Today (the 29th August 2023), the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) has been extended to the whole of Greater London. This is unjustified on the scientific evidence of the miniscule benefit to air pollution and improved population health but it will cost many Londoners (and those who live in surrounding counties) dearly.
In practice it’s just another tax to support Sadiq Khan’s mismanagement of TfL’s budgets.
How did Sadiq Khan manage to obtain such dictatorial powers that he can impose such wide-ranging taxes without the consent of the people? He did so because central Government were asleep, or distracted by other political issues such as Brexit and a national pandemic.
But the tide is turning as people see how incompetent Khan has been at managing not just London’s transport network but in other areas also such as crime and housing. The only thing Khan has been good at is blaming central Government for his own failings and bribing the electorate with their own money – free transport and free school meals for example paid for out of taxes.
It could of course have been very different if the population had seen Sadiq Khan for what he is – a runt whose politics are all about building his ego and his stature by a relentless power grab.
But the tide is turning. Direct action to remove the ULEZ cameras or damage them is escalating while a serious challenge to Khan’s re-election next May is looming. Just as Ken Livingstone became so hated by his extreme policies that the call was to vote for “anyone but Ken” it will soon become “anyone but Khan”.
On a personal note I concluded that Sadiq Khan was not going to back down on the ULEZ expansion a few months back. He is clearly incapable of compromise and needs the money raised to pay for existing commitments. So I decided to change my ten-year old diesel Jaguar XF for a two year old petrol Jaguar XE. It’s very economical and is of course ULEZ compliant. Hopefully it will last me for many more years of low mileage motoring.
I am of course in the fortunate position of being able to afford to change my car every few years but many people are not. The scrappage scheme is simply a sop that will not significantly help them. Let us hope they remember that next May.
The economics of switching to an electric vehicle did not make sense just yet but it might do in a few years’ time. I am open-minded on the pros and cons of electric vehicles but the high capital cost and low resale values do not make them attractive as yet.
Roger Lawson Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London
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Hi Roger. Written exactly as it is. Hope you enjoy your new jag.
Were you to look at how the various minerals for producing batteries for EV’s are mined, and by whom, you may never wish to purchase an EV.
For those of use who use a recreational vehicle such as a Motor Home a few times a year and do not drive them in the GLA area but only to escape it most of us managing less than 200 miles in the GLA ULEZ area in a year Khan cannot expect our votes when the election comes vote for Susan Hall she says it will be her first action as mayor to cancel this pernicious imposition.
The problem with the mayoral election is that only 38% of Londoners are White british, it is well known that mosques tell them to vote for the muslim, as was seen in the tower hamlets election some 12 years ago when the muslim that was voted in was banned from local elections after it was proven that this was happening, but what happened when his 10 year ban was over, you guessed it he was votwed back in, so your telling me that was genuine? the same will happen with Khan, and will be worse if if more than one other candidate run on the “Get rid of ULEZ” banner, it will split the vote, they need to come to an agreement and get all anti ulez to vote for one or the other.
If your thinking of Tower Hamlet I thought he got back in due to being opposed to LTNs so it a bit more complicated.
Then many in the Labour party seem to treat ethnic minorities as possessions but forget they tend to be more socially conservative especially when it come to their children & won’t tolerate them being using for ideological purposes.
Khan can’t please both the mosques & the other activists especially those behind all this outrageous so called equality & diversity education/training.
I’m mixed race & looking at this from the Jamaican diaspora viewpoint the way people vote could get very interesting as myself and other I have spoken to are appalled by the politicians who have falsely accused Susan Hall of racism for suggesting Notting Hill carnival should be moved e.g. Hyde park (something I believe was originally suggested by Ken Livingstone) and many of us actually think its is a good idea.
If the “Get rid of ULEZ” candidate supports requesting parliament change the law so that the London assembly (& to be honest all councils see Thurrock council) are required to audit multi-million pounds expenditure and analyse multiple options + there feasibility for the intended aim (councils can ignore recommendations but have to explicitly say they are and why – e.g. 100% renewable scam tariff vs a normal electricity tariff ) e.g. if we cared about air pollution I would explore using DVLA records to find the worse vehicles (on paper at least vs real world emissions) with the highest millage (from MOT data) with the aim to retrofit ideally as I don’t see how spending £10s millions on cameras and charging £12.50 a day which many business will write off against their tax and scraping cars will a relatively low yearly mileage will clean up the air.
Also trying to manipulate independent studies to get your favour results is misconduct in a public office as far as I’m concerned as we really need a independent study look at all the sources of air pollution and the ease of a change e.g. tell people to stop burning wood even in approved stoves in inner London for fashion purposes when they can afford natural gas and already have gas heating.
Khan is arrogant, divisive and thoroughly unpleasant, he has been a disaster as London Mayor, so he needed something really big to trumpet as his legacy.
He dreamt up being the only Mayor of a major city to so thoroughly piss off his electorate they rose up in open rebellion, oh sorry that wasn’t his intention, he thought through lies, propaganda and manipulation, he would create the world’s largest ULEZ zone; and the world would fall at his feet, they would worship him as some sort of green messiah, a God of clean air.
