ULEZ

I wrote this blog immediately after the by-elections. Things move on.

I’m told that the proposed extension to the Ultra-Low Emissions Zone was an issue that resulted in Labour not taking Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the latest by-election. How do they know unless they asked everyone? I keep coming back to the point that everyone votes as an individual yet the logic of this suggestion strikes me as odd. 

If the ULEZ was such an issue then the Tories should have won by a landslide, when in fact, the majority of people didn’t vote for the Conservatives. Does this mean that the majority were in favour of ULEZ? Of course not but it proves my point. ULEZ may have swung some voters away from Labour but then if pots and pans…

What is even stranger is that the ULEZ was actually Tory policy, introduced under Johnson as Mayor and a condition of recent funding negotiations between Khan, the Labour Mayor and Shapps, the Conservative Minister. This shows the depths that the party in government will stoop to retain its power. One could therefore argue that a vote for the Tory party was a vote for ULEZ. All very strange.

There are more things to worry about from this result though, in that it has thrown the government’s and the opposition’s Net Zero credentials out of the window. The Conservatives see this as a potential election winner white Labour are desperate not to rock the boat. 

There is a significant chunk of people who think that the science is wrong regarding man’s effect on the climate. I’m not one of them and am squarely behind the scientists. It may well be that none of us alive today will know for sure, although recent events would suggest that evidence is mounting, but do we want to risk it? Whether you believe in man-made climate change or not, the oil is going to run out sooner or later and so a transition away from fossil fuels makes sense.

This is a worrying move politically and pushes at the boundaries of democracy.