January - December 2023
So here we are in 2023 and the only way to try to stop this
expansion of the ULEZ, which will lock my 300's and the Hyundai
away for the next 10 or 20 years, is to do something about it.
However, it was to turn out that this would entail doing
virtually nothing on the Hyundai or the Volvo's. The
alternatives are either to spend £4,500 per year or move.
Anyway, here we are in Trafalgar Square on 28th January for the
first in a series of demonstrations organised on social media. I
don't know anything about dabbling in big-wheel politics or even
local politics, so literally what else can you do ;-? ;-?
I would guess there were a few hundred there, which is a good
start, and after attending a couple of local demonstrations in
Sutton (18 Feb 23) and Bromley (11 Feb 23) at which my phone was
refusing to take photographs, here we are again at Trafalgar
Square on 25th Feb 2023, with a new phone! This demo featured a
walk down to Downing Street.
As an old car hobbyist, I shouldn't really be taken as seriously
as people who bought new diesel cars in the early 2000's. Back
then the government was saying that diesel is best for the
environment (which I remember being suspicious of at the time) and
the much greater fuel economy cf. petrol led many people to buy
them, as they did in Europe (yes, I am trying to sound
cosmopolitan again). The fact that diesels made before 2015 have
to pay the ULEZ is a big hit for those people. For petrol cars,
it's generally those made before 2005 that have to pay although
some with especially eco-friendly engines made as far back as 2001
(e.g. Ford Zetec) are compliant. Anyway, here is Trafalgar Square
again on 18th March 2023 with attendees partaking of a longer walk
past Downing Street and down to Parliament Square - our confidence
is growing, hah!
My 3 Volvo 300's which are not compliant do become exempt from the
ULEZ charge in about 8 years time when they are over 40 years old.
At that age they are taxed as historic vehicles at no cost and
even the MOT test is not a legal requirement although they have to
be up to MOT standard if used on the road. If the ULEZ expansion
happens in the Autumn, my plan is to store the Volvo's and then
start using them again when they become exempt. For the oldest
that will be in 2029 but my favorite run-about (Deep Blue) will
not be eligible until 2032, which seems not too bad as a
semi-oldie, but as someone who had radiotherapy last year for a
lymphoma (thankfully only low-grade), it may be too long a wait
and the emission goal posts may well have changed by then!!
Anyway, here's another local demo at Wallington on 25th Mar 2023
while a bigger one took place in
Orpington
with tractors galore.
I also have a Hyundai XG30 saloon which was made in 1999 and that
will not be exempt until 2040. I don't really know what to do with
that one. One option I might look into is using storage outside
the ULEZ zone e.g. if I could rent a garage or two outside the
extension zone that would allow me to drive it and maybe one or
two of the Volvo's to keep them roadworthy but it would be very
inconvenient.
Anyway, it's 1st Apr 2023 and there is a demo in Epsom which was
better attended than my photos would suggest - I only remembered
to take some pictures when quite a few people had drifted away and
I am, as ever, taking my photos from too far away without any
zoom.
The child whose death about 10 years ago was attributed to
pollution is obviously a very emotive thing. The first coroner did
not attribute it to pollution but the mother went on a long legal
battle (assisted by the mayor who has a well-known ulterior
motive) to get a second inquest which gave the desired result.
What I have seen in the press of the supposedly expert evidence
presented at the second inquest is fairly sketchy in my view,
almost comical. Anyway, one cannot say too much about that for
fear of being accused of being racist, etc, as the pollution
narrative has been so woke-ified. In fact I think calling the
whole thing ULEZ is meant to discourage discussion of the subject
because, in an everyday conversation, anyone who doesn't know what
it means would probably think you are being rude. I jest not -
it's so rare to hear anyone talking about it outside of the demos
that I fear that many folk with old cars simply do not know what
could be coming in the Autumn. It is being discussed more in the
media now, but really only in terms of the scrappage scheme not
being generous enough. Of course, as an old car fan, any scrappage
scheme has to be more evil than ULEZ itself.
