A refusenik in London

On the plane, reading news headlines before landing, the jetlag was mixed with déjà vu. Just after I'd passed through Dubai, Israel had launched a firestorm at Iran. The world was teetering; the world seethed with insanity and conflict. First Ukraine, then Gaza and now this.

- Charlotte Grimshaw

Meanwhile in Washington, the Trump administration had held a military parade in which soldiers and corporate sponsors paid bizarre homage to the commander-in-chief. A day later in London I encountered something deeply sane: Islington's low-traffic neighbourhoods. In the middle of the vast city, street after street is blocked off and pedestrianised. The effect is luxurious, beautiful, tranquil. It's such a change from the London I used to curse as I wrestled my children through it, the dirty old town, sullied and ruined by traffic. Before the congestion charge, walking was hellish.

I started to dislike cars only when I lived in deafening, smog-blackened WC1. Now, around Islington, whole neighbourhoods are transformed.

People resisted but few would want to go back. I wish this reform could happen in my suburb back home, where last year a runaway truck destroyed the front of my house. I can imagine how much local opposition there'd be. Some refuseniks, it seems, say no to every good idea on principle.