Letters: The Government must act to stop the undemocratic expansion of Ulez

SIR – The expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone (Letters, August 22) is an undemocratic imposition.

Consultation by Transport for London showed a majority against enlargement, but this has been ignored. The recent Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election also underlined the unpopularity of the plan. No one disputes its impact on the less well-off. In addition, the scrappage payments being offered could mean that thousands of perfectly sound vehicles meet a premature end. 

The scheme is a naked tax grab, with little prospect of enhancing air quality that has already been massively improved by emissions legislation predating Ulez.

The Government can and should intervene, even at this late stage. Rishi Sunak should pause the expansion pending a review. This would not trash his green credentials, but would be a big vote-winner. Likewise, Susan Hall, the Tory candidate in next year’s London mayoral elections, should make Ulez a keystone issue. This will hopefully result in Sadiq Khan being voted out.

Tim Lovett
Claygate, Surrey

SIR – I own a 2015 diesel car with very low mileage, which I have no need or desire to replace. 

Next month my daughter and granddaughter arrive at Heathrow from Australia two days apart, then later depart on different dates. This means that I will visit Heathrow on four occasions and Ulez will cost me £50 on top of expected parking fees. 

How is this meant to ease pollution? The fact is that it will not make one iota of difference. This is just a money-making scheme.

John Baldwin
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire

SIR– I should be interested to hear Sadiq Khan’s explanation as to why a diesel-engined car more than six years old should be subject to the Ulez charge while our 45-year-old Citroën 2CV4 is exempt.

Stephen Wallis
Billericay, Essex

SIR – How I agree with Roger Gentry (Letters, August 16) about the pollution on the London Underground. 
I struggled to use it for years (I’ve since been diagnosed with bronchiectasis) and now avoid it at all costs. Surely Mr Khan should sort this out before concerning himself with suburban roads. 
I also wonder how effective the Ulez expansion will actually be: polluting vehicles will still be in use, as I’m sure many drivers will just pay up.

June Dawes
New Malden, Surrey

SIR – First it was Covid, now it’s Ulez: my wife and I – previously frequent visitors to London – will not go again, meaning the city won’t get our cash.

Robin SeQueira
Lytchett Minster, Dorset

The ultimate penalty

SIR – Regardless of one’s position on capital punishment (Letters, August 22), these past two weeks have brought the arguments for and against it into stark antithesis. 

First there was Andrew Malkinson, who was wrongly imprisoned for 17 years because of sheer incompetence in the system (report, August 22). The child killer Lucy Letby, meanwhile, may now spend years living in relative (and costly) comfort, having committed crimes of unforgivable evil.

Charles Holden
Micheldever, Hampshire

SIR – Tom Benyon (Letters, August 22) notes Lord Hailsham’s view that the death penalty was a “horrible and degrading thing”. I don’t necessarily disagree, but would suggest it was never meant to be pleasant.

I also wonder what Lord Hailsham’s view might have been on the murder, by a nurse, of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more, and whether somewhere along the line we have lost a sense of both perspective and justice.

Roger Wilson
Charter Alley, Hampshire

SIR – The idea that criminals such as Lucy Letby should be forced to attend court to hear sentencing and victim statements (Letters, August 22) is fraught with danger. 

Putting someone who refuses to attend in shackles, or gagging them, while they struggle against these restraints, would cause an appalling scene. Politicians should be wary of making knee-jerk decisions on this.

Bill Todd
Twickenham, Middlesex

SIR – In the 1990s I was the victim of a serious sexual assault in my own home. The police were called and eventually a man was arrested. I was told there would be a trial.

Three times the date for a trial was set, and three times the perpetrator refused a legal representative. So he was told he could represent himself in court – which he did.

I was questioned by my attacker, who was smartly dressed in a blazer and tie, and had to give him sexual details of what had happened. When I faltered, the judge told me very sharply that I had to continue. 

The police officer caring for me through this case told me that my attacker would relish his moment questioning me – an achievement for him, and an ordeal for his victim.

Jenny Long 
London N3

Brexit optimism

SIR  David Millar (Letters, August 22) discusses the benefits of Brexit in British manufacturing.

How refreshing to read someone talking positively about our industrial sector rather than looking in the rear-view mirror and moaning about how Brexit has harmed the country. Perhaps captains of industry would do better at the helm than some of our politicians and civil servants.

Christopher Allen
Swettenham, Cheshire

Avocado initiation

SIR – Shelagh Parry’s recollection of discarded avocados at a formal dinner (Letters, August 21) reminded me of when I was a child in the 1960s, and my cousin brought home an avocado for us to share. We had not seen one before. 

It was carefully cut in half and the stone removed. We both took a bite, and spat it out in disgust. Only several years later did we try one again – and realised that it had to be peeled.

Janet Armstrong
Chatham, Kent

Drugs in Scotland

SIR – For many years Scotland has had the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe. There has now been a reduction in the numbers, but the rate is still nearly three times higher than the UK average.

Nicola Sturgeon, the former first minister, promised time and again to sort out this appalling problem. But the SNP has failed.

Dennis Forbes Grattan
Aberdeen

Scramble to see a GP

SIR – Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, fails to understand that simply digitising GP phone lines will not end the 8am scramble for appointments (report, August 17).

This chronic problem has been caused by the even more chronic problem of recruitment and retention of fully trained GPs. 
Among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Britain suffers from a below-average ratio of doctors per head of population.

Emma Isworth
Tenterden, Kent 

De Niro classics

SIR – Alexander Larman, in his assessment of the work of the octogenarian Robert De Niro (Arts, August 17), missed out the wonderful 1988 film Midnight Run, with Charles Grodin. 

Mary Ross
Penketh, Cheshire

Pound-saving picnics

SIR – Instead of complaining about the price of pub sandwiches (Letters, August 19), why don’t people just make their own? Take a decent flask of coffee, find a bench with a view and enjoy some peaceful al fresco dining.

Peter Rosie
Ringwood, Hampshire

SIR – Before I go out with my family, I delight in making their teas and coffees, using the two flasks that I always take with me. 

On producing them, I very proudly tell the family that I have just saved at least £20, which they would have paid for the eight cups provided. 

It’s a standing joke and they laugh at my tightness; however, after a second cup, I feel well pleased that I hadn’t spent more than £40 on beverages that cost me £2 to make.

Paul Caruana
Truro, Cornwall

A night-time encounter with a king-sized cat

SIR – My experience of big cats in Staffordshire is all too real (“Big cat sightings not reported by dog walkers because they think nobody will believe them”, report, August 11).

In the late 1990s I would walk up the lane every evening from our house in Onecote, near Leek, to the last street light in the village, which was by a neighbouring farmer’s gate. 

One night a cat the size of a Labrador came loping through the gate, ran past me and disappeared up the lane. I particularly remember its soft tread and long tail. I told the farmer, who took it very seriously; incidents of destroyed livestock in the moorlands were well known. 

Months later, my wife returned early from her morning dog walk; she wasn’t quite sure what she had seen jumping over a stone wall, but it was sufficient to send her home in a hurry. 

Richard Sutcliffe
Charing Heath, Kent

Calling time on Britain’s failing exam system

SIR – How, in 2023, can we still believe that cramming pupils into hot examination halls (Letters, August 19) for the most stressful lottery of their young lives is really the best way to assess their ability?

As an A-level teacher and former examiner, I am ashamed of this annual farce. This year the top grades were placed deliberately out of reach of thousands of the most able pupils. But in any case, the grades are unreliable measures of learning. Multiple examination boards use different mark schemes and grade boundaries. With no effective standardisation, one board’s A is another’s B or A*.

Marking is carried out under intense time pressure, with shoddy quality controls: grades leapfrog from C to A on review, or vice versa. The strongest and weakest pupils I teach can be awarded identical grades. And at the end of this shambles, grades are not even comparable between the four parts of the UK, creating an uneven field for university applications.
With nine education secretaries over the past 10 years – and five in the last two – no minister has had time to get a grip on this mess or be held to account.

Nick Johnston-Jones
Leatherhead, Surrey

SIR – Sir Keir Starmer has said that if he were 18 now he could not afford to go to university (report, August 22).
It was Tony Blair who wanted half of all school leavers to go to university, which made the funding model unaffordable, and largely killed off invaluable vocational courses and apprenticeships. 

Does Sir Keir plan to revert to previous, more affordable practices?

Tony Manning
Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire

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