Forum Topic

Sadiq Khan

Is the man a complete idiot?  At the start of the lockdown he cut right back on underground trains so that passengers (key workers) were huddled up together instead of being able to spread out and now that the lockdown is easing he is re-introducing the congestion charge so that the key workers, most of whom are not terribly well paid, are still forced onto crowded trains.  I would suggest that he and he alone is responsible for numerous deaths.

Viv Griffiths ● 2364d33 Comments

So given, as you say, many key workers don’t earn much money, why are you assuming lots of them own cars and are driving into central London?There is a clear relationship between household income and car ownership and, unsurprisingly, the less the household income is, the less likely they are to own a car (or even have a driving license).In any case, there is a congestion charge reimbursement scheme for NHS and care home workers.

Michael Robinson ● 2364d

Everybody should still be working from home if they can.  Are employers making all efforts to allow them to do so?

Philippa Bond ● 2364d

She wasn’t assuming

Madeleine Hazard ● 2364d

Key workers extend far beyond NHS staff and care workers, there are cleaners, social workers, teachers, postal workers, food chain workers, call centre workers, transport workers, police, fire etc etc.  I'm saying that those who might travel by car have been loaded with this extra expense and are therefore taking public transport and in doing so are crowding the less well paid.

Viv Griffiths ● 2364d

To be fair to him, he has been wanting to run more services, but initially around a third of the drivers were sick or self isolating.  There have been ongoing issues as well with driver availability.  Even with the reduced service, trains have been cancelled because drivers are not available to run them.  It has also been complicated by trade unions objecting to roster changes.The congestion charge increase was forced on him by the government, so you can't really blame him for that either.  Air pollution has almost certainly increased the Covid 19 death rate, so reducing the number of cars in London is a good thing.You can blame him for lots of other things, and there is no way I will vote for him, but those two things aren't on him.  I am very disappointed that Rory Stewart has dropped out of the mayoral race.

Al Webber ● 2364d

Exactly, the Government insisted on the rise in the congestion charge as a condition to providing funds to save TFL from bankruptcy.

Kerry Chandler ● 2364d

I'm disappointed that Rory Stewart has dropped out too.

Viv Griffiths ● 2364d

It is surprising how Khan gets so much heat compared with the lying , untrustworthy, buffoon in No. 10.

Stewart Jones ● 2364d

The government are now saying that the reimposition of the congestion charge was Sadiq Khan's idea not theirs. Either way it does seem to be financially driven rather than by public health considerations. The majority of key workers will not qualify for exemption. On the question of whether key workers drive to work Michael Robinson said: "There is a clear relationship between household income and car ownership and, unsurprisingly, the less the household income is, the less likely they are to own a car (or even have a driving license)." This is overstating what the data tells us. If you exclude the bottom decile of household income then the relationship isn't very strong and the stronger correlation may be to age i.e older people have higher incomes and are more likely to have a car but it is their age not their income which is the cause. The relationship between income and car ownership also breaks down in London where a more wealthy area like Kensington & Chelsea has a very low figure. In any case car ownership is the wrong thing to be looking at. It is the use of the car to commute that is important and here the relationship between income and car use is inverse i.e. the lower your income the more likely you are to use a car to get to work in London. The ONS doesn't give us precise figures on this but you can confirm the broad picture by comparing the average income of an area with the means used to travel to work. Even if you factor out that the highest paid industry in the capital i.e. the City has a tiny proportion of workers commuting by car there is ample evidence that lower pay equals a higher propensity to drive to work. The main reason is that prohibitively high property prices mean that if you are on a lower income you won't be able to afford a home with viable public transport links to your work. With longer distance commutes by public transport often being expensive and woefully unreliable the car has to be used. There is research by the Met on the police in London which shows that a significant proportion of them commute into work by car and I believe the same is true for paramedics and fire fighters. NHS staff also are likely to be much more likely to drive than average given their relatively poor rates of pay. This is not to say most key workers drive to work — they don't. The number of car commutes is a tiny fraction of the total number of journeys to work each day but those on low income and/or key workers represent a higher proportion of car commuters than they do of the total workforce.

Kevin Howard ● 2364d

Thanks for the additional information Kevin.This recent LR article has car ownership information if anyone wants to get their fix of charts..https://www.londonreconnections.com/2020/tfl-the-impossible-finances-of-fighting-a-pandemic/#commentsThe point about commuting in the context of the congestion charge is surely commuting into central London.The Hounslow transport strategy has information about where people work in the borough. The majority of people in Chiswick work in central London but this proportion drops off substantially the further west you go as the employment centres around Brentford and associated with Heathrow dominate. So I agree that lower paid people in outer London areas with worse public transport are more likely to own a car but that doesn’t mean significant numbers commute by car to within the congestion charging zone. There simply aren’t the car parking spaces for a start.

Michael Robinson ● 2364d

VG > "I would suggest that he and he alone is responsible for numerous deaths."That is an astonishing suggestion.I hope that you are raising this matter with the appropriate authorities and not merely spouting poisonous and hateful vitriol.

