Tuesday 18th March 2008
Livingstone: Porsche Should Drop Challenge
Fight intensifies between Porsche and London mayor
London mayor Ken Livingstone has told Porsche to drop its legal challenge to a new £25 Congestion Charge.
The row intensified when Livingstone said Porsche should ‘take the hint’ and back the new charge.
Porsche is seeking judicial review in an attempt overturn a decision to charge drivers of the most polluting vehicles.
Livingstone has commissioned a new survey that unsurprisingly says that most Londoners support the new charge.
He said: ‘Luxury car manufacturers such as Porsche should take the hint and put their energy into reducing the carbon emissions of their cars instead of pursuing pointless legal action against this ground-breaking policy.’
However, a spokesman for Porsche said it was pressing ahead with its legal challenge adding that its own polling revealed three out of four people were opposed to Livingstone's plans.
‘The Porsche ICM poll shows that a big majority believe that this charge is totally unfair and is more about squeezing money out of motorists than trying to help the environment,’ added the spokesman.
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potatoboy666
Original Poster
108 posts
99 months
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vetteheadracer
8,123 posts
122 months
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Saw Livingstone on TV the other day talking about this the man is a  , his holier than thou attitude makes me want to vomit over the odious little toad.....this from a man that called a Jewish report a "Nazi" for photographing him.....he is high on my "fantasy assassination" list along with Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling.
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simonrockman
4,662 posts
124 months
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I think it's a great principal:
A recent YouGov poll showed that 49% of Londoners want Boris as the next Mayor and only 37% wanted Livingstone.
On the basis of the idea Livingstone gave for Porsche dropping its challenge, he should pull out of the race to be the next Mayor.
Simon
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mrclav
332 posts
92 months
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Take the hint? Follow your own advice Ken - and leave!
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Crow555
970 posts
63 months
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Add Heather "Hop-along" Mills to that list please.
The guys strikes me as a self-centred dictator completely out of touch with Londoners. I pity you all, I really do. I just hope Porsche can do something before it spreads to other cities.
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Noe
65 posts
152 months
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5 USA
4,452 posts
114 months
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vetteheadracer said: his holier than thou attitude makes me want to vomit over the odious little toad.... More of a newt I suspect! Does the US ambassador drive a Porsche? Mr Livingstone said: "It would actually be quite nice if the American ambassador in Britain could pay the charge that everybody else is paying and not actually try and skive out of it like some chiselling little crook."
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patmahe
4,006 posts
73 months
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Let me start by saying I dont live in London or even the UK but I fear this pile of cock of a policy may spread worldwide if it is not met head on with some serious resistance in London.
So most londoners support being £25 worse of every day do they, Ken? or even £5 or being forced to buy "new eco friendly cars" with their hard earned cash. Does he honestly think that people enjoy sitting in the traffic chaos. If there is a viable public transport setup in place where people could tavel in comfort at reasonable cost to their destination in a reasonable amount of time does he not think they'd do it.
Heres an idea for any city planners reading this. Priority one should be to sort public transport so it becomes a viable alternative to a private vehicle. Instead of simply punishing people in cars in the hope that they'll go away. 99% of these people arent just in London for the hell of it, they are trying to get to work and are already contributing to the economy. Once public transport is sorted you will see people leaving their cars at hom in droves, because you have given them a real alternative.
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5 USA
4,452 posts
114 months
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Crow555 said: ...self-centred dictator completely out of touch with Londoners. That must be why they have kept on voting him back into power since 1981. People living inside the zone get a 90% discount off the congestion charge. I think it's as simple an issue as most of the people living in the zone travel by public transport and get p155ed off when their bus is held up by some commuter in a Range Rover on the way to his £500,000 a year job in the City. Not surprisingly they then vote for Ken.
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V8DNW
89 posts
94 months
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Shouldn't vehicles which have been carbon-offset under schemes offered by Climate Care, etc. be exempt from the increased congestion charge as they have a zero net impact on C02 levels?
And why do such carbon offsetting schemes have a cost which is nothing close to a daily rate of £25?
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MogulBoy
1,664 posts
92 months
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V8DNW said: Shouldn't vehicles which have been carbon-offset under schemes offered by Climate Care, etc. be exempt from the increased congestion charge as they have a zero net impact on C02 levels?  www.terrapass.com also offer this. End of debate surely???
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herewego
5,712 posts
82 months
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V8DNW said: Shouldn't vehicles which have been carbon-offset under schemes offered by Climate Care, etc. be exempt from the increased congestion charge as they have a zero net impact on C02 levels?
