MAAATE

Sadiq Khan has launched a major new campaign to encourage men and boys to say “Maaate” to their friends and colleagues. It is the latest phase of the Mayor of London's #HaveAWord campaign and aims to help London's male residents speak up when they hear derogatory comments towards women and girls.

The campaign was launched with an interactive video posted on the Mayor's City Hall website. In the video, three ethnically diverse young men are playing video games. A white man then enters the room and makes a sexist remark, and his non-white friends shake their heads in disbelief. 

Viewers can end this at any time by clicking the 'MAAATE' button when it appears on the screen. The sooner you do this, the sooner you will be rewarded with a message that reads,  "Good work, you stepped in immediately." But if you take too long, you are punished for your inaction. When this happens, one of the actors looks at the camera and says, “Maaaaate.”

This isn't the first time the mayor has launched a taxpayer-funded war against both the spoken word. 

In 2017, Khan set up the Online Hate Crime Hub to combat abuse on social media. Manned by five Scotland Yard detectives, the operation cost £1.7m and only six internet trolls were successfully prosecuted. He then started fighting the junk food industry, which resulted in the banning of a theatrical poster that featured an image of a cake. Meanwhile, his proposal to extend the controversial ultra-low emission zone across Greater London, where drivers of the most polluting vehicles have to pay £12.50 a day, is rumoured to have cost the Labour Party a key seat in last week's Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election. 

Given the epidemic of rampant misogyny under Khan, what could be a better use of public money than plastering 'SAY MAAATE TO A MATE' posters in and around train stations across London? The mayor seems to genuinely think he can eliminate sexism by asking men to give friends a disdainful look and shout “MAAATE” after hearing sexist things about women on the street.  

Aside from the blatant violation of free speech, the campaign is misleading. The most significant threat to women's safety comes not from the words of men, but from physical violence. And it's not happening on the streets. Data show that 52 per cent of women murdered in 2020 died at the hands of a current or former partner, and nearly three-quarters of these murders occurred at home.

Mr Khan seems to have entrusted women's safety to ordinary men in the street now that a large percentage of women in London do not trust the police. High-profile cases such as the murder of Sarah Everard and the prosecution of former police officer and rapist David Carrick have resulted in a serious betrayal of trust in the police. An average of 25 rapes are reported daily in the capital, and given that only 1.3 per cent of documented rapes lead to a conviction, it's no surprise that nearly half of London's women do not trust the Metropolitan Police. The institutional failure to protect women is not limited to the boundaries of the M25. Nationally, 40 per cent of women feel they won't receive help if they report a rape to the police.

Khan says he wants to end the "epidemic of violence and misogyny that countless women face on a daily basis," but his efforts are a distraction: a distraction from failing ethnic integration in London and the failure to fight knife crime. Of the 109 murders in London in 2022, 69 were fatal stabbings. If the mayor is serious about ending violence, he should start with tougher sanctions and longer prison sentences for those caught with knives in London—not a limp-wristed public relations crusade against sexist words. Its virtue-signalling writ large.

Like his Online Hate Crime Hub, this is a campaign against non-criminal behaviour. A trivial box-ticking exercise that gives the illusion of legitimacy but little else. The solution to violence against women—without mentioning the elephant in the room—is more police and improved arrest and conviction rates. That means less crime. It doesn't happen by wasting money and giving up on crime.

Perhaps the mayor has been taking advice from the policy wonks at the nudge unit, otherwise known as the behavioural insights team, whose mission is to use social engineering to influence public opinion. If the mayor wants to hang posters in London, they should read, "ZERO TOLERANCE TO VIOLENCE."

On behalf of all Londoners, Khan, #HaveAWord with yourself, MAAATE.