The Thamesmead Grump

ULEZ

The recent by-election in Uxbridge and South Ruislip last Thursday resulted in the Tories holding on to the seat with a majority of 495 votes, down from the 7210 they got in the 2019 election. This, according to many political pundits of the climate change denial variety shows how Londoners are rejecting the expansion of ULEZ across the city.

So let's look at the results and see just what they mean. 

The Conservative (anti-ULEZ) candidate achieved 13,965 votes; down from 53% of the vote in 2019 to 45%

The Labour candidate achieved 13,470 votes; up from 38% of the vote in 2019 to 44%

53.77% of those eligible to vote didn't bother.

If this was a referendum on ULEZ, the result is perfectly clear; most people couldn't give a damm about ULEZ one way or the other, although to be fair, they don't seem to give a damm about anything else much elther.

Those who voted Labour or for most of the other candidates don't give a damm about ULEZ or actively support it.

In any case, anyone claiming that almost wiping out a substantial Conservative majority, leaving them to scrape through by a gnat's whisker as a disaster for Labour must be reading the Daily Telegraph.

The anti-ULEZ campaign is a storm in a teacup, with it's advocates making a lot of noise and getting a lot of media attention with little effect.

Speaking of pressure groups making a lot of noise, getting a lot of media attention with little effect:-

JUST STOP OIL

An international organisation pops up out of nowhere, well organised, well funded and seemingly with the purpose of totally discrediting the environmental movement. In cases like this, one usually just follows the money and in this case, it leads right back to the fossil fuel industry.

How better to derail the campaign to try and reverse the damage being done to our planet than by demonising those who advocate a movement to a more sustainable lifestyle. Get a bunch of idiots and tell them to disrupt society in any way they can. They are supplied with all the accoutrements necessary to do this; tickets to major public events, tee shirts, banners, no end of orange dye. We are left in no doubt as to who they are.

Some people may argue that those taking part in these disruptive stunts are genuine climate activists. What utter nonsense. Anyone believing that making a fool of yourself, disrupting popular public events and stopping the traffic actually makes people more supportive of the environmental movement would have to be a complete moron and I don't believe anyone could be that stupid.