Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People

Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People

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Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People
Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People
On London Extra: Skilling up

On London Extra: Skilling up

How will we build without builders? Plus polls, politics, postcards and more

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Dave Hill
Jun 27, 2025
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Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People
Dave Hill On London: Politics, Places, People
On London Extra: Skilling up
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The special thing about this Substack is that all the money it makes helps to fund the no-ads, no-paywall, high-quality journalism website On London I founded and edit, including its many marvellous writers. If you aren’t already a paid subscriber and don’t support On London through another avenue, please consider taking the free trial. As well as making me happy and doing something good, you will start getting nice things other people don’t. Thanks, Dave.

During the pandemic, an early public disagreement between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan concerned construction workers. On 24 March 2020, the day after first national lockdown was announced, the government defended allowing them to continue travelling to building sites when most other people who normally commuted to jobs had been told to stay at home. Khan revealed on breakfast TV that he had told Johnson he thought this was wrong.

Why did the politician formerly known as "Good old Boris" make construction workers exempt? Someone who was close to the decision-making action at the time believes it was all about "the optics" - particularly the optics of cranes.

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