No ULEZ II – the Khanage continues . . .

February 25, 2023

To London again for the second demonstration in Trafalgar Square against Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) extension, scheduled to begin this August. The cameras around my borough are up already, and every day I hear of more spotted.

The first one was last month; I reported here.

Since the first demonstration several newspapers, among them the Telegraph have taken up criticism of this new tax and the regime behind it. Downing Street is reported to be considering a never before used piece of legislation to block it and Mayor Khan’s campaign is being investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority. Some London councils are calling for his ‘consultation’ to be reviewed and they are refusing to cooperate with the siting of the cameras and may take legal action. As Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London already has traffic lights at road junctions over which local Councils have no control the cameras are being fixed onto existing traffic signals. County councils just outside London whose residents travel into the Greater London Authority area frequently are also protesting to the government and refusing to cooperate with the warning notices as roads approach the GLA area.

This month the attendance was much larger and the ‘event’ celebrated was ‘Ken’s birthday’

We started in Trafalgar Square where a large crowd had already gathered and which was growing by the minute. On the north side of Trafalgar Square the Free Iran protestors had already set up their regular gazebos. A Stop the War Coalition march was expected later and two stalls, one for them and the other for Socialist Worker were not doing much trade; a podium within a long sided lorry was parked in readiness.

In the last month more banners have been made, some of them quite inventive. The word play on the name Khan and an Anglo-Saxon four-letter word was much in evidence.

Protestors came from all over the GLA area. Biggin Hill, site of a famous airfield, is a rural area right on the border with Kent, Havering is culturally Essex and Chessington is far in the South West on the border with Surrey.

Plenty of vehicles did ‘beep’ in support, including buses, an ambulance and even the police officers in the minibuses circulation waved and gave a thumbs-up.

Although we discussed blocking the road, hoping the police would bring us tea like they do for Extinction Rebellion no one did so. The highway was narrowed but after the lights changed vehicles were always given room to come through.

Then, and I don’t know if this was planned in advance and my husband and I missed the memo, or it was spontaneous, the organiser with the coffin led the crowd from the square down Whitehall to Downing Street.

The police stopped the traffic of one lane until we got there, and then stopped the opposite lane for a while so we could shout Khan Out towards No 10.

As is always the case with demonstrations most people who attend work Monday – Friday, and only have the weekend, and at the weekend the ministers and officials are not in Westminster.

Above, at the point that a chant of ‘sit down, sit down’ took over the police held one half of the protest back while the rest of us shouted from the pavement.

He was a good boy. Then we made our way back to Trafalgar Square where I actually saw some Stop the War coalition protestors; they were at the table next to us in the cafe having tea and cake.