Jul 302023
Or perhaps more than just a word given the level of dumbness displayed by the usual ULEZ opponents.
- It isn’t solely a Labour policy; the ULEZ zone in central London was first introduced by a Tory major (Boris Johnson) and extended by the current Labour major. The Tory opposition to ULEZ during the Uxbridge by-election was a cheap political stunt to distract from the atrocious record the Tories have in central government. Which seemingly worked on the more gullible.
- The penalty charge for the ULEZ zone is only paid by the most polluting vehicles – diesel cars older than 8 years old and petrol cars older than 17 years. Which is a tiny minority of the cars on the road.
- This isn’t targeting the poor; the poor in our society can’t afford cars at all. Besides there’s a scrappage scheme which pays people to scrap the smellier cars.
- This isn’t about CO2 emissions; it’s about NOx emissions.
- And frankly none of the objections (even if real) come close to outweighing the advantages of fewer deaths from pollution.
