So who do you want to be the next Mayor of London?

[Theinjuredcleaner]

It's Count Binface/Lord Buckethead for me. I don't think he could do a worse job than his predecessors.

Why is that important? Surely Khan is the most impressive candidate. Nowt to do with his religion or heritage.

Binface will get my vote. I like ULEZ but not some of the other Khan policies.

I'm voting for Khan.

Boomer55 · Yesterday 12:43

Anyone but Khan. He’s been hopeless in every way, and ULEZ is just the icing on the cake

ULEZ is a Central Government policy, he's just implemented it.

Khan

Ex Londoner (of 40+ years) sorely disappointed I can't vote this time. He's not perfect but the Tories have fielded an absolute lunatic so it's Khan for me.

And London is not worse, people have short memories, the London of the 80s and 90s was horrible and it can't be the Olympics every year.

Khan

Khan because of the free school meals for primary school kids. It's helped a lot of families. Mist peoples cars are ulez compliant anyway so it didn't have a huge impact on many people.

ULEZ was planned by a certain Boris Johnson in 2015, for some reason the hard-right press forget to report that.

The whole congestion charge/air quality piece in London was started in the late 90s and has continued under mayors of both stripe. The point with ULEZ in outer London boroughs is that the mayor can manage both the timing and manner of implementation.

Khan chose a timing and manner of implementation which really hit the bottom ten percent and has caused real hardship in return for zero improvement in air quality. Its peak gesture politics for the Islington set.

Where do we draw the lines of accountability? This is a predictable but interesting problem of devolution.

In Scotland the SNP in power for a generation under both parties and with tax raising powers are still blaming their woeful performance on Westminster. Wales similarly blame everything bad on Westminster whilst claiming credit for positive. Now team Khan are doing the same. In each case there is limited real achievement and improvement to working people's lives to trumpet so what is the point of them? They are all expensive to run. In the case of the mayoralities - I think they should be capped at two terms, whoever is in power.

Contrast with both Burnham and Street who are not shy of criticising Westminster but have made a positive impact on working people's lives in their areas and can focus on those improvements. Mayor of London has more power and more money than either of them - its a hugely powerful position for so little delivery.

Look at this thread - what are the big "wins" being cited for ten years in power? Middle class gesture politics - a regressive tax on the working poor of outer London for no improvement in air quality, Erasmus schemes for the middle classes. Having been born into and grown up in a minority working class London community this kind of gesture politics makes no difference to such communities. Nor does renaming tube lines and employing lots of public school PR spinners. Getting rid of the most effective campaigner and activist on VAWG does make life worse though for women and girls.

Mostly I'm just disappointed. I was really hopeful for change with Khan and instead its been overwhelmingly middle class and gensture policies for the well heeled and gentrified areas of inner London - areas which used to house working class communities like mine before we were priced out. Khan will win, he has no opposition - that is a part of the problem currently in London.

When it comes to ULEZ, which was a Conservative generated policy, please take time to read the following letter from DFT/Grant Shapps confirming the TFL Extraordinary Funding Agreement, letter. Para 13h shows that the ULEZ expansion was asked for by the government.

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/transport-for-london-settlement-letter-october-2020.pdf

You think it’s the ‘Islington set’ who are the only ones worrying about their kids’ asthma?

In fact, it’s the most marginalised and economically deprived communities who suffer most from air population, despite producing less of it themselves than the more wealthy. They’re also less likely to own a vehicle and be affected by ULEZ.

I hate the fact I can't go and visit my parents, go to my local shops, get to my GP or dentist without going into the ULEZ zone and I don't even live in a LONDON borough. I'm in a town that edges on a London borough and all my
closest amenities are ULEZ controlled. Does the pollution stop as it reaches my town now. I can't afford a new car and and my husband can't afford a new van. What we've been offered is ridiculous against the cost of a compliant car.

How do you think that electric cars become the norm without nudges to encourage people to buy them?

The majority of people in my borough (including me and nearly everyone I know) don’t have cars so the ULEZ is 100% welcomed.

I’m voting for Khan. Most people in London don’t need a car.

That really couldn’t be more wrong.

I just had another look at them. They are the same conspiracists, with a mish-mash of giant placards both against the Covid vaccine and ULEZ. Their placards inform me ULEZ=Trojan horse. I have no idea what this means.

Does the pollution stop as it reaches my town now.

Apparently the pollution stops if you pay £12.50.

ULEZ is not about clean air. It's about relieving you of the contents of your wallet when you leave your house. If the mayor was series about pollution he would remove the disastrous LTNs, unnecessarily wide cycle lanes and various other street clutter which lead to vehicle congestion and engine idling.

Reform’s Howard Cox sounded surprisingly sensible in a recent interview I heard.
Air quality has not improved where I am in SW London through ULEZ. It improved around 10 years ago when many people seemed to cut the number of cars they had and bought new cars via payment schemes, ie these cars are less polluting.

Where can I find any credible data to show air quality has been improved by ULEZ and LTNs?

Bloody wood burners using the wrong fuel seem to be the newest pollutant in our area, and no one seems to be bothered by them.

I wish my mayor would bring in ULEZ. I'm going to bring it up on the doorstep.

The latest ULEZ expansion was not "asked for by the government". That paragraph references the expansion in 2021, up to the north and south circular roads.

It does NOT mention the latest 2023 expansion, which was to pretty much the entirety of every London borough, some of which are practically rural towards their outer boundaries. That was completely Khan's decision.

I haven't a clue who to vote for this time around. Khan is hopeless. Susan Hall is just awful.

Why doesn’t khan ban massive SUVs? They are an absolute blight, too big to fit anywhere, destroying the roads. Completely ridiculous in London. Smashing into kids. And yet they’re everywhere. I’ll vote for anyone who gets rid of them all.

The North and South Circular roads are hardly central and cross areas with very mixed levels of wealth and public transport. It’s interesting that so much more fuss is now being made about the expansion of the zone.