Congestion Charging

South London Press

Violating our basic rights

Feb 28 2003

MONDAY, February 17, was a strange day for me.

It was the day that the Greater London (Central Zone) Congestion Charging Order 2001 came into force, and under which order Londoners were deprived of the right to drive into a large part of central London, unless they comply with the terms of this order, which uses the criminal law to force us to pay a new tax, and to provide to the Mayor dates of our journeys into the charging area.

At 7.15am, I joined a group of protesters at Kennington Road and held a banner in the cold until 9am.

The protesters were mainly from the Conservative Party, so for the first time I held a banner alongside Conservatives. I was relieved to hear the week before that the Conservative candidate for the London Assembly had given drivers some hope by promising to abolish this unfair scheme which, I believe, violates our freedom to travel in London.

By the end of the day, I was also beginning to think the unthinkable to me: namely voting Conservative. Unthinkable, because in the late 1970s I went through a Marxist phase - and disliking Margaret Thatcher was the fashion of that time.

But this new example of environmental fascism, which I say so seriously violates the customary rights of London's drivers, necessitates working-class persons (such as myself) to change our voting behaviour in order to regain our right to decide for ourselves whether we drive, or take public transport. Until we regain that right, working-class people, and middle-class people, too, must, I believe, vote Conservative.

Dudley Heslop
Canterbury Crescent
Brixton

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