Back with family in London after Covid’s four years, much has changed. Most notably, the air in Walthamstow is breathable. Thanks to Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan’s emission zone tax, the change is remarkable.
Boris Johnson initiated the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) tax in 2019 and Sadiq Khan extended it to the inner ring road near Walthamstow in 2021. A recent report on the scheme stated:
Major new report shows that harmful pollution emissions have reduced by 26 per cent within the expanded ULEZ area – compared with what they would have been without the ULEZ coming into force. Report shows that the ULEZ has reduced harmful pollution levels in central London by nearly half compared to what they would have been without the ULEZ.
In inner London, pollution levels are 21 per cent lower than they would have been without the ULEZ. Each day, 74,000 fewer polluting vehicles are seen driving in the zone, a cut of 60 per cent since expansion in October 2021.
Thanks to the ULEZ expansion to inner London, over four million people now breathe cleaner air, including children in 1,362 schools.
The Mayor has announced that the scheme will now be extended to outler London boroughs, but the expansion has proved controversial.
Now Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer has weighed in after the ULEZ tax was blamed for Labor not competing a sweep of bye-election wins recently. He is “for clean air,” make no mistake about it, he says, but not this way and not yet. He is the heir of Margaret Thatcher’s greatest achievement, having just elevated some more Blairites to his shadow cabinet.
Another report quotes Khan as “a doer not a delayer,” and says the contorversy will ruin his chances of ever becoming Labour Leader.
It has shown a side of the Mayor which is unusual in cautious Labour these days – a readiness to polarise when he believes he is in the right. The guts not to give in to arm-twisting from his party HQ. Khan has, after all, been the Labour figure riding the wave of rejoining the EU and re-introducing free movement. Meanwhile, Starmer has rowed fast in the opposite direction: downplaying his Remain credentials and wary of being portrayed as an enthusiastic apostle of immigration.
As for Sir Keir
Starmerworld has its iron modus operandi and rule number one is to play down differences over emotive issues: like how far to push on green targets and wealth taxes, which thrill many on the Left but alarm prosperous voters.
I and my family are grateful for one Labour leader who has actually achieved a real and positive change. The London air is better than I have ever known it. I lived in England for three or four years in the 1960s as well.
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