Excellent as ever. I went on a school trip to London in the 80s when I was 15. It was safe enough for us to be given 2 hours on our own to explore Oxford Street. I headed straight to Our Price record store and Virgin Records. I couldn't believe a can of coke cost a pound! A whole pound! (Up here it was still 35p....). We'd love to take our lads one day, to see the galleries, museums. But not right now. Not Khan's London. It's a cesspit of crime, poverty and no way are we going anywhere near until someone gets rid of that narcissistic dwarf and cleans up our once magnificent Capital.
Boris Johnson used to ride round London on his bike. Ken Livingston rode the Tube. Khan has a bullet proof chauffeur driven diesel range rover that cost londoners 400 grand. He's a greedy, grasping little shit and the sooner he's gone the better.
Ulez is good though, no? It has nothing to do with Net Zero — its about getting rid of the cars that emit the poisons that result in 40,000 deaths per year. I’m in favour of it!
There are very few cars that are still subject to the ULEZ charge — 3.5% — so we so t have to worry too much about those. Middle class drivers who prefer to keep a polluting car.
The government site says "between 28,000 and 36,000" in the UK die every year from pollution. My number was slightly off, but it is much closer than yours.
> The annual mortality of human-made air pollution in the UK is roughly equivalent to between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths every year.
Nitrogen Dioxide pollution is down between 24% and 54% (depending on the area) since ULEZ. There have been similar improvements in particulate matter pollution. And as I said, the compliance rate is 96.7%.
> The London-wide compliance rate for vehicles subject to the ULEZ standards after the first year of the expansion (as of September 2024) was 96.7 per cent.
ULEZ applies to London. That's 4,000. And it's disputable. We could suggest banning DIY to 'save' a few thousand a year. The figures are tendentious. They're based on 'what ifs'.
And... your argument would be stronger if you didn't misrepresent my own. This is classic Straw Man.
My argument wasn't so much against ULEZ but against Khan's weaponisation of 'climate change' to serve his narcissistic needs and his saviour complex. Khan basks in virtue whilst others pay. It says it right there in the essay.
I was responding to your claim that the poor are sacrificed on the altar of Climate change. This is not true.
> Consider Khan’s pride and joy: the ‘ultra-low emissions zone’—ULEZ. For the unacquainted, this scheme chivvies £12.50 daily from the working and lower-middle classes who dare drive an offending vehicle into London.
> Climate change—the secular sacrament of the Lanyard Class—is just one altar upon which they sacrifice the working poor, £12.50 at a time.
Well written and I like the nanny state refrain “stand to the right” as a way to show the uselessness of pretending everything is still functional. If anyone described what the west is currently doing to itself, but set the descriptions in some hittite city or a celtic hillfort it would seem obvious how they had foolishly brought about their own demise. Why is so much of the populace so blind to what is happening to us?!
Wow...London sounds like every major city here in the U.S. They're all becoming unliveable and people with the means to flee are fleeing. As usual, those without means keep suffering.
At least here in the U.S., though, all people have to do to see who's to blame is to look in the mirror...they keep voting for these people.
As Jimmy Dore keeps saying, "If you want [politicians] to listen, you have to show them you're willing to not vote for them."
Excellent as ever. I went on a school trip to London in the 80s when I was 15. It was safe enough for us to be given 2 hours on our own to explore Oxford Street. I headed straight to Our Price record store and Virgin Records. I couldn't believe a can of coke cost a pound! A whole pound! (Up here it was still 35p....). We'd love to take our lads one day, to see the galleries, museums. But not right now. Not Khan's London. It's a cesspit of crime, poverty and no way are we going anywhere near until someone gets rid of that narcissistic dwarf and cleans up our once magnificent Capital.
Boris Johnson used to ride round London on his bike. Ken Livingston rode the Tube. Khan has a bullet proof chauffeur driven diesel range rover that cost londoners 400 grand. He's a greedy, grasping little shit and the sooner he's gone the better.
Vote Reform! That's all I can say.
Indeed 🤣 Doesn't quite work up here yet.....folk too fond of the Limp Dims and Conservatives (still!) but we'll get there....
Ulez is good though, no? It has nothing to do with Net Zero — its about getting rid of the cars that emit the poisons that result in 40,000 deaths per year. I’m in favour of it!
There are very few cars that are still subject to the ULEZ charge — 3.5% — so we so t have to worry too much about those. Middle class drivers who prefer to keep a polluting car.
I'd suggest that '4,000' deaths per year figure is a touch spurious. ULEZ hammers poorer drivers. And... it hasn't done a thing for pollution!
The government site says "between 28,000 and 36,000" in the UK die every year from pollution. My number was slightly off, but it is much closer than yours.
> The annual mortality of human-made air pollution in the UK is roughly equivalent to between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths every year.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-pollution-applying-all-our-health/air-pollution-applying-all-our-health
Nitrogen Dioxide pollution is down between 24% and 54% (depending on the area) since ULEZ. There have been similar improvements in particulate matter pollution. And as I said, the compliance rate is 96.7%.
> The London-wide compliance rate for vehicles subject to the ULEZ standards after the first year of the expansion (as of September 2024) was 96.7 per cent.
https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/environment-and-climate-change/environment-and-climate-change-publications/london-wide-ultra-low-emission-zone-one-year-report
I think your argument will be stronger if the statistics that you cite were accurate.
ULEZ applies to London. That's 4,000. And it's disputable. We could suggest banning DIY to 'save' a few thousand a year. The figures are tendentious. They're based on 'what ifs'.
That claim is also disputed: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68533703
And... your argument would be stronger if you didn't misrepresent my own. This is classic Straw Man.
My argument wasn't so much against ULEZ but against Khan's weaponisation of 'climate change' to serve his narcissistic needs and his saviour complex. Khan basks in virtue whilst others pay. It says it right there in the essay.
I was responding to your claim that the poor are sacrificed on the altar of Climate change. This is not true.
> Consider Khan’s pride and joy: the ‘ultra-low emissions zone’—ULEZ. For the unacquainted, this scheme chivvies £12.50 daily from the working and lower-middle classes who dare drive an offending vehicle into London.
> Climate change—the secular sacrament of the Lanyard Class—is just one altar upon which they sacrifice the working poor, £12.50 at a time.
You clearly were not. It's written above. Please, don't waste my time.
You remind me of Dickens. Horrified and trying to get people to see it. I have a friend who you might want to speak to. He is equally
aghast. Also an artist. I think you need each other. Maybe I can make it happen. We’ll see.
Well written and I like the nanny state refrain “stand to the right” as a way to show the uselessness of pretending everything is still functional. If anyone described what the west is currently doing to itself, but set the descriptions in some hittite city or a celtic hillfort it would seem obvious how they had foolishly brought about their own demise. Why is so much of the populace so blind to what is happening to us?!
Wow...London sounds like every major city here in the U.S. They're all becoming unliveable and people with the means to flee are fleeing. As usual, those without means keep suffering.
At least here in the U.S., though, all people have to do to see who's to blame is to look in the mirror...they keep voting for these people.
As Jimmy Dore keeps saying, "If you want [politicians] to listen, you have to show them you're willing to not vote for them."
I'm done with the two main parties. A shame Uncle Ted has passed!
Who’s Uncle Ted?