The UK and much of the EU needs to wake up to the reality that China has gained control over much of the raw materials and fabrication capacity to make vehicle batteries for electric cars. China is about to unleash more competitive car products onto the wider world market, from her large home base where electric cars are already a quarter of new car sales. Indeed a Chinese company acquired the MG brand to have a more familiar name on some of their products for a western market.
The UK and other European countries that do make cars are in a scramble to attract investment in electric vehicle assembly, and in battery and component manufacture. Much of the value of an EV lies in the large battery which typically forms the base plate or chassis of the vehicle. Making this is central to making an electric car and confirming it is a UK or EU product with sufficient added value from local sources. There is also a scramble to acquire lithium, nickel, graphite, copper and manganese amongst other materials to produce the batteries. There are sources of these inĀ friendly parts of the world, but for the time being China dominates in turning the products from the mines into the usable metals.
The result is a subsidy war, just at the time when the last thing the UK government needs is more demands for public spending. The problem with excessive subsidy is it allows a private company to invest with less concentration on how commercial the product will be and with less discipline over how the investment pounds are spent. The taxpayer is a co venturer taking much of the risk but not eligible for any of the reward should the investment pay out well.
The truth is the western industry is not ready for an early ban or withdrawal of all new diesel and petrol cars which several companies here, in Germany and elsewhereĀ have excelled in making. The UK should put back its ban which will now act to divert private sector investment away from the UK and will terminate successful factories prematurely. The UK and other European countries also needs more time to make provision for more electric cars. It will require a huge expansion of both generating capacity and grid capacity to provide the power to recharge a large fleet of electric vehicles. It will also give the industry more time to design affordable popular electric cars that people want to buy. They cannot make people buy new electric cars,but they can lose us a lot of jobs and prosperity by early bans.
The government should scrap the proposed penalties from next year on car producers who do not sell 22% of their cars as so called net zero vehicles. Not enough people want to buy all battery EVs. They are anyway not net zero. They run off a grid dependent on gas, wood and coal for much of its power.
July 28, 2023
Good morning.
For those who really want to know how tight the grip of China is on raw materials, I suggest readers seek out, ‘Asianometry’ (YT) and look at:
“China’s iron grip on rare earth magnets”
&
“China’s Gallium and Germanium Export Controls”
The latter of these two will send you into shivers.
They have us by the goolies !!
July 28, 2023
indeed, they also have cheap largely coal derived energy to use to make them, cheaper staff, cheaper housing, cheaper materials, better supply chains. faster planning, far less red tape, more sensibly educated staff, lower taxationā¦ why would you try to compete in the UK? Not very easy to do so perhaps in a few niche markets but rather hard.
July 28, 2023
Public must be spared huge burden of net zero, warns Blair front of the Telegraph today. But who else can pay either tax payers or bill payers? So to spare them you must abandon this deluded, hugely expensive and appallingly damaging pointless religion.
Absurd climate alarmist lies from the BBC again yesterday. Are they paid for this propaganda and lying – or do they do it for free and are just deluded idiots
July 28, 2023
Chumps and knuckleheads are seemingly in charge. They lunge from one non-“solution” to another. The UK car industry will continue to shrink to irrelevance under current policies like so many other industries before it, now gone and long forgotten.
July 28, 2023
The UN were on a mission yesterday “climate boiling” ffs. Meanwhile our MSM were regurgitating last years weather as this years doesn’t fit their agenda. Our local ITV news kept talking about last year as we’re looking out of our windows at rain and clouds. Just weather as it has been for the last 60 plus years. Any blip. it’s climate change/global warming. Normal weather and climate ignored.
July 28, 2023
It was only one day last year and I’m not sure how they measured the temperature or where.
July 28, 2023
“Any blip. itās climate change/global warming.” And by implication man-made.
July 28, 2023
Please Lifelogic dont use that name! It is not good for my heart.
July 28, 2023
JRās party and govt have deliberately decimated our car industry. The same could be said for a whole range of transferring industries and jobs abroad. His Party and govt have deliberately attacked our energy industry to make the country less competitive, deliberately introduced high corporation tax to make sure the country is less competitive and deliberately agree a level playing field with EU on environment to make sure that our country is not more competitive with any EU country!
These deliberate acts were to force jobs and industry to China and India then import the goods back! Nothing whatsoever to do about climate etc. it is about the levelling up of a globally world and to ensure a new world order. Effectively shooting the west in the foot and in so doing get rid of our culture (deliberate mass immigration) and make us dependent on hostile countries!! Some people here use the word madness, it is not. It is a designed strategy that is covered with false narrative for the masses.
Let us not forget JRās party and govt are currently running a pilot scheme to pay people Ā£1600 a month not to work! An alleged Tory party!
August 3, 2023
Fining car companies for not producing cars that are not wanted is moronic. Itās moronic. Itās moronic. Itās Tory
July 28, 2023
So Sadiq Khan (rather oddly) wins the high court battle over Ulez extension. Five Conservative-led councils have lost their high court challenge against Mayor of London Sadiq Khanās plans to expand the capitalās ultra low emission.
So are Sunakās āConservativesā going to continue to push this ULEZ tax or will Sunak continue with his pretence that they are against it and try to blame it all on Khan & Labour?
Sunakās Tories can easily stop it whenever they want but they choose not to. They should really abolish all the Mayors and most of devolution while they are at it. As Ben Habib sensible suggests. They cost a fortune and do huge net harm.
July 28, 2023
LL,
I think you will find Khan is only implementing JRās party and govt policy. Did not Grant Shapps promote/introduce this across the country through councils? Are you saying LL that JRās party and govt could not stop this tomorrow of it wished? Who has imposed mayors across the country against the public wishes? JRās party and govt.
I do not like Khan and I am lost why anyone would vote for him, but this goes straight back to JRās party and govt. in their death throes they have seen at Uxbridge it might give them a life line to delay or put out a false narrative to save their necks, no more than that.
July 28, 2023
100% Correct
July 28, 2023
Ben Habib talks more sense and is more in touch than the whole sorry lot of them at Westminster put together. Heād make a great PM but sadly the voting system Labour and the fake Conservatives have stitched up between them means that could never happen.
July 28, 2023
If as stated by the mayor of London that 94.4% of cars (HGVs 97%) are already ULEZ compliant ā¦so why are we spending billions of taxpayers money to challenge just 5.6% of non-compliance https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/environment-and-climate-change/environment-and-climate-change-publications/inner-london-ultra-low-emission-zone-expansion-one-year-report
July 29, 2023
Glen
Agreed, and that 5.6% will shrink as the older cars time expire and are scrapped.
The reason is in the future, pollution limits can change at the stroke of a pen, those which are compliant now, may not be in the future, thus a massive increase in revenue would be possible.
The cameras being erected may, just may, have dual use for eventual road charging.
July 28, 2023
Two people recently spoke about their home country.
One, a South African told me that the Chinese own Africa….
Another, Australian, said the Australians are really worried about China – and that there are many, many Chinese immigrants arriving….
Why, oh why, are the leaders of so many countries so blind as to what China is up to? At this rate, China really will own the world. At least America slowly got corrupt and censorial, but that’s China’s starting point!
July 28, 2023
A little quote that I heard some time ago relating to Nigeria I think.
“The British come and talk, the Chinese build a hospital” – says it all really….
July 28, 2023
They do, but there’s no such thing as a free lunch as these countries welcoming China with open arms now will find out.
As long as those governing Britain don’t elect us to pick up the pieces financially or in ‘refugee’ numbers once the reality of the situation hits home.
July 28, 2023
In the sixties it was the other way round: the Chinese went to teach rice growing but the Americans gave money, medicines, and food for nothing. Guess which prevailed.
July 28, 2023
Excellent articles by an Australian journalist appear regularly in the Salisbury Review (in the paper edition not sure if they are on their on-line edition) regarding the naivety of Australian government over China.
I gather similar to Blair’s idea that integration into the world economic/political sphere was the way to deal with China.
I believe certain people warned Cameron too as to the effect of opening up the Universities to so many Chinese students and how the knowledge taken home is put to use for Chinese states ever growing power and reach.
While we cluck around talking of ‘friendships’ and ensuring everyone else is doing fine, some regimes cultures just look out for number one, China being an example.
July 28, 2023
Because ESG/ DIE rule, and so does malicious and petty gossip.
July 28, 2023
Not blind Sharon, working to a global agenda. Why has our govt not taken action against Trudeau for the way he froze bank accounts for those helping truckers? After public outrage they have intervened over Farage.
The constant attack on Trump is not an accident it is the global left cancelling anyone against their views or could change public opinion. Not a conspiracy, fact. Patel, Johnson, Raab, Truss and Sunak sacking 5 Brexiteer MPs from legislative committee in case the voted against his Windsor sell out. Not an accident or coincidence. Deliberate cleansing of Leading Brexiteers of influence. I am surprised Braverman has survived two coups against her. Majority of ministers now ardent remainers. Why is May even in parliament? Starmer, Miliband and Cooper all actively tried to change democratic vote to leave EU. They should not hold any public office, let alone be in parliament. Some promoted to the Lords!
July 28, 2023
It really doesnāt do to be liberal in this world.
To allow others to win the race because you think they are disadvantaged in some way.
Strangely enough I reckon that our limp wristedness could have come from our early Industrial Revolution.
It created a whole swathe of rich, idle sons and daughters of industrialists who relied on Laudnum for pain relief. And who basically began the trend of do gooding.
Which has brought us to our knees!
July 28, 2023
Personally, I think China itself has potentially huge problems ahead both politically and economically including when the next generation get sick and tired of having to work as hard as their parents have had to, whilst having to live in concrete blocks and under a Communist state. Especially when China is a country with a long history and historically sophisticated culture and civilisation.
July 28, 2023
Agreed, next/current generation Chinese will not be willing to go back, they are already used to living a “western” style of life buying branded goods and modern housing.
July 28, 2023
Also, HUGE existing and potential problems in India (just come back from there), too.
I say all this so that we’re not so scared of the brave new world out there. That the UK, being a small country, still has a great opportunity to thrive – we can be more flexible / entrepreneurial overall in how we’re governed.
But we’ve got to focus on:
1) Getting immigration under grips (by focusing more on: 1) saying this is NOT about racism 2) Working with the churches, arts, media and education to create a generation of people who have work ethic, sense of responsibility towards other, patriotic etc to do the jobs that immigrants would otherwise do 3. And sure tougher, practical policies).
2) Develop UK as Europe’s Silicon Valley (and in particular around Cambridge)
3) To help the UK to become a leader in Green Tech (a tonne of money to be made here!)
4) Develop our car industry and on the German model (and in particular in the north of England which desperately needs decent industry).
5) Move on from Brexit by building consensus. OK, so we’ve had Brexit. Brexiters have won. But they need to get Remainers on board. Not by arguing with them. But by inspiring them about what the UK could be like fully sovereign and everyone working together more as a team (and if Remainers continue to argue, just ignore them / take it on the chin with some humour).
July 28, 2023
Gove said yesterday we are to be world leaders in banning petrol and diesel cars. When all the other countries realise it’s not possible welk be the laughing stock of the world.
We’ve destroyed final pensions, the housing market and the power industry.
The slow march continues.
July 28, 2023
Gove who is Gretaās disciple and a deluded socialist English graduate with zero understanding of energy, climate, physics, economics, logic, maths, science, electrical engineeringā¦ he even wants 20% VAT on school fees like that Starmer. Starmer is even so deluded he thinks this will raise net tax income! like his other mad non Dom abolition plan. They will not.
July 28, 2023
Of more use would be to launch some basic but highly economical petrol and diesel cars, to stretch out our limited oil resources. Two examples from the past … and the distant past: Citroen 2CV (late 1940s); Audi A2 TDI (1999-2005). Both cars managed about 95 mpg (3 litres per 100 km).
Also if electric car designers would accept a realistic range of 100 km (60 miles) the cars would need a relatively tiny battery and would not be so heavy that they wear out road surfaces faster than today’s cars. Why not alter the ‘car tax’ to charge for road wear? I don’t want yet more potholes damaging my (1.2 tonne) car, all because 10% of the cars on the road now weigh 2.5 or 3 tonnes each.
Such initiatives would be far more suited to the world resource situation in 2023. We should ‘cut our coat according to our cloth.’ Macron admitted that we are facing ‘the end of abundance’.
July 28, 2023
John, have you read Matt Ridleyās article on the Daily Mail? Devastating. Rishi seems a sensible chap so why is he so stupid about EVs? It will lose the Tories the election. Not the csrs, the stupidity
July 28, 2023
āSaving the UK car industryā
Itās a bit late for that. The industry is largely assembly plants for foreign manufacturers anyway. The main domestic suppliers went to the wall years ago.
July 28, 2023
I read a battery caught fire in a ship resulting in it sinking. Apart from egregious cost and poor range, would I want one anywhere near my house?
No thank you. Nonsense that HMG wants to penalise manufacturers when itās my choice.
Again anti business and monstrously out of touch.
Reply The ship was afloat in pictures I saw and the cause of the fire has not been established. It will be important to establish the facts about this very worrying incident.
July 28, 2023
āApart from egregious cost and poor range, would I want one anywhere near my house?ā Plus keeping your old car saves far more CO2 than building and running a new EV if that bothers you, is far cheaper, better range, better tyre life, refills in seconds, can tow and does not need writing off or a new Ā£15k battery after a few years. Not does it need a place to park and charge it.
July 28, 2023
Too many fires for comfort.
Too many people wanting them for āproofā of āBoiling Worldā.
Too many people wanting to scupper travel and commerce.
Maybe this was more about the ship than the EVs?
July 28, 2023
The cause of the fire isn’t known as you say, but the consequences of a fire on a ship carrying thousands of EV batteries are well known. It’s the same for multistorey car parks as structural engineers have pointed out – once an EV battery starts burning for whatever reason in a confined space it is vary hard indeed to stop it.
July 28, 2023
A while ago, not that long ago I don’t think, I saw on tv a fire brigade put out an electric car fire and took it away, but to be sure it wouldn’t burst into flames again, they had to put in in an enormous skip filled with water. How long for I don’t know, but is that what happens?
July 28, 2023
Reply to reply: but it is well known that the lithium batteries are unstable and there is a hugely increased risk of sudden, violent fire. How does the insurance industry view this risk? What do the assessors say? Are we soon to become too poor to pay the insurance which is required by law?
Yet another little stumbling block that the politicians are too mighty to have considered?
July 28, 2023
Perhaps in future Third Party polices will now be ‘Fire & Theft’ – just ‘Theft’?
July 28, 2023
If battery fires worry you, I’d be much more concerned about e-scooters and e-bikes where there’s effectively no current regulation on battery quality or standards (companies can self-certify batteries as safe). There seems to be an increase in domestic fires caused by such batteries.
July 28, 2023
Just sold my E-bike because of concerns about the fire risk. My (detached) garage currently has about a year’s supply of bio-ethanol in it ….. not a good mix with an E-bike if the battery decided to go up in flames.
July 28, 2023
That sounds a very dodgy, unsafe thing to be doing! Bought to anticipate huge price increase?
July 28, 2023
I was told that batteries along the length of floor of EV cars will pose bigger problems for repair following accidents. The floors of cars give cars strength and it appears the batteries are one of the highest costs, therefore how many will have to be written off from accidents?
July 29, 2023
Hope.
Insurance industry aware and are monitoring vastly increasing costs for accident repairs of EV cars.
Road breakdown assistance also facing new problems, given you cannot tow some Ev cars, many need to be lifted onto a flat bed lorry, this also poses a problem with getting such breakdowns off of a Smart Motorway.
July 28, 2023
You forgot the post-script Sir John:
“Many people who may be persuaded to forgive the Conservative Government for imposing a BRINO on us; continuing mass immigration; the criminal migrant invasion or the Covid Authoritarianism – aren’t going to hold their noses and vote for us if it means they will be forced to buy an EV they don’t want/can’t afford/can’t charge …. or to be priced out of having a car by other means, such as ULEZ.”
July 28, 2023
+1 Donna, why would anyone vote to be made poorer?
July 28, 2023
Those are precisely the words I sent to my pathetic CON MP a few months ago. He ignored me, as usual.
July 28, 2023
Donna,
I voted for Reform recently and I will do so again next year. People will come to realise the Uni party of traitors are not acting in our national interests. Just like the rogue parliament when May was PM. Letwin, Benn and Cooper etc happy to āworkā AKA collide together to remain in EU at all costs deliberately acting against the wishes of the public. The public will and need to realise this again. They are exactly the same, they have different coloured rosettes as far as I can tell.
July 28, 2023
They would also need to forgive the vast tax rises, still continuing due to inflation, the Sunak caused inflation, the net zero lunacy, the endless tax borrow, print and waste, the lunacy of the pointless net harm lockdowns, HS2, soft loans for worthless degrees, the mad covid loans, the net harm (circa 1 in 35 heart damaged) vaccines, vast rises in red tape, wars on car drives, landlords, small businessesā¦ a really great record of destruction.
Vote Tory, yes we got everything wrong but Labour are the same and even a bit worse!
July 28, 2023
Sir John knows all this. The question really is how or what is he and his fellow small rump of real “conservatives” going to do about his Tory and Unionist Party that has swung so far to the left and are masquerading as “conservatives”? There is no way that I or millions like us can vote for the Tory’s in their present form. If Labour get in by default, so what? We can only wait until there is a true right of centre party to emerge and banish all the leftist wokism into oblivion.
July 28, 2023
Starmer will be no different from Sunak, he holds no different policies from Sunak and Hunt. Paper thin at best.
85 seat majority last election. 40 Tory MP announcing to stand down speaks volumes about their confidence to get re-elected! They know they are toast. Their only hope, contrary to Rees-Mogg, is to get rid of Sunak and Hunt ASAP and put. Reciter Tories back in Govt.
July 28, 2023
My 91 year old neighbour, a lifelong Tory and an all round wonderful man, came for coffee yesterday. Although we get on very well, he has always been annoyed at my criticism of the Tory Party.
Yesterday he said that he could no longer vote Tory.
July 28, 2023
Beyond Spot On ….I hope that every toy MP is reading this comment
July 28, 2023
The State banning the sale of new cars. Think about that for a moment and what it says about the pond life that now control this and other western nations.
It is noticeable that John always approaches these issues from a purely economic perspective when that approach alone betrays issues of FAR GREATER IMPORTANCE.
I sometimes wonder if politicians believe free speech, economic freedoms and freedom of movement to be somewhat problematic and inconvenient.
John surely understands that once our economic freedoms are curtailed it’s hello to totalitarian.
July 28, 2023
++
Iām sure that politicians do find us all rather an inconvenience ( I do not include JR naturally)
But largely politicians have enabled the public to become ungovernable by destroying the family, religion and all the traditions that kept us safe.
Not to mention employment.
Think of our towns buzzing with enterprise, happy and prosperous again.
Making the best and most economical EVs in the world!
And then wake up to this utter misery they have created.
July 28, 2023
Dom,
Covid showed the true light on the totalitarian uni party. Parliament has gone rogue, again.
July 28, 2023
Certainly āgovernments & politicians believe free speech, economic freedoms and freedom of movement to be somewhat problematic and inconvenient.ā
So they spend vast amounts of your taxes on propaganda blatantly lying to the public and why they retain the BBC tax.
Look at Andrew Bridge who was kicked out of the party merely for telling some rather inconvenient truths on vaccine damage. As high as 1 in 35 with heart injuries it seems.
July 28, 2023
+1. The treatment of Andrew Bridgen was an utter disgrace. What role did outside interests play in that, I wonder?
July 28, 2023
Oh no āoutside interestsā – the interests are all āinsidersā – you can look them up on the āinvited to the partyā lists.
July 28, 2023
“In London, where the horse-carried Hansom Cab occupied the streets, 50.000 horses produced 570.000 kilograms of horse manure and 57.000 litres of urine daily. Together with the corpses of death horses, the urine and manure started to poison the city’s inhabitants.
“https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Great-Horse-Manure-Crisis-of-1894/
I wonder why Victorian-era politicians didn’t ban the use of horses? Perhaps it was because they understood that without horses, the economy would sink into the Thames and, at the time, there wasn’t a viable alternative.
July 28, 2023
Donna,
Perhaps they also realised wind mills ( u reliable 200 year old technology) were not reliable and introduced coal!! They even preferred water mills! Parliament also ran our country for the benefit of OUR citizens! How much damage to marine life, bird migration and marine environment from wind mills? What is their life span? How much concrete and steel (produced from coal) do they use? Transported by what? Diesel ships, trains and lorries! How are the power lines made and from what materials? Recently how many trees in Scotland were felled for wind machines?
July 28, 2023
Of course free speech is problematic. That was and remains one of the great attractions of technocratic supranational government as established by the EU. You don’t have to take notice of the voices in the public square. You can bypass democracy which depends on free speech.
July 28, 2023
China is described as being almost in control of BEV production but is a major polluter.
However, consumption is the sole purpose of all production, so it is we consumers who exert control. We in the West shouldnāt buy their cars unless they reduce their own high level of pollution. That way weāll exert more control over cutting world pollution than reducing our own tiny proportion of it by buying BEVs!
July 28, 2023
Much good sense here, as ever. Who in the corridors of power will take any notice, though?
The test will be whether there is a serious cabinet re-shuffle in September. The Tories’ last hope is to ditch ministers who “spent so many years pretending to be Conservatives whilst basically being useful idiots for the statist Whitehall blob.” I’m quoting a former Conservative minister as reported recently in the Express. I don’t know if there are any senior politicians left in the party who would stand up to the Whitehall blob. If they are appointed to ministerial positions, there is a chance that electorally suicidal policies can be halted. I hope they are not standing by and leaving the decision entirely to Sunak.
July 28, 2023
Nobody ever mentions the scandal of the child slave labour used to mine the minerals needs to produce EVs. This is just an unfortunate reality that they don’t want to get in the way of their tax robbing, climate scam agenda.
July 28, 2023
@Christine. The E U sent their development aid committee to the Congo last week, to look at mineral production (lithium and cobalt) and figure out how much of the ā¬50bn aid budget would help secure supplies. Nothing said about child labour (gosh, maybe there is none?), but lots about needing strategic mineral supply. ā¬20m is now to be given to the Congolese military and more (it will have to be a lot a lot more) to be used as an incentive to turn the Congolese away from China, who currently get most of the minerals. The Congolese are playing hardball…a few tens of million euros is nothing and the Chinese are well entrenched.
July 28, 2023
It’s estimated 40,000 child slaves work in these mines in the Congo. An inconvenient fact for all these net zero zealots.
July 28, 2023
More excellent reasons why this Government, and all of the opposition Parties are going down the wrong path.
Good grief we even now have Tony Blair saying whilst our Country should play its part, the people should not suffer the financial burden of trying to lead the World.
The idiots who promote this rush to Net Zero need to be asked some very simple, but serious questions about the route they are taking, it’s timescale, and real costs.
It is not just the car industry that is at stake, it is also the industries which need a huge amount of power to operate, steel, ceramics, aluminium, glass production etc etc. and in addition Agriculture and the way we farm.
Our whole way of life is under threat and will be affected.
July 28, 2023
+1. I’d like to see all net zero fans switch to a 100% seasonal UK-grown food diet (no heated greenhouses or cold storage either). They’d soon change their tune.
July 28, 2023
Remember the Governments advice regarding the dash for diesel cars to cut CO2, so beware the dash for electric. The strategic move would be Hydrogen. Just need electricity, and waste product water. No imports of materials to make batteries at the mercy of China (Africa) and Russia. Making batteries not very green, and in some cases using child labour to get the basic materials. One thing dealing with/recycling 12v Car Battery, BUT a very very big 400v battery another matter. The battery life not that long, it’s a car battery after all.
July 28, 2023
@John McDonald – You are making the mistake of thinking practically and logically, that doesnāt then feed in to well with the virtue signal
July 28, 2023
If you remember all those CF lamps we were encouraged to use in the eighties/nineties – poor light, filled with noxious heavy metals and didn’t last very long. I think the current generation of EVs are at that stage of development, I will wait till they are at the stage of development of LED technology before jumping…
July 28, 2023
the situation is a lot more dynamic than lazy political views would have us believe too.
for instance toyota has a new petrol engine which is extremely low on emissions.
also CO2 and CO are far from the only, or most important pollutants, we should be worrying about.
July 28, 2023
CO2 is not a pollutant. Repeat 500 times.
July 28, 2023
Agree – If CO2 is a absorbent gas that captures heat in the atmosphere like a blanket, how come half the planet is freezing
July 28, 2023
I wonder which half?
Resolute, Nuvanut (74,69N) had 6C today at 12:00 and is forecast 14 C this Sunday, Longyearbyen, Svalbard (78.21N) had 8C today going on till Wed02/07 when it will be 10C. Anchorage, Alaska (61.27N) shows a nice diurnal cycle between 13C at night and 18C at midday.
Qaqortoq, Greenland (60.77N) has temperatures between 6C and 12C.
So clearly the northern half of the planet is not freezing.
On the other āendā, temperature in Ushuaia (54.8S) at the tip of South America is moving between -3C and +5C.
So I guess your world āhalfā must be restricted to Antarctica as I would not dare think you talk out of your ā¦
July 28, 2023
Indeed. Even the politicos will realise it’s plant food if we repeat it often enough!
July 28, 2023
It never ceases to amaze me how far the fossil fuel lobby will go to attack the existential threat of EVs to their business model
Jaguar Land Rover has repeatedly said that it will not slow its move to electric cars, even if the UK government delays the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel models – as have other UK car manufacturers
For once Govey is right. Following the collapse in British exports to the EU the last thing we need to do is interfere with the EV timetable that the car industry has been working to.
Reply You never engage with realities of the damaging policies you propose. How is an Ev saving the planet when you recharge it from a grid backed by fossil fuels?
July 28, 2023
@Sakara Gold – where does the electricity come from to charge all these batteryās, were does the Lithium, Cobalt and rare Earth materiels come for to create the batteryās. Those are the questions that have to be answered first. This Conservative Government is making pronouncements with their fingers crossed behind their backs.
The National Grid has warned people need to cut back this winter as there is NOT enough power available to heat and light our Homes ā that also means not enough to charge EVās
UK exports to the EU are actually at their highest ever level at the moment.
July 28, 2023
It is almost as if China had a hand in writing the legislation for us, NZ, renewable energy and bans on ICE vehicles.
Meanwhile they have commandeered the materials for EV batteries and pay lip service only to CO2 reduction, to manufacture with cheap energy and cheap labour.
July 28, 2023
And what is more, it is ONLY in the WEST that all this is happening.
The Germans’ have finally woken up to the fact that China holds most of the cards in key areas and they will see a dramatic fall in their GDP and manufacturing as a result.
We are on a road to nowhere.
July 28, 2023
Only the west was idiot enough to fall for the lie that CO2 must be reduced. Who would have thought we would be more gullible than Africa? š±
July 28, 2023
L,
Not we, MPs with a vested and ardent global world order fixation.
July 28, 2023
The CO2 rubbish was probably promoted and paid for by the Chinese, after all, they have and will gain the most. Our politicos don’t do patriotism, but the Chinese Government does do self interest. What fools we have in Westminster or are they? Do any of them have Chinese connections?
July 28, 2023
Agree – but in order of idiots, the west, the EU, and top prise to the UK
July 28, 2023
In the early 2000s China realised that it could never win in terms of ICE manufacture. Not sure why but maybe other countries were too far ahead?
Anyway Chinese govt. rolled up sleeves and came up with tax breaks, huge, huge number of charging points, recruited young EV enthusiasm and I think is some way to solving the battery problem (sodium). Lots of others wheezes too.
Meanwhile here, hampered by nonsense we still wring our hands and make neither EVs nor ICE vehicles.
India consoles herself with predominance in the two wheel market.
And what do we haveā¦.oh yesā¦.Stop Oil!
July 28, 2023
Many in the UK have already “woken up to the reality”, Sir John. They include voters in Uxbridge. It is your government that needs to wake up to the reality.
July 28, 2023
+many
July 28, 2023
+and many more!
July 28, 2023
I read that Grant Shapps wrote to the Mayors to promote ULEZ and now he’s hiding that unpopular fact!
July 28, 2023
A minister via a letter, instructs the mayor of london government policy & budget …one item is indeed ULEZ alongside lots of other net-zero developments
July 28, 2023
Bill B, +++++++
July 28, 2023
Once again the fossil fuel industry has announced record profits, despite energy price caps and windfall taxes. Last winter they held this country to ransom while the government paid them Ā£billions and Ā£billions in direct subsidies to their bottom line via energy support measures.
Your support of the fossil fuel lobby is highly irrational. The correct strategy is to rapidly expand the renewable sector and introduce electric vehicles as quickly as we can, as you must be aware
July 28, 2023
Sakara
Ask yourself, Why did the so called renewable supplier industries charge us all the same rates as the fossil fuel Companies, when they have been getting the advantage of tax payer subsidies, and at the same time being paid for no production !
My own electricity supplier, who claims ALL of their electricity is generated by its own wind farms, charges me the same unit price as all of the other suppliers, why, because they do not supply me with anything different to the others, it all comes from and through the National Grid. Thus their claim is worthless.
July 28, 2023
Alan
See my reply to SG above and the links, if our kind host allows, to BP and Shell BEV Charging.
SG is living in La-la-land.
July 28, 2023
BA, Are you saying that the price that private companies providing electricity charge their customers does not reflect the actual cost to them of producing this electricity. I hope you realise that goes against Sir Johnās arguments that competition between private providers of electricity is always beneficial to the consumers.
July 28, 2023
The point being that āwindā energy is VERY expensive. All those redundant, non-recyclable blades to bury ā¦. All those pods of whales with ātinnitusā from our off-shore wind farms to clear from the beaches where they are forced to beach themselves to escape the noise ā¦ Green, Kind, Good – what other words spring to mind?
July 28, 2023
….and they’re imported
July 28, 2023
hefner
I think that both you, myself and John, are grown up enough to accept that Private companies will charge what they can get away with in the market place at any given time. Charge too much and you risk losing customers and market share, Charge too little, and you risk going out of business.
I think many businesses now run a dynamic pricing system, very similar to airline seat pricing, it will vary from minute to minute, the second hand car business now has this model for many of its outlets, and certainly the energy market is no different.
With so many in the same business, and with pricing very similar, it is either an extraordinary co-incidence, or it could be alleged perhaps it has some of the signs of an unofficial car..l, not that I would ever believe that to be the case !
July 28, 2023
So SG, your advice please.
Should I sell my one year old ICE vehicle, which i currently intend to keep for at least 8 years and instead take a four year (PCH) lease on a roughly equivelent sized EV. I would then get another four year lease on a new EV when the first PCH expires. In other words, I’d behave like my own ‘Fleet Manager’ – pretty much the same as when I drove company cars. I drive about 4,000 miles a year, 3,500 of which are over longer distances (>150 miles a day) mostly on motorway. So should I keep my ICE or lease two or more EVs? Which approach would be better for my wallet and of course the planet?
July 28, 2023
I’m glad Sir John supports the fact that 85% of the planets energy needs are provided by fossil fuels.
It’s not highly irrational SG.
July 28, 2023
SG
The reality of all this depends on who, or rather what, can provide baseload.
Renewables can never provide baseload.
Which is why I am, quite frankly, surprised you are still flogging this dead horse.
July 28, 2023
Sir John, your comments press for more UK based investment in battery technology, however, the EU has delayed their ban and seeks to develop āgreenā technology fuel? Given the UKās vast experience in ICEās I would have thought developing green fuel for these power units would have been a much better solution? After all mining minerals required for BEVās is not limitless and CO2 emissions to manufacture these batteries is considerable. Iām far from convinced that BEVās are the solution for working folk and their families given their cost, range and lack of charging infrastructure?
Reply I press for the private sector to invest in better products that people want to buy. I did not back a particular investment choice.
July 28, 2023
Right to reply
”in better products that people want to buy”
People want the choice to buy either an ICE or EV
We want to live in a free nation, not a nanny or marxist state
July 28, 2023
Haven’t we been giving them ‘aid’ in order to do just this?
Aid for the challenges of climate change, apparently.
Ditto that for India….with their space launch!!
Anyway, if even a quarter of some of the things I’ve been reading from quite credible sources regarding electric vehicles ( some from a manual instructing breakdown services of the do’s and don’t when recovering said vehicles) is true, I’m not sure I’d be buying anyway.
July 28, 2023
John,
You are correct on the specific issues of subsidies and fact we cannot win that war. I’d invite you and everyone else to zoom all the way out. Imagine you had all of the climate system, manufacturing supply chain system, electricity system maps on your wall as I regularly have to do in my roles and jobs you would see that the climate change claims and links to CO2 and CH4 are nonsense and all NET ZERO obligations make no sense and will only destroy the UK and whole west as China, India and most of South Asia powers ahead on Coal, Oil and Gas. You cannot make anything in the UK with no rights to minerals and energy shortages, intermittent generation sources and ever increasing electricity/energy prices. Abandoning fossil fuels and destroying our extraction, refining and distribution systems for the only affordable and usable energy systems is a desire to deindustrialise us completely and remove all ability to make money. Wealth is accumulated wealth of work, energy density, reliability and cheap energy is the power of work. Electricity and energy supply is wealth. We are destroying all of that and currently draining the bank account at the exchequer and people’s personal wealth to pursue an unnecessary and unachievable goal.
No manufacturing business can afford to operate in the west and energy costs will mean it is impossible to make batteries, wind-turbines, electricity network components, EVs or solar panels. We wonāt be able to source the minerals as China controls most of the worlds important mines and there is not the mining capacity globally to do any of what people are committing themselves to do in law. Prices of minerals and the amount of dirt and rock to move to extract the ore which is going down in quality as we have mined out all the quality seams. So supply chain shortages, and ever increasing costs and ever more fossil fuels use to mine, refine and make all this stuff and environmental damage will increase.
Nothing can be mined, refined or operated without oil, gas and coal and it will always be thus. You cannot get to a point where the entire supply chain is renewableās powered. The negative returns on energy, resources and money grow exponentially the more you try to convert everything to renewable powered electricity. The only outcome is failing economies, bankrupt businesses, impoverished families and deindustrialisation of the West. The government, academic and business advisors are lying, hell when speaking officially so do I. You are not allowed to call any of this BS out for what it is. You just have to fight forwards on something which would not be done were it not for the legal mandates, tax payer and energy bill payers money and ESG stuff forcing dangerous investment of peopleās pension funds in all this unsustainable nonsense. They are destroying us and no one can call it out.
ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦..
You cannot continually print government money debt and subsidies the purchasing of minerals, the energy used to make it viable. Either the government will go broke or if the consumer is expected to face the costs as inflation continues to go up, GDP goes down, the wealth gap increases then people will be able to afford less and less. They wonāt afford EVs, heating systems, food, clothes or whatever.
The solution to the future of our civilisation is to enable freedom of scientists to obtain funding, get published and present alternative theories than the climate catastrophe one; to allow engineers and economists to explain the crazy nonsense the transition plans for energy, heat, electricity power etc and that they are not affordable or achievable and the disaster it will bring for the economy, for families financial wellbeing and health, and for the environment.
What should happen is the current Energy Bill should be cancelled and the Climate Change Act revoked and all associated international commitments to reduce CO2 emissions be revoked and cancelled to save us.
Every angle on the Net Zero front makes no sense. They all have the same fundamental issues of a religious drive to achieve a claimed supposedly absolutely necessary goal in a small amount of time and no one is permitted to critique or put opposing arguments into the official information supply chain, not the legislative or regulatory development process, not into the business decision making process and not into the media. Climate Change / Net Zero goals, COVID and WHO related controls and cultural issues around EDI cannot be engaged with in debate. I can talk here about climate, engineering, economics and regulation but not when I am wearing my professional badge or representing my company as everyone in this transformation are fully on-board culturally and politically and no one can push back. We are lemmings !
I am happy to engage on all of the following topics which I have university training and decades of industry expertise: Climate, atmospheric physics, meteorology; electricity generation, transmissions, distribution, energy-transition, electricity system operations, energy markets, energy regulation.
David Bunney ā Power Control System, Markets and Regulations Architect and Advisor for 25 years. Meteorologist since a child and since University training for 30 years.
July 28, 2023
++++
Yes butā¦
What if it has always been more about gullible and greedy politicians, manufacturing and import/export competition and propaganda?
After all, in this country, brand names were introduced because of and greatly helped by the notion of adulteration.
It isnāt meant to nor does it even need to make senseā¦.
Just an international game of āBeggar My Neighbourāā¦no holds barred!
July 28, 2023
+ many. Excellent DB.
July 28, 2023
Indeed. I was reading this morning how the Nobel prize winning scientist, Dr John F Clauser, was stopped from speaking at a meeting of the IMF as he was going to debunk the climate models and and the whole net stupid theories. The “group think” internationalists won’t allow another voice of reason to speak against their religion.
Most people are waking up to the left wing wokist ideology. Nat West/Coutts just two of many organisations infested by this ideology.
Sir David Frost in the Telegraph today writes about the stages of pc/woke ideology that many of us have spoken against since Blair started it with Mandelson and his sidekick propogandist Alastair Campbell in 1997. We have lived, worked and personally seen the agendas as they have spread like cancer through our health , emergency and public services, quangos and institutions.
July 28, 2023
Hundreds of millions in subsidy for the sake of the headline of a few thousand jobs, which the British economy generates in less than a day.
July 28, 2023
Apologies – less than a week more like.
July 28, 2023
Somewhat OT but interesting to note there has been a Russian-backed coup in Niger which is a country that supplies 30% of the Uranium used in the nuclear reactors in France. So, as I noted yesterday, nuclear doesn’t really solve the problem of energy security – only UK-based resources like wind/solar/oil/gas do that.
July 28, 2023
Uranium can be sourced from elsewhere. We also need to re-learn how to recycle our nuclear waste better. Something we once could do but cheap Uranium rather made this unprofitable.
July 28, 2023
In dumb-down Britain, the number of people that can be trusted to handle uranium safely is running down fast.
July 29, 2023
Russian-backed coup in Niger, Roy? Not the Chatham house view: their spokesman has called it internally driven. It’s more likely a reaction against EU interference. The EU has been giving its ‘support’ to a macroeconomic ‘reform’ programme in Niger for some years. Just recently EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell visited the capital Niamey to ‘praise Bazoum’s pro-democratic reforms’. Two of the EU’s priorities are to promote the growth of the private sector in Niger and to push the ‘green economy’, whatever that might mean in the Sahel. Maybe this isn’t going well.
July 28, 2023
Cardiff council using diesel generators to charge their lorries because their electric charging points keep tripping out and York council have a fleet of lorries they cannot use because of lack of charging points. Donāt you think they might have made certain of this before spaffing tax payers money. Canterbury are cancelling a ludicrous scheme that would have split the city into five.
So when all these cars appear where are all the charging points and what is going to generate the additional electricity. Ah yes. Coal or gas fired power stations. So how green is that?
Al your net policies have failed or are failing and listening to Gove, Sunak. Shapps, you havenāt got a clue either what you are doing now or future policy.
And today Tony Blair whips whatever ground you have under your feet with the most sensible/pragmatic comment yet.
July 28, 2023
I think you will find much of the root of all our ills comes from one man and his insane legislation that was pushed through with out so much as a thought as to its consequences. I am of course Talking about the, Climate Change Act and RedEd.
July 28, 2023
Sorry Nigl , but I have NEVER heard any sensible or pragmatic comment by Blair. Every thing he says is designed to further the plan of his financiers !
July 28, 2023
The now overwhelming evidence that the planet is starting to experience runaway heating should be focusing the minds of the anti net zero brigade. Last year net migration into the UK was 900,000. We will shortly receive MILLIONS of migrants who wish to escape the fossil fuel generated high temperatures in their home countries.
Where are we going to put these people? In the home counties? On barges in the Thames? In tent cities on agricutural land?
July 28, 2023
The “overwhelming evidence” you refer to only exists in easily manipulated computer models produced by $cientists paid to provide it.
There is no climate crisis. What there is, in some countries such as Pakistan, is environmental degradation due to over-population and poor environmental practices in vulnerable areas.
July 28, 2023
Are the thermometers showing 41.8 C in Rome, 44 C in Athens, 48 C in Melloula, parts of a computer model?
July 28, 2023
This is normal in the Med – indeed anywhere close to the equator. However there is evidence that the axis has tipped a bit, so some of us are cooler (Britain) and some warmer because they are now closer to the equator.
July 28, 2023
I used to get a magazine called
ASTRONOMY NOW . Two surviving pages from the June 2004 issue came to hand during a tidy up with an article headed –
Does it matter that Earthās orbit is changing.To quote part of it –
ā Earth rotates as it orbits the Sun. Its spin axis is at an angle of 23.4 degrees to the orbital plane. This,however,varies between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees over a 41000 year cycle .An increase in this tilt produces
exaggerated seasons of colder winters and hotter summers.A decrease leads to more equable seasons of cooler summers and milder winters.ā
According to astrophysicist Milutin
Milankovitch.
July 30, 2023
MiB, the places colder than usual do not appear to suffer that much or I guess it would also be in the media. And anyway I was responding to the comment about āmanipulated computer modellingā. Are the cold temperatures the results of computer modelling or related to the jet stream at an usual position for this time of the year?
July 28, 2023
If it suits your arguments you dismisss these oddities as weather events hefner.
July 29, 2023
Weather events indeed. The point that you have chosen to miss is that these figures are observations not Donnaās results of manipulated computer modelling.
July 29, 2023
It’s colder in other places than normal yet you keep silent about events that fail to suit your views.
Not very scientific
July 28, 2023
Well said Doona
July 28, 2023
You are Animie5 and I claim my Ā£5.
July 28, 2023
Sakara,
You really are an optimist, ” In tent cities on agricultural land?” no it’ll be millions rough sleeping in cities, you’ll need an Identity Card to be allowed in shops to prevent theft. Nett Zero will stop house building – along with all power consuming industry. Things will be rough for a couple of decades until the swing to the Liberal Left peters out.
July 28, 2023
+1
July 28, 2023
We can’t compete with China with cheap cars. China is the new Japan. Instead, we need to focus on quality cars (not overly posh either) – technology and design – like the Germans. And like Germany, that requires some government assistance. So follow the German model.
Volkswagen. Audi. Mercedes. BMW (my local Polish, working-class bricklayer drives a new top-of-the-range BMW – and lots of people like him!). Follow the German model! It works. And we can produce cars just as good as the Germans. Problem is we just don’t get it like the Germans do when it comes to creating quality cars that sell en masse.
July 28, 2023
@Ed M – Volkswagen. Audi. Mercedes. BMW are odds with the EU Commission as they are having problems meeting the requirements of using just 45% local content for their cars – the rest is predominantly Chinese. The bone of contention is that this is to rise to requiring 65% of their cars components being manufactured in the EU or UK. All the while taxpayers are funding the Chinese to pollute the World even more. So even today those cars contain, according to them, 55% predominantly quality Chinese components.
July 28, 2023
Chinese cars are cheap due to slave labour, which is encouraged by this government to satisfy their net-zero targets for the UN ….buy cheap imports no matter the human cost as they don’t registar as co2
July 28, 2023
‘slave labour’ – that’s slowly coming to an end as the younger generation of Chinese refuse to work like their parents. They want to do far less work for much more pay / luxury goods and far more freedoms. What’s going on in China at moment / last 20 years is not sustainable.
July 28, 2023
Your description might refer to the nouveau riche and not the hundreds of millions who are dirt poor in china
July 28, 2023
As much as sometimes what I suggest could be interpreted as being slightly xenophobic, it is in fact far from it, complying with the request for brevity on this site doesnāt permit thoughts to be fully expressed – not always a bad thing.
This Conservative Governments stance on all things, is foreign is best and always import before encouraging home grown industry and enterprise. So much so they effectively steal a 70 year high of tax from UK Citizens and dump it as a giveaway on any and all foreign entities that ask for it, all at the expense of the home grown.
