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London, 2016: where people cling to prayer, not politics

Boris has made a playground for billionaires, and ignored homelessness

By Ben Judah  
February 18, 2016
March 2016

London's skyline ©David Holt

Read an extract of Ben Judah’s new book This is London here 

There are huge figures in British politics, and then there is Boris Johnson. Enormous, hilarious, stupendous—every word that comes to mind is huge. Now listen carefully. London’s mayor is the true sloganising heir to Tony Blair. Jeremy Corbyn and David Cameron now sound little like New Labour. But Johnson keeps dropping Tony’s capital message—“London is the greatest city in the world.” Blair’s Olympics, became Boris’s Olympics. Blair’s Cool Britannia,…

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Ben Judah

Ben Judah is a Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. His is author of "Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin" (Yale)

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