Category Archives: Politics

Abolish the GLA

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How to abolish the Mayor of London, the Greater London Authority, and Transport for London?

During the mid-1980s, Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took the control of London Transport away from the Greater London Council and then abolished the Greater London Council by simply changing legislation in parliament.

Then in 1997, when Tony Blair’s New Labour was elected into government, he held a referendum on establishing the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority, which led to the Congestion Charge in 2003. The referendum held in 1998 had a yes vote of 72.01%, but the voter turnout was low, just at 34.1%, and they still went ahead despite no voter threshold!

There’s no law requiring a referendum to abolish the Greater London Authority and the Mayor of London. Here are the instructions:

1. Lobby your Member of Parliament and the members of the Lords to submit a bill in Parliament to repeal the ‘Greater London Authority Act 1999’ and the relevant legislation to immediately abolish the Greater London Authority. This includes contacting the local political party groups where they have their MPs elected.

https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/legislative-process-taking-a-bill-through-parliament
https://members.parliament.uk/members/Commons
https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/whos-in-the-house-of-lords/get-in-touch-with-members/

2. Mention to your MP and the Lord why it is important for them to change the law by abolishing the Mayor of London, the GLA, and transferring the control of London’s transport back to government control. Specifically mention how abolishing the Mayor of London will help reduce council tax for residents in London, services will be improved under government control (such as London Transport), corruption and embezzlement will be reduced, and road users will not face any charges (Congestion Charge, ULEZ etc.) when they drive into London once the Greater London Authority Act 1999 is repealed.

3. Contact your local councillors to support the bill by passing a motion in their local council; this includes the benefits of abolishing the Greater London Authority.

4. Share this message with various groups, including anti-ULEZ and road user groups, for further support.

5. Keep pressuring the MPs and Lords to get the law repealed.

The Conservative government still has the majority in the House of Commons to stop the ULEZ by simply changing the law, but they refuse to do so!

These instructions are really simple; the cause of the problem is the lawmakers, as they have the power to improve our lives by changing the law!

If they refuse to abide by these instructions or to support the abolition of the GLA, They are implicit; this includes the trade unions that are backing the Labour Party, as they are scabs and traitors to the working class with their incompetence.

Why a Cost/Benefit Analysis Should Always Be Done

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If a politician proposes any measure to improve road safety, they should do a cost/benefit analysis. In other words, work out whether the proposal will save more in financial terms than it costs.

The benefit of any road safety scheme can be estimated by looking at the likely reduction in casualties and what they might be worth. For example, the Department for Transport (DfT) publishes estimated costs of accidents – these are £2.2 million for a fatal casualty, £250,000 for a serious injury and £20,000 for a slight injury. One can argue as to whether these are accurate and realistic estimates. Some people argue that they are pessimistic – for example would you pay £20,000 to avoid a minor bruise or cut that did not require hospital treatment? But they do provide a good starting point for any examination of any proposed scheme. The cost of any proposed scheme can usually be estimated fairly closely and it’s not difficult to estimate the likely reduction in casualties from looking at the historic records of police reports on accidents on a stretch of road.

For example, take the wide-area 20 mph limit schemes that are springing up everywhere, particularly in London. From research published by the DfT these are known to have minimal or negligible impact on casualties. But they cost a lot of money to implement – to put up signs, maintain them and the associated road markings, and to enforce them by the police.

In reality spending money on such schemes might be much better spent on other road safety measures – such as education and road engineering to improve accident black spots. Reducing traffic speeds alone costs money in driver and passenger wasted time (bus passengers can be badly affected for example).

A recent article published by the Telegraph (see link below) shows that many London councils do not do any cost/benefit analysis on new schemes. They rely solely on the often mis-informed views of councillors. This irrational behaviour is one reason why London is now the world’s slowest city as reported by satnav company TomTom.

Transport for London (TfL) has spent millions of pounds on it’s Vision Zero plan to cut casualties by reducing speed limits – to no obvious effect (see https://freedomfordrivers.blog/2021/11/20/vision-zero-failing-but-the-mayor-thinks-otherwise/ ).

If people wish to reduce road casualties, they need to do a cost/benefit analysis of any proposed scheme, and compare it to the alternatives. All we tend to get at the moment is prejudiced opinions from ill-informed commentators.

