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It was an extreme week in the race for City Hall. Not extreme like extreme sports, though if instead of an election there was just a freestyle wakeboarding competition down the Thames then this article would be a lot more fun to write. No, it was extreme in the sense that Conservative mayoral hopeful Zac Goldsmith directly accused Labour candidate Sadiq Khan of having links with Islamic extremists. Yeesh, that dinner party got awkward...
Goldsmith pointed out that Khan has repeatedly shared a platform with an imam named Suliman Gani, who has apparently said some pretty mean stuff about homosexuality and women. He also highlighted the fact that Khan opposed the extradition of Babar Ahmad to the US. Pretty damning stuff.
Damning, that is, until you realise that a picture has emerged of Gani and Goldsmith posing cheerfully for the camera together. And that Goldsmith also expressed sympathy for Ahmad during his fight for extradition. So either they’re both extremist sympathisers or neither of them is. We’re going with the first option, if only in the hope that this all ends with a wakeboarding competition. Wakeboarding, not waterboarding.
In probe news, our favourite kind of news, Sadiq is facing a parliamentary probe over £300,000 worth of donations he’s received, which some feel weren’t properly declared. Zac is facing something similarly intrusive about not declaring his family interest in cuts to ecological grants a couple of years back. This isn’t the first round of probing they’ve both faced recently. Honestly, you’d think they’d be tired of it, but it looks like they just love a good probing. Just to be clear, this is a euphemism... for butt stuff.
In non-Zac and Sadiq news, because apparently there are other people running for mayor, George Galloway is back! Rejoice! He’s been pounding the streets in an open top bus, yelling, ‘I am more than just a cat-impersonator! I am a serious man with a serious collection of hats!’ or something. His bus has since been destroyed by vandals.
UKIP candidate Peter Whittle had a busy old week. So busy, in fact, that he had the time to return the government's pro-EU leaflets to Downing Street, by hand. Himself. No one’s told him that you can just pop it in the post and save yourself a trip, but it’s nice that he’s got a hobby.
Image: Simon Hayland
In non-election news, commuters at Holborn station are totally ignoring the new 'stand on the left' rule
And a replica of an ancient Syrian arch has arrived in Trafalgar Square