Birmingham’s clean air zone (CAZ) initiative, which levies charges on high-polluting vehicles, has led to spiralling costs for local businesses. The Telegraph has the story.
The clean air zone in Birmingham is piling extra costs onto small businesses, local entrepreneurs have claimed, as the backlash against Labour’s anti-pollution policies grows.
Since 2021, the most-polluting vehicles which travel into Birmingham city centre must pay £8 per day, with coaches and lorries charged £50.
The zone is similar to London’s ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez) which was launched by mayor Sadiq Khan in 2019, and will be expanded this month.
Business owners in Birmingham told the BBC that the CAZ had increased their costs.
One resident said: “I ordered something to my shop, first question they asked me was if I was in the zone or out – once you say I’m inside the taxing zone, they’re going to add £8 to your delivery.”
Karen Woolley, of the Federation of Small Businesses in the West Midlands, added that the introduction of the low emission zone had affected the way people travelled through the city.
“If people are aware there is a CAZ in place, and they ordinarily went into that area for whatever reason, they may well be thinking again,” she told Radio 4’s Today programme. “The businesses in the CAZ zone are seeing an impact.”
Birmingham City Council was approached for comment. It has previously said that the CAZ has improved air quality in the city and reduced the proportion of vehicles which are among the most polluting from nearly one in five to under one in 10.
The news comes after Sir Keir Starmer scrapped Labour’s commitment to rolling out CAZs across the country. Outside of London, they have been introduced in the Labour-run cities of Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle and Bradford, as well as Glasgow, Bath, Sheffield and Oxford.
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Let’s take a look at the state Austria now finds itself in due to uncontrolled immigration, particularly from a certain category of migrant whom the authorities know full well harbours hostility towards all ‘non-believers’;
”As in other European nations, sex crimes — including against young boys — have skyrocketed in Austria. According to one item, “Hardly a day goes by without reports of sex attacks” at the hands of migrants. In one incident, a 17-year-old Muslim asylum seeker raped a grandmother, aged 72, after she helped him out of a canal, and the victim has now reportedly lost her “will to live.”
Police have evidently been less than responsive — effectively blaming the victims. After a 20-year-old Austrian woman waiting at a bus stop in Vienna was attacked, beaten, and robbed by four Muslim men — including one who “started [by] putting his hands through my hair and made it clear that in his cultural background there were hardly any blonde women” — police responded by telling the victim to dye her hair:
“At first I was scared, but now I’m more angry than anything. After the attack they told me that women shouldn’t be alone on the streets after 8pm. And they also gave me other advice, telling me I should dye my hair dark and also not dress in such a provocative way. Indirectly that means I was partly to blame for what happened to me. That is a massive insult.”
Along with generic Muslim criminality in Austria seems to be, sadly, an ideologically-driven hatred for “disbelievers” and especially Christians and Jews. Just as, above, the two boys were tried for their desire to “kill Christians,” and “go to paradise,” so have there been a number of other instances of other Muslims expressing their hostility for, Austria’s historic faith.”
https://www.meforum.org/64689/jihad-in-austria-christians-must-die
Never forget what they have down with the jab, and what they plan to do in the future
Another one to add to the statistics; former athlete died suddenly in her 40s. No details are given but the ”died suddenly” bit never bodes well. Do you think there’ll come a point, perhaps it’s already been reached, where the life expectancies of countries will reduce, as has already happened in the US?
”Olympic medallist Sharron Davies has led tributes to Team GB swimmer Helen Smart after her sudden death aged 43.
Helen Smart was a world level competitive swimmer and backstroke specialist who won a bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and silver medals at the World and European Championships.
After representing Great Britain at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, she decided to retire and become the headteacher of Worsley Mesnes Community Primary School on Clifton Street in Wigan.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12410041/Former-Team-GB-Olympic-swimmer-Helen-Smart-dies-suddenly-aged-43.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
The quality of writing in journalism these days is appalling. AI can’t come soon enough.
“Asexual and ‘aromantic’ flags to be hung in public buildings under Welsh Labour plan“. What, each one gets their own flag now? And wtf is ‘aromantic’? Sounds like an air freshener. What’s next, they all get their own little island to live on? Actually, what a fantastic idea – that’s something I could get behind!
Aromantic – Air freshener! Brilliant, Proph!
“Oliver Anthony and the sorry state of Rolling Stone” Oliver Anthony’s song is an anthem for all the people tired of the elitists ruining our lives. And yes Rolling Stone should be ashamed of its stance. I never read it as I never read any mag or paper but back in the day I would occasionally buy it for the standard of its writing. Now that is all over and it’s just another dead-eyed dick of a rag pretending to be relevant and edgy. Sadly that stone stopped rolling a long time ago and now it just sits in the long grass gathering moss, more a gravestone for the counterculture than a rolling stone of vibrant, positive change. RIP.
