Thoughts on the 2021 London Mayoral Election (Part 2)

In my previous blog about the 2021 London Mayoral Election, I talked about two of the independent Mayoral candidates; Count Binface and Brian Rose. On the other hand, in this blog, I’m going to propose my own top five policies of what I would do if I were Mayor of London.

1. Make police investigate further into cases of domestic abuse and people exposing themselves. If the police investigated further at the beginning then it could prevent worse events taking place. For example, if someone is in a state where they are being inappropriate and it is seen and/or caught on camera, then police ought to treat these kind of situations seriously. Abuse is not a joke, and if the people who are in charge did more to prevent it, people would no longer have to live in fear.
2. Abolish the rule that ‘classic cars’ don’t have to pay for the congestion charge. The whole point of the ULEZ (ultra-low emission zone), is to lower emissions throughout London. At the moment, cars that are over 40 years old have an exemption, meaning that they don’t have to pay the congestion charge. This makes no sense; old cars are the worst for the environment, therefore they should have to pay more, not less than new cars. Exemptions of the charge should be given to disabled people, not to the cars that emit most pollution.
3. Enforce more schemes such as the recent £50 coupons that were handed out to the public to fix their bikes for free. More of these schemes could lower emissions because people are more likely to use eco-transport such as biking if their bike works well and is fixed for free. In addition to this, biking is a good form of exercise and if children cycle more, then we will have a renewable, fitter generation ahead of us. The Mayor should also make more bicycle lanes around London to make bicycling safer for both children and adults.
4. Talk to schools to provide school meals without added sugar. Forty percent of children in London are over weight/obese; these figures could be easily lowered by school lunches having no added sugar and parents given a guide of what healthy food they can provide in their children’s pack lunches by the government.
5. Adding on to the school lunches, the Mayor of London should encourage and pay schools to finish an hour later than usual so children can catch up on learning missed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on my personal experience of being in primary school during the COVID-19 pandemic, I know first hand that it was very hard for all children. Work online was easier to complete because of online tools such as Grammarly, because it would auto correct. As well as that, in lockdown, many kids missed out on physical activities so an extra P.E (physical education) lesson a week would really help to get kids moving.