THE Ulez tax inflicted on London’s poorest drivers is not just cruel, ineffective and justified by a statistical deceit, it is wildly unpopular everywhere.
Not just among those in the capital’s outer boroughs now ensnared by the inept yet strangely cocky Labour Mayor.
It is hated nationwide by all those who fear their freedoms will be punitively taxed or simply outlawed by left-wing councils or a future Labour Government.
Some 47 per cent in our major poll today would oppose any Ulez-style scheme near them — almost twice those who would back it. And no wonder. Its case was always fatally flawed.
London’s air is already its cleanest in centuries. The 4,000 residents a year whom Khan claims die early from pollution are a mathematical conjuring trick.
But he and his allies dismiss or abuse all dissent. And he will never give up on his lucrative new levy no matter how bogus its rationale or savage its effects.
His party leader Keir Starmer is, as always, on the fence. Here, then, is an opportunity for Rishi Sunak.
Voters detest Ulez. Like they loathe being strong-armed into paying five figures for a heat pump less effective than a gas boiler.
Or ditching reliable, long-distance petrol and diesel vehicles for hopeless battery ones at twice the price.
Most are not against Net Zero in principle. They just cannot afford it — and resent politicians assuming they can.
Khan pompously predicts he’ll prove to be “on the right side of history”.
Our advice, Rishi: Be on the right side of the public instead.
WE can now bury the Left’s self-serving narrative of Britain as the sick man of Europe.
It was all cobblers. Dismal ONS economic figures, seized on by Labour’s Remainers to crucify the Tories and “prove” Brexit was already a disaster, were spectacularly, scandalously wrong.
All that carping, all that “expert” analysis by Tory-averse pundits, blown to bits in one staggering change of heart.
Our post-Covid recovery was among the strongest in the G7, not the weakest.
And far from the economy still being smaller now than before the pandemic, it has been bigger for almost two years.
This mortifying ONS error had appalling effects.
It changed the political weather, deterred investment and helped propel the Chancellor towards damaging tax rises and belt-tightening.
What good is this supposedly authoritative body if its assessments and forecasts are so disastrously flawed?
IMAGINE giving the order to rip down posters about a missing cat. The heartlessness of it. The bone-headed stupidity.
We hope Otis returns home.
And Newham council’s jobsworths take a hard look at themselves in the mirror.