That is a great piece of writing (IMHO), Aethelred. And spot on…
Thanks very much, Michael. Kind of you to say.
Writing as one who was delighted when Rolling Stone turned up back in the 60s, it has been a pale shadow of itself for decades. Not sure what happened, regardless I haven’t read it in decades, bar the occasional edition (if it had stuff related to the Grateful Dead.
It WAS an “alternative” rock mag. It long ago became part of the establishment media
How right you are Jeremy.. I read it myself sometimes back in the 60s.. but like you say its just ‘establishment’ through and through now..
A brilliant obituary of the Rolling Stone mag..
Thanks, George!
LOL!
https://babylonbee.com/news/country-music-industry-confused-by-man-from-actual-country-making-actual-music
NASHVILLE, TN — Sources at the major country music record labels confirmed Monday that they were “baffled” and “nonplussed” by a new country music artist who is “get this – from the actual country and making actual music.”
Record executives said the “bizarre” style of country music, in which someone writes, performs, and records songs of actual quality about topics germane to people living in the actual country, “doesn’t really speak to them” and is “pretty confusing.”
We just don’t get it,” said Bud “Dwayne” Dingles of Capitol Records Nashville. “Is it like, some sort of joke? I don’t understand the punchline. Is it the beard? Because it’s a nice beard, but it doesn’t really make me laugh.” Dingles went on to point out that the viral single “Rich Men North of Richmond” by the artist in question, Oliver Anthony, doesn’t mention drinking beer while driving a truck on the backroads with a “girl all up in it” a single time, doesn’t have a guest hip-hop artist, and doesn’t appear to just be a pop track with a quiet banjo track added in post.
“This will never catch on, and it’s antithetical to our values as the gatekeepers of country music,” Dingles added. “Maybe if this Anthony fellow goes out and gets himself a college education and learns to write a catchy radio tune that’s barely indistinguishable from what you hear on the pop stations, then he’ll be going somewhere.”
But Dingles isn’t optimistic about Anthony’s chances of making it in the country music industry.
“I want something peppy, something happy, something up-tempo. I want something snappy. None of this tragic lamentation crap being all sad about the actual plights of people from the actual country – that’s not what country music is all about…..
Love it! Cheers, Gummy!
Dingles would´ve missed out on Bob Dylan . . .
Important thread. The ‘One Truth’ censorship net, courtesy of Big Tech, just keeps getting tighter;
”BREAKING: YouTube no longer has a “Covid-19” policy but an expanded policy to ban *any* “medical misinformation” that contradicts WHO or local health authorities (like CDC) regarding substances and prevention, treatment, or denial of health conditions.”
https://twitter.com/0rf/status/1691652238819623361
Free speech takes another brutal beating!
We are rapidly heading towards a future world that even Orwell could not have predicted in his wildest dystopian thoughts!
Yeah.. Orwell is so ‘yesterday’ when you see what’s going on today. Fecking unbelievable..
UKGov….
The government has issued a warning after a new Covid variant dubbed ‘Eris’ has been found in the UK. The new variant is a descendant of Omicron, and the UKHSA has issued a warning as Covid cases look to be on the rise this summer.
Eris was first classified as a UK variant on July 31 but is now thought to account for one in 10 Covid cases, making it the second most prevalent in the country. However, it is believed nearly half of all infection cases belong to the Arcturus variant according to UKHSA.
Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said: “We continue to see a rise in COVID-19 cases in this week’s report. We have also seen a small rise in hospital admission rates in most age groups, particularly among the elderly. We will continue to monitor these rates closely.
“The NHS will be in contact in autumn 2023 when the seasonal vaccine is available for those who are eligible due to health conditions or age, and we urge everyone who is offered to take up the vaccine when offered
Covid Eris symptomsEris is a strain of the Omicron Covid variant. According to the ZOE Health Study, the five most common symptoms of Omicron are:
LOL!!
A common cold with a fancy name then..
Pretty much George.
Is this ‘head of immunisation’ a medical doctor? If so, the concept of “primum non nocere” obviously passed her by at medical school. And she thinks she has the knowledge to advise people to take an unsafe, ineffective mRNA jab? WTF
Covid numbers are increasing?
Could we have some actual numbers please, Dr Mary Ramsay and could you also outline how these infections are being diagnosed?
Lying cow.
Matt Orfalea
@0rf
BREAKING: YouTube no longer has a “Covid-19” policy but an expanded policy to ban *any* “medical misinformation” that contradicts WHO or local health authorities (like CDC) regarding substances and prevention, treatment, or denial of health conditions.
https://www.aol.co.uk/entertainment/youtube-announces-policies-target-medical-161733735.html
P.S
YouTube Global Head of Healthcare is a man called Dr. Garth Graham and a quick search on him shows he is the President of the Aetna Health Foundation, which is a subsidiary of CVS health..a large Governmental lobbing group, biggest shareholders, Vanguard and Blackrock (naturally)…!!?
