@RupaHuq 1/ Hi Rupa, with the greatest respect, I won't be taking lessons in comradely behaviour from somebody who has actively undermined a Labour Council attempting to address the huge environmental, social, and health costs of Ealing's 130,000,000 mile increase in driving since 2012.
@RupaHuq 2/ As regards my earlier tweet, I made no direct reference to you, nor did I tag or tweet at you. It was fine for Madelaine Albright to use the term “special place in hell", so I'm not sure why it should be off-limits for any other politician.
@RupaHuq 3/ Frankly, I think your attempt to sabotage Low Traffic Neighbourhoods is shamefully populist. But, it's easy for you do because you won't be at the Full Council when parents turn up to asking who is going to prevent their kids from being crushed by a 4x4 on the way to school.
@RupaHuq 4/ Before Hackney's new Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, we had the 6th highest air pollution death rate of 418 local authorities; highest pedestrian & cyclist casualty rate in London; & rat-running had doubled in 10 years.
When you have answers to those issues, you can have my job.
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1/ You'll have recently come across claims that '#LowTrafficNeighbourhoods cause congestion', so I thought it might be useful to show that the real cause of traffic jams on London's roads is the vast increase in the number of car journeys in recent years, in almost every borough.
2/ So, let's get started
Between 2008 and 2019, the number of miles driven on Barking and Dagenham's roads increased by 150,000,000.
One hundred and fifty million miles.
3/ Between 2009 and 2019, the number of miles driven on Barnet's roads increased by 280,000,000.
1/ Labour should drop it; it's a goal that can't be delivered. Labour should match Hackney's target of <45% decarbonisation against 2010 levels by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2040. This matches the higher confidence threshold of the IPCC's 1.5C report. independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…
2/ I don't wish to diminish the achievements of the Labour GND people who managed to defeat the dinosaurs at Labour Conference, but the motion is a flawed exercise in tech utopianism that naively scopes-out aviation and land transport emissions, meaning it fails on its own terms.
3/ The 2030 target essentially came out of XR, which at the time was run by people like Roger Hallam (who I met at Hackney Town Hall) who are extremely anti-politics, and it's my suspicion that this target was more about showing that politics couldn't deliver than that it could.
⚠️ World population has doubled since 1970 and may hit 10 billion by 2050 (from 7.5 billion today)
⚠️ OECD predict meat and resource consumption to double by 2050
⚠️ ICAO predict flights will increase by 300-700%.
2/ Carbon pricing is not the only tool in the box - massive energy system decarbonisation is up there, too - but a universal price on carbon (with appropriate exemptions to prevent hardship) would have the greatest short-term impact on CO2 emissions and resource depletion.
3/ If you're opposed to carbon pricing, you're not really serious about rapid decarbonisation within the time scales we have, and you're not serious about embedding responsibility for our consumer choices within the prices we pay.
1/ One of many new rainwater gardens for Hackney. By systematically eliminating paving and replacing it with gardens and additional trees, we're helping to reduce summer temperatures in a warming city, increase biodiversity and manage high rainfall events.
2/ This #depave programme is part of a broader approach (including the largest urban tree scheme in Europe) to cooling the streets of Hackney, improving air quality, and contributing better mental health and wellbeing outcomes for our residents. If you'd like to find out more...
1/ For Boris Johnson’s eight years at City Hall, it was my job to watch him carefully and, frankly, hurt him. First for the Leader of the Labour Group, then as organiser of Mayor’s Question Time for the Group. Here’s a couple of things I learned, which will help Starmer at PMQs.
2/ Boris Johnson is lazy, but very able. In his own way, and when he hits his stride, he’s a phenomenal performer. If you underestimate that, he will hurt you.
3/ If you fight him on his terms, he will beat you. Do not attempt to adopt his manner; do not attempt to lampoon the aspects of his character that the public like; do not overdo the humour. He’s the best at what he does. Grandstanding.