My latest Conservative Home article:
The latest figures for UK car sales remain disappointing. The industry has been in denial since lockdown, claiming poor sales resulted from a lack of supply. They say they were unable to buy enough microprocessors as the digital industries hoovered up the output from world chip factories. They now tell us supply shortages are behind them. It is true there was a useful recovery in car sales from low levels so far this year, but it is also true that they remain way below the levels of the previous decade. It is also notable that whilst fleet or business purchases have advanced well this year, sales to individuals are static at low levels.
During the long Brexit debates the Remain political parties claimed the UK motor industry would lose out were a 10% tariff to be imposed. Motor industry lobbying was one of the reasons the UK government paid quite a high price to secure a free trade deal with the EU so cars and other items would remain tariff free. No-one suggested a 10% tariff would have done anything like the damage to sales that has in fact occurred for other reasons. We need to ask why are car sales so depressed and why don’t the main political parties and government do something about it?
We need to look at public attitudes towards battery electric cars. Government, Opposition and industry are united in telling us these are the products we must buy. The latest figures show battery cars stuck at just 14% of the total market. By now if the net zero UK car ambitions are to be hit battery vehicles should be the majority choice. The car buying public remains sceptical. Whilst polling shows general support for decarbonisation and the road to net zero, it also shows a marked reluctance for people to adopt electric cars themselves anytime soon. Many worry about the range of the vehicles. Some worry about battery life. Many are concerned about the lack of reliable charging points around the country. Vehicle reviewers taking EVs for longer drives often report reaching a charger place to find the chargers unavailable, or a long queue of cars to use them, or difficulties with the payment systems. People think that battery electric vehicles are still too dear compared to petrol versions. There are questions about repairs to damage and the complications if the battery resting in the chassis is also affected.
Urban dwellers with travel patterns within their urban area are less concerned about range. People on good incomes who can afford a second car to provide long distance back up often like electric cars. More fleet buyers are persuaded as their company seeks to meet its net zero objectives and helps put in home or workplace charging. We still await the inventor of the Mini or the Beetle of the electric revolution, the must have product that does not need subsidy and special regulations to get people to buy it.
Meanwhile government policies are very good at stopping people buying new diesels. Once the government’s poster boy of the CO 2 revolution, praised for their greater fuel economy, the diesel is now briefed against and regulated against. Councils are busy making it more difficult to use any kind of car. The government has announced it will ban new diesel and petrol car sales from 2030. Far from making people keen to buy electric cars it is simply putting people off buying any new car at all. Higher taxes on new vehicles also present another obstacle to new car buying.
If the government continues with its proposed ban it will act as a block on new motor industry investment in petrol and diesel vehicles in the UK. That will pass to countries who will not be banning these vehicles so early as motor manufacturers seek to earn returns on ranges of vehicles that remain popular. Many UK customers are likely from 2030 to want to buy nearly new imported cars instead if they cannot buy the cars they want in the UK. If you are planning a transition you need to concentrate on creating success for the thing you wish to replace what you have. The danger of UK policy is it will be better at destroying the existing motor industry than at building the new one they want. The West has anyway let China gain a big advance in accessing the raw materials needed for vehicle battery production and in rolling out cheaper electric models that do sell in China.
It is time for a rethink. The net zero revolution needs more popular engagement, which in turn needs more attractive and affordable products. Whilst we await those it is folly to demolish the things that do work and people want, whilst our competitors abroad continue to produce them. The government should lift the proposed ban, review the taxes, and welcome more motor investment here. Councils and government should also allow van and car use as necessary aids to the provision of goods and services productively, ensuring a road system that is safe without so much congestion born of bans and restrictions.
April 7, 2023
A good summary about cars. The problem extends to so many other things though! Boilers, food, countryside, 15-min cities, medical treatments, freedom of speech, pronouns, even thought itself…there is no end to government intervention in our lives.
“Overreach” is no longer a strong enough word to describe how those with power wield it. It’s authoritarianism and fanaticism practised by the elites. It doesn’t hurt them, they feed off it. The rest of us have been caught out by a revolution that’s happened under our very noses.
April 7, 2023
Indeed the attacks on free speech especially pernicious. The latest plan to make employers liable for what their customers might say (that is overheard & perhaps offends their staff) is appalling. So no free speech on trains, buses, in pubs, restaurants, schools, universities… yet more work for parasitic lawyers though.
April 7, 2023
Ot only is net zero damaging the car industry on purpose, the government is destroying and our own nuclear industry. Rather than place an order for the Rolls Royce SMR it wants to go to international tender.
No other country would be so pathologically stupid as to do this.
Next you will go for the farmers.
April 7, 2023
Agree 100%
But they have been going for farmers for years. France was supposed to be the EU ( highly subsidised) farmer.
Look at that appalling cow cull …6 million was it? All based on modelling!
I remember when suddenly my farming relatives could not keep and cure their own sheepskins.
The Man from the Min.!
April 7, 2023
@Ian wragg – Under this Government UK taxpayer money can only go to organisations are outside of the UK’s tax mans reach. Its called redistribution, UK wealth has to be pushed elsewhere in the World. The UK Government has a priorty for maximum imports, therefore maximum destruction
April 7, 2023
They’re already going for the fishermen. If they don’t fall within an approved BMI limit, they’re to be banned. Anything to destroy the British fishing industry.
I wonder why the authoritarians aren’t applying this to the thousands of obese nurses or the (many) lumps of lard working in the Civil Service and Parliament?
April 12, 2023
and the fat fishermen!
April 7, 2023
The reasons SMRs have gone out to international tender are :
1) This will delay the implementation of SMRs.
2) They will be able to find the worst performing technology at the most expensive price just as they have done with Hinkley Point C, rather than when the CCA was passed in 2008, starting a new programme to build replicas of the successful Sizewell B.
Instead they picked the poorly performing French EDF EPR technology (the Finnish unit is 13 years late, 2 built in China are limping along and the one in France is also late) and decided to make it double the price by allowing the Chinese to finance it.
3) By using foreign technology it will ensure we do not train our own nuclear engineers, we do not own the technology and there is no prospect of export sales.
April 7, 2023
There is no law which says that 99.7% of the people are compelled to play a make-believe game to please the 0.3% who might want them to do that.
You seem to be playing your own curious one quite voluntarily anyway.
April 7, 2023
NLH,
What you fail to see through your fog of socialist inbreeding is that there is a coordinated assult on the individuals freedom to travel when and where they choose. Socialist thinking, in which I include the current government, is at war with mobility by motor vehicle. Incidentally try speaking in plain english.
April 12, 2023
Is socialist inbreeding similar to the monarchy and its history of inbreeding?
April 7, 2023
Agreed Wanderer. It is all about power and control. Authoritarianism bordering on totalitarianism.
