Taxing Poor People Off the Roads Will Save Thousands of Lives: Sadiq Khan

But how many Londoners have died due to air pollution in the past 20 years?

London tsar Sadiq Khan has expanded the city’s low emissions zone, insisting that slapping a tax on drivers of older cars in the middle of a cost of living crisis will “save lives”.

“Expanding the ULEZ (Ultra Low Emissions Zone) was not an easy decision, but it will save lives,” he said.

He went on to say that if he didn’t expand the zone to London’s outer suburbs “thousands more people would die prematurely”.

This will come as a surprise to Londoners.

Last year the government revealed, in response to an inquiry as to how many people had passed away due to car emissions, that in the past 20 years exactly one person had died due to air pollution.

And they could not even be sure whether car exhausts had been a contributing factor.

While one person has died between 2001 and 2022 due to car emissions, maybe, there have been 12,786 knife crime offences in London in the past 12 months.

Perhaps Mr Khan could address knife crime after he fixes the non-existent problem of Londoners dropping dead in the street from Mazda fumes.

I’m joking, of course. You can’t collect taxes from gang members carrying knives!

When the London mayor says that "expanding the ULEZ … will save lives" what he means is that he will tax the poor into the ground until they end up having to walk to work.

Walking is good for you, while Saqik gets around in a late model Range Rover.

The idea is that if your car doesn’t meet emissions standards you pay the equivalent of almost $30 Australian a day for the privilege of using London streets.

The low emission zone was originally slated for inner London but is now being expanded to outer suburbs of the English capital.

“London deserves better than the dangerous, polluted air we have today,” Sadiq preached.

So explain to me how paying the government $30 a day in order to roar around in your dirty emissions car as much as you like helps to create clean air.

Does the government just keep jacking up the tax until people can’t afford to do it anymore?

If the London Mayor needs more money to fund his Gay Pride celebrations, does he really need to go to all the trouble of implementing a large bureaucracy to enforce an emissions zone?

Why not just send government minions, armed with clubs, around to people’s homes to take the money directly?

By the way, will the dirty air blowing in the breeze outside the Ultra Low Emissions Zone that now rings London know not to cross over? How will the government police that? Tax the wind if it blows the wrong way?

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reports that Sadiq and his team have flown the equivalent of 14 trips around the world -  despite urging people to be more green - since he took office in May 2016.

Poor Londoners must walk to work. But Sadiq couldn’t possibly use Zoom for his meetings.

Older cars naturally leave the road as they are replaced with newer ones. There is zero need to tax poor people off the road. Labour just hate poor people.

As in Australia, UK Labour hasn’t been the party of the working class for years.