And now it's 4th Apr 2023 when there is another local protest in
Mitcham which I attended before catching the coach to Sheffield -
no rest for the wicked.
As you can see it's a very seriously polluted part of London and
all the global warming going on is causing heavy hail storms in
April - all over my new car stickers.
Time now for another do at Trafalgar Square on 15th Apr 2023.
Another local event, this time in Wallington again on 25th Apr
2023 and, Lordy, this one went a bit wonky as some old fella got
knocked over, but he was OK a day or so later. Shame all these old
people have to walk about in the road to save their old cars ;-0
;-0 Anyhow, there was an epic Reliant Robin on top form which I
videoed a couple of times:
here and
here.
As shown above right, it's time to get my old moggie decorated
up with the vintage roof rack in place and some suitable
signage. I got it over to Sutton for a protest at the council
meeting on the day before the Wallington event but I was so late
I only caught the end of the actual demo and had to see the
meeting in the overflow telly room as the main meeting room was
overbooked. Anyway, some of the talks are here,
here,
here
and here. To be honest I
didn't stay for the rest as it was all heavy duty speeches so I
went to the pub for a bite to eat on the journey home, although
I think a full recording of the talks is on the web somewhere -
to be checked.
We press on and on and here is another do at Croydon on 29th
Apr 2023 which, as a local sort of event, had a pretty good
turnout of anti-ULEZ'ers and general yellow boarders. There are
some videos here, here
and here. Nice one, top
one, sorted.
And now it's 30th Apr 2023 and everyone is at Orpington, as shown
in the photos below with a few more videos
here,
here,
here
and
here.
The environmental impact of scrapping cars is a major issue which
the green lobby seem to ignore totally. Someone posted on Facebook
that "The manufacture of each new car has a carbon footprint of 15
to 40 tonnes. This is the equivalent of keeping a non-compliant
car on the road for another 50 to 100 years. I certainly remember
reading magazine articles 30 years ago saying the same thing i.e.
keeping older cars on the road is better overall for the
environment. In addition, there will be an inevitable improvement
in emissions quality as new car technology improves with time,
etc. Moreover, I really do pity people who have to put up with me
saying this sort of thing weekend after weekend and I wonder why
on earth all of their effort is necessary when we could just be
getting on with our lives, interests, etc. Indeed, on this very
topic, I have accepted that the 360 emissions really are awful -
it's trying to gas me and everyone else within about 40 feet, so,
as a concession to the mayor, it is put to rest for a few months
while things pan out in my head.
Meanwhile, May 3rd 2023 saw the first anti-ULEZ CONVOY which I
filmed as it went through Trafalgar Square.
That was a good old day and, love them or hate them, my videos are
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
Right, so what else are we doing? Well the plan is to have a bit
of a protest in New Malden and that would be an ideal opportunity
to give that moggie a run up and down the high street and maybe
even entertain a few folk. A few test runs remind me that there is
an issue with the heater fan which has since 1985 worked very
poorly but now it refuses to work at all. So here we are
dismantling it to identify the problemmo.
Removing it required a bit of disassembly of the glove box on one
side and removal of the metal clips. Basically I started by
checking the rheostat shown on the top right and that proved to be
OK i.e. the resistance varies pretty smoothly across its range.
This suggested that the motor itself may be knackered and it was
eventually removed from the heater matrix with a wobble bar and
dismantled. This showed that it was pretty much clogged up with
rust and simply needed cleaning out. The metal cover was given a
bit of Kurust and painted on the outside while a slip of ancient
grease-proof paper at the back was replaced with a new item cut to
size. Much care was taken to make sure all the little washers etc
don't go missing.
The commutator was cleaned up to improve the contacts made by the
brushes, but that was probably OK anyway and after greasing here
and there it was put back together again and was found to work
just fine! Everything was eventually reassembled correctly but a
quick Heath-Robinson test part-way through revealed that the fan
motor was now working just
fine. It was even given
a dinky soft rubber knob on the switch which fits perfectly. This
was a job which I didn't dare do in 1991, so 32 years later and
almost in my 7th decade, I am over the moon! Maybe I can still do
this stuff ;-? ;-?
