Why doesn’t Genghis Khan just cut out the middle man and glue himself to the centre lane at Hyde Park Corner?
London’s two-bob chancer of a mayor has already done far more to bring traffic to a standstill than Extinction Rebellion and those Insulate Britain headbangers put together.
He clearly won’t be satisfied until cars powered by internal combustion engines have gone the way of the woolly mammoth.
Until then, though, he’s hell-bent on squeezing motorists until the pips squeak — which is what former Labour Chancellor Denis Healey once promised to do to the rich.
Why doesn’t Genghis Khan just cut out the middle man and glue himself to the centre lane at Hyde Park Corner?
The difference is that Genghis is screwing the poor and the middle class, thanks to the extension of the £12.50-a-day Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ).
On a black day when petrol and diesel prices hit a record £1.43-plus a litre, Londoners living in the vast area inside the North and South Circular Roads woke up to find themselves the thick end of £4,500 a year worse off — out of taxed income — simply for the crime of owning a vehicle not considered ‘ULEZ compliant’.
They include people who bought a diesel car or van before 2015, on the advice of the government and the usual ‘experts’, who claimed diesels were kinder to the environment than their petrol equivalents.
Gordon Brown even used tax systems to encourage diesel purchase.
Diesels are now the spawn of devil after a 180-degree turn at the handbrake. We must all be punished for being responsible citizens who do what we were told.
Wee Burney and her Amazing Dancing Bear returned to the box yesterday at noon for another self-serving message to a grateful nation. It was like old times.
Downing Street is concerned that she might use the COP Conference as an excuse for Scottish independence. She will pretend to be a world leader.
It was impossible for her to be photographed with President Biden.
She was not allowed to be photographed with President Biden.
So don’t be surprised, if Burney starts advancing towards Sleepy Joe at the official reception, to find Boris flattening her with one of his celebrated rugby tackles. Splatt!
As London and the rest of Britain are waking up from their Covid-induced coma, yet another crippling tax has been imposed on drivers.
Khan has decided that staff will be cut off at the knees, just as tourists and shoppers are returning to city centers.
Khan created most of the congestion in Central London, ironically.
Covid hid behind him and declared war on motorists, closing major roads and creating a network for cycle lanes.
This resulted in traffic jams being deliberately created. Last weekend was a good example. I was returning from the Albert Hall at 11pm and was driving along Park Lane. The cars were being funnelled onto a single lane.
The three remaining lanes, meant for bikes, empty buses, or black cabs trying to find fares in vain, were deserted.
We sat there, with hundreds of others, pumping out exactly the exhaust gases Genghis claims he wants to eliminate.
If they are not minted, why would they bother driving into town to eat or see a show?
The new ULEZ fee could spell doom for an economy just beginning to get off life support.
Khan recommends that people use public transport, bike or walk instead. You’re right.
I wrote last May that many laydees want to clatter in the rain across London in their new Jimmy Choos. Who is going to show up at The Savoy on a pushbike for a black-tie dinner?
That was the column in which I first dubbed Khan ‘Genghis’ because he had decided to do to London what his namesake had done to Asia and China in the early 13th century.
Lay it to waste — along with the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Londoners such as builders, plumbers and gas fitters who can’t afford to find an extra £87.50 a week for the privilege of trying to earn a living.
Khan is currently selling off car parks at outer London Tube stations, in order to make public transport more affordable for property developers.
These were used until now by commuters and shoppers to get from their cars to the Underground.
Khan created most of the congestion in Central London, ironically.
In future, they’ll have no alternative other than to drive. This is presumably the plan. Once they cross into the zone of the ULEZ. . .
‘Kerching!!’
Another £12.50 in Khan’s coffers. This is all about money, sorry. The alleged ‘climate emergency’ is simply a convenient smokescreen.
This column may seem a little Metrocentric, so please forgive me. But London is always the leader and the rest will follow.
Low-emission zones have been established or are being planned in Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh, Newcastle and Sheffield, as well as all points north, south and west.
It would be easy for Londoners to blame Labour voters.
But, shamefully, Khan has been encouraged, and indeed bankrolled, by XR poster boy Grant Shapps — a nominally Conservative Transport Secretary — who bunged councils millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money towards anti-car activism, such as setting up hated Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.
Net Zero nonsense has taken hold of the entire political class, regardless the devastating consequences for those they are paid by.
Broadcasters give the ‘climate emergency’ proselytisers a free run to peddle their propaganda.
Priti Flamingo is said to be looking to Australia for someone to replace Dick of Dock Green, because she can’t find a suitable candidate here.
They’ve all been brainwashed by Common Purpose, and as one Cabinet source said: ‘They all sound the same and think the same.’
So, the next Met Commissioner could be from Down Under. It sounds good to me.
I’d go for Crocodile Dundee. He wouldn’t only cut through the PC crap, he’d know how to tackle London’s stabbing epidemic
I’d go for Crocodile Dundee. He wouldn’t only cut through the PC crap, he’d know how to tackle London’s stabbing epidemic.
‘That’s not a knife. THAT’S a knife!’
So the points I’ve just made never get put to the likes of Khan on the mainstream media. There are honourable exceptions, though, such as LBC’s Nick Ferrari.
Bruce Springsteen sang once that you can learn more from a three-minute recording than you ever will in school.
Similar results can be expected from a three-minute phone call.
Yesterday, Ferrari’s excellent breakfast show on LBC was bombarded with callers, from firefighters to carers, in absolute despair at the new charge and wondering how they could afford to go on working for a living
Yesterday, Ferrari’s excellent breakfast show on LBC was bombarded with callers, from firefighters to carers, in absolute despair at the new charge and wondering how they could afford to go on working for a living.
Khan wouldn’t have taken any notice. He refuses to face Ferrari or his listeners.
Genghis is more concerned with pleasing XR and polishing Net Zero than serving the hardworking, hard-pressed people of London.
Instead of pretending to be on TV yesterday morning he should have been with Insulate Britain at Bishopsgate, gluing his face to Tarmac.
I can think about a few million drivers who would gladly buy him a tube Bostik.
Doctors are concerned about quack diets being promoted as Covid cures via social media, including large amounts of Hula Hoops. Wait until the Bog Roll Bandits learn about this. They’ll be panic-buying Hula Hoops by the pallet-load.
Some of them are, however, judging from the photos of the Costco queues.
Scientists warn that climate change could mean birds will no longer migrate from Britain to the UK in winter.
Either that or they just don’t fancy being sliced to death by offshore wind farms.