But it has all unravelled, because he believed he was only targeting 10% of the Outer London population, a minority that he regularly dismisses as being of no importance, he expected his lies to remain hidden, and he expected this minority to just meekly accept the harm and destruction he imposed on them without complaint, to doff their caps and get with his agenda.
Well Sadiq you got it wrong, big time, whilst you are driven around London in your £300,000 armour plated Range Rover, followed by a security detail that presidents would be jealous of; you have embarked on a policy of not just pushing car ownership beyond the reach of many ordinary people, but taking from those who already depend on their vehicles, their independence their liberty their means of making a living.
He has forced this through, even though he knows it will make little difference to air quality, despite the people saying they don’t want it, despite him previously saying there was no need for it and he wasn’t going to do it, despite him saying he would not go ahead if the consultation was overwhelmingly against (80% of Outer London residents is pretty overwhelming) despite knowing the harm that it would do to so many, and he has forced it through at record speed, just nine months, in the middle of a cost of living crisis, when all other schemes are announced years in advance.
And he seems surprised people are upset, that they might consider him a tyrannical monster, that they might be calling for his resignation, so he gets defensive and resorts to deflection tactics and insults, This is so unbecoming in a Mayor who should be a unifying figure, but par for the course with Khan the con artist, Khan the snake oil salesman.
The Government has let us down, I find it hard to believe when the Mayor’s powers to impose road charging have been abused to this level, that there is not a fail safe, in fact the level of lies and manipulation to justify this scheme makes me believe there is a strong case for a criminal investigation into Khan for obtaining money by deception.
But if the Government really doesn’t have the power, then they should have.Where there’s a will there’s a way, how about passing legislation so that minorities within devolved authorities can be protected from the actions of rogue Mayors.
My concern for the Mayoral election in May is twofold, one is maintaining the level of hatred for Khan, I know I will despise him just as much then as I do now, but a lot of people have short memories and his propaganda machine will go into overdrive leading up to the election, so we need a constant reminder of how awful he is. The other is that there are at least two strong anti-ULEZ candidates in Howard Cox and Susan Hall. It would be a disaster if they split the vote and Khan gets elected for a third term, the stuff of nightmares.
Please consider supporting the parliamentary petition – Give everyone within the M25 a vote for London Mayor and GLA member – https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/634216
Completely agree with almost all you say but don’t understand why you think the parliamentary petition would help. Most of the area within the M25 is in the outer London boroughs so they already get to vote on the Mayor etc.
You are right most of the area within the M25 is already within the current GLA, but there is still a substantial part that is not, generally Outer London did not vote for Khan and if the additional electorate suggested by this petition had had a vote in 2021 there is a strong possibility we would not have this problem now.
There are many anti ulez and road charging petitions, most of which have already been supported by yourselves. When I set this up I was looking for something that was not already covered, and perhaps on reflection I should have requested extending the vote for London Mayor to the Home Counties rather than just the M25, but I thought this was probably more reasonable. I did at the same time try to set up a parliamentary petition to request the secretary of state for transport to use his powers under S143 of the 1999 GLA act to halt this scheme, unfortunately that was rejected because apparently we can’t set up parliamentary petitions that ask the Government to tell other authorities what to do, two attempts at re-wording and an appeal later I gave up.
To be honest as with all the other petitions even with substantial support it is unlikely to result in Government action, but it demonstrates resistance, it gets people talking and it contributes in a small part to “death by a thousand cuts” to Khan because it shows how unhappy we are with him.This whole scheme is so unjust, I have written to my MP, to Mark Harper, to the Prime Minister even to Keir Starmer I’ve supported every petition out there, this was just my way of trying to do as much as I could. Unfortunately the petition never caught on and has had very limited support, it would have been nice to get it over 10,000 to get a Government response and bring it to the attention of the petitions committee, but with less than 2 weeks to run before it expires (petitions only last 6 months) I thought there was no harm in giving it an extra push, as the motivation for this is in line with your anti ULEZ stance, I didn’t think there would be any harm, but I apologise if I have caused any offence.
Could somebody ask Khan how he expects a nearly 89 year pensioner in the PPF/FAS Deminshed Pensions can be expected to buy a new vehicle on last century income?
You wrote “The scrappage scheme is simply a sop that will not significantly help them. Let us hope they remember that next May.”
Those living beyond the ‘Iron Curtain’ are going to be badly affected by ULEZ but are denied any chance of voting. All roads are a NATIONAL asset and should be treated as such! How can Comrade Khan have more power than the elected Prime Minister who says he can’t stop it?
Further to my reply 30/8/23 I realised that a petition to extend the vote for the London Mayor just to incorporate those bits within the M25 not already within Grater London was not ambitious enough and therefore I have started a new Parliamentary petition-
Give Everyone within the Home Counties a vote for the London Mayor.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/643187
Hope you can consider giving it your support.