19 April (Part 1) - Promises, promises
Probably most of you will have received the London Elects booklet by now. It tells you how to vote and contains
the
Manifestos of the eleven Mayoral candidates. There is a remarkable
similarity between all of them. Eradicate knife crime; Stop ULEZ and
similar attacks on private transportation; Tackle homelessness and put local
people first. But there is one exception, Labour candidate Sadiq Khan makes no
promises, presumably because he knows he has failed on all of those things over the past eight years.
He claims to have frozen TfL fares for five years which is true of only a few of
them. He claims to be funding free school meals from his 71% increase in the
Council Tax precept but he only pays for a small minority of them
as any Council website will confirm.
He claims the Elizabeth line as his achievement but it was due to open six years ago and Khan had very little input
to it. Khan has been a disaster for London and he admits that the risk of
meeting a violent end is “part and parcel” of living in a big city. His alone
among the eleven Manifestos makes no promises for the future. So it is more of
the same and London will continue in its downward spiral and policed by a
politically motivated force. (Khan is London’s Police & Crime Commissioner.)
The first past the post electoral system gives only one choice if you want to
see a change in direction and that is to vote for the Conservative candidate. It
is not worth a protest vote with the Greens (take a look at their Brighton
stronghold) or Reform UK whose candidate list includes people I know to be
dishonest in the extreme. Howard Cox is close to being a one trick pony
(motoring) but when I have several times heard him on the radio he can talk
total balderdash about electric vehicles. They are neither all good nor all bad
as Mr. Cox would have you believe.
Susan Hall was frequently impressive as a GLA Member but perhaps not the most
exciting of Mayoral candidates - though no worse than the alternatives - but she
is the only hope for averting the disaster that is another four years of Khan.
Personally I am not sure where Khan gets his support from, I have yet to come
across anyone - and that’s a fifty plus figure - who has a good word to say
about Khan, not even those of a Leftie persuasion.