“Sadiq Khan thinks you’re all far-right conspiracy theorists and Covid deniers!”
This was the opening gambit from Conservative London Assembly member Peter Fortune as he bounced onto the stage at an anti-ULEZ protest in Trafalgar Square on 15 April. ULEZ, or the ‘Ultra Low Emission Zone’, is a scheme to charge people who drive the most polluting vehicles through London. Similar rules exist elsewhere in the UK, with councils in Newcastle, Birmingham and Manchester implementing their own ‘Clean Air Zones’ (CAZ).
The mostly middle-aged crowd responded with a resounding chorus of ‘boos’. In March, London mayor Khan had publicly dismissed the anti-ULEZ movement as “joining hands with…conspiracy theorists and the far right”, much to the outrage of organisers, who insisted they were just “normal people”.