So now the moggo is working just fine and we can, with meticulous
planning, call it into action for a bit of a local demo in New
Malden on 13th May 2023. I got there about 30 minutes before
everyone else and started handing out leaflets and within about 10
minutes two very helpful coppers arrived to say they were going to
keep an eye on us. As you can see, they weren't folk to be messed
with.
A bit daunting but we must carry on regardless and the
demo
subsequently ran as scheduled for about 3 hours. Cool work and a
big thank you to all who came.
The last picture shows Fred, a true soldier, who brought all the
banners and plaques. This demo coincided with another one at
Oprington
which might have affected numbers, but I took the view that there
should be a demo like this in every borough, every weekend, I jest
not ;-0 ;-0 We will win this and indeed we march on to May 16th
2023 when we are back in Wallington.
No accidents this time and quite a memorable number of people
spoke to me on the street and just said how much they detest what
is on the table. Onwards to 20th May and where are we now? It's
Beckenham with a few folk from the conspirasphere but it's mainly
about ULEZ and here are some pictures.
My videos from Beckenham are
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here. The following
morning is spent leafleting at the start of what might well prove
to be the last
London to Brighton mini run.
Note, they did indeed confirm that it was the last one a few weeks
later. Poignant indeed, as were the fumes, thanks to unleaded
petrol, but I mustn't say that ;-0 ;-0
A little protest on 24th May 2023 at the book launch by our noble
mayor at the South Bank Centre where we were pretty-much relegated
to the tradesman's entrance. Quite a few of the braver people
bought tickets and got inside where they flipped their lids at
different stages throughout the lecture - indeed, I heard that
some got in without tickets at all. Too much for me - I stayed
firmly outside in the cool of the evening. A snapshot of the event
can be found
here
and a very good account of the overall proceedings can be found
here.
That young protestor in the video was alright afterwards but being
in there would have definitely given me a Newbury (bypass). Just
as we were about to pack up and go home someone turned up,
apologised for being late and started more loud yelling about
freeing all political prisoners, including Julian Assange. He was
quietly dispatched, which was definitely time to find the nearest
watering hole and try not to be distracted from our cause by the
highly talented bar staff.
Onwards to the 27th May 2023 and this time London Bridge is the
place to be. There must have been between one and two thousand
people there who went on a march and it was completely unpoliced.
Newsworthy in itself, I would have thought, but the state media
still won't take this stuff and perhaps it's proof that we are all
too well behaved in our greying old age! The more PC Just Stop Oil
stuff has no trouble getting full media attention.
Click
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here for a video or
two. Meanwhile, a quick off-duty check on the rented garage scene
shows the 1.7's are grooving along in storage and hopefully one
day we will see an end to this madness and a return to work on
them.
The 1st of June 2023 saw a smaller protest in Barking. This one
was memorable for doing a huge amount of leafleting as well as
being told to get out of the road by a bus driver and a policeman.
So now on to the 3rd of June 2023 and we are somewhere but I am
damned if I can remember where it was. Anyway, it looked like this
and there was a nice 80's Reliant Scimitar pottering about - not
the very famous 70's 2.8 litre model, this one has a 1.3 Sierra
engine. I did have a think about getting one in the early 90's
when I was coming out of one of my kit car phases.
Yes, it was Rosehill Roundabout, Morden and it's always the same
van drivers who turn up to these things. As I said to someone
recently, there must only be about 3 Transit vans in the whole of
London who are worried about this, but even that is not true
because one of them comes from militant Oxford! Anyway, the videos
are
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
4th June 2023 and someone very kindly made me a sign for the rear
window of my Morris Minor emphasising that it lacks reversing or
hazard lights. I thought that drivers behind should know and the
sign looks wicked too. However, my newly acquired cheappie
pollution meter doesn't think much of the emissions from the
chrome exhaust pipe below but the choke was out and the general
air around here always comes out in the green i.e. good, Mr mayor.
