‘Magnus thinks that oldies selfishly driving cars everywhere is just so 20th-century’

• I WRITE on behalf of my grandson, who was born in January this year.

His name is Magnus. He lives in Islington. Unlike opponents of the Barnsbury/Laycock LN, liveable neighbourhood, Magnus does not see freedom as merely the freedom to drive cars.

He wants the freedom to use the streets without having to dodge vehicles. He wants to learn to ride a bike, safely. He wants to hear a conversation on the pavement without it being drowned by revving engines.

He hopes that Liverpool Road will, in due course, be added to the streets that benefit. He doesn’t want his health and his mental development stunted by the toxic fumes pumped into Islington’s air by car exhausts, causing early death through heart disease, cancer and dementia.

Magnus may live into the 22nd century, and he doesn’t want climate change by then to have made human life near-impossible.

Magnus thinks that oldies selfishly driving cars everywhere is just so 20th-century. Society’s addiction to the car, he says, is outdated.

He hopes that his Islington, his world, will live life better.

JAMES MACKAY
Warwick, CV34