Any idea when we're due to hear more about the WhatsApp stuff?
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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There was a quiet article that access was gained to the phone last week.
I guess there isn't much more to be said until either the legal announcements, or if someone else with copies decides to publish them for political gain.
Now that access to the phone has been gained I suspect the contents will be reviewed by several lawyers in depth, probably with Boris right there. Given that there will be months if not several years of messages to review, I’d not expect an update for a few weeks, unless a decision is made to trickle stuff through to the committee as it gets cleared.
Q: Did you really tell the shadow cabinet you don’t like tree huggers?
Starmer said he was talking to the shadow cabinet about a visit to Scunthorpe steel works. He was making the point about the workers there not being tree huggers, but being very committed to the shift to green energy. Guardian Liveblog
Assuming he’s not stretching the truth too far, that’s not a bad as I thought. Sounds like he was making a rhetorical point, rather than automatically denigrating anyone who thinks the environment should be our priority.
I was wondering if any modelling has been done on applying ULEZ rules only to cars brought after the point it's introduced. That would lessen the impact on low earners with their existing cars but would eventually solve itself as all cars are eventually replaced. This would apply to transaction dates, not the age of the car. So buying a polluting second hand car after ULEZ day would still attract the costs.
The ULEZ isn't a new thing - it already covers huge swathes of Inner London (where I live and drive) and nobody here complains about it.
The whole issue is a storm in a teacup that will lose all political salience once the ULEZ expansion happens and the vast majority of drivers realise that it doesn't actually affect them. There were stories from Uxbridge of voters with bloody Teslas in their drives worrying about the impact of the ULEZ expansion, because Tory campaigners were spreading myths that it affected everyone not just cars from pre-2006 - that sort of campaigning will become impossible once the change has actually happened and people realise they're not paying anything extra.
Hold on, so who exactly is affected by ULEZ? Not being a Londoner I assumed it affected any fossil fueled car. I was wondering if my modern diesel would be affected driving to Heathrow and parking their for two weeks.
Almost all petrol cars from after 2006 or almost all diesel cars from after 2015 meet the emission standards and are exempt (although I believe some older cars meet the standards also). You can type your numberplate in here if you want to check.
This is exactly the issue, the Tories capitalised in Uxbridge on myths about a much wider range of cars being affected. Also, if someone's car was affected, they could claim thousands of pounds of subsidies from the £100 million scrappage scheme to help them buy a new cleaner car.
2015 isn't that long ago so I can still see it's an issue for people with older cars. Mine was ~2010 so attracts a £12.50 a day charge and at 70000 miles on the clock isn't a worn out banger. Of course where the choice is drive to London or take the train it probably still tips in the cars favour if I have the family with me but I'm coming from a fair way out. I can certainly see it being a problem for low paid workers on non public transport friendly hours because it will be an eighth of their pay for the day.
Which is why there's a scrappage scheme to fund people replacing older cars.
It's not going to cover the full cost, especially if the replacement car has to be much newer than what you have.
Doesnt have to be newer technically? Ford focus mk1 runs from 98-2004 and meets ulez requirements. As does audi a2, cars which can be picked up for 500-5k.
I read somewhere a figure of around 90pc of people in Ulez are unaffected by it. Sadly this storm in a teacup is a wedge issue something thats gripping UK politics lately.