It seems that pollution is assessed in terms of particulate matter
(PM) of about 2.5 micrometers in size (PM2.5) and 10 micrometers
in size (PM10) and a couple of gases, mainly nitrous and nitric
oxide (NOx). NOx is the main worry for petrol engines since their
PM output is low, whereas with diesels, PM is the main worry, with
PM2.5 being the baddest since it is small enough to get into cells
of the body. Apparently, the biggest sources of PM are
asphalting roads and domestic cooking. My own cheappie pollution
meter says the air quality is good everywhere I have been
recently. Also, I get a lot of bad press about PM from wood
burners. Ironically, just about the only affordable carbon-neutral
form of domestic heating (bar the vastly expensive geothermal
systems) is slated as being the most polluting. Going back to
science, the only refereed paper analysing these pollutants before
and after the last ULEZ expansion out to the North and South
Circulars is by Ma
et al., (2021) entitled "Has the ultra
low emission zone in London improved air quality?" in
Environment
Research Letters 16 124001. This open access paper
shows that there was no statistically significant change in NOx
and PM2.5 in the expanded ULEZ zone. They did see a drop in PM10,
but this was attributed to the drop in wood-burning as the weather
got better!!
Now it's 10th June 2023 and we are in Dartford. This one was
notable for some minor hostility from the locals about the amount
of noise being made and from someone, presumably local too,
passing in an old diesel 4x4 (are you thinking the same?),
apparently being driven by the missus, yelling that famous phrase
of two words, the first of which begins with the letter F. I do
wear ear-plugs at virtually all of these events so I am relatively
immune to these amusements.
The videos are
here,
here
and
here.
A week later on 17th June 2023 we're in Edmonton for a sightly
larger bash. I got a ride in a little red Seat Arosa for the first
time ever. What a wicked motor, but it grounded while driving off
the roundabout.
The videos are
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
A few days later on 23rd June 2023 there's another protest in
Hounslow which is right underneath the flight path of jets coming
into Heathrow. I didn't get so many pictures at this one as I was
leafleting like mental but I did get quite a few videos:
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
Anyway, it's interesting to see the amount of effort folk have put
into this local stuff while none of it gets on the state telly
although our mayor receives much publicity, practically being
canonised today as the patron saint of clean air by some
ridiculous medical qwango. I am convinced that only George Orwell
could have made this up. Well if you're an eco-fascist, saving
children's lives and stopping climate change, you can override all
the laws of the land, not to mention these damned old
coffin-dodgers. Still we must press on and two days later on 25th
June 2023, here we are at Marble Arch for another bit more of
biggie this time.
The videos are
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
The long term plan for the 340's is to fit the mark 2 interior to
Deep Blue and get it going again. Red Ness was going to have a
clutch change and this was going to be my test bed for the
cut-and-shut prop shaft which still needs to be balanced. That
project should be returned to as soon as possible, hopefully when
there is a bit of a conclusion to all this ULEZ madness, famous
last words ;-0 ;-0
Onwards and upwards to 1 Jul 2023 when we have, to use an
Americanism, got ourselves a convoy. This, the Stop ULEZ Convoy 2,
was a drive around the South and North Circulars. I set off the
night before in the moggo to stay in a pub overnight and, you
couldn't make it up, on arrival at said busy pub, the folks there
cheered at the sight of the moggo's signage. Next day, the convoy
set off from Bexley to west London for a
pit
stop on Ealing Common where it was quite amusing to find
someone driving the other way shouting their nuts off that we
should all be f---ing shot. Maybe he'd just had a light-hearted
chat with one of the more confrontational convey members up front
but it made me wonder what else the poor fella had been doing (or
not doing) over the weekend ;-0 ;-0 Anyway, the following pictures
were taken at the lunch stop in Ruislip, I think, and a video can
be found
here. Apologies for the
humming and my bad language at the end due to swallowing a fly.
I found a couple of videos on the book of faces from which I
edited out the moggie. Here is
one showing the start
from a video by Debbie Ryan and
here is another by
Joanne Cakebread taken from Clapham. To my amazement, a picture of
me driving the moggo makes it to the Sunday Telegraph - surely a
highlight of it's life, as well as my own. I thought it was a
great achievement but I have had about as much enthusiasm from the
Morris Minor community as one gets from eco-trolls on social
media!! To quote from the Morris Minor Owners Club (MMOC) forum:
"
I do wonder if it’s wise to use a historic vehicle that’s
exempt to make the point? The classic car lobby has rightfully
and successfully secured exemptions for us in LEZs across the
UK. It’s largely flown under the radar of the general public.