April 7, 2023
@BOF +1
April 7, 2023
They haven’t staged a revolution, they’ve staged a power-grab. That will, in turn, provoke a revolution.
They have no mandate for the policies they are forcing on us.
April 7, 2023
And as ever, the MP sit, hands clasped in laps, eyes downcast, thinking what?
That it’ll be alright on the night?
That the softly, softly tactics of yore will work again?
Delusional…if so!
April 7, 2023
The Tory party are no longer an honest party …what they’ll doing now has nothing to do with the last general election
April 7, 2023
Honesty used to be a norm, but now is regarded as a pleasant rare surprise.
April 7, 2023
+many
People were warned and warned.
But they chose to believe governments.
Actually though I do wonder whether the “warners” were set up by the powers-that-be and then purposely ridiculed to debunk their ( wholly accurate) predictions.
If so …that tactic gave the authorities years of help from baying mobs screaming with laughter at “conspiracy theorists”.
Good grief…and they are even trying that one again, in answer to an MP’s questions.
They think we are goldfish…..
April 7, 2023
@Cuibono +1
At the local elections I would love to see the Conservatives wiped out. The problem is that all the alternatives as with the Conservative themselves only permit Woke Left Wing candidates. To much taxpayer money going into supporting the established at the cost of the independent
April 7, 2023
+1
How about this one…
Here Labour and Green determined to go for 15 min city plus all the rest of the nonsense.
Tories promising NOT to go for all that.
Independents ( who are usually relatively sane or at least tactical) refusing to commit publicly re 15 min city but ACTUALLY are in alliance with Lab and Green.
Have to vote Tory? Except that they are probably lying!
April 7, 2023
Are the Tories worried about electricity prices? Seems not. John -take a look at the NOTALOTOFPEOPLEKNOWTHAT website for how we are being ripped off by the‘ renewables’ subsidy system. Your fault, btw congratulations on waking up to the car industry and Net Zero- two years late. What about lorries? Ooh forgot them. Have you had a meeting with the GWPF yet?
Reply I have not just woken up to the car industry or energy problems. Read past blogs.
April 7, 2023
+1
April 7, 2023
The whole roll out process to taking up electric vehicles is dire to say the least.
You highlight a lot of the concerns which quite rightly exist but those who still use the fear factor are alienating the critical mass of road users.
No minister stands on the platform telling the facts about the heavier weight of vehicles impacting on road damage, heavier tyre wear and its impact on the braking system all adding in their own way to damage to the environment. The safe environmental disposal of all the batteries.
As with a lot of government policies it is all half truths and treating the vehicle using public like idiots. Those days of that are long gone in so many areas of our lives thanks to social media and the Internet. Trying to bring in something so radical with old badly thought out processes. Ignoring what our competitors are doing or not doing in most cases. Get off of the self destruct conveyer belt of having to be world leaders on everything. Invest in our core skills and stop trying to be all things to all people.
April 7, 2023
Designing better cars would help make them more attractive to buyers.
Too many are dull clones copying each other’s output creating no difference.
Make a better UK product and the world beats a path to pay its price.
April 7, 2023
I believe they should start at school with the top 5% most naturally and gifted students, they know who they are we used to have NAGTY (National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth) until Blair destroyed it. These were state school children, given none rehearsed tests, they were given access to extra courses in the summer and additional topics to self-study on top of their usual school work. If we spent anything like 10% of the resource we spend on the economically inactive on the most intelligent we might start to get the growth and invention.
April 7, 2023
My younger son was offered a place in NAGTY. It was pointless: summer schools IF you could afford it; IF you could get your child there (and back) and IF the child wanted a couple of extra weeks tuition in the school holidays. Other than that, it was just a magazine which landed a few times a year, saying how marvellous the scheme was.
Most of the Uni placements were in northern Universities, not much good if you lived in the south (as we did). As I was a single mum (their dad having left when my two sons were very young) it was completely impractical. I was working, didn’t have the spare money to drive to and from Manchester, Sheffield (or wherever) and he didn’t want to spend his summer holidays being hot-housed.
The most sensible solution to Gifted and Talented is to bring back local Grammar schools.
April 7, 2023
What year was that Donna? I’m sorry you found it pointless. Two of my children got some great experiences from NAGTY prior to 2004, several local out of school courses, one of the teachers took four of the students to one of the Saturday morning maths events, yes the extra mathematics training was in two weeks of the six weeks school holidays, he had a fabulous time, and it was in a university two hours South from our home, we made the investment as he was the first person in the family to go to university. He decided to go to that university after the course a few years later on a Master of Maths and got a 1st, I was very happy with that intervention, we as a family didn’t go on holiday that year.
Grammar schools are not universally popular and there are none in my County. They were often felt to be beneficial for middle class families of good wealth with the most wealthy able to pay tutors to teach their children to pass the test. Comprehensive schools properly streamed from year 7 by subject could achieve a lot more than they do and NAGTY type lessons could be used in the top stream as I found them very enriching.
April 8, 2023
Roundabout 2003. I’m not bothered by his lack of involvement and neither is he. If you’re intelligent and work hard, you’ll succeed. He has (as had my older son).
In a State Comprehensive, a male “clever kid” often gets bullied and the way to avoid that is to make them popular, if you can. I encouraged his sporting prowess as well as his academic potential. He was never bullied.
I’m glad your children benefited from NAGTY. Because of our circumstances, it simply wasn’t possible.
April 7, 2023
a-Tracy
If only. I wrote to the education minister highlighting the need to incorporate business skills into the curriculum to help those not destined for college or university to have some useful skills that industry and commerce always need. The reply is written as if from another planet. The minister never ever got to see it.
April 13, 2023
The problem is that I don’t believe many teachers could teach business skills in the curriculum. I remember volunteering to do Young Enterprise. My group was very successful, their small enterprise profitable and opened up a niche product that people wanted to buy, I trained them how to sell, work out their costings to cost in all their labour a true little business, they won a round, yet the most hard working in the group didn’t get their certificate or pass the little end of project test because I hadn’t realised to train them for the test I thought I was training them for future knowledge! I felt very guilty about that. A group of students that did very little to help the group took all glory and all got starred certificates because they spent their time as their elder siblings had advised not bothering to help making, selling, doing but passing a test. That is the value of the UK education system.
April 7, 2023
Yes, I think we should be more concerned about what brake and tyre dust does to our lungs than modern IC engines. Oh dear, I think I’ve just given Mayor Kahn another money making scam idea.
April 7, 2023
Well yes indeed. “The road to net zero is damaging the UK car industry” and also damaging to the UK economy, living standards, productivity and people’s health. An agenda that even denies many older people the ability to even keep warm is evil. Far more die from cold.
Anyway keeping your old car almost always also produces less CO2 than buying a new EV car does anyway. Due to the large fossil fuel energy needed to build the car and battery, Plus we do not even have any spare low C02 electricity to charge them with.
