recently that there is a need to bring “people in Britain together around a common culture and identity”.
There is no evidence to suggest that either the Labour Government or London’s Labour Mayor agree with this, and certainly no suggestion that they plan to do anything to bring people together.
Thirdly, all Londoners should be able to feel safe on London’s streets, regardless of their race, colour or creed. It should not be the case that Jewish Londoners feel the need to try to hide the fact that they are Jewish or simply avoid parts of London.
The Government and the Mayor need to fund and empower the Police to do far more to push back against this. The only people who should be afraid to walk our streets are racists and criminals.
Starmer and Sadiq Khan must tell us how they plan to make that happen. That is no less than London's Jewish community - and, indeed, all decent Londoners - deserve.
Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter