Word: mayor
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Sometimes it's hard to muster enough critical detachment to report a subject fairly. Take the changes to London's congestion charging scheme that were unveiled at a ceremony in City Hall this morning. Ken Livingstone, the capital's two-term Labour Mayor - currently campaigning to win a third stint in May 1 elections - announced that from October onward, drivers of high-polluting vehicles will have to pay a punitive ?25 or $50-a-day toll for city-center journeys. The chief focus of Livingstone's wrath are the four-wheel drive vehicles he calls "Chelsea tractors": shiny gas-guzzlers...
...left-leaning metropolitan types concerned about climate change - as well as green campaigners across the world, who laud the congestion-charging scheme he first introduced in February 2003. The original daily $10 toll has been raised to $16, and the charging zone was extended westward last year. The mayor says that if a third of the 33,000 high-emissions cars daily entering central London continue to do so, the new scheme will generate a further $60 million to $100 million a year on top of the $240 million already raised by the congestion charge scheme, a chunk of which...
...staff have placed a large bouquet of exotic flowers, fresh off a plane, on the desk where he will sign off on the CO2-saving scheme). So why am I less than enthused by the announcement? Full disclosure: sitting in my garage is the kind of car that the mayor wants kept off the streets...
...That's a fair comment. So is there anyone else rash enough to criticize this planet-saving scheme? Step forward Livingstone's chief challenger Boris Johnson, the Conservative candidate for mayor. He responded to Livingstone's announcement with a statement attacking the "appalling state of the transport system" and suggesting that the new charge will hit poorer families who can't afford to exchange their old bangers for new, clean cars. "In effect, the mayor has just given the green light for richer people to buy smaller cars and enter the zone for free while families who struggle with...
...have flocked to praise Martinon's merits during rallies, his campaign stalled. That sluggishness continued despite Sarkozy's own 21-year-old Neuilly-born and -bred son, Jean, taking on an energetic and high-profile role in the campaign. This weekend, concern that the city that last elected Sarkozy mayor in 2001 with a 76% score (and gave him identical backing in last year's presidential race) may yet snub his anointed successor began skyrocketing...