Telegraph article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/12/london-councils-did-not-do-cost-benefit-analysis/

Roger Lawson

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London

London Election Recommendations

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On the 2nd of May we have the elections in London for the Mayor and London Assembly members. Elections will also take place for councils and mayors in England and police and crime commissioners in England and Wales.

In London if you wish to have a postal vote rather than vote in person you need to apply as soon as possible and don’t forget that you will need a photo-id for the first time if you are voting in person.

A poll of 1,019 Londoners by Survation revealed the incumbent Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan may get 44% of the vote, with his Conservative rival, Susan Hall, on 26% – eighteen points behind. The Liberal Democrats’ Rob Blackie, and Zoe Garbett, the Green Party candidate, are level on 7%, with Reform UK’s Howard Cox on 5%. A Savanta poll for the Centre for London put the Labour mayor on 51 per cent and the Tory contender 27 per cent.

It appears that Sadiq Khan is very likely to get re-elected although with almost a month to go to polling day the situation could change. Why is Sadiq Khan doing so well when crime in London has got much worse and his claims on house building are a gross distortion of the truth? Council taxes have also risen because of the Mayor’s precept and the ULEZ scheme has added to motoring costs very substantially. Perhaps because he has promised to cap public transport fare rises and offered free meals to primary school children. His claims that the ULEZ scheme has reduced air pollution in London are false but the public has not seen through his lies.

The May London election for Mayor will be held using the first-past-the-post system for the first time, meaning voters will no longer be able to vote for a second preference candidate. That is most unfortunate. So if you hate Sadiq Khan as I do then the only alternative is some tactical voting – in essence to choose the candidate with reasonable policies and most likely to win.

I have supported both the Conservative and Reform Parties in the past but there seems little chance that Howard Cox of Reform will get enough votes this year. It takes time to build a new party machine in a new region and London is a particularly difficult territory due to the tendency for voters to vote on traditional national party lines or on ethnic prejudices compounded by the fraudulent use of postal votes.

I will therefore likely be voting for Susan Hall unless the picture changes between now and polling day. But I will be voting for Reform candidates in the Assembly Member elections.

You can see the full list of candidates for Mayor here: https://www.londonelects.org.uk/media-centre/london-mayoral-candidates-announced

Roger Lawson

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London

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Comments on the By-election Results

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Labour might be celebrating the wins in Kingswood and Wellingborough but apart from the fact that by-elections are rarely good forecasts of general election results there are some things worth pointing out.

In reality the Labour vote did not increase, but the Tory vote dropped because it was eroded by support for Reform candidates. The problem for the Conservatives is that they have failed to retain the support of right leaning supporters when Reform have adopted the policies that attract traditional conservative voters. Such as much tighter control on immigration (the Conservatives have talked about this but action has been insipid and ineffective).

But Reform have some way to go to win seats because unfortunately many people vote the same way as they always have without looking at manifestos or the historic track records of the candidates. Democracy in the UK has become sclerotic because of those factors. We do need proportional representation but that is as far away as ever.

For example, look at the winning Labour candidate in Kingswood – Damian Egan. He was an Irish immigrant to Bristol but was elected as a Lewisham Councillor and then Mayor of Lewisham. His track record there included strong support of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) which has created strong opposition from those opposed to road closures which he ignored. But he did not talk about that in Kingswood but more on the deficiencies of the NHS.

Reform are attracting good candidates and building local representation but they still have a way to go to obtain mass support. They and the Labour party have won protest votes in these by-elections but it takes time and money to win general elections.

Note: I support both Reform and Conservative Parties but the Conservatives need to be much more effective in governing the country if they are to win my future vote.  

Roger Lawson

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London

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Escalating War on Motorists

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There is a very good article published by the Brown Car Guy (SHAHZAD SHEIKH) on the escalating war on the motorist – see https://browncarguy.com/2024/02/10/escalating-war-on-motorists/#more-19027

To quote from it: “As a car owner and driver, do you feel put upon by rising insurance and running costs, the high prices of new cars, and taxation? Well, that’s nothing compared to what’s coming. The War on Motorists is real, it’s global and it’s coming for you and your car”.

