Look to London for a Glimpse of NYC’s Future

Time zones aren’t the only way London runs ahead of New York. While the U.K. capital is only five hours forward of NYC by time zone, it’s decades ahead in terms of its progressive politics. But leading NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani will quickly close that gap if he has an opportunity to implement his hard-core Marxist policies on this side of the Atlantic.

Over the past 10 years, London’s crime rates have soared with over a million crimes per year, including violent crimes, theft, and shoplifting, just to name a few. Its public housing provides poor living conditions. Its private rental sector continually shrinks. And its homeless population remains at an all-time high. The BBC reports, “Both the need for homes—and the cost of building them—is greater in London than anywhere else in the country.” On top of this, London’s Metropolitan Police have been politically weaponized to monitor online speech and enforce ideological orthodoxy.

Many of these failures can be laid at the feet of London’s socialist mayor, Sadiq Khan. Sadly, his failures extend beyond just housing and crime. Under his leadership, London has taken center stage for the antisemitic sentiments expressed there. For example, on Armistice Day 2023, 300,000 pro-Palestine demonstrators flooded the city, disrupting solemn ceremonies with chants and vandalism. Khan only tepidly rebuked them. In the weeks that followed, antisemitic incidents in London surged a staggering 1,350%. In his 2025 Eid al-Fitr speech at the close of Ramadan, Khan called for a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and condemned Israel’s “continued occupation” but said nothing of Hamas’ October attacks.

For Khan, international activism outweighs domestic peace. He harps relentlessly about climate justice and DEI initiatives while presiding over a city increasingly fractured over class, cultural, and religious lines—fault lines exacerbated by his own policies.

This is precisely the model Mamdani offers New York.

Mamdani, an unrepentant democratic socialist (some would argue communist), doesn’t hide his agenda. He’s called for the dissipation of police funding, the collectivization of housing, and the tearing down of core institutions.

For his part, Mamdani has refused to condemn slogans like “Globalize the Intifada,” describing these chants as a “call for Palestinian human rights” while undoubtedly aware of their euphemistic cries for violence. Mamdani rejected resolutions supporting Israel—including one condemning the Holocaust—backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, and supports International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In 2017, Mamdani released a rap video under the stage name “Mr. Cardamom” to encapsulate his experience growing up as a Muslim in New York. A line of his song says, “My love to the Holy Land Five. You better look ’em up.” A quick search shows that these individuals were convicted of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas. His antisemitic positions have drawn heavy fire from both parties, including from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Concerns surrounding Mamdani are not limited to antisemitic signaling: Rent caps, a $30 minimum wage, state-run grocery stores and transit systems could very well mirror a Soviet-style economic model that does more harm than good. Critics warn of soaring debt, business flight, and frozen markets. These warnings, however, are not loud enough to overcome his zealous fanfare. His grassroots momentum, sparked by lo-fi subway TikToks and viral canvassing, focuses on identity and style, and avoids the unworkability of the policies behind Mamdani’s unrealistic promises.    

Despite what Mamdani now claims, it’s clear he supports and promotes radical policies. Really, his policies can simply be summed up by the phrase he tweeted in May 2020: “Each according to their need, each according to their ability.” For those unfamiliar, that’s a phrase popularized by Karl Marx to support Marx’s—and apparently Mamdani’s—communist ideology. 

Let what happened in London be a warning because Mamdani’s policy proscriptions for NYC are even more extreme.

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