And why do such carbon offsetting schemes have a cost which is nothing close to a daily rate of £25? Carbon offsetting needs to be used only for carbon expenditure that cannot be avoided. Expenditure by high consumption cars can easily be avoided by switching to low consumption cars in most but not all cases.
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Crow555
970 posts
63 months
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5 USA said: Crow555 said: ...self-centred dictator completely out of touch with Londoners. That must be why they have kept on voting him back into power since 1981. People living inside the zone get a 90% discount off the congestion charge. I think it's as simple an issue as most of the people living in the zone travel by public transport and get p155ed off when their bus is held up by some commuter in a Range Rover on the way to his £500,000 a year job in the City. Not surprisingly they then vote for Ken. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the 90% reduction being taken away shortly? It thought that was part of it too. Oddly when I was in London last month for 2 days I was surprised at the number of sports cars and Range rovers etc driving about. From an external viewpoint, I thought it was going to be Priuses and those horrible little G-whiz "cars". Seems like the congestion charges isn't working from where I'm standing. All it's doing is taxing the poor from driving into the city (Not an excuse to start a car snobbery debate if you please).
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Gazboy
47,128 posts
120 months
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5 USA said: Crow555 said: ...self-centred dictator completely out of touch with Londoners. That must be why they have kept on voting him back into power since 1981. People living inside the zone get a 90% discount off the congestion charge. I think it's as simple an issue as most of the people living in the zone travel by public transport and get p155ed off when their bus is held up by some commuter in a Range Rover on the way to his £500,000 a year job in the City. Not surprisingly they then vote for Ken. He's abolishing the 90% rule for the 225g/km and over cars.
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DrGP
199 posts
83 months
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I am a bit torn here. I used to live in London. No real need for a car (though being a pistonhead I had one). I used public transport to get to work and do shopping as the tube is good. I had the car for hooning on weekends.
Ken, dont like him, but he practices what he preaches and takes the tube/bus or walks. When they opened the congestion charge zone the labour minister arrived in two cars, Ken walked.
I support Porsche and hope that democracy will get Ken out.
Though Boris is nuts.
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Crook
3,501 posts
93 months
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FFS, nobody drives into London because they want to. The least they can do is enjoy sitting in a nice environment whilst they sit in traffic then are able to sit comfortably on the M-way on the way out of the city.
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leicesterboy15
145 posts
68 months
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Livingston is a complete w r. These tactics of charging the motorist for everything is not to get us out of our cars, its just a nice easy revenue earner where most people have no choice but to pay. If they did provide good public transport I suspect people would be more accepting but if we did all abandon our cars the govt would be screwed due to the lost revenue. They don't want us to leave our cars, they just want us to pay more when we drive. Its nothing to do with anything green. I would love to know what the carbon footprint of the Mayors office is.
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430Devil
20 posts
69 months
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"Livingstone has commissioned a new survey that unsurprisingly says that most Londoners support the new charge." "However, a spokesman for Porsche said it was pressing ahead with its legal challenge adding that its own polling revealed three out of four people were opposed to Livingstone's plans." Who wants to bet that the 'most Londoners' polled by Ken don't have cars, hug trees and recycle everything !? The government should take a leaf out of porsches book...open your surveys to everyone, not a select few! I know they wont though as then they'd look even more like a bunch of incompetent f kwits when they just go ahead and do what they want anyway! 
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pixiepete
66 posts
68 months
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"He said: ‘Luxury car manufacturers such as Porsche should take the hint and put their energy into reducing the carbon emissions of their cars instead of pursuing pointless legal action against this ground-breaking policy." "GROUND-BREAKING POLICY" id really like to know how he thinks that to be honest!! theres nothing ground breaking about it hes just screwing the motorist every which way for all the money him and his moron friends waste! id be more than willing to throw him off the cliffs at dover 
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Apache
38,242 posts
153 months
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herewego said: V8DNW said: Shouldn't vehicles which have been carbon-offset under schemes offered by Climate Care, etc. be exempt from the increased congestion charge as they have a zero net impact on C02 levels?
And why do such carbon offsetting schemes have a cost which is nothing close to a daily rate of £25? Carbon offsetting needs to be used only for carbon expenditure that cannot be avoided. Expenditure by high consumption cars can easily be avoided by switching to low consumption cars in most but not all cases. So, if you're a petrolhead and unfortunate enough to live in London, how do you do it? You can get to work etc using the bus or tube but you still have to pay disproportionately for your weekend toy dont you?
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