The ultra-low-emissions-zone means breathing is a joy in London. Why does the honourable member for Richmond – and prime minister – not support this healthy and economically beneficial policy for all cities? Why would the prime minister not support the Conservative’s original commitment to ULEZ? And why is the prime minister now looking to pull the UK out of important climate change policies? Does the prime minister lack real conviction in addressing what is important to the health of individuals, families, the elderly and his own children?
Climate change is already costing the Mediterranean dearly, in both health and economics. Why is the prime minister so fearful of ULEZ costing him votes when his proposed dismantling of healthy mitigations comes at the cost of all our children’s futures? Can we really afford to be that short-sighted in our thinking?
For the sake of 495 marginal votes in Uxbridge and Ruislip, the prime minister decides that improving air quality and reducing carbon emissions is superfluous to his aims? Yet again, you have let us down as you allow him to back away from such important issues as clean air and carbon pollution – not to mention adequate funding of the NHS.
We can’t turn our back on the extraordinary progress we have made
It seems Rishi Sunak lacks knowledge of real life in London and it is clear he has not been a resident in London for very long at all. If he had even done basic research or asked his North London MPs, he would realise the huge improvements in the clean air in London in the last 20-plus years. Margaret Thatcher, my former MP, was quite knowledgeable about the challenges of air pollution due to car use in North Finchley, even in earlier decades.
Maybe this timeline is a reminder of the road to improvement in the air we breathe in London. At six years old I was in a traumatic bus crash due to the Great Smog before Clean Air Act 1959 in North London. Thirteen years later I started training in medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. We soon learnt about air pollution and public health, even as we breathed and tasted its awful human-created miasma ourselves.
Even more so, we saw the lungs of Londoners were stiff and grey-black at post-mortem or during surgery. They were so unlike the healthy, spongy, pink lungs of patients in other areas in the UK with little or no air pollution. The vital resilience of Londoner’s lungs was reduced especially when combined with cigarettes, many fathers died in their 50s when their children were teenagers.
Today, life expectancy has increased – in large part due to cleaner air. The evidence is abundantly clear, so why does your colleague, the prime minister, ignore the historical context and seek to roll back positive change for all people?
London is becoming an exemplar thanks to good policy
I have just spent 72 hours in central London, it was a true joy to breathe fresh air without experiencing the black nostril discharge, hideous smell and irritated eyes of previous decades. The previously rancorous noise from vehicles was low to non-existent and the pungent smell of diesel and petrol fumes was blissfully absent. The air was crisp and fresh.
The public transport was remarkably clean and fume-free both in and outside, and frequent, at every two to four minutes. Buses are now largely hybrid, with some being totally electric, or fuelled by harmless hydrogen, or – at the very least – meet emissions targets. Access to public transport is impressive with lifts in many tube stations. The transport network feels safe, clean, and for the many locals and overseas visitors it is good value.
Maybe the difficulty for the prime minister is that he has no real-life experience of travelling on public transport in big cities in the UK. Add to this of course is his frequent insistence on using private jets and helicopters as a means of transport.
Well done to Sadiq Khan and all those who worked so hard to reshape our health and our lives with clean air policies. Your conviction to make a difference for the common good is to be commended and remembered. A true lasting legacy.
We as humans created air pollution and we urgently need to clean it up. Of course, it is not cheap, but the reality is that over time it will give everyone better health and improve the economy of London – such a pleasant, healthy city to visit today – the air in Hyde Park is as remarkably fresh as Richmond’s in North Yorkshire, not far from where the prime minister resides. These changes inspire other cities around the world to do the same. So, why does the prime minister run from such a policy, something of real benefit to us all?
Conservative MPs of Yorkshire, we need an answer.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Frances Cole MB BS MRCGP (retired)
