When you awoke today I’m betting your first thought wasn’t that you have only 100 days to decide who to vote for to run City Hall.
The main parties have already chosen their candidates, so I’ve been digging around their campaign websites to see what they’ve been saying on a variety of issues, as you’d expect transport, air pollution, housing, jobs and crime are all included.
So with a stubby pencil poised above my choice here’s what information I’ve managed to extract.
Sadiq Khan – Labour (1/6)
Khan claims that electing him for a record third time would be one in the eye for the Tories. He brags about his record on air pollution since the imposition of the popular Ulez; he warns us of the impending climate crisis after flying around the world; he claims reported crime is falling, although most now don’t both to inform the police; promoting housebuilding, which I can testify to as many car parks around here are now building sites; transport affordability (it’s cheap as chips apparently!); and the opening of the Elizabeth line after years of delays.
Susan Hall – Conservative (10/3)
Predictably Hall is keen to “sort out the mess” created by Khan, including stopping the Ulez after it’s cost us millions to set up, but that money won’t be wasted, word has it the cameras will be utilised for the police to spy on us; she does not want to see any construction of housing on the green belt so that cuts out obsolete rural petrol stations, and any derelict land being redeveloped; and that she will look to increase the number of low-rise family properties, rather than one or two bedrooms homes in high-rise blocks, just how without spreading out upon the green belt she doesn’t say.
Zoe Garbett – Green Party (66/1)
No surprise that Garbett pledges to make London a greener, fairer city with measures including free bus travel for young people (bugger the old as they’ve already decided to vote Tory); and cleaner ways to use Silvertown Tunnel, presumably turning it into the world’s largest underground cycle lane.
Rob Blackie Liberal Democrats – (66/1)
Anti-Brexiteer Blackie aims to tackle crime; keep London welcoming for European citizens and others who are “threatened by Home Office incompetence”, presumably to boost recruitment for the Met to tackle crime; and clean up London’s rivers, and there’s me thinking the £4.3bn Thames Tideway Tunnel aims to just achieve that.
Howard Cox – Reform UK (100/1)
A climate change sceptic, Cox promises to scrap Ulez completely, probably dumping the technology into landfill; cutting crime (could public flogging be on the cards?); build more houses, as climate change doesn’t exist let’s just chop down trees on the green belt; and he wants to “get the city moving” by scrapping low traffic neighbourhoods and 20mph zones, returning to the days of Brands Hatch wannabes outside primary schools.
There are several independents, most are not worth mentioning except one, who hasn’t thrown his hat in the ring.
Jeremy Corbyn – Independent (25/1)
As he hasn’t declared yet, so there’s no way of knowing what policies he’d announce. But one thing is for sure, it would split the Labour vote and keep the Red Flag flying above City Hall.
Featured image: Vote by Nick Youngson (CC BY-SA 3.0) Alpha Stock Images
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