Roger Lawson

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London

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Year End Review and Xmas Greetings

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red volkswagen beetle scale model
Photo by Kristina Paukshtite on Pexels.com

It’s time to wrap up the year with some comments on the state of driving and transport in the UK. It’s been another year where the Government has been throwing billions of pounds at building railways despite the fact that they are old, inflexible and inefficient technology. But at least some of HS2 has been cancelled.

A singular example of how inflexible the rail network is was the closure of King’s Cross and Paddington stations this week due to engineering works. The closure of London Paddington meant no mainline trains serving Heathrow Airport. There has also been disruption of rail services due to overhead power cables being damaged by storms and of course by strikes of rail workers.

Just one example of why roads are better is that I have been spending a lot of time on trips to central London hospitals in the past year. But as the local station has no step-free access and I need to use a wheel-chair, rail travel is totally impractical. So I have been using Uber at lot. Generally it’s a very efficient service although one driver failed to pick up after an hour and another gave me a bad cold.

One problem is that they tend to drive electric cars now and to ensure a long range they turn the heating off. Not at all comfortable! I am still driving myself for most journeys though and have a wheel-chair that folds up and stores in the car boot.

Sadiq Khan has continued his attack on motorists but has seemingly relented over his decision to block non-compliant Chelsea tractors being sent to Ukraine. But it will require a change to the scrappage scheme regulations to permit this.

Local councils are some of the worst culprits for undermining the use of private cars with such measures as LTNs and impractical and unnecessary 20 mph speed limits. Central Government has indicated they will try to put a halt to this stupidity but it needs vigorous representation at the local level to make some councils see sense. You can all contribute to that!

Personally I am all in favour of discouraging larger/heavier vehicles on our roads. They are damaging the roads and hence the increase in potholes. They are simply unnecessary for most people, particularly in central London. I have owned some large cars in my lifetime (the biggest was an enormous Mark 9 Jaguar) but a mid-size or smaller vehicle is now adequate for most purposes. I have therefore downsized to a Jaguar XE in the last year – with a 2.0 litre petrol engine which gives adequate performance and is efficient.

I judged it was not yet time to switch to an electric vehicle due to excessive capital cost, high insurance cost and poor charging infrastructure. That seems to be the judgement many people are making.  In November 2023, only 15.6% of all new car registrations were electric vehicles but the numbers are rising.

IC vehicles with small efficient petrol engines emit very low levels of air pollution and make economic sense so the Government should backtrack on the banning of their sales. If not there will be a big demand for second-hand IC vehicles.

It just remains to wish my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Just remember to drive safely at this dangerous time of the year with snow being forecast at the time of writing.  

Roger Lawson

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London

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The War on the Car Explained

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Well known author on motoring subjects James Ruppert has published a very good paper on the subject of The War on the Car. It explains how the irrational attacks on private cars have developed over the years with the latest Net Zero policies exacerbating the trend. Net Zero means absolute zero access to personal transportation. That’s indeed the point: keeping the plebs in their rightful place, namely the bus stop, the author says.

It’s all so unnecessary and is driven by financial motives primarily rather than safety or environmental issues. Indeed Government policies have generally led to unintended negative consequences (such as the promotion of diesel vehicles to reduce CO2 emissions which has had to be reversed).

This paper is certainly worth reading if you want to learn how we got into the current mess. Click here to download: https://www.netzerowatch.com/content/uploads/2023/11/Ruppert-War-on-the-Car.pdf

Roger Lawson

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London

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Oxford Revolt and New Political Parties

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It is symptomatic of the public’s disillusionment with local politics in the UK that new political parties are forming. The latest is one in Oxford called the Independent Oxford Alliance (IOA). They have the usual gripe that their elected councillors from the major political parties are not listening to their concerns about the LTNs and other issues. To quote from a report in the Daily Telegraph: “We’ve come to the conclusion that the only way we can change things given that the councils are not listening to residents is to actually change things from within”. In a statement, the party added: “The last straw for many residents has been the disastrous local transport policies imposed on Oxford and the rigged consultations to justify them. IOA believes it is wrong for councils to deliberately cause congestion with LTNs and effectively tax all but the wealthy out of their cars with emission zones and parking charges”.

There was a new party formed in Chislehurst where I live called Chislehurst Matters who won seats at the last council elections based on a manifesto for change – exactly what they wanted was not totally clear.

