Kathleen Marquardt
Kathleen Marquardt is the founder and chairman of Putting People First, a non-profit organization combatting the animal rights movement. Her book, AnimalScam: the Beastly Abuse of Human Rights, was published by Regnery in 1993 and has been used in universities as a textbook.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan introduced ULEZ (Ultra-Low Emission Zone) in a small area of central London in 2019 to purportedly reduce emissions, lower congestion, and fight climate change. In a ULEZ area, if you drive an older or non-electric car, you are taxed £12.50 ($15.10) for every day you cross into or move within a ULEZ zone. In other words, if you want to drive in London and not be taxed exorbitantly, you don’t drive a petrol or diesel-driven car.
The mayor undoubtedly thought that, because there was no outrage when he first introduced the “Ultra-Low Emission Zone” in Outer London, there wouldn’t be much when he announced it would now be brought into all of London.
Boy, was he ever mistaken!
As reported in Breitbart News, when the citizens of Sutton realized they’d been taken, it was like a scene from the movie Network. They were mad. Indeed, angry citizens “blocked ‘every single’ camera in the borough of Sutton used to enforce Sadiq Khan’s climate car tax.”
According to Breitbart:
“The pushback continues against Sadiq Khan’s expansion of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) from its previous incarnation covering a relatively small area of central London as an anti-congestion measure to extend to the entirety of the capital, meaning that drivers of vehicles that do not comply with the mayor’s climate standards are charged a base fee of £12.50 per day for driving anywhere in the city, disproportionately impacting working-class commuters.”
But
“The activists dispersed throughout the borough, using signs to block the license plate cameras used to enforce the tax, which they said, in combination with the actions of ULEZ camera smashing vigilantes — referred to as the ‘Blade Runners’ — meant that “every camera” was useless to the city government. There has also been an emerging trend of citizens “ULEZ fishing”, using fishing poles to plaster stickers onto the lens of cameras throughout the city.”
One must wonder, are we finally seeing people around the world standing up to the demanding – and ridiculous – rules and regulations surrounding climate change extremism? We certainly see it with the EU and US farmers out on the streets protesting, but are we also beginning to see it among – finally –city dwellers responding to the tightening of the noose?
Tough to say. But one has to admire their spunk:
“We got at least 80 covered today, so every single camera in the borough is either deactivated or is being covered with a placard today. We’ve put messages out on social media advertising the fact it is only for three hours, so drivers can do what they would normally do – like visit a relative in hospital, without being fined.”
These protesters, though zealous, are being kind and non-violent, not something you see often today with the Climate Change protesters. Both sides are angry; one side is civil. The other, a little less so …
“In response to the widespread civil disobedience, the mayor’s office has been forced to deploy surveillance vans to enforce the green taxes. Khan has also reportedly hired a “goon squad” of masked men to roam the streets and forcibly, and allegedly violently, prevent the public from disabling the spy cameras.”
Khan’s chief rival in the May mayoral election, Susan Hall, isn’t pleased with all this. She stated publicly,
“It is shameful that Sadiq Khan has consistently misled Londoners about his ULEZ expansion. It is nothing but a tax grab that only has a negligible effect on air quality.
“We know his staff leant on scientists to change their findings, and he is taking hundreds of millions from the poorest Londoners. I will scrap the ULEZ expansion on day one of my Mayoralty, no ifs, no buts.”
May Susan Hall have the last word.
To read the Breitbart News article in its entirety, click HERE:
