Transport for London has done a screeching U-turn after accidentally banning a week-long Greenpeace campaign urging Rachel Reeves to tax the super-rich. Old habits banning ads die hard…
Greenpeace had snapped up ad space at Westminster Tube Station from October 23rd to 28th, just in time for the Budget. The ad, with Reeves’ face alongside the tagline, “They have the money. She has the power,” demanded a 2.5% “National Renewal Tax” on fortunes over £10 million. Though when Greenpeace went to see their handiwork, TfL had quietly given it the axe…
According to The Standard, TfL’s initial excuse was they couldn’t run it without Reeves’ “written permission” unless she’d publicly aligned herself with the statement. The Committee of Advertising Practice confirmed no permission was needed, since the ad wasn’t portraying Reeves negatively (free-marketeers would disagree). They must have realised that Reeves is preparing to hammer ‘non-working’ people on six-figure salaries in her Budget tomorrow anyway. The ads will now be running on the network – a bit late. Greenpeace doing the Chancellor’s PR for her…
Now Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London is asking the Labour government to double its pay offer to £500 million (from the Tories’ £250 million). Khan wants to restructure pay offers by being given a huge multi-year package, which would helpfully “remove the current need for annual funding negotiations”. And keep the gravy train well maintained…
Maybe TfL shouldn’t have spent £29 million on self-promoting advertisements and banned almost every type of revenue-generating private adverts on its property. Funnily enough Khan hasn’t resorted to constant online complaining and clamouring for cash this time now that Labour is in. Negotiations will take place behind Labour Party doors…
Looks like Khan’s love-in with the EU is going through a rough patch as European governments are furious with TfL for wrongly fining hundreds of thousands of EU citizens for driving the in ULEZ area. One poor Frenchman was wrongly fined £25,000 for driving in ULEZ…
Five EU states accused Khan’s TfL of illegally obtaining names and addresses, resulting in 320,000 penalties since 2021. Sleuthing Belgian MP Michael Freilich said “this is possibly one of the largest privacy and data breaches in EU history, but so far no concrete action has been taken while responsibilities are being shunted on to driver.” No amount of smoke can get Khan out of this one…
Even the LibDems have blasted Khan, calling for an immediate investigation as this may damage the city’s reputation. Susan Hall weighed in, telling Guido:
“These are incredibly serious allegations that must be investigated urgently. There can be absolutely no justification for illegally obtaining people’s private information to enforce Sadiq Khan’s unfair ULEZ expansion.
“It is telling that even Sadiq Khan’s friends in the EU are saying he can’t treat drivers like cash cows. As Mayor, I will scrap his ULEZ expansion on day one and ensure these allegations are looked into.”
Since Brexit, the UK is banned from automatic access to personal details of EU residents, so Khan’s indiscriminate ULEZ tax grab from EU citizens violated the law. Khan can raise the EU flag all he wants, this isn’t going to get him in the good books…
Party-pooper Transport for London (TfL) has banned an advert for a new West End play simply because it displays… a Victoria sponge cake. It seems Sadiq Kahn is deeply concerned that commuters may look at the widely sweet treat and run home to gorge on it. It appears we can’t have our cake and eat it…
Thanks to TfL’s advertising policy, any food that could lead to child obesity is strictly forbidden, as citizens cannot be trusted with images of sugary foods. The nanny-statism of the Mayor has once again gone above and beyond. The show’s producer Paul Gregg told the Mail TfL’s decision was “ridiculous” whilst others have labelled it “silly”. Khan is in a bit of jam now…
From Monday, Transport for London is to furlough 7,000 staff as Tube and bus journeys have fallen by 95% and 85% respectively, collapsing the firm’s main source of income. The mass-furloughing move is to save the company £15.8 million every four weeks. Whilst this seems like a lot of money to most people, to TfL’s chairman Sadiq Khan, it’s just half the £30 million he’s increased his staffing budget by before Coronavirus struck…
The message is that “All TfL services are now solely focused on ensuring critical workers can move around as needed. You should not be using public transport or travelling for anything other than essential journeys.” Guido hears that Sadiq wants London to go into full lock down.
