London's (conservative) mayor trying to kill former Mayor Livingstone's (successful) congestion fee

[marmar]

from the Independent UK:



Thanks to Boris, it's as if Thatcher had never gone away

Meeting Ken Livingstone again recently after a lapse of some years, I was able to tell him face to face that the only really radical move made in the long years of Labour government since 1997 was his introduction of the congestion charge in London.

Red Ken may have many failings but for this he deserves to be congratulated. The congestion charge is an imperfect instrument, but by and large it has succeeded in doing what it was supposed to do, that is to reduce the traffic in central London.

We ought not to be surprised, therefore, that the new London Mayor Boris Johnson, the most powerful Tory politician in Britain today, now plans to put the clock back. He has already said he's going to do away with the extension to the zone that Ken introduced, and now he has announced that the charge will in future be reduced for motorists coming in to London during off-peak hours.

The only result of that will be more not fewer cars, and therefore more traffic jams and slower buses.

In this Boris is proving himself to be just an old-fashioned Thatcherite. Thatcher hated public transport, especially trains, in which she hardly ever travelled. To her way of thinking the ideal British citizen was an individual driving his own car even if he was stuck in a five-mile tailback.

Buses, trains and tubes were part of the apparatus of socialism. And as for Red Ken, he was the devil incarnate.


http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/richard-ingrams/richard-ingramsrsquos-week-come-the-revolution-who-will-be-there-to-protect-us-1650787.html

[TheBigotBasher]

1. This is not an Pro Car or Anti Tube thing

There is simply no need for the congestion charge outside of peak hours.