Friday 22 September 2017

By George

Running Uber out of town was one of George Galloway's key pledges when, in the face of a near-total media blackout, he stood for Mayor of London. It is high time to revisit some more of them.

It is high time to enforce the requirement that 50 per cent of housing on all new projects must be dedicated to affordable housing, redefined as 50 per cent of average rents, not the 80 per cent that is currently the case.

It is high time for an all-night Tube service, but with workers properly consulted on the process, properly recompensed, and not forced into working long, unsociable, and potentially dangerous hours.

It is high time to ban HGV vehicles from Central London during daytime hours, in a bid to reduce fuel emissions during those hours.

It is high time to invest in more cycle lanes, and in initiatives to make it safer to cycle around London.

It is high time to expand London's airport capacity, but not in the form of a third runway at Heathrow when Gatwick offers a better alternative.

It is high time for the use of the Oyster Card to be massively expanded, making it an interest free debit card used in shops and restaurants, for other services, and for the transfer of money abroad, so that City Hall would become a publicly owned People's Bank.

It is time to put the £18 billion annual City Hall budget online in real time, absolutely transparently, using the BlockChain technology developed by London's red hot FinTech industry that is currently based in the Shoreditch Corridor.

And it is high time to end immediately all fire station closures, and all cuts to London's fire services, reversing the cuts that have already been made.

That would be a start, anyway. In fact, the start was made today, with the acceptance that Galloway had been right all along about Uber.

Like Alex Watson, George Galloway remains one of my Campaign Patrons.

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