North Street, a road running, well North, from Romford crosses Eastern Avenue at its northernmost end necessitating a set of traffic lights at this busy junction. So reviled is Sadiq Khan and his Ulez around here, an area which borders farm fields, the Bladerunners (vandals who destroy Khan’s cameras) removed the cameras only to break the traffic lights which has taken days to mend, with the consequence of gridlock around these parts.

Listening to the excellent WizzAnn Podcast, one of the contributors advanced the idea that TfL has inserted a mole among London’s cabbie fraternity. The theory goes that how is it that an organisation filled with desk wallas knows all the cut-throughs we learned on The Knowledge? Once informed the road is then blocked to vehicles – thanks!

With thousands of acres of farmland and woodland in every direction, it’s great to see this festive decoration from Sadiq, unfortunately very few will see it as it’s pretty unpopulated around this edge of London.

Amongst all the tradition and flummery, with Black Rod using his eponymous stick to hit a door and the new King making his first Gracious Address, between the promise to safeguard the future of football clubs and a commitment to tackle antisemitism, His Majesty uttered fifteen words that could be a relief for many Londoners: “A bill will be introduced to deal with the scourge of unlicensed pedicabs in London.”

This is not before time. Current laws governing pedicabs date back to the 1800s, but we’ve been down this road before, a similar announcement was made in the final Queen’s Speech last May, but the measure was kicked into the long grass before making any progress. but maybe Parliament will at last act to regulate these sometimes dangerous nuisance vehicles that plague the West End.

Uber are so desperate to sign up London’s black cabbies they are waiving their service fee for the first six months, in addition, drivers signing up with Uber will also receive a bonus package. A £150 bonus will be awarded to drivers upon successful document upload and approval. Furthermore, an additional £250 bonus will be granted to drivers after completing their inaugural trip on the Uber platform. This digital disruptor must be desperate to gain legitimacy in the capital, the bribe hardly covers a good day’s income