November 28, 2019
One of my abiding memories of Boris Johnson as mayor was his explaining how his technical fix for air pollution worked by spraying the air, capturing the pollution and forcing it to the ground where, if you wanted to, you could snort it up like some toxic cocaine. He got very tetchy when I exposed how his sprayers were focusing their attention around the air pollution monitors and thereby cheating on the official figures for pollution, while leaving most Londoners to breath dirty air.  
Boris Johnson Failed For 8 Years On Air Pollution. Don’t Trust Him On Climate Change
It was typical Boris bluster. Find a gimmick, put on a show, don’t worry about actually fixing the problem. He did it time and again as London mayor. He will do it as prime minister with the climate crisis and put all our futures at risk.
Air pollution accounts for around 4,000 premature deaths a year in London. It is a public health emergency, but never treated that way by any government whether they are Labour, Coalition or Conservative. Mayor Johnson wasn’t the only politician to be complacent about the impacts on human health, with asthma, hearts attacks, Alzheimers and reduced lung size, all linked to pollution. However, Johnson went out of his way to disguise that complacency with the distracting hum of activity.Related... Tory Manifesto: Boris Johnson Pledges 50,000 More NHS Nurses Jeremy Corbyn Claims 'Secret' Documents Prove NHS 'Up For Sale' To Donald Trump Along with the spraying machines. Johnson had pot plants “to absorb pollution” along one of the most polluted roads near the river – no, I’m not making this up. More substantially, he also planted 20,000 street trees in his eight years as mayor. Mature trees are great at soaking up pollution in the summer and keeping a city cooler. Saplings less so. Another of my memorable moments on the London Assembly was explaining to Johnson that one his main delivery partners, Transport for London, had indeed planted 525 trees on its road network in 2009, but it had cut down 853 – a net loss of 328 trees. The same pattern was repeated in several boroughs who lost more trees than Johnson gave them money to plant.
Another typical Johnson ploy was his vision for an Ultra-Low Emission Zone that would discourage all but the cleanest and zero emission vehicles from entering London from 2020 onwards – implemented by the next mayor. Watch out for this one, he will use it a lot if he becomes prime minister. He launched this idea while ditching his predecessor’s plans to take immediate action against the most polluting white vans, just as the number escalated with the growth of Amazon, Tesco and a host of other online delivery companies.    
During the periods of heaviest air pollution mayor Boris did nothing to warn Londoners. He followed the government policy of staying silent about air pollution episodes in a deliberate attempt to minimise the issue. A study of a 10-day episode in 2014 found an extra 300 deaths and 1,600 hospital admissions. Despite the regularity of such deadly episodes, Johnson refused my repeated requests to do more to tell commuters, or health professionals. His successor as mayor, Sadiq Khan, has broken ranks with the government and does issue warnings, but that is still far short of taking measures to reduce the traffic on the roads during those episodes.
Boris Johnson as prime minister, supposedly leading on the climate emergency, will waste five years on gimmicks and inactivity. He will also push through projects that make things worse. Rather than sitting in front of the bulldozers as promised, prime minister Johnson will give Heathrow expansion the go-ahead and start building the single most environmentally damaging project in the UK. Please don’t elect this man.
Baroness Jenny Jones is a Green party peer.Related... When Will Corbyn Realise: Nothing Labour Can Offer Is More Important Than Anti-Semitism Jeremy Corbyn Urges Critics To 'Engage' With Him Over Handling Of Anti-Semitism Jeremy Corbyn Claims 'Secret' Documents Prove NHS 'Up For Sale' To Donald Trump What Is Tactical Voting – And Will It Change The General Election Result?
Related Stories
Latest News
Top news around the world
Academy Awards

‘Oppenheimer’ Reigns at Oscars With Seven Wins, Including Best Picture and Director

Get the latest news about the 2024 Oscars, including nominations, winners, predictions and red carpet fashion at 96th Academy Awards

Around the World

Celebrity News

> Latest News in Media

Watch It
Ruby Franke’s Husband REVEALS Alleged Rules He Had to Follow at Home | E! News
March 28, 2024
_mU-3lE2QwI
#KenanThompson speaks out following the #QuietonSet documentary. (🎥: Tamron Hall Show) #shorts
March 28, 2024
8AGP-Gfw_Ek
King Charles Shares "Great Sadness" at Missing Royal Appearance | E! News
March 28, 2024
lyizFqf1kQY
Martha Reeves Walk of Fame Ceremony
March 27, 2024
QzyezumEPtQ
Eminem, 50 Cent & Snoop Dogg Present Dr. Dre with a Star on the Walk of Fame
March 19, 2024
4bNLs1hxVp8
Opening Remarks for the Variety Summit October 20th, 2023 Jay Penske
March 18, 2024
c6Z707iLq8E
Montell Jordan Dishes On Young MC Wedding, 'This Is How Date Night' Plans | TMZ
March 28, 2024
G3SMExj-qio
Davina Potratz Says TV Not Helping 'Selling Sunset' Relationship Woes | TMZ
March 28, 2024
D4piy4GNm4k
Logan Paul Rips Graham Bensinger Over Documentary, You Promised Apple TV+ | TMZ Live
March 28, 2024
NiSDpZhZklQ
Prince William pinned royal medal to Spice Girl Mel B’s boobs #shorts
March 28, 2024
O1cQ0UW9pco
Jennifer Garner shares ‘hard’ part of raising her and Ben Affleck’s kids
March 28, 2024
3Q7mZaVUdgc
50 Cent's ex Daphne Joy named as an alleged sex worker in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs lawsuit #shorts
March 28, 2024
yhLFI8DG9rM
TV Schedule
Late Night Show
Watch the latest shows of U.S. top comedians

Sports

Latest sport results, news, videos, interviews and comments
Latest Events
28
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Playoffs - Women
PSG W - Hacken W
28
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Playoffs - Women
Barcelona W - SK Brann W
27
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Playoffs - Women
Chelsea W - Ajax W
27
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Playoffs - Women
Lyon W - SL Benfica W
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Atletico Madrid - Barcelona
17
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Manchester United - Liverpool
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Inter Milan - Napoli
17
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund - Eintracht Frankfurt
17
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Chelsea - Leicester City
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Roma - Sassuolo
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Verona - AC Milan
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Juventus - Genoa
16
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
Darmstadt - Bayern Munich
16
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Manchester City - Newcastle United
16
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Fulham - Tottenham Hotspur
16
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Osasuna - Real Madrid
13
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Atletico Madrid - Inter Milan
12
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Barcelona - Napoli
12
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Arsenal - Porto
Find us on Instagram
at @feedimo to stay up to date with the latest.
Featured Video You Might Like
zWJ3MxW_HWA L1eLanNeZKg i1XRgbyUtOo -g9Qziqbif8 0vmRhiLHE2U JFCZUoa6MYE UfN5PCF5EUo 2PV55f3-UAg W3y9zuI_F64 -7qCxIccihU pQ9gcOoH9R8 g5MRDEXRk4k
Copyright © 2020 Feedimo. All Rights Reserved.