Pyro
From VolksWiki
Pyro 'real Name Jake Willis' A Volkszone member who is attempting to get elected as the Mayor of London in 2008.
Contents |
[edit] Personal Statement
I have been a Londoner all my life, I have also lived in various parts of Europe, but this is where I belong. London needs a Mayor that knows London and its people.
[edit] Manifesto
[edit] Transport
I think the congestion charge has been a success despite what we all may have thought before hand. But enough is enough. The prices need to stay as they are and there needs to be some commonsense. The persecution of drivers of 4X4s is just that... persecution. The 'penalty' charge doesn't just hit Chelsea tractors and sport four wheel drives but includes ordinary four wheel drive cars like the Skoda Octavia and the Subaru Forester.
The penalties against diesel trucks and vans lacks commonsense, did you know as it stands now that by 2010 all diesel vans over 1.2 tons, which don't comply to the new emission standards, will be 'fined' from £100 to £200 a day to enter Greater London. This includes commercial based vehicles so will hit some people movers, including diesel VW Caravelles (and campers) & Mercedes Vitos etc. But having tried to understand exactly what the situation is in regard to the Low Emission Zone we found the website(s) extremely difficult to navigate with the relevant information seemingly obscured. The system started in Feb of this year at a cost of over £40,000,000 to install the cameras and is already hitting those with larger trucks.
But the fact is businesses rely on delivery vans and although it is desirable to want to reduce harmful emissions, advice like buy a new van, which is genuinely a suggestion on the website, is unhelpful and arrogant. This policy is going to cripple London.
There is now talk of charging motorcycles to enter London which defeats the object of the congestion charge. Even dual fuel vehicles are not safe and it is being considered wether in retrospect they should have to pay the charge too. The congestion charge was designed to reduce congestion not simply raise money and penalise road users. I also see no justification for stopping motorcycles from using bus lanes. It's all well and good for Ken to hit motorists hard but public transport is not getting any better. Buses and tubes are so crowded at times it can be positively dangerous. We need to find some intelligent solutions to mass transport in 21st century London.
The school run is another contentious issue in London. Parents seem to get stick from everyone. But a lot of the time they have little alternative but to drive their kids to school. The roads can be too dangerous to walk along or cross, and it is debatable wether it's safe for any child under 13 to be riding a bike on any road, let alone a busy London one. So let's all stop shouting at each other and come up with sensible solutions. American style school buses would be one solution in some areas. A bus you knew your kids would be safe on, which stopped very close, if not outside your home, could go a long way to easing the school run misery.
The experiment on the A23 allowing motorcycles to use bus lanes, has been a complete success, I personaly use it on a regular basis, not that you would think it from Mr Livingstones reaction. A leaked report from TFL shows that the refusal to allow motorcycles to use the bus lanes is actually harming cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists, if you accept the TFL findings and I see no reason to doubt them.
[edit] Crime and Policing
Gun and knife crime is seemingly endemic in London. Yobs fuelled by drugs and cheap alcohol are creating a culture of fear that we, as Londoners, should not allow. We need police on the streets, not doing paperwork or sitting in cars. A greater police presence with harsher penalties would go someway toward detering the people terrorising our streets. The level of gang related violence and shootings amongst certain communities in London has started to make London look like the worst parts of America. The killings are seemingly over nothing and often involve what are little more than children. We need to look to the States and see how communities there have started to turn the tide of gun crime. We imported the violence from them, now we need to import the solutions.
[edit] Health
Most of the issues effecting the health of Londoners are the same as national issues. But one issue which is unique to us is the cost of living in London. The result is we have plenty of very good doctors but we have a supply problem with nurses and other health careers. This is because nurses cannot afford to live in London. This is also a problem for teachers and people in the ambulance and fire service. There have been some moves to remedy the housing side of this by providing very limited amounts of cheaper housing for certain key public sector employees. But this fails to address the problem. People should not be made to feel they have to have handouts in the form of special housing... simple hard fact is: in London certain people need to be be paid a lot more than they are in the rest of the country. The simple fact is a nurse or fireman starting out now could not afford to buy or rent a property in London but could if they lived in another part of the UK, they therefore need, for our sakes, to be paid a living wage FOR LONDON. The postcode lottery where one person can be treated while their neighbor is not is wholly unacceptable. Bureaucracy is stifling the health service in London with too many over paid managers. We need to look at triage waiting times, people seem to be spending a lot of time waiting to be seen. Londoners want to see our nurses treated with respect and not to have their plight ignored or glossed over like it seems to be now.
[edit] Housing and Homelessness
The number of homeless people on the street appears to be increasing, there is however great difficulty is ascertaining exact figures. Part of the problem is the transient nature of the homeless, contrary to popular belief, the homeless do not have dedicated plots or territories. There is also a percentage of the homeless who stay with friends or 'squat'. The initiative should be self help and not handouts. We must be mindful of the mentally ill or the displaced and where possible give support. For the young homeless we should give them support with training programmes and postal addresses, not ignore and further alienate them. The young on the street are so vulnerable to the drug and prostitution trades that we should all take responsibility for rehabilitating them. London comprises the highest percentage of 'known' homeless in England at 26%. The next nearest is the South West of England, an entire area of the country, with 13%. Clearly there is a train of thought that our streets are paved with gold, we must dispel this myth and move toward prevention and rehabilitation.
[edit] Environment and climate change
We need to look hard at what causes the problems within our environment. London is a big city and there are no easy solutions. We are led to believe that recycling is the big fix. Recycling in London is just a small way to help, yet it gets a massive budget. I don't believe that the way recycling is set up at present is working as well as it is portrayed. We need to look at what causes pollution in a new way. I feel that we need to change the way we live to reduce waste and work towards a solution that everyone can live with. The big companies need to do their bit and stop double or triple wrapping everything we buy. Anyone who has opened toys with their kids will understand the frustration at knowing what to with the vast volume of cardboard and plastic one simple toy is packaged with. It's often hard for those of us with no agenda to see the wood for the trees. Environmental issues have become so polarised that finding any sources of information that are neutral and informed is next to impossible. People seem to use environmental issues as an excuse to promote some other agenda. To many Londoners I think Ken's position on cars (and motorised vehicles in general) is one of these situations. Yes we all want clean air. But we also want to keep a vibrant market economy in our great city and there has to be a balance. Ken just seems anti car, rather than anti pollution. He uses pollution as his stick to wave against the car. But first and foremost it's the car he hates and the potential pollution is just a convenient stick to hide behind to further his anti car aims.
[edit] Fun Bits
Dream Candidate
That would be ME
If a song could represent your personality or campaign, what would it be?
Hoxton Hair - Parka
What do you do for fun?
Drive aircooled VW camper with the guys from VZI
What is your favourite movie?
I dont really have a favourite, I love lots of different types of film
What is your favourite book?
Jack kerouac - On the road
Which people inspire you?
Anyone who gets off their backside and tries to improve themselves.
What are your hobbies?
Motorbikes, fishing
Name one thing that you could change about yourself.
My Teeth
What matters to you most?
Integrity
[edit] Occupation
Jake is a presenter for Motorsickle.com
