The government's air pollution plan is a beautiful smokescreen

A ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040 is a great vision for the future but does nothing to address a public health emergency happening right now

What a beautiful smokescreen. A UK ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040 conjures up the clean, green vision of an all-electric future and is absolutely the right thing to tackle climate change - emissions from transport are high and not falling.

But for the public health emergency of today, with most urban areas already having suffered illegal levels of air pollution for years, it does nothing at all.