John Whitworth ● 2363d

'and not merely spouting poisonous and hateful vitriol.'That's a joke right?Caroline Pidgeon London Assembly member, said on T.V. the other night that holding one individual to blame when this has a global pandemic at its root and have lost most of their income is ridiculous, and so it is. It really makes my head spin when I think of what all the critics of the Mayor on here would say if the boot were on the other foot, and a Labour government played naked, ambitious political games with a Tory London Mayor. Johnson's mates are just gaming this situation to make their chosen one - Bailey - more presentable and give him a platform. Despicable.

Vanessa Smith ● 2363d

'It is surprising how Khan gets so much heat compared with the lying , untrustworthy, buffoon in No. 10.'Surprising -  you think?

Vanessa Smith ● 2363d

Despicable is rhetoric of any kind when people will be forced on to crowded buses and tubes, staff going without necessary PPE and penalizing drivers who either need to use a vehicle or now choose to as a safer option providing distancing.Despicable is campaigning on the daddy-was-a-bus-driver folk story then turning your back on daddy's colleagues.Despicable is "not knowing" that projects under your purview were (at the time) £1 billion over budget.Despicable is ratcheting up costs for all but one set of road users who do as they wish for free.Ceding control will lead to fares/fees being raised across all platforms eventually with a little union-busting thrown in for good measure. Reorganization of this magnitude could have been minimized if the organization were better managed all along.

David Lesniak ● 2363d

I think he should've moved heaven and earth, lobbied, battled, screamed and yelled to have kept as many trains and busses on the roads as humanly possible.  If the passenger footfall was down to 10% keeping even 80% of public transport going would've given the passengers some chance of avoiding infection.  He's the mayor, he's the one to fight for Londoners.

Viv Griffiths ● 2363d

I think you would do well to look at how this ‘deal’ has been imposed and the details if it although when faced with facts people who have already decided on a ‘view’ rarely chance them these days.

Stewart Jones ● 2363d

This is looking like a masterstroke from Boris. He imposes measures that are unpopular with some to revolutionise travel in London (which I applaud him for) and then sits back and watches while the critics froth at the mouth at Sadiq. Surely he can’t have imagined it would turn out quite this well.

Paul Campbell ● 2363d

You area aware , aren’t you, if the total mess inherited from Johnson? Forcing people on to the tubes and buses would not be necessary if ending the  lockdown had been put off for a few more weeks. The increase in infection rates and deaths in the next few weeks are at the door of the government not SK however much you want it to be.

Stewart Jones ● 2363d

He clearly knows the level of intelligence of his audience. A Labour Mayor who also happens to be a Muslim - what a gift.

Vanessa Smith ● 2363d

I know Johnson has screwed up, I'm fully aware of that, and I don't give a damn what race or religion SK is, I still maintain he should have been far more vocal and less resigned to accepting any reduction in capacity.

Viv Griffiths ● 2363d

Really? The excuse/reason for being so easy on the government by a lot of people has been that  this is a situation no-one has faced before - true - they have had to more or less learn as they've gone along - also true. Why is that attitude not extended to The Mayor who has also faced the same challenges?

Vanessa Smith ● 2363d

Disregarding all the other political stuff it still seems to me shocking that people were tightly packed into public transport when it was already known about the infection rate.  Even if the Tories are a load of scumbags I reckon it's beholden on the mayor to fight the corner for the key workers.  He's a barrister isn't he?  He should know how to make himself heard.  I'm sure the public would've got behind him.

Viv Griffiths ● 2363d

33 London bus drivers dead so far.

Ken Munn ● 2363d

It's terrible.  That should never have happened.Surely it was wholly predictable unless the drivers were given proper separation from the passengers (as now).  How come Health and Safety didn't get themselves involved right from the start or the Transport Workers Union?

Viv Griffiths ● 2363d

The man (our Mayor) who said earlier this year that it was impossible to catch coronavirus on London't public transport.  He has deaths on his hands.

Claire Moran ● 2363d

Can you find that quote for me, Claire?

Ken Munn ● 2363d

No problem, Ken.  Here you go, plus many others.  Having trouble accessing Google? https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/03/coronavirus-london-tube-sadiq-khan-12339239/

Claire Moran ● 2363d

Go to 8.30 minutes, an interview on 17th March in which an earlier interview at the beginning of the month is referred to during which he had said there was no risk in using the tube or busses. On 17th March he talks about keeping up normal service then maybe scaling down.  The scaling down came across, to me, as a policy not a necessity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai31kQEAxhk

Viv Griffiths ● 2363d

Double standards or what? Ask the same of Johnson, Raab, Hancock et al. Let’s have a public enquiry.

Stewart Jones ● 2363d

It seems to be widely accepted listening to broadcast coverage that there will be one, but (1) how soon? (2) how independent will it be and (3) will any action be taken as a result?  On three, unfortunately I think the answer will be no.

Claire Moran ● 2363d

Thanks Claire

Ken Munn ● 2363d

CM > "Here you go, plus many others."From the link you supplied:The Mayor of London answered: ‘Because I rely upon the advice I receive from Public Health England the chief medical officer and the advice is you’re not going to catch it if you’re washing your hands regularly.'

John Whitworth ● 2362d

CM > "He has deaths on his hands."He, and he alone?

John Whitworth ● 2362d