The real agenda is to price most poorer people off the roads completely, The war on motorist by road blocking, mugging fines, ULEZ, parking restrictions is all part of this agenda. Atmospheric CO2 levels are not a serious problem (a bit more CO2 is prob. a net benefit on balance). The idea that CO2 levels are some kind of World thermostat is totally absurd.
April 7, 2023
This can be the beginning of the end of Sadiq Khan’s nightmarish misrule
If the Tories choose the right candidate, grassroots fury at the mayor’s anti-car agenda could finish him
ALLISTER HEATH
Let us hope so but who is the right Candidate?
April 7, 2023
All the car-restricting policies being imposed on us are encouraged and often funded by the DfT. The DfT has had a Conservative Minister for the past 13 years.
Why do people persist in the fiction that the Not-a-Conservative-Party is not to blame for the war on the motorist in the UK? A CON Mayor will make no difference. The policies are coming from the WEF and the Westminster Uni-Party is doing what it has been ordered to do by people with far higher, international, pay-grades.
April 7, 2023
Exactly, Donna. I’m afraid SJR is simply wasting his time going halfway towards the net zero lobby as he does. He tells them, if you want to meet your objectives you need to take the public with you. He doesn’t seem to appreciate that they want the public to be forced to go along with NZ willy-nilly, they don’t need to convince the public. Still, I suppose if you are an MP, you live in a world where things have to be decided by rational debate, convincing arguments and popular sovereignty. After the recent revelations on how the Covid lockdown restrictions were foisted on the country, I wouldn’t have thought there’d be many of us left who still believe that.
April 7, 2023
I agree Donna. All the main parties are in this scam together. Voting for any of the main parties will not stop this nonsense. The suicide of the Western world goes on unabated. We see the failed ousted New Zealand PM has been given a high ranking environmental role by our new royalty. They are all in this together and the public needs to wake up.
April 7, 2023
HuffPost 23 hours ago — Labour Now 40 Points Ahead Of The Tories In London, According To Poll. It is the biggest lead the party has had in the capital since 2010.
April 7, 2023
@Ashley It is stil a long, long way of. It would help if the parts of the Counties that were stolen and robbed by Government to create the monalith was handed back – the sensibilities may be handed back to the people affected.
April 7, 2023
ULEZ is Balkanisation by the back door.
April 7, 2023
+many
Exactly!
Just like the alternative agriculture ( one name for it = permaculture) colonising/balkanising farmland destroying local/traditional farming.
Just like certain “charities” undermining the rule of law, the family, religion and just about every other pillar of tradition.
There were TV “investigations” during ( the 70s?) with an extremely famous presenter/journalist which totally undermined fishing and mining in highly propagandist ways.
It has all been carefully planned.
Balkanise = divide and conquer.
April 7, 2023
It really is the Tory Government vs. People
April 7, 2023
+1
It was said in certain much maligned circles for years that the U.K. govt./Deep State/whatever was planning to go to war with its people.
Well…here we have it…as you say!
April 7, 2023
Ashley
Indeed, confusion all around with no joined up thinking of policies, common-sense, or indeed any real understanding or thought of Human nature.
As posted a couple of days ago, my 23 year old 3 litre V6 gas guzzler now gone in part exchange for a German made, 2 litre diesel powered 7 seater SUV replacement of choice.
Just 4 months old and at a 20% discount on new, and with a good part exchange value on the old one, the new one should last another 20 years, if allowed on the road for that long, and if I can still get fuel for it.
It will be my last big car purchase, for a vehicle that will go anywhere, at any time, with a long range, a 5 min fill up, half of the emissions and twice the MPG of the trade in, and all at the same price as I would pay for a little electric run about with all of the restrictions that owing one incurs.
April 7, 2023
You are correct JR, friend of ours just recently taken delivery of a new full electric car after waiting for 10 months (original promise 5 months).
Another waited over 12 months for a new hybrid (original promise 6 months), gone it would seem are the days when you could either make an impulse purchase, or a sensible planned exchange for a new car.
I see the Government are now admitting that Smart Motorways are not smart at all, but dangerous, something most experienced drivers, could and did suggest many years ago.
Hardly rocket science when you consider that not only has the safety of the hard shoulder gone, but you are now barriered in on a live lane, until it is closed, unless of course you are lucky enough to reach a tiny lay bye pull in, which in itself is impossible to pull out of (because it is far too short) to merge sensibly onto the motorway again at speed.
I have to ask what clowns ever thought this was a good idea ?
Think I have said enough in past postings about ULEZ areas, where you can pollute to your hearts content, if you can pay !
Like so many things “follow the money” !
April 7, 2023
After 2030 that ULEZ will also apply to every EV ….mission creep to collect more tax’s to save the planet
April 7, 2023
The government’s for over the last twenty years or more all failed to grasp that this so called new saving the world panic would require a power distribution infrastructure far in excess of their wildest dreams.
People like the late Lord Lawson did but only a few politicians like you listened and understood.
It may have looked good on the world stage trashing the countryside, destroying the sea beds, blowing up coal fired power stations but the reality we and is the government’s were out of cinque with reality. We are now saddled with intermittent power generation power generation plants with a short life operational life span with a massive problem rearing its ugly head in the destruction, replacement of the old turbines and all the environmental damage with their disposal. All at present totally ignored but still heavily subsidised and benefitting from constraint payments to make them really profitable to their foreign owners and investors.
April 7, 2023
Most people have no idea what Net Zero or decarbonisation actually means so why Mr Redwood refers to opinion polls in relation to this topic is so silly that it defies all common sense.
The Marxist NZ agenda is designed to control an economy. It’s purpose is not about protecting the environment but about taking control of how we consume. John should stop pretending he doesn’t know this
April 7, 2023
Correct. It’s about control. The “new” Communism, with the Prize Pigs deciding how you should live and what you “deserve.”
April 7, 2023
Its a Brave New World
April 12, 2023
Is there a Capitalist NZ agenda? If not why not. I thought NZ was being championed as a great business opportunity.
April 7, 2023
It wasn’t net zero ambitions which have hobbled access to the world’s most sophisticated market of half a billion people on our doorstep, was it?
April 7, 2023
Exactly, that would be more down to anti-competition and protectionist policies.
April 7, 2023
No NLH – it was when they changed that trading ‘Market’ to a political ‘Union’.
April 7, 2023
“the must have product that does not need subsidy and special regulations to get people to buy it.”:
Already here. The electric scooter. Nifty, cheap, easily recharged, simple and fairly safe to ride. Electric bikes have come a long way as well.
Government reaction? Ban them!
I understand that a political party can make a mistake: we are all human. What gets me is the Labour Party who simply rubber stamp Net Zero, lock down, banning and restricting cars. Where is the opposition?