The last thing we want are the eco warriors and governments
targeting our exemption." and
"I agree. IMHO, all this
photo does is risk provoking 'outrage' from people about older
cars and their emissions. I have to wonder why a 'modern
classic' wasn't the vehicle of choice for this protest."
It's a damned hard life and proof that if you're not affected by
it, you don't want to get involved and, to my shame, I have to
admit that I didn't do anything about trying to stop the initial
introduction of the ULEZ or it's first expansion to the North and
South circulars a few years ago. Perhaps we almost have a phoney
war on the streets, at least in my head ;-0 ;-0
Thence, onwards to 4th July 2023 when it's the start of the 2-day
judicial review of the proposed ULEZ expansion at the High Court
in the Strand - legal action which has been launched by a number
of London boroughs and Surrey County Council. Do we really deserve
to be shot ;-?
The above pictures were taken over the 2 days I spent standing
outside the court and some more of my shaky videos are
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here. There were quite
a few news reporters from the right-leaning media present at the
first day and some of the braver participants trekked through the
airport-style security system to attend the public gallery. The
narcissist in me would tend to agree that it was all worthwhile
as, the very next day, someone sent me this from the BBC website.
Glory be, I knew that skull cap was a winner.
We're still in early July and being an errant yellow box offender,
a penalty charge notice turns up from the Mayor of London for the
moggie minor on the convoy. Well, it was outside a fire engine and
I was static for 11 seconds, at least, which doesn't help. Bah
humbug, pay it and move on.
Anyway, I managed to get the original photos of the moggo on the
convoy from the photographer with permission to use them on social
media and the internet so here they are in their full glory.
Things move on to the 8th of July 2023 and we are in Banstead. A
few videos of mine are
here,
here
and
here.
Then it's July the 9th in Uxbridge for a ULEZ-related byelection
in Boris's old seat. Indeed the man who started the ULEZ back in
the twentyteens. Glory be, that was a sunny, happy old day. Pretty
amazing really to see the younger people doing this stuff. The
videos are
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
And now to the 15th July 2023 when we were in Redhill. Another
good turnout for a local event, with the van convoy making their
usual huge sacrifices in terms of time, effort and cost in coming
all the way these events. Knowing that I shouldn't really say
this, I'll say it again, why is it that only about 3 or 4 Transit
vans in the whole of London are worried about this stuff, but then
one of them comes from Oxford anyway ;-? Grandstand is probably
more important and August is a lifetime away. Anyway, the videos
are
here,
here,
here
and
here. As the event came
to a close,
da local youffs decided to give my yellow
board a fair old kicking, so it's starting to show a few creases
and cracks in the paint, but polycarbonate is pretty sturdy and I
am not too worried as it's a bit of a rag bag yellow board anyway,
not to mention the fact that I am hoping and praying that all of
this is going to come to some sort of conclusion (good or bad)
sooner or later...
Coolio Joe, it's time to go... up to the BBC and on 22 Jul 2023
that's where we are on a very sock-soakingly wet and windy day,
the aim being to persuade the state media to give us some airtime
and, well, we got a bit of a report showing about 3 protestors, so
it was a result of sorts. The circular colonnade of All Souls was
about the only form of shelter from the rain but that didn't last
long as everyone was moved on by the old bill (who were
unfailingly great as ever) so the church could hold a wedding. We
were encouraged to give the wedding party (of far eastern
persuasion) an applause but it was intriguing to see how they were
almost completely oblivious to this, as well as the general chaos
around them, but that was probably a good thing, or maybe they
thought we were taking the michael ;-0 ;-0
The videos are
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
Bah Humbug, the news is out - the judicial review case was lost,
so a day or two was spent down in the dumps and we're now back on
the streets. This is 29th July 2023 and we are at Dagenham for a
local demo but, stone me, them transit vans keep turning up. I
don't get how they have the time, energy, motivation, etc, to do
all this stuff especially with the high court ruling against our
cause, but their efforts are very much appreciated. My pictures
below and the videos
here and
here
don't really convey that there was a group of about 30 people
here.
