Protesters in London have warned that Sadiq Khan’s green emissions tax on cars will likely result in a France-style revolt.
Numerous Londoners involved in protesting Sadiq Khan’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion plan have warned that the glorified green tax will likely result in widespread unrest similar to that seen in France earlier this year.
Tens of thousands of Londoners are furious as the leftist mayor plans to expand the ULEZ project, which bans many types of cars from travelling in designated parts of London unless their owner pays a charge of £12.50 (~$15.50) per day.
According to a report by The Times, a considerable number of people living in the city are deeply upset regarding the green plan, with many lacking the financial resources to either buy a new car or pay the daily charge.
“People just can’t afford new cars or the charges — people like carers who are on crap wages,” Phil Elliott — the head of the new UK Unites protest movement — said.
Elliot went on to warn that fury over the plan was beginning to boil over in the city, with many members of the public opting to vandalise and destroy hundreds of cameras set up by local authorities to catch people who break the new rules.
“We’ve got all these people who are fed up being ignored,” he said. “You don’t need to be in power to get change, you just need pressure and numbers. We aren’t French — but there’s a lot of people saying we should be like the French.”
He ultimately warned that the UK could end up seeing unrest similar to that seen in France and The Netherlands in recent months, with many mulling the idea of choking UK food and fuel supplies in order to force their Labour Party overlords to listen to them.
“Farming, haulage, food supply — you name it, we cover it,” Elliot said. “Remember, people need food to eat, and the farmers are working with us.”
Another campaigner, Nick Arlett, seemingly predicts a similar reaction down the line, saying that widescale public unrest is the natural progression from the discrete vandalism that is already regularly being seen.
“[T]hey phone me up and ask, ‘When are we going to riot?’” Arlett, who runs a major anti-ULEZ social media group, warned. “They’ve had enough of Khan and this government.”
Though far from a certainty, any chaos in London brought about as a result of the ULEZ expansion would reflect badly on Sadiq Khan, a mayor who is already struggling to maintain the support of the general public.
Overall, half of the city believes Khan is doing a bad job as mayor, a worrying statistic considering that the Muslim politician is facing an election next year.
The mayor has also come under criticism for failing to tackle crime in the capital and having overseen the reemergence of Polio in the city, a disease that had been declared completely extinct in Britain back in 2003.