April 7, 2023
Electric scooters on roads with potholes (or on pavements with pedestrians) is a lethal combination – as we shall see.
April 7, 2023
Your article is as usual very logically argued and soberly persuasive, Sir John. Conservative Home readers need to hear your message and reflect on it. But whether they are to any significant extent decision-makers in matters relating to the net zero strategy, I wonder. Those that are need to think long and hard about what their decisions are doing to Britain’s remaining industrial economy and the economy more generally. We have car manufacturers who indirectly encourage less motor vehicle use, and local authorities that spend millions on town centre ‘regeneration’, then discourage shoppers from driving there. I wonder if sensible arguments can ever break through the closed mindsets of those in the private and public sectors who operate like this.
April 7, 2023
Not just the car industry.
The British Steel Industry has been destroyed by left wing eco-nuts in sandals wanting to go back to living in caves.
The eco-nuts have also destroyed the production of energy, the revenue from oil as successive ministers have feared the liberal hippies from complaining.
The return to caves is almost complete with the cost of energy making modern living unaffordable as old people have frozen to death and have to be careful to switch the heating on. The best aspects of Modernity are being put into reverse.
Electric cars are TWICE the price of petrol cars and are dependent on Chinese rare earth metals for batteries that die after a few years like all the rechargeable batteries in our other appliances.
This is not politics, it’s political suicide.
Thank god for democracy.
April 7, 2023
But Javelin, we’re going to end up with more of the same under a Labour administration. Different colour, same destructive policies.
April 7, 2023
But we’ll have ‘Peace in our time’, okay we’ll be dominated by the Chinese and the UN …be peace in our time is the goal …I’ve seen the movie
April 7, 2023
The government’s energy policy is in the hands of zealots; no wonder it’s a mess. (Vide its spending £20 bn on ‘carbon capture’ rather than on SMRs.) The government should remove COMPULSION. Anyways, my boiler is getting on. I’ll be replacing it this summer – and not with an expensive heat-pump!
April 7, 2023
I’ve come to the same conclusion SW – get a new one before they are banned.
As for EVs – well I’m very happy with my new ICE vehicle, the culmination of over a 100 years of car development. Looked after she will last me many years and by then I may not care what’s available…
April 7, 2023
Has any MPs installed a heat-pump in their own home yet
April 7, 2023
“The Net Zero revolution needs more popular engagement.”
You can’t get blood out of a stone. And you can’t make people who haven’t got the money pay for expensive EVs, heat pumps, solar panels and all the rest of the sub-standard technology which the wealthy Eco Nutters are trying to force on us. And that’s before you get onto the fact that all the products they are pushing are inferior to the existing alternatives; are inappropriate for the circumstances, and/or unreliable.
When the internal combustion engine was invented, the Government of the day didn’t ban the horse and horse-drawn vehicles in order to make people switch.
Net Zero is a scam, intended to transfer money from “the little people” to the already wealthy and to ration the use of resources according to your ability to pay for it. If you aren’t wealthy, you will be expected to live a constrained life in your 15 Minute Ghetto ….. whilst the “Elite” carry on regardless, since they can afford to buy “Indulgences” for their private jets. Of course, if you are wealthy enough to be able to afford two or more cars, it doesn’t matter too much if one of them is an expensive and unreliable EV, with a limited range.
If you have one car, which has to cater for a variety of circumstances, it doesn’t make sense. Particularly if you can’t charge it at home.
Why aren’t people buying cars? Possibly because, like me, they’re intending to buy a new petrol one a year or two before our Dictatorial Uni-Party in Westminster bans them.
April 7, 2023
Well said Donna. I plan to do exactly the same. Keep running my existing car until a couple of years before the ban then buy a petrol or diesel replacement. After this I will go abroad and import a car. I will never buy an EV because I will not support the child slave labour that is used to mine the rare earth minerals required to make the batteries. Where is the outrage for these poor children? Or is this only reserved for slaves from hundreds of years ago? More publicity is needs for the plight of these poor people but it won’t happen as it doesn’t fit the narrative of the world leaders. This shows what a scam climate change really is. It pains me when politicians continue with their deluded policies.
April 7, 2023
Agreed. In the paper today it’s reported that Charles is to investigate the Royal Family’s historic links to slavery.
The Eco Zealot doesn’t appear to be in the least bit concerned about the child-slaves in Africa who are mining the minerals necessary to produce EVs.
I for one will not be celebrating the coronation of this lefty, woke, virtue-signalling man. He’s a disgrace.
April 7, 2023
Christine, the concern is the petrol and diesel garages will shut as demand drops, so the price increases, the business lease market has been persuaded through taxation to take hybrid and battery vehicles. The usual petrol and diesel second hand vehicles are reducing into the market, this will be first seen in two years time when usual 2 year old fossil fuel vehicles aren’t available at lower costs.
Vans are getting difficult to buy, or get parts for as they have figured out you can sell them for a lot more this year so cut previous orders. There are a restricted number of sellers it is seizing up, is this the plan.
April 7, 2023
Why should ‘the petrol and diesel garages shut’?
The owner of my local garage retired at the end of last year. The ‘new’ team is the son of the previous owner, already a mechanic in another garage, now the official owner. He works with the same other two mechanics already there over the last 5-7 years. One of them is already trained at EV3 level and working on his Institute of the Motor Industry EV4 level. (It is one of the certificates of achievement in the office).
Last time I had to go there for my 21-year petrol car I had noticed one of them working on a hybrid car. I could not say whether it was a mechanical or electrical problem, but anyway, announcing the disappearance of petrol/diesel/(hybrid and EV) garages is rather premature.
April 7, 2023
Diesel and petrol refuelling stations. The United Kingdom is home to 8,365 operational petrol stations and those under development. Numbers have fallen by over 56 percent since 2000.
I don’t like how so many manufacturers insist on maintenance repairs at their own garages, often taking weeks on end to get the parts to repair the often relatively new vehicles. I support privately owned enterprises and hope they will be allowed to maintain electric vehicles, although the one I lease only needs looking at in two year intervals as there isn’t as much to service, I will probably send it in for a brake check.
April 7, 2023
Christine
+ many many more.
April 7, 2023
Let’s just hope they don’t take the next logical step after 2030 and ban petrol and diesel. Maybe they won’t have to, if the majority get electric cars, the oil companies may conclude it is not worth supplying the UK and, like local petrol pumps we used to have, just close them down.
April 7, 2023
Plenty of research now going into “e Fuel” to replace existing fossil fuel that will be able to operate in ICE engines, the German Motor industry in particular looking at this alternative.
April 7, 2023
You only need ‘e-fuel’ or EVs if you believe in the UN IPCC report
April 7, 2023
Donna. Totally agree.
Your comment “When the internal combustion engine was invented, the Government of the day didn’t ban the horse…” made my day!
April 7, 2023
+1
April 7, 2023
Donna
Very well said.