I just remember the vans turning up and thinking: "Wow, they're
here!!" Bit later while I was leafleting at the traffic lights
and, 8 months into this, one of the drivers in an old Fiesta
said.... wait for it.... "What's ULEZ?" Bless her. Things like
that make it all worthwhile.
Onwards to 1st Aug 2023 when we are back in Wallington where a
bunch more of my videos were recorded as shown
here,
here,
here
and
here.
And, then for something a bit bigger in Trafalgar Square on 5th
Aug 2023 with the relevant videos being
here,
here
and
here.
Now we are up to the 12th Aug 2023 and there's a demo in Bromley
which was well-attended with some highly professional banners and
high-level boards to catch the eye. However this event brought out
some of the pro-ULEZ fury in the form of a tyre-slashing local who
let down about 18 of the protestor's tyres. Not so nice one, top
one, sorted, but the social media group helped to bail them out.
Very frustratingly I was left in charge of a Volvo driver's car
while he went off to buy new tyres but I could not dissuade a
passing traffic warden from giving it a ticket for being parked on
a verge. Ouch. I then went up over to Uxbridge to meet the man who
had been camping outside the station on a week-long anti-ULEZ
hunger strike but got there too late for the celebrations. Anyway,
I went to a local hostelry to partake of the spirit after a long
day of not doing anything on the Volvo 300's. Still the videos are
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
There is a trickle of work on the Volvo's though, in the form of
repairing the mark 2 rear interior door pulls which needed a bit
of Airfix-style plastic surgery. Superglue and a bit of backing
plastic from the recycling bin are the order of the day.
We move on a few days to the 15th Aug 23 and there's another demo,
this time in Carshalton. There was a bit of hand-bagging at one or
two points but they were dealt with by someone who was highly
skilled at dealing with exactly that type of situation and the
permanently drunken fellow causing the issue was gracefully
departed. My videos, which don't feature the said gentleman, are
here,
here,
here
and
here,
here
and
here.
Now then, now then, we go forwards in time to 19th Aug 23 when we
are in Orpington for a fairly big do. Bear in mind that the 29th
Aug is fast approaching and we are all hoping for some government
intervention or other miracle that never did happen in the end,
but at least we are trying, arf.
The videos are
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here. The very next day
there is a convoy from North London to Box Hill which is mainly
for motor bikes but the anti-ULEZ crew got some special
dispensation to take part on the side. Anyway, it's a case of a
massive great woofter (your truly) trying to butch it up with the
motor cycle boys, maybe. The videos of this amusing episode are
here,
here
and
here. The Reform party
as well as a Conservative fella from Bromley are there too and
I've got to admire them for the effort they put into this.
Oh well, oh well, we move on to the 22nd Aug 23 and only 7 days to
go till the big day but here we are in North Cheam for a mid-week
event which went down pretty well considering. The videos are
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
Onwards and upwards to 26th Aug 2023 when we are in Tooting
Broadway for another well-attended demo with videos
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here. Much of the day
was spent standing by uncollected bags of rubbish, but then this
is a Labour borough ;-0 ;-0
Yo! It's ULEZ day i.e. Aug 29th 2023 when it all comes into place
so we're at Downing Street for a bit of a bash, only to be ignored
all the more ;-0 ;-0
There was a march by Women Against ULEZ and the old cardboard
coffin was dragged out for a bit of a funeral procession which was
quite eye-catching, in my completely unbiased view. More can be
seen in the videos which are
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here. Meanwhile, time
ticks on and we come to the 3rd of Sept 23 when it's time for the
Volvo 300 Mania annual group outing which this year is at the
British Motor Museum in Gaydon. I don't have a working 340 or 360
to take because they have been laid up due to the protesting
(well, that's my excuse anyway) so I get there the night before by
means of my everyday Ford Focus. The turn-out was quite impressive
and the line-up of the Volvos can be seen below. I even handed out
some anti-ULEZ fliers and stickers ;-0 ;-0
So, we move further into Sept 2023 and some time is set aside to
tackle the rust on the brass-coloured Hyundai, as shown below. A
bit of brazing seems to be showing up after several doses of Naval
Jelly.