I already shared this above! LOL
LOL..at least everyone should see it!!?….
Uwe Steinhoff’s article in The Critic is outstanding.
Slithering serpents aren’t ‘working from home’, they’re ‘shirking at home’. Every taxpayer funded state ‘worker’ should be forced to be at their place of work. If not then they should be dismissed for frustration of contract. If commercial companies wish to have bone idle employees on their books that is only a concern for their shareholders.
But state employees are paid for by us, and given massively generous pensions, so cannot be allowed to take the pi55.
“Every taxpayer funded state ‘worker’ should be forced to be at their place of work”
How about forcing them to work, regardless of where they are, and forcing their managers to do some actual managing.
Every item in the Round-up today is designed to instil fear, divide us, dumb us down, weaken us to ensure that we’re easier to control. So important to be able to see through their control techniques – which have been in play since the time of the Town Square & repetitive messaging via the established outlets of authority.
This recording of yesterday evening’s MD4CE presentation by Jason Christoff is an absolute must watch in order to understand how we are being manipulated, which psychological tools are being employed, which toxic substances, behaviours, desired attributes are promoted, how subliminal messaging via the subconscious in films, TV, the theatre, newspapers, advertising to dumb us down are primed within us, the impact on our group behaviour, why that group behaviour is so powerful & what we can do as individuals to sabotage this psychological warfare. Also explained to me just why so many of my friends, who are highly academically intelligent individuals, because of their entertainment choices have fallen foul of the psych-ops. He goes into even greater & deeper detail than Laura Dodson & we know how good she is!
It may even be an interesting opener to share with friends who have seen through one aspect of the control but not all. Until someone is ready to awaken, has reached their own pain threshold, they won’t wake up.
https://rumble.com/user/cbkovess
Thanks. I’m still halfway through the excellent JJCouey presentation of a few days ago. The Noam Chomsky quote he mentions early on says it all for me:
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum”
JJ’s brilliant. He’s also humble enough to admit when he’s wrong & prepared to listen & change his mind in the face of new evidence. We can all learn from that.
So pleased that you’re enjoying these – I’m so privileged to be a member & attend live, the least I can do is to share that privilege.
We meet twice a week on Sunday & Tuesday evening, check the site about 24-36 hours later for the uploaded meeting. I think that our guest on Sunday is a UK barrister who has successfully taken on the Department of Education about the trans propaganda being used as teaching materials in schools.
‘Working from home is the new British disease’
It is only a disease to excess layers of middle managers who are no longer able to get in everyone’s way by filling their day/diaries with spurious meetings; trying to ‘look busy’ rather than concentrating on real progress.
Some of them manage to get in everyone’s way remotely!
There is a new and astonishingly popular type of meeting: the daily/weekly repeating ‘phantom’ meeting.
It is designed to block out diaries, so preventing those no-hoper middle managers to whom you refer from inserting their nonsense into useful people’s Teams/Zoom diaries without their consent.
I can believe it
Luckily I am one of the bosses so people tend to leave me alone
Customers are another matter – they outsource major projects to big consulting firms to manage who then mither us with crap and pointless meetings that pad out their bill to our clients
Sadly that headline misses the point. Back in the good old days I used to know a small number of people working from home and they did a productive job. The problem now is that we have a generation of graduates who aspire to well paid “jobs” but haven’t got the wherewithal/inclination to acquire productive skills. I suspect most end up in jobs either directly or indirectly funded by the taxpayer. Hiding at home, pretending to be busy or ill and hoping the paycheck keeps coming in is all they can do. What a disaster.
1 Abir Ballan
@abirballan
Real estate tip for investors:
How to acquire a land when the owners are poor and don’t want to sell?
Burn it down.
2.https://thepostmillennial.com/hawaii-governor-says-state-is-looking-to-acquire-land-that-was-destroyed-in-fires?utm_campaign=64483
Hawaii governor says state is looking to ‘acquire land’ that was destroyed in fires???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIDpANpGEMU
Tucker interviewing Robert F Kennedy….lots of interesting stuff .. and well worth a listen….about@38 mins in….
’why do we have bio-lab’s in Ukraine?’….”because we are developing bio weapons”…
Fantastic interview – just finished watching it.
Brilliant stuff on Ukraine war, JFK assassination and illegal immigration. RFK Jr is very impressive, IMHO.
Yes, he admits when he gets it wrong too…..he thought Trump was wrong about the immigrants, until he went and had a look at the border….
I appreciate it’s a long interview but it’s worth having a look at..in bits..if need be…