My present high efficiency wall mounted oil boiler is 4 years old. Close to the cut off date I will purchase another one same model and store it in my workshop with a bag of burner nozzles. Heating and hot water supply sorted for the next 30 years plus.
April 7, 2023
Very well stated Donna – however don’t assume that you will be able to buy an ICE vehicle of your choice right up to 2030. The manufacturers are busy pulling their ICE options out of the UK market and I think the range of ICE vehicles will narrow very considerably well before the 2030 cutoff date.
April 7, 2023
Ian
Thats one of the reasons I purchased mine recently, whilst there was still an excellent choice.
April 7, 2023
”Particularly if you can’t charge it at home”
That two thirds of the population in flats and terrace houses …often described as the working class, but luckily they can’t afford EVs
April 7, 2023
A very good summary Sir John.
I have never seen s few new cars on the road. My wife wants to change her car for a new ICE vehicle but was told it would take a year. Our electrician has been waiting for a new ICE vehicle for more than a year. The new post vans are electric but being a very rural area they struggle to even complete the round.
Are the ministers, the chorus of parliamentary backers and their advisors the most incompetent ever? All in thrall to the unworkable and unaffordable NZ.
April 7, 2023
The net zero revolution needs more popular engagement, which in turn needs more attractive and affordable products.
No it doesn’t, what it needs is a government that listens to the public and STOPS this idiotic road to self destruction of net zero rubbish, ozone /climate chance/net zero they are all but a thick smoke screen to screw every last £££’s of our money, put simply if the great British people really believe in this net zero crap then there would be more than one MP in Parliament, what’s needed right now is a party to be truthful with us and stop all this disaster nonsense of that we will all fry in 30 odd years time , this is a fundamental reason why we are struggling to make ends meet because net zero rubbish as a effect on every aspect of our life and our a hard earned cash, when the weatherman with all the satellites and computers can’t get the next day’s forecast right we should take there views with a pinch of salt, that’s my rant for the day on net zero rubbish
April 7, 2023
Mick
And what a good rant it was pal.
April 7, 2023
Mick
Well put!! It is all a scam to control the masses and keep us in our place… a 15 min one!
April 7, 2023
I believe that thats the gove plan
April 7, 2023
Sharon. Yes. And people are mighty sick of it all.
April 7, 2023
Yes, it’s amazing that they can tell us to within half a degree what the temperature will be in 50 years time, but not what it will be next week.
April 7, 2023
….and they want to carbon capture co2 but can’t collect refuse bins every week nor clean litter from our streets
April 7, 2023
Glen
Perhaps they are planning to use the collected carbon to fill in all the potholes !
April 7, 2023
With regard to polling the questions asked are…
“Do you want cleaner air?” And suchlike.
How can one answer “No”?
But the survey does not give any chance to qualify the answer.
There is no question…” Given that Net Zero will totally upend your life, do you want it?”
To think that this govt. is basing policy on such nonsense. Surveys screen out respondents with known “wrong think”.
That is a fact!
Send the MPs to the doorsteps to find out true opinions!
April 7, 2023
MP’s on the doorstep? Unheard of these days!
In fact, I meet my MP quite often walking the dog and she does not even respond to “ Good Morning “ looks through me.
But then I am from the pensioner under clas!
April 7, 2023
They are TERRIFIED of being challenged about the wanton destruction they are carrying out.
They know they are doing wrong.
A wonderful Tory MP here years ago doorstepped, kissed, shook hands, greeted at polling stations, helped, listened, wrote and phoned from HoC!
He came out of retirement once to support Cameron and campaign about something and he said to me on the doorstep…” They should not upset the folk in the ME as they are doing. It will lead to terrible trouble.”
Terribly prophetic in more ways than one!
He was wise and had no need to be afraid of his constituents.
This lot ( excluding JR) have traded shamelessly on the social capital of those long gone true conservatives.
April 7, 2023
Net Zero has nothing to do with cleaner air – it really is very annoying when people on TV refer to C02 as a pollutant. Current atmospheric CO2 levels are about 420ppm. At below 140ppm all plant life on this planet would die (which really would be the end of us all). Go to any crowded inddor space and the CO2 levels are probably reaching 1700ppm and people don’t notice.
Net Zero is an accounting scam – pure and simple. Made here = Bad, Made elsewhere = Good.
April 7, 2023
+1
April 7, 2023
+100
April 7, 2023
Not until next year They don’t want to know our opinions, only how we intend to vote. Luckily, living in the countryside I will not be pestered by these clowns turning up on my doorstep. They don’t even want to know how I will vote, so few are we within walking distance of their cars.
April 7, 2023
They’ll still only return ONE green MP
April 8, 2023
That means nothing. Why vote Green knowing it is a wasted vote? As it happens I do vote Green – to keep the environment in the agenda. Despite the absurd voting system we have, I think it’s fair to say that Green issues are top of the Tory and Labour agendas. The Green movement has been incredibly successful despite being cheated by a bent voting system.
April 8, 2023
Correct – there’s some 600 green MPs in the HoCs
April 7, 2023
The long term damage to UK business has already been done. Who is going to build petrol or diesel cars in the UK, engage in oil prospecting or set up manufacturing, when a capricious government is prone to suddenly change the rules?
What happened to the plan to reduce corporation tax further from 19%? Now it’s 25%. If the government U-turns, and take it back down again, who is going to trust them?
April 7, 2023
Trust? Not even in the politician’s lexicon. There will be a giveaway budget next year when they will return some of the money they are filching from us and expect us to be grateful and vote Tory. No chance. Too late.
April 7, 2023
It is folly for this small country to pursue net zero when we contribute less than 2% of global CO2 emissions. Meanwhile much of the world carries on pumping out CO2 while keeping it’s economy thriving.
And let us remember, CO2 is only .045% of the earths atmosphere. In other words a trace gas, necessary for plant life.
April 7, 2023
And the man-made part of that 0.04% is only 3% – the other 97% is entirely natural.
April 7, 2023
IanT, 97% entirely natural? So what is the natural process that changed the CO2 concentration from 315ppm in 1958 (beginning of Keeling’s measurements at Mauna Loa) to 410ppm last year.
April 7, 2023
A very good question Hefner, none the less – there is currently about 29 gigatons of man-made CO2 moving through the carbon cycle each year compared to the 750 gigatons of natural C02 doing so.
So if you want to be picky then it’s 3.87% but that’s still a very small part of the total. However, my problem is not whether (or not) man-made Climate Change is real. My problem is that the current ‘cure’ (e.g. Net Zero) makes no sense to me at all and seems to be worse than the “disease”. So even if UK could actually get to ‘zero’ C02 – a) it wouldn’t make any difference and b) it would completely bankrupt our economy.