On 10th Sept there's another ULEZ convoy in Whitehall as shown
here,
here,
and
here, while a bit
later, on the 14th Sept 2023 there's a demo outside the High Court
in support of a crowd-funded case against the ULEZ expansion, as
shown
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here. I didn't get any
good photos of either event.
We move on to the 16th Sept 2023 and there is a demo at one of the
roundabouts in Chessington for which the old moggie was dredged-up
again, along with quite a few other oldies in various states of
repair. Videos are
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
And now we're up to the 23rd Sept 2023 and there is a bit of march
from Marble Arch to Parliament Square. It just so happens that I
arrived too late to catch the start of the march so I used that as
an excuse to partake of a the local spirit. On leaving the nearby
public hostelry to find out the latest news, I noticed a sign
saying 'We are proud to be London's oldest gay venue.' Back at The
Arch, it was clear that the marchers were not coming back so the
plan was to get the tube to meet them at the other end. However on
getting to Parliament Square, the place was full of EU supporters
with no sign of ULEZ protestors. Anyway a quick walk back to
Trafalgar Square revealed their presence in abundance and what an
odd bunch they were, but never mind. There were quite a few dog
supporters too in view of the threat of more legislation on
allowed breeds, etc. The videos of Trafalgar Square are
here,
here,
here
and
here with two from
Marble Arch
here and
here.
In all of this, work continues on the old motors, mainly to
replace the seized front brake cylinders on the moggie minor which
became apparent at the Chessington demo.
A few days further down the line and we are at another
demonstration, which doubles as a weekend camping opportunity,
allegedly close to the mayoral domestic residence, for the hardy
and braver of the crew. I was there for one day (30th Sept 23) and
a good time was had by all. As you can see from the first picture,
the level of domestic organisation at these events is impressive.
The video links are
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
It's the 3rd Oct 2023 and there's another demo in Wallington with
the videos being
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
We keep on with the march forwards, this time in Dagenham on 7th
Oct 2023 with a video
here.
We move on to Oct 21st 2023 when we are in Biggin Hill for a
pretty big bash really. I was impressed by the turnout for a
little place in rural Kent!
The relevant videos are
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here. We move on to the
4th Nov 23 and there's a smaller demo in Coulsdon which was held
on a fairly small village green, with all the usual amusements, as
shown in a couple of videos
here and
here.
Meanwhile, the rust removal on the brass-coloured Hyundai has
proceeded to the point where the metal is clean enough for the
first coat of zinc primer.
We move on to the 25th Nov 2023 and we are in Coney Hall with a
well-attended one this time and bright, but cold, weather. The
videos are
here,
here,
here,
here
and
here.
It's the 2nd of December 2023 and we are at Rose Hill roundabout
in Sutton again for another quite chilly bash - very chilly
actually. I should have dressed up warmer. There is a video
here.
And on to the 9th Dec 2023 when we are in Hillingdon with another
well-attended bash with videos
here,
here
and
here.
Meanwhile, bits of car work get done with the Hyundai knifing
putty dried and given a rub-down for a very, very preliminary
first coat of paint. It's so rough, it's going to need multiple
further rubbings down, fillings in and repainting, before I even
know if it's going to work, but we keep trying!
Another demo happens on a roundabout in Twickenham on 16th Dec 23
and the pictures are below. I know the organiser was a bit worried
about attendance but it's not too bad, for sure, being so close to
Crimbo Jimbo. Most of the protestors went off to an anti-ULEZ
themed Christmas party in the double-decker but I opted-out of
that being a reclusive belly-ache type of person, although I
gather a very good time was had by all. Nice one. The videos are
here,
here,
here
and
here.
Stone me, what on earth could be happening
next year?
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