Evening Standard Comment: Clean air is a human right, but one Londoners are too often denied

Last Friday, air quality in the capital was worse than in Beijing, driven by a toxic combination of high atmospheric pressure and low winds. It was bad enough that Londoners were advised to reduce outdoor physical exertion.

Filthy air is a danger to all of us, but especially children and those with respiratory conditions. Sadiq Khan has rightly made ridding our city of dangerous pollution a priority, most notably with the plan to expand the Ultra-low emission zone to the entirety of Greater London.

One idea to drive down pollution was an 18-month trial of the UK’s first “zero-emission street” on Beech Street, a tunnel that runs under the Barbican estate. It restricted the road to electric vehicles and cyclists but came to an end last September. Consequently, air pollution shot back up again. That is a shame.

Clean air is a right of all Londoners. From zero-emission streets to boosting electric charging infrastructure, we must leave no stone unturned in the battle to make London a breathable, livable city.

Prison is not only a punishment but also an opportunity for rehabilitation. Education has a key role to play in that process, yet a damning Ofsted report has warned that prisons are failing to teach inmates to read.

More than half of prisoners have the reading age of a child. This means many cannot easily take part in rehabilitative education, leaving inmates more likely to re-offend. This is an issue the Standard and our readers have long cared about.

Our Get London Reading campaign, which did much to focus minds on boosting literacy across the capital, had a particular focus on prisons. Progress has been made, but today’s report shows there remains some way to go in helping prisoners turn their lives around.