The People v ULEZ

Margaret Thatcher was one of Britain’s longest serving prime ministers, ranking seventh of fifty-seven to date. She would probably have moved up at least two places but for the poll tax, which brought her down. Sadiq Khan has been Mayor of London since 2016, but as things stand he will be out at the next election, in May 2024, if not sooner. What will bring him down is the extended ULEZ zone because it has united people from all walks of life like only the poll tax before it.

Many people believe this is purely a cash grab, charging the motorist a staggering £12.50 per day for simply driving to work, to shop, or to take the kids to school, but an increasing number realise this is far bigger than the tinpot dictator who dismisses his opponents with a smirk calling them far right or conspiracy theorists when they point out he used junk science to prove his case about air pollution and ordered the cameras in advance.

As Donald Trump pointed out recently, and many others have pointed out before him, civilisation runs on energy. Cheap energy means cheap transport, and cheap transport means a higher standard of living for all of us. Think about it, if we could somehow teleport food and consumer goods to the other side of the world for free, the cost of living would fall dramatically. The converse is also true, every shopkeeper and small business that uses ULEZ non-compliant vehicles will have to factor that extra £12.50 per day into their retail prices. And it is overwhelmingly small businesses that will suffer, including plumbers, cleaners, maintenance people…Many will go bust, but not the big stores and big others who can simply raise their prices. They may lose some trade on account of this, but will pick up customers from the corner shop that is no more.

After the extended London ULEZ zone will come pay per mile, ULEZ zones in all major cities, and with them a surveillance state that tracks your every move. We are already living in a surveillance state to a degree, and some state surveillance is a positive thing. Only a few minutes research is needed to compile an impressive list of terrorists, murderers, rapists, and other dangerous felons who have been brought to book thanks to CCTV and electronic surveillance. Countless innocent people have also been cleared of imaginary crimes, like the falsely accused police officer in this video. CCTV and other hi tech surveillance can also alert the relevant authorities to fires, or simply assist in the flow of traffic or crowd control. We all know this. But do we all want a state camera in our cars, how about our living rooms, or our bedrooms? When George Orwell wrote about this before you were born he was giving us a warning, not an instruction manual.

Central to ULEZ are cameras, and a group of men dressed in black bloch have been removing or sabotaging them all over London. Normally, politicians of all shades will condemn such criminal damage – Black Lives Matter rioters excepted – but not this time. When he led the Conservative Party briefly two decades ago, Iain Duncan Smith styled himself the Quiet Man. Now, surprise, surprise, the Quiet Man has roared, a senior member of the party of law and order says he backs the blade runners. 

Other politicians have been more reserved; Susan Hall is another Conservative, she will be standing for Mayor next year, and has pledged to abolish ULEZ on day one.

Between her comments and those of Duncan Smith lies a legal and quasi-legal majority. Clearly, law breaking cannot be condoned, but how much of this tyranny are we to take before we rebel? People’s livelihoods are being destroyed, so are their neighbourhoods, so are their freedoms. How much is enough, how much is too much?

According to a BBC report of September 1: “There have been 171 reports of crimes relating to Ulez cameras logged since 17 August”. That answers the question: Khan has gone too far.