'The Mayor of London presents' message was broadcast into the night sky using colorful drones
London's New Year's Eve fireworks display has been described as Sadiq Khan's “ego trip” after a message citing the capital's mayor unveiled the fireworks.
Sunday evening's demonstration, organized by Mr Khan and celebrating the capital's diversity, began with a 20-second message that said: “The Mayor of London represents.”
The message was beamed into the night sky. using colorful drones, and political rivals accused Mr Khan of staging a 13-minute British taxpayer-funded demonstration about himself.
Susan Hall, the Conservative candidate in the London mayoral election, told The Telegraph: “New Year's fireworks belong to the people, not Sadiq Khan.”
“The only thing he has presented in his eight years as Mayor is a sharp rise in crime and an unfair Ulez expansion tax targeting the poorest. We cannot allow this man and his ego to make life worse for Londoners for another four years. Come May, I will create a better and brighter future for our city.”
Matthew Goodwin-Freeman, a Conservative councilor for Hatch End, north-west London, said: “These are OUR fireworks, Mr Mayor, not yours. Talk about the ego journey.”
Howard Cox, the UK's reform mayoral candidate, said the New Year's pageant “should not become a platform for the political agenda of such a despised mayor.”
< img src="/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/0dcf18c91bb71826d77462905af0510c .jpg" /> Message broadcast by drones into the sky at the beginning of the screen
As the show began, another message was sent into the sky: “London: a place for everyone” and then the narrator read a quote from Shakespeare: “What is a city if not people,” adding: “Welcome to London.”
The voice-over heard by viewers, as well as South Bank residents who watched the broadcast live, spoke in several different languages and said it was time to “look back to 2023.”
However, the only highlights of the year selected were the coronation of King Charles, the 75th anniversary of the National Health Service, the 10th anniversary of the legalization of same-sex marriage in England and Wales and the 75th anniversary of the coming of the Windrush Empire.
Although the exhibition claimed to mark “key milestones for 2023”, the exhibition made no mention of Britain's support for Ukraine or Israel in their respective wars or the Lionesses' progression to the World Cup final.
Quoted from The King Was Also Played , in which he said: “Our society is woven from diverse threads, including stories of remarkable courage and sacrifice, determination and strength – although drawn from different parts of the world, they together enrich the fabric of our national life. “.
The mayor's office said the exhibition was “the largest in the mayor's history” and “brought a message of unity to the world and showed that London is for everyone ”
A spokesman said: “The Mayor is proud to have sent a message of unity, showing why London is the greatest city in the world.”
But in an interview with Sky earlier, fireworks began, Mr. Khan was asked about the sharp rise in knife crime in London under his leadership.
Host Mark Austin asked him: “On social media you said: 'When the sun goes down in 2023, I'm touched by what have we achieved together'…knife crime is rising at the fastest rate in five years, robberies at knifepoint are up by more than a third – where's the achievement in that?”
Mr Khan said that stabbings and homicides among those under 25 had fallen during his tenure as mayor, but he was “not at all complacent” and focused on a “public health approach.”
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