On the national scene we have the Reform Party who might achieve 10% of votes according to a recent YouGov poll, more than any other of the smaller parties and enough to undermine the Conservative vote.

In all these cases, it is a coalition of disaffected voters supporting the new parties where they think the main Conservative and Labour parties are not representing their concerns, or are pushing policies such as Net Zero Carbon that are increasing their costs and attempting to change their way of life (such as stopping the use of cars to travel).

My view is simple: local politics should be fought on local issues and the public should vote for who they think will represent their views, not on the national party labels.

On other news it is good to see the BBC has “shelved” Top Gear for the foreseeable future. Let us hope it now dies quietly. I suggested on the 12th September that it was overdue to be killed off – see https://freedomfordrivers.blog/2023/09/12/time-to-kill-off-top-gear/

Roger Lawson

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London

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The Plan for Drivers

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Last week the Government published “The Plan for Drivers”. It starts with the statement: “There’s nothing wrong with driving. Most of us use a car and, for many, life would not be liveable without their car. For those in rural areas, it is a lifeline. A car can hugely expand the independence of a younger person, as well as keep older people connected to key services and their families”. That’s very much the view of this writer. Apart from a few ghettos in central London, where massive expenditure on public transport subsidised by taxpayers, has made it practical to live without a car, most of the country need to use cars.

This new document is clearly a tilt to electoral popularity in the party conference season. In it Mark Harper, Transport Minister, says “Used appropriately and considerately, the car was, is, and will remain a force for good. It is not right that some drivers feel under attack. This long-term plan will address key elements of those concerns. We will explore options to stop local councils using so-called ‘15-minute cities’, such as in Oxford, to police people’s lives; we will restrain the most aggressively anti-driver traffic management measures. We will make it clear that 20mph speed limits in England must be used appropriately where people want them – not as unwarranted blanket measures. We will take steps to stop councils profiting from moving traffic enforcement”.

Is this the end of the “war on the driver” as some people call recent anti-car policies? The answer is possibly. But it needs more than just fine words to halt the war. Many of the negative policies have been supported by local councillors and elected mayors such as Sadiq Khan in London using legislation enacted by central Government that gives them the powers to do so. Those powers need removing and as their motives are often financial so those incentives must be removed.

There are many legal changes required to stop a small minority of local politicians imposing their irrational views on the rest of us. There need to be referendums on any proposed new regulations on vehicles and driving. And petitions to invoke referendums on existing ones.

The Plan for Drivers: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/plan-for-drivers/the-plan-for-drivers

Roger Lawson

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London

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The War on the Motorist and New A20 Speed Limit

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It has been widely reported that Rishi Sunak is to announce new motorist-friendly policies that might inhibit the introduction of more LTNs, restrict more 20 mph speed limits and times of bus lanes might be relaxed. On BBC Radio Manchester he argued that prioritising driving was the best policy as the vast majority of journeys are made by car. He has that right at least so why are we spending billions of pounds on HS2 which will be used by very few people? It should surely be scrapped.

Mark Harper, Transport Minister, said this on Twitter: ”Too often the private car is vilified by Labour politicians and sneered at by the metropolitan bubble, when it has been one of the most powerful forces for personal freedom & economic growth”. But will this fine rhetoric which will no doubt be lapped up at the Conservative Party Conference this week be followed up by action to control local councillors who introduce silly speed limits. Or Sadiq Khan in London or Mark Drakeford in Wales (petition against default 20 limit in Wales now has more than 450,000 signatures but is still being ignored!).

More details in this Government statement: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-announces-new-long-term-plan-to-back-drivers

If the Conservatives follow through on this agenda it will certainly win them some votes.

A20 Speed Limits

Meanwhile the latest imposition of an unreasonable speed limit has been imposed in the last few days on the A20 between Crittalls Corner in Sidcup and the BP service station/McDonalds before the Swanley M25 junction (eastbound only). The speed limit has been reduced to 40 from 70 and signs for average speed cameras put up and 40 repeater signs also so presumably this is a permanent change. It is unknown why this change has been made although it has been suggested that it is due to road flooding which requires some work on the road which may not be done until May 2024. However it is a ridiculously low speed limit for such a dual-carriageway.

The country is grinding to a halt because of unreasonable speed limits which will mean enormous numbers of drivers will get fines even when driving at safe speeds.

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