When I wrote in April that Sadiq Khan could be ousted because of his persecution of motorists, my suggestion was widely panned as delusional.
Didn’t I realize that nobody owns a car in our capital city, that London is a Labour rotten borough, and that the Tories are finished?
My argument doesn’t look so silly today. [emphasis, links added]
The mayor’s nasty, vindictive Ulez cash grab has triggered a wave of French-style civil disobedience, radicalized an outer suburbia that the snooty inner London elite had long forgotten even existed, lost Labour a parliamentary seat it could otherwise have won, and exposed the exorbitant cost to our pocketbooks and freedom of the rush to net zero.
It turns out that there are, in fact, almost nine million Londoners, and the vast majority don’t live in Islington or Hackney, don’t commute by bike, and don’t work in a Left-wing think tank.
Some 69 percent of households in outer London have access to or own a car or van, and even in inner London, some 42 percent do so.
It was thus a terrible mistake for Khan, an incompetent mayor obsessed with virtue-signalling, to declare all-out war on motorists – via Ulez, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), road-narrowing and the excessive expansion of 20 mph zones – while mismanaging London Underground, presiding over a decline in buses, acting as a demagogue over Covid, squandering money on propaganda, jacking up taxes and failing to grip the calamity that is the Met Police.
The good news is that there is now a clear alternative to Khan’s arrogance. The Tories have selected their mayoral candidate, and despite the party establishment’s best efforts at imposing a technocratic Remainer type, ended up choosing Susan Hall, a true-blue activist who is committed to scrapping the Ulez extension and is a standard bearer for modern suburban values.
She proposes a genuine alternative vision for London, a rupture with the dominant Left-wing urbanism, and would be the first mayor that hails from outer, rather than inner, London.
She campaigned with no money and no infrastructure, making her own way to endless hustings, unlike her well-funded rivals, and yet triumphed with the grassroots.
For a while, in an act of unfathomable stupidity laced with snobbery and ageism, the central party appeared ambivalent about her victory, but it has now rowed in behind her.
Yet Tory HQ’s efforts to support her to date have been woefully inadequate: the mayoral election is just nine months away.
Rishi Sunak and Greg Hands, the Conservative chairman, must urgently ensure that the party does all in its power to improve her profile, help her raise funds, and build the best campaign team in the business.
She needs to become the face of the anti-Ulez uprising, for Hall is now the only chance to oust Khan and change the narrative ahead of the general election.
It would be a scandal were the Tories not to give this race everything they have just because their candidate backed Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
A working-class Tory who oozes authenticity, Hall worked as a mechanic in her father’s garage before opening a hairdressing salon. A former leader of Harrow council, the Tory multi-ethnic success story, she made her name running the opposition in the London Assembly, infuriating Khan, who doesn’t know how to handle her.
She doesn’t want to be an MP, and this would be her last job in public life, allowing her to show that she is a true localist committed to dedicating her life to serving Londoners.
Waging war on crime and lawlessness will be a key plank of Hall’s manifesto. She will remind voters that women have been especially let down by Khan’s inability to get a grip on criminality.
She will emphasize the noxious air quality in the Tube, as well as the current mayor’s inability to take on the unions.
Ulez will retain its potency even nine months after its expansion: most of those buying compliant cars are doing so on credit, providing a monthly reminder of the Khan surtax.
Small businesses will keep telling customers why they’ve been forced to hike prices. Many Londoners don’t believe Khan’s denials over whether he would like to further extend ULEZ, or impose punitive per-mile charges on driving: these issues will be central to next year’s election.
Top image via istockphoto/Alena Kravchenko
Read rest at Telegraph
Time for the Residents of those C-40 Cities to vote those idiots out of office over this stupid ban on Meat, Dairy and Cars
Did you happen to click on the “Met Police” link? Now think about the recent blockade on the road to “Burning Man”.
When I saw the video of the actions by the Native American police to the protesters I made the comment that they should be used as an example by the police elsewhere and was thinking of the wimpy actions by the British police, especially in London. But oddly enough the Met Police were much more forceful with those protesting against COVID lockdowns than they have with those blocking roadways for a non-existing “climate crisis”.
Ms. Hall sounds like the kind of candidate that’s needed throughout the cities here in the US that have been destroyed by left-wing “Progressive” politicians. I hope that the Tories get behind her and help her get London out of the grips of the far-left Khan.
She has the same kind of upbringing as Margaret Thatcher.
Just what the UK needs, again.
There was a time when horse thieves were hanged if they got caught. Today, my car is my independence. Don’t threaten my car.