April 7, 2023
Valid Points
April 8, 2023
+1
April 7, 2023
Just shows what a scam it all is. If China, India etc. truly believed all this nonsense would they still be on the path they are? Their scientists are every bit as good as the West, just not on the scammers payroll.
April 7, 2023
I thought that the whole point of NZ was to finish off the West’s car industry.
After all…we didn’t achieve industrial success through the sweat of our brows did we?
Oh no! It was privilege …so now we must give it away!
April 7, 2023
The saddest aspects for me are that anti car policy is entirely deliberate and the loss of skills will be irretrievable. It’s even worse than policy towards De Lorean in the 1980s in that we are seeing massive support and coercion in favour of – old tech – electric cars that most people don’t want. At least people liked the idea of buying De Loreans. The government knows full well the damage it is wreaking, just as it did by raising corporation tax. There is no longer any ‘unintended consequences’ defence for this government’s destructive policies.
April 7, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
And this government. of which you are a supporter, continues to stagger on blindly, wilfully and stupidly towards its net-zero nirvana completely oblivious to the plight of the motor industry.
I doubt I shall live to see the day when a future prime minister stands proudly on the steps of No.10 and with a great flourish declares that the UK has met its net-zero target. All around lies the wreckage of the country’s industrial past. Meanwhile, world CO2 levels continue to rise in defiance of the UK’s self-imposed net-zero edict and the government can’t understand why.
April 7, 2023
Net zero is damaging everything. It is a ridiculous, pointless and unachieveable policy made up by people more akin to hard core communists than environmentalists. It is designed to rob people of mobility and choice not to limit Co2 levels, which are already at historic lows and far below optimum for plant growth.
Togther with medical and currency tyranny it is bringing the end to any freedom or prospect of improvement for 99.9% of humanity.
April 7, 2023
Well said Des, I 100% agree!
April 7, 2023
Compared to before the industrial revolution? 290 ppm then, 440 ppm now? Lower than when the earth was a steaming swamp with trees the size of skyscrapers? Yes. But we weren’t around then.
April 7, 2023
EVs are todays snake oil. OK if self satisfaction prevails by having one on the drive, and only practical for short journeys if you have a drive on which to charge them. They cost around 50% more to buy, have very poor residual values and the infrastructure to keep them fed is infrequent, time consuming and user unfriendly as to payment methods. A very typical ill conceived UK government project by legal minds ill equiped for a technical challenge. Only a UK government, in which I include all the scribes, could press for EVs when they can barely generate sufficient electricity for current needs. Witness the indecision about SMRs.
As it stands it will destroy the UK car industry opening the door to a flood of imports and loss of manufacturing jobs.
The Germans have woken up to this folly of electric vehicles and will continue with the ICE and E fuels. Porsche have developed this and in Japan they are developing hydrogen as a fuel, thanks to Toyota and Mitsubishi. If you want pollution free vehicles task science and engineering to come up with market acceptable solutions. I equate UK government direction on this subject with the Battle of the Somme and it’s result. Then it must be obvious to anyone, not comotose, that UK government cannot organise a pissup in a brewery.
April 7, 2023
“Whilst polling shows general support for decarbonisation and the road to net zero,”
If this is the case where is the support from commentators on your diary? I expect many people who read your words are the wealthy retired who can easily afford an EV. I don’t see one comment in support of net zero.
This leads me to believe the the poll hasn’t asked the right question and is being used to brainwash the public into believing a narrative that doesn’t exist.
As there is no logic to net zero we need to look at the reasons behind it. I believe it’s about power, money and control. As we see the latest scam with politicians forcing farmers to feed their cows with anti flatulence seaweed which is produced by a company where a famous computer software producer has recently invested millions.
As they say follow the money. Unfortunately as recent headlines have shown some of our politicians are easily bought.
My only solution is to wake up the masses and vote out the current main parties before they destroy the future of our country. Alas, I fear it is too late.
April 8, 2023
There are, what, 25 regular commentators on this site? All of the same mindset. Hardly a very big sample.
Regarded as a poor area, where I live in West Dorset there are a lot of wealthy retired people – most of whom have moved here from the Home Counties. There are a lot of EVs on the roads here.
April 7, 2023
Conservative Home is far from Conservative but is a very accurate reflection of the current Conservative Party, which is basically LibDem in light disguise.
April 8, 2023
+1
And I see they have now made their comments section only visible to registered accounts… while they stealth-moderate anyone opposed to net zero or who says anything contrary to the editor’s pro-remain pro-wet agenda.
Not so much Conservative Home as Lib Dem Away.
April 7, 2023
I have only bought one new car since 2017. I paid £37,500 for it with a very substantial discount. Nevertheless, I have been paying the outrageous £365 additional VED which applies to cars with a RRP over £40,000.
This alone is a substantial barrier to replacing it, as an EV would be completely unsuitable for my kind of use.
My wife would be a perfect candidate for an EV but the cost of any model she would consider are far too high, about twice the price of an IC car when taking available discounts into account on a diesel or petrol car. (Nobody is offering any discount on EVs). Because of the uncertainty over future government policy, she has decided to keep her diesel Mercedes which was bought new in 2003 and has only done 62,000 miles.
So, like many reasonably affluent households, government policies are responsible for us not being in the market for new cars. At the age of 71 and 70, we will just run on the cars we have, including our totally sustainable 1955 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn, which will undoubtedly still be running like clockwork long after we are gone!
April 7, 2023
Chris S,
Totally agree with your thinking. Having returned from Europe car less, having sold it there. My partner and I will use her excellent japanese car until our building project is complete, then I will bug a large petrol engined, comfortable vehicle suited to continental cruising. It is surprising what is on the market with low mileage and at prices lower than buying an EV or the current equivalent of what I ran in Europe. Now the Germans have announced that the infrastructure will be available way beyond my sell by date I have no worries. The insanity and incompetence in government thinking is not something I have any intention of indulging. Life is too short.
April 7, 2023
I think you need to see what is happening in China. Todays DT article is truly enlightening. Sales of petrol/diesel dropping 20%.EV passenger car sales 30%+. Battery swapping not charging. Now there’s a thought re range anxiety and speed of recharge.
As with everything this government does, looks behind the curve/lacks true vision or ambition.
April 7, 2023
NIG
All sounds wonderful but after paying £40,000 plus for a new car, who with any sense is then going to take a chance to swap a brand new battery in a brand new car, for a possible half knackered second hand one?
Who is going to call “stop, that battery cannot be exchanged for another as it’s too old” what do you do then when they will not take your existing battery as an exchange ?
April 7, 2023
That made me smile. The howls of outrage this would produce. The media and all politicians – including almost all Tories – would be less outraged if you suggested legalising slavery.
