7,500 sign petition urging Sadiq Khan to make London’s junctions safer for cyclists

It may surprise you to know that I am completely opposed to the Silvertown Tunnel and was furious when it was announced by that stupid London Mayor with the statement that "I promise the Silvertown tunnel will be completed in a decade and will provide an easing of congestion problems and further growth opportunities in east London." That was Boris Johnson in 2012; perhaps no coincidence that it was his party that signed off on Silvertown in 2018 when they could have blocked it. I certainly am not happy with Khan for continuing the project, not happy at all, but it's not just his project.

Prepared to make a modest wager though that had Khan scrapped the project you would have been the first to accuse him of leaving poor areas and those of high BAME residency to continue to suffer excessive pollution. You would have, wouldn't you?

Say what you like about Boris, at least he brought in those Boris Ken Livingstone bikes. (You can read more in the discredited Wikipedia article). It does sound like he might have frightened some posters here with his vision of a city "filled with thousands of gleaming machines", which would "become as commonplace on our roads as black cabs and red buses".

It is however possible that - though he mentioned pedals - he wasn't talking about bikes...

Nigel Garage wrote:

Blaming Boris Johnson doesn't cut it any more, a lot has changed over the last few years with regard to road building and its environmental impact.Take the proposed Oxford - Cambridge expressway for example, the Conservatives have taken the lead and cancelled that road. 

And no I wouldn't have blamed Khan for something else if he'd have followed the Tories in cancelling his projects.

Was the £23bn for roads still in Mr Sunak's budget? And (non road), didn't he just reduce air passenger duty for domestic (ie mostly pointless unless you value a small time saving more than your only planet) flights? And isn't he still subsidising Drax to cut down trees in the US, ship the wood chips across the Atlantic using the dirtiest heavy fuel oil and then burn them, creating yet more CO2?

Johnson understands the power of green-ish rhetoric, especially when he mixes it with nonsense about how no one will actually have to change lifestyle. He's basically a siren voice to take away any guilt some may feel, and give permission to those who through selfishness, don't give a shit (except a shit that's heading for the nearest river). But action is needed more than words.

Sunak doesn't even seem to do the words. Perhaps he thinks that he and his flip flops and his wife's money can retreat to a mountain top hideaway when the conflagration comes.

First you give your support for refugees and oppressed minorities around the world; and now you are supporting green, left and XR climate change activists who oppose Boris' Silvertown tunnel project, despite previously implying they were terrorists. Kudos too for pointing out the dumb comments from the Bermondsey MP about the whiteness of the activists - another step up from your dog-whistle racial comments. Keep it up Nigel! 

You are quite a sad little man aren't you? 

Nigel Garage wrote:

Enough with the "little" if you don't mind, Rendel Harris gets very angry indeed at heightist comments.

Come to Glasgow some time and meet a Big Man. They're often not very tall. But can be very dangerous.

.

Nigel Garage wrote:

Been to Glasgow. Won't be going again.

Excellent news, could you widen that to the whole of Scotland please?

Nigel Garage wrote:

Enough with the "little" if you don't mind, Rendel Harris gets very angry indeed at heightist comments.

No, that's racist comments, such as attempting to belittle a person for their height when they are the average height for their race, which is in no substantive way different to mocking someone for the hue of their skin or the nature of their hair. Using 'little' as a metaphor for small minded, spiteful, petty and silly - especially when it fits like a glove, as with you - is fine.

The average male of Pakistani heritage is 5 feet 5.5 inches tall, Sadiq Kahn is 5 feet 5 inches tall. You can't actually change facts simply by lying. 

Even if those weren't facts, your characterisation of the apallingly racist Donald Trump as "the greatest president in the history of the world" quite clearly marks you out as a racist.

P.S. "He isn't the average height, either for the average British man, or for the average British man of South Asian ethnicity. Hope that helps." Doesn't help much, chap, given that "south Asia" covers Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, an area of 5.2 million square kms that is home to nearly 25% of the world's population (1.8 billion people). One might expect there to be certain regional and ethnic variations in physical characteristics within such a demographic - or do they all look the same to you?

And your citation for that assertion is....

But I'm sure your disturbingly obsessive hatred for a Muslim politician of Pakistani heritage is as free of racial prejudice as the "no racist bone in his body" Donald's hatred of him, we'll give you that.  

Dodgy Numbers Troll wrote:

Sure, my citation is from HSE 2004 Table 6.2, page 179. You're welcome.

Careful Rendel, the Master of Economics might send you a link with the wrong page number again. He doesn't seem to be good with numbers after boasting he is good with numbers. Probably taking after the orange-manbaby god he worships who usually boasts about how good he is at things when reality shows different.

Oh come now, he's sent me figures from a 17-year-old survey, based on a sample size of 336, with no deviation for whether the subjects in question are first, second, third, fourth or fifth generation Pakastani immigrants, he's conclusively proved that he has every right to try and mock Sadiq Khan for his racial characteristics. His science and methodology is every bit as valid and accurate as that of his hero!

That is why he isn't worth a reply.