| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:London’s ULEZ Expansion: Cleaner Air, Fairer City | |
| Posted by: | Alan Anderson | |
| Date/Time: | 24/10/25 10:16:00 |
| My aims in supporting Khan in this message were to counteract the barrage of unfounded abuse aimed at him in the media which affects a wide audience and seems to inspire the idea that name calling and mud-slinging is acceptable in a place in that should be a civilised debating forum, and to celebrate the achievement of ULEZ expansion. The person sitting with their engine running in your street to keep warm while they watch videos on their phone could be reminded that car fumes are toxic. Doing something to improve London’s air is a major achievement and will, I hope, one day stretch to banning diesel and domestic wood burners. A thread on this forum is a tiny voice competing with the bots sending us reels, the populist figures on the payroll of fossil fuel companies and dictators who offer simplistic solutions to our society’s problems scribbled on the back of a fag packet that disappear in the next news cycle when they’re exposed as baseless and unworkable. I only want to do what I can to counteract the normalisation of lies and senselessness; I keep hearing the argument, that is supposed to pop the public’s favourable attitude to clean energy that will give us health and prosperity indefinitely, that there is no point enduring the initial difficulty of switching to clean energy to ensure the planet is habitable for our children because China is building lots of coal fired power stations. Well, while China is still a large coal user, it’s also the world’s biggest clean-energy investor, with about 56% of its total power capacity now coming from renewables — a clear sign it sees green energy as essential not only for the planet’s health, but for economic growth, innovation, and public wellbeing. Who suffers most from the move to clean energy? 4,000 Londoners die prematurely each year due to long-term exposure to air pollution. One of those could be you. Does the survival of you and your family sound like something worth a bit of inconvenience? Who is pushing against the drive to clean energy? According to an investigation by DeSmog, since December 2019 Reform UK has taken more than £2.3 million from oil and gas interests, highly polluting industries, and climate-science-deniers — representing about 92% of the party’s donations during that period. Funny that, eh! I am thankful that Ed Miliband has set out a major clean-energy mission to decarbonise the UK’s electricity system by 2030, linking it with job creation, energy security, and bill reductions. The next mayor will also have to contend with housing shortages, rising crime, and stretched policing resources caused by decades of national government under‑investment and policy constraints that limit London’s funding, powers, and ability to address social inequality. Who should we entrust this challenge to? The jokers in charge of Kent County Council? If your response to this message is ‘Yeah well China is building coal fired generators,’ or ‘Ed Miliband ate a bacon sandwich,’ or ‘Khan is an ideologue who is forced on us [despite being democratically elected three times],’ or another coarse and unimaginative variation on his name, then take it as read that I will file it in my mental junk folder. |