April 7, 2023
Toyota in Deeside builds car engines (not imported) for it manufacturing car plant in Derby, they’ve already drawn up plans to stop production in 2028 and make everyone redundant and close the site before 2030 ….thanks to net-zero
April 7, 2023
I do not think working people and their families have bought into decarbonisation and net zero at all. People have been largely excluded from the debate and from the myriad changes to legislation imposing arbitrary restrictions to their lives. Mayor Khan’s ULEZ restrictions are a classic example. This ridiculous policy impacts working people the most, the very people who can ill afford £12.50 to get to work, take the children to school or do their shopping. It’s the same top down imposition of ill conceived policies applicable to BEV’s. Too expensive and impractical. This is why the sales of BEV’s are stagnant or even falling. You also failed to mention the recent change in EU policy who will now allow the manufacturing of ICE’s beyond 2035 by utilising green fuels. Why didn’t the Energy and Net Zero Minister follow the EU lead, thus injecting a huge incentive to our beleaguered car industry? Whether, BEV’s, Heat Pumps, ULEZ, Farming and Food consumption this administration, indeed this Parliament, with a handful of exceptions like yourself, is woefully out of kilter with public opinion.
April 7, 2023
MICHAEL S,
We the people demand a referendum on Nett Zero and all its implications
April 7, 2023
YES
April 7, 2023
Evs are dangerous :
Professor Paul Christensen of Newcastle University (UK), professor of pure and applied electrochemistry, believes that all Li-ion batteries are dangerous. These batteries do not have to undergo physical abuse to cause an explosive fire, it can just happen through exposure to high humidity and Common Mode Voltage (Noise) and the vapour cloud of a runaway fire can contain hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen cyanide, all very nasty.
To watch a video of Professor Christensen warning of the dangers Google “pv magazine Insight Australia 2021 Part 1” and start at 1:01
April 7, 2023
There will be insufficient electrical energy supplied by renewables to power the ice to ev transition, nor the necessary national and local infrastructure to supply all the ev chargers.
Furthermore, who wants to wait for hours alone in a cold, dark exposed location, such as a deserted carpark, waiting for our car to be charged sufficiently to get us home, possibly while watching the weather worsen as we wait?
April 7, 2023
Support for decarbonisation is the road to hell for the majority as they transfer more control over their wealth and lives to the wealthy minority who promoted this scam.
April 7, 2023
I could replace my Euro 2 level cat with a Euro 4 one. The emissions would then be at or about ULEZ requirements – if it wasn’t for current legislation. Why are we letting dogma superceed common sense?
April 7, 2023
ULEZ = Taxed Twice ….surely they’re against the law
April 7, 2023
Government intervention has caused harm, again. The R&D to make petrol and diesel engines more efficient has stalled after decades of finding improvements.
The public want to keep buying petrol and diesel cars. An entrepreneur fills a gap between demand and supply in an efficient novel manner. Will the booze cruise be replaced by the car cruise? Will the number of left-hand-drive cars on the road increase, along with accidents? Or will Malta’s membership of the EU sustain the flow of right-hand drives?
April 7, 2023
“The road to net zero is damaging the UK car industry”.
Make no mistake, the whole point of the Net Zero Strategy, or Mission Zero as it is now called after the recent review, is to destroy the whole of the UK’s economy.
There is simply no way that wind and solar can provide the abundant, cheap and reliable power claimed. In fact quite the reverse and the fact that nuclear, the only low carbon source of power that can provide affordable, abundant and reliable energy, is rejected, is proof that the reason for Net Zero has nothing to do with global CO2 emissions. Plus of course the fact that China, India etc. are allowed by climate activists to continue to burn 8 billion tons of coal each year and “climate action” is only number 13 on the UN’s list of “Sustainable Development Goals”
April 7, 2023
Labour, socialism already destroyed the UK Car Industry, when they nationalised it. People need to get real what we call an industry is a collection of Foreign owned assemble plants, these will leave without a whimper when circumstances suit.
We have embedded in the ’Blob’, in this Socialist Conservative Government the servants of destruction. The UK is being manipulated as an import only Nation by this extreme left Government. Whether its tax, self imposed energy shortages, water shortages, housing shortages, a defunct health system and so on and so on, all created situations by Government – 13 years of Conservative rule that was proceeded by labour’s destruction of society. The ‘Blob’ the Left centralist control freaks have by their very action ensured decline and poverty for the majority.
Sir John, it has gone past conspiracy theory’s to many things accumulating and pushing the UK in one direction, that the destruction of the UK has become the aim, the mantra by those that have stolen everyone’s future.
April 7, 2023
“UK government paid quite a high price to secure a free trade deal with the EU so cars and other items would remain tariff free.”
But, Sir John the free trade arrangement between the UK and the EU has never happened. The UK Conservative Government has refused to get an agreement on the trade the UK does with the EU, but it has accepted all EU’s demands for EU trade with the UK.
April 7, 2023
“The net zero revolution needs more popular engagement” (from your post today Sir John).
No it doesn’t! What it needs is more popular understanding of why it’s complete nonsense. Forget the whole CO2 is good/bad argument – Net Zero is just completely stupid. If we are really concerned about our carbon emmissions, then actually count them – all of them. Net Zero doesn’t do this. It simply counts emmissions ‘made here’ – not those we import.
As for Carbon Capture – it seems that our Government thinks there is a giant dome over the UK. Apparently, we can afford £20B to capture carbon that the rest of the world is merrily pumping out. Please, please forget all this Net Zero nonsense and see that the real global emergency is the huge debt western Governments have allowed to grow. UK should be straining every effort to become as self-reliant as possible (especially in energy and food) because there will come the time when we cannot afford to import these things anymore.
Not ‘Dig for Victory’ – but ‘Dig to Eat’. Alloments are going to become are lot more popular!
April 7, 2023
The new government department controlling our energy policy calls itself “The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero”
How is it possible to have energy security when our energy infrastructure, wind turbines and solar panels, are supplied by China and China controls at least 60% of the world’s refining of the necessary metals and minerals for the motors, generators, batteries, cabling etc. for the fossil fuel to renewables transition?
How is it possible to have energy security when the plan is to close down our own supplies of oil and gas in the North Sea when lots of gas is going to be required for the new £20bn CCUS project announced in the budget?
How is it possible to have energy security when we’re intending to reply on just one form of energy, electricity, for absolutely everything (transport, heating, industry, agriculture etc), and a form of energy which cannot be stored economically?
April 7, 2023
The information you present reveals energy INSECURITY.
April 7, 2023
Environmental policies will only work if they have the goodwill of the public.
Forcing or nudging will never work.
Worse still is that environmental policy is geared to whatever is fashionable at any given time.
Take recycling as an example. We have always recycled metal, glass and cars because there was a market for them. Because “recycling” became the buzz word over the last few decades, many forced markets were created in other materials, resulting in poor or negative environmental and economic results.
Environmental policies will only work when they are good for our pocket i.e. Conservation.
Government needs to get serious about this issue instead of following the media and civil service.
