Battle of the posh toffs

Summer is the time when London becomes truly global with people from around the world flocking to savour the cosmopolitan air. After all, where else would you have one Pakistani bus driver’s son, who is a Cabinet minister, congratulating another Pakistani bus driver’s son on becoming the mayor. Sajid Javid was one of the first among those who congratulated Sadiq Khan on Twitter on becoming the mayor of London. But the media now see those two as in a race to be the first son of an immigrant to be the British Prime Minister. Of course, there is also Priti Patel who is fighting a good fight on the Brexit side and getting a lot of publicity. Her chances cannot be ruled out.

And then on the non-political front there was Nadiya Hussain along with Mary Berry at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) awards where The Great British Bake-Off won a prize. Fifty years since Enoch Powell warned about rivers of blood flowing due to immigration, and what we see is a flowering of talent of the children of the immigrants across all areas of London life.

But the battle about immigration continues with the in/out debate on the European Union. More and more it is about immigration from within the EU. With local elections out of the way and only about a month left till the referendum, politicians are out warning of the dangers of voting against the side they are on and enticing voters with forecasts of benefits about siding with them. The “exit” campaigners warn unlimited immigration if we stay in. The “remain” campaign predicts a dire slump and security threats if we leave. This will go on and on, but mainly it is a quarrel within the Conservative Party: David Cameron against Boris Johnson. What will they do on the day after when one has lost to the other is anyone’s guess! Is this the battle of the posh toffs Or is Mr Johnson trying to align himself with the “commoners”

The Eurovision Song Contest happened last night. This annual event has now expanded to include Australia as well. But, of course, the fun of the contest is not so much the songs but the voting from across all the competing countries who assign their votes to the competitors. This happens always by the host country — Sweden this year — asking the jury from other countries (live on camera) how they assign the points. A riot of accents follows but most speak English or French. Ordinary viewers vote by phone and their votes are added. The UK once even managed to win no points at all. This year’s UK entry with two lads called Joe and Jake was not much better — they got a few points from the jury, but again none from the popular vote of viewers. Australia led in the jury vote but when the popular vote came in Ukraine pipped Australia to the post. This may have been a political slap for Russia, which came close to winning as well. But Jamala from Ukraine is the champion... And then they say it’s only a musical contest — not war!

The whole world arrived for the well-hyped anti-corruption meeting... and, well, it got off to an embarrassing start with Mr Cameron caught on camera at a party talking to the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury about Afghanistan and Nigeria being very corrupt. Surprisingly, General Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian President, agreed and said Mr Cameron was not wrong. But Mr Cameron better be careful in the future if cameras are around!

Her Majesty, the Queen, does like horses more than people as we know. For her 90th birthday celebrations, which still go on, there was the Royal Windsor Horse Show over the weekend, where 1,000 horses and nearly 1,500 people gathered to pay her tribute. One of her old retired horses, 14-year-old Barber’s Shop, won in one of the races at the Royal Windsor Horse Show and brought her a prize — £70 cash, a Kensington Dry Hunting Jacket plus a voucher for shopping at Tesco worth £50. So, if you see a little old lady in the store with a shopping voucher, remember to curtsy!

But the royal family’s love for animals extends beyond horses. Prince Charles has just told a conference on antibiotic resistance that he treats his cows with homeopathic medicine. Given the danger of antibiotic resistant superbugs, the prince, who has always been somewhat against things modern, has been supportive of alternative medicine for many years now.

Meanwhile, Raghuram Rajan was at the LSE wowing the students who completely packed the Old Theatre. He was speaking of global monetary issues rather than his policy moves in India. Someone did ask him whether he would react to demands being made back home to deny him another term, but he deftly forgot to answer the question... All I can say is that the Reserve Bank of India governor’s house is definitely the best place to live in Mumbai! A fabulous heritage building. Why would anyone want to leave

Kishwar Desai is an award-winning author