Politics has always been a cynical game, but it seems to me it's more cynical than ever. Perhaps because the Tories, in particular, have realised that they can hoodwink a very significant part of the people with specious bollocks like this. Brexit, if it proved nothing else, proved how relatively easy it is to con people.
I would have a grain of respect for them if they said - look this ULEZ thing was a bad decision, and we were the ones that passed the legislation. We will now withdraw/substantially amend that legislation, and accept that a certain amount of bad air has to be accepted, given that we have fucked the economy and almost everyone is poorer.
It would be a pretty sad state of affairs, but at least it would be honest.
Instead, what they are trying to do is fob the blame off on Labour and Khan in particular. The Daily Mail has been running the line for some time that Khan is worse than a thousand Hitlers, so this fits the narrative well. Many people, for a variety of reasons - let's be polite and say not just racism - are more than happy to go along with this.
The scary thing is this - I don't honestly think Starmer is any better. He will just give us another narrative of bollocks instead of facing up to at least some of the fucking piles of shit this government has created. He is not prepared to do anything to reverse any of the egregious policies of this shower. He'll just tinker at the edges, and ordinary people will be no better off.
I've always been sorry that so many people don't bother to vote. But now I can see where they are coming from.