April 7, 2023
In summary of your article.
This UK Conservative Government has seen Net Zero as a ‘race’. A race it is destined to win as there are no other runners.
I surmise what you are suggesting is that the UK develops a viable alternative other than just destruction of the UK. It would also be prudent not to ‘race’ but keep pace with the wider World.
Sir John, you may be a member of the Conservative Party, you may stand as a Conservative MP. There maybe other like minded MP’s in Parliament. But, these people in Government are not Conservatives, they are Centralist Left Wing Socialists – that is not name calling it is identifying by their action and practices.
The problem for the UK now is it needs change, but the manipulation at the core of what is called a democracy precludes anything but a left centralist government.
April 7, 2023
Net zero is completely impossible.
Net zero is utterly pointless.
Start from there.
April 7, 2023
Lightbulb moment.
Let’s get a barge.
Only accommodates 500…oh let’s get 365 ( 500 newcomers per day).
We CAN’T make them of course…so they will be requisitioned.
(Why do we still have homeless if barges are viable?)
Local rich-area MPs even speaking out…ooooh!
Rwanda, barges, hotels ….all Sops to Cerberus.
Tens of thousands??
April 7, 2023
Sir John – you article as always unfortunately is you talking to the wall with our support, but those doing the damage, have ear plugs in and are more interested in personal self esteem of being in charge than actually doing anything
April 7, 2023
nut-zero is a lever being used by the green cult to make us poorer, if we have less money, we buy less “stuff”, which for them is a good thing as it reduces our carbon footprint.
The cost in the demise of most industry, fertilisers here and replacing them with imports is “irrelevant”.
The fact that we produce just 1% of global CO2 and that 90% of the world is increasing it’s CO2 output are ignored, “we will lead China and the world to stop CO2 production”.
The car industry, the energy industry are their enemy, as is our wellbeing.
How did our government buy into this anti-human philosophy?
April 7, 2023
Electric cars are the problem plus the Govt’s approach to climate control . Not only is the uncertainty of the mileage with electric cars a concern there is the high cost of any battery replacement . Another factor of concern is road congestion ; the amount of traffic everywhere is considerable and charging points are not easily available . The car industry has always been a significant contributor to the economy and employment and a direct influence on innovation ; a dramatic rethink now is vitally needed .
April 7, 2023
…as long as it doesn’t mean more persuasion from syops and other government agencies to ‘do the right thing’!
Over the last few years we’ve had more than enough government inspired propaganda to protect them against the lies they tell us, and to deny us the truth.
How can anyone believe that net-zero is required when there are so many things wrong with the ideology behind it. Most people have now realised that Net-zero is a sham – another stick with which the government can beat us down with.
April 7, 2023
An important point to remember is that to achieve NZ we will have to rely on intermittent energy. That is the reason our energy bills have rocketed, hurting every one of us as well as business and industry.
The Ukraine war is a smoke screen.
April 7, 2023
Energy can’t be destroyed but it can be transformed into something useful.
Why wear car brakes into dust?
Heath Robinson might transform car brake shoes into polishers.
On reflection, highly polished surfaces are mirrors and add light.
Cars need rear view mirrors to see where they have been.
In hindsight, some things are daft, including how existing cars waste so much.
Designers should think out of the box and create more value from what they use.
April 7, 2023
Good morning.
Hybrids are a good interim solution to both air pollution, range issues, cost / affordability and infrastructure issues. And during high petrol and diesel costs electricity can be used as an alternative and vise versa.
We are, once again, putting all our eggs in one basket.
April 7, 2023
While EV sales in the UK stagnate, those in China, soar.
I wonder if the reason might be that a mini EV there, can be bought for £4000 and their best selling, BYD Song Plus, retails at £22000.
Furthermore, they’ve no need for 000s of Charging Stations as they have designed a simpler system of Battery-Swapping, which is handled by a proliferation of Battery-Swapping Stations across the country.
And to think there was a time when the Chinese always copied Western designs and technical advances rather than create their own.
I hope our leaders have this Chinese idea investigated and reviewed for a possible UK application.
April 7, 2023
So Germany has ‘caved in’ to the car manufacturers lobby and set back Net Zero lunacy by five years.
Will the government cave in or does it want to go through with its destruction of the motor industry?
April 7, 2023
Net Zero will reduce much of the population to penury with the standard of living that their Victorian ancestors had. That seems to be the intention of the fanatics who propose this ill thought out policy. Basically there will not be enough electricity generated by wind etc. to support our present way of life.
April 7, 2023
Does cabinet government really work in this country. If we look back at the Covid lockdown policy, it
would seem that it was driven by a PM and a Secretary of State whose actions were in no way constrained by wiser heads (assuming BJ’s Cabinet did contain wiser heads – or did it just contain yes men?)
Now we have the Net Zero nonsense which is destroying our industry and impacting the poor very badly.
When I look at the wikipedia page for the relevant secretary, I find someone whose academic achievements are
entirely modest. Is the Cabinet content with the direction of policy here? Is the PM considering the interests of the people of this country exclusively?
There is something very wrong at the heart of the Tory government.
April 7, 2023
Forthhurst – the whole system is driven by the Globalist NWO UK Establishment. We are IRRELEVANT but change IS coming.
April 7, 2023
Paul you have been saying change is coming since Trump got ousted, when is it coming and where first?
April 7, 2023
The way it seems to work :
An issue which is both scientific and political results in lines being drawn by some scientists .
An important alternative view is an unwelcome intruder.
Any scientist who disrupts with a new idea could well be unable to obtain funding.
Science is not science where scepticism / other evidence is not allowed .
April 7, 2023
Interestingly Lord Frost is repeating everything Sir John and the majority of contributers on these Diary pages have been pointing out for some time.
“Britain’s new elite doesn’t live in the real world
They are observers, not doers – and think practical constraints on policy can be overcome by hectoring ”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/06/david-frost-matt-goodwin-is-right-about-new-elites/
Yet the tribe in this Conservative Government is deaf to everyone but their own ego’s.
April 7, 2023
Have just received April’s energy bill and cost of government’s Energy Price Guarantee has been reduced substantially, but Standing Charges have increased by £23 per year. Is this another Ofgem near £1bn cock up? With government’s mad pursuance of Net Zero and Ofgem’s incompetence they are determined to ensure reductions in our quality of living.
April 7, 2023
I think it should be remarked, as it is pure evil, that babies and the under fives are to be injected with messenger RNA.
April 7, 2023
Home Office – 6th April 2023
Illegal Immigrants – 77
Boats – 2
That immigrant barge is full so is back to hotels
April 7, 2023
No. Its damaging the car industry, the steel industry, the gas and oil industry, farming, the pubs and restaurants and peoples lives. Its evil. All those tasked with keeping this country prosperous are failing. They know it and we know it. It’s those in charge that will be its downfall.