Yes foreign investment is good, but the real question is āreciprocityā do those that get funded by our giveaway Conservative Government have similar arrangements in their home territories for UK companies? Of course they don’t, most even go as far as maliciously sucking the wealth from the UK while having a great big chuckle about.
The subject where the Chinese are involved is they do not permit reciprocity in any form, but what their State enjoys is the UK taxpayer funding their industry. The UK taxpayer funds their Car production, their battery Production, even down to buying a EU battery Car and it will have a Chinese battery in it and the UK taxpayer is giving them more money to make it happen. Even the likes of Tesla which the UK taxpayer subsidises up to the hilt is manufactured in China.
So as with everything labelled āgreenā part of the Net Zero lunacy stable this Conservative Government ditches UK production and enterprise in favour of giving the Chinese State as much of the UK Taxpayers money as possible. The Contradiction China is the World top polluter and the UK helps and encourages that situation.
July 28, 2023
I was amused recently at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Lotus Cars introduced their new electric car in such a way that gave the appearance of somehow being a UK product.
Hidden away was it is manufactured at a factory in Wuhan China, with the car having been designed by the Chinese Company Geely. Old UK name that is all.
The week after the announcement saw Geely announce big redundancies at the UK facility in Hethel.
The UK taxpayer? they subsidies with hard earned money the growth in China of their Car and Battery Industries. The Conservative Government in all this, there attitude is lets roll out more, export more jobs, export more industry, pollution from the Worlds largest polluter is not pollution generated in the UK. They have done their but for ānet zeroā thats all they car about, the race to the bottom ā by making it worse. The bit they are missing in this mission to destroy the UK is that they are using UK taxpayer money to assist in its own destruction. What will the do when the well runs dry.
July 28, 2023
Ian B
Colin Chapman will be spinning in his grave if he could see what is being done in his name
Simplify and add lightness, I own a series one Elise, the chassis manufactured from extruded aluminium bonded together with a Ciba Geigy adhesive, the chassis weighs about 120 pounds.. less than I do and it has a greater torsional rigidity than a BMW saloon car, thatās engineering excellence which we should be proud of and encouraging
July 28, 2023
@Lester_Cynic – and I bet it puts a real broad smile on your face. The difference between ‘driving’ a car and riding in one – too subtle for most to recognise.
I did get to meet the man, I dont no why or the reason behind it, but a friend of mine had an invite to Hethel so we both went
July 28, 2023
Ian B
Iāve had it since 2005 and it spends most of its time in a 20ft shipping container so itās not exposed to salt during the winter and itās only done 50.000 miles
Itās chassis number 84 of the 2,000 model run so most of the problems had been solved!
But itās got the micro blisters in the paint though!
Sorry Sir Johnā¦.
July 28, 2023
@Lester_Cynic – You have reminded me more than 10-15 years ago when Lotus was Lotus created an electric bike. My Son who is a wiz motor sport engineer along with some guys from Cosworth got hold of a couple to use to get around from one pit garage to another at race meetings. However, they as these guys do had to tweak the bike, so taking it around the track at more than 35mph seemed a good idea, so that is what they did. More bright UK Engineering banished from the UK by this Conservative Government because they wernāt foreign enough. The donāt realise it is their hand and their hand only that is killing the UK.
July 28, 2023
Might I suggest that a start would be to repeal the highly damaging Climate Change Act, Ed Milibandās legacy, which is patently the driver for the net zero disaster that is hurtling towards us.
July 28, 2023
+1
July 28, 2023
Fully agree ….and a true conserative government would repeal the CCC and the act
July 28, 2023
Agreed J+M 100%
July 28, 2023
From Boris’s pillow grew the edicts to the UK car industry. What has he left in the wake of his nightly indoctrination. First an over dependence on electricity that we cannot produce economically nor distribute on an inadequate grid. Second a stiffled production of our own energy sources in favour of more expensive less clean imported ones. Thirdly a diminished car industry in a forward planning nightmare because government dictated EVs are too expensive and inadequate in performance for many users. They also lack the infrastructure to refuel them. Lastly government have bypassed science and engineering and destroyed what we excel at, the production of ever cleaner ICE propelled transport. The government is at best a 4 year ill planned event. Our car industry needs a 25 year well thought out plan. Like everything government touches it end in tears and recrimination.
July 28, 2023
My answer to the problem is initially to cancel the drive to ever enveloping ULEZs. To cancel the time line to 100% EVs. The heat pump nonesense must also go, it is unconnected to personal transport though part of the same Nett Zero insanity.
Say to the motor industry, these are the goals we wish to aim for. You go ahead and keep developing marketable product and as you meet measurable targets we government will incentivise you by reducing your tax burden by measurable amounts. Additionally we will make all R&D in quest of our goals tax deductable.
I would positively encourage close cooperation with the Japanese motor industry and any other country encouraging motive developement outside the EV religion. IT IS STRATEGICALLY VITAL THAT WE DO NOT BECOME DEPENDANT ON THE CHINESE FOR CORE TRANSPORT. I would consider duty penalties on any imported chinese vehicles.
Eventually when we have our own reliable, gridable, deliverable electricity supply at affordable prices, and the finality of fossil fuel is getting unaffordable and nigh, I would make a decision as to whether EVs were the way forward. At such a point I would expect Hydrogen to be playing a major part in both vehicle propulsion and domestic heating , and SMRs to be providing most of our electricity with Fusion Energy a near prospect.
July 28, 2023
Anyone noted the sudden reappearance this week of this thing that crawled into No.10 in 1997. What’s his game and why is he now speaking up on various issues?
Any Tory MP out there want to publicly declare war on Blair and his ilk before the British voter succumbs to his deceitful message once again?
July 28, 2023
We all cringed at the sound of Bliar!
July 28, 2023
OT Media quote – Sir Howard Davies said he serves āat behest of shareholdersā . that means he is there becuase this Conservative Government want him there. How is this doing any favours to the reputaion of UK banking, the PM needs to stand up and get on with it.
July 29, 2023
in other words- ‘I’m told what to do’
July 28, 2023
Personally, I think politicians need to get more proactive – and pally with Elon Mask (and with people who have worked in the German car industry He’s the best person to ask about how to develop the British car industry based on the German model (although he’s made a right mess of Twitter). And also, I’d get people to do research on what exactly the Germans are doing in their car industry and how to emulate.
Having a strong car industry, and where you are manufacturing your own (quality – but not too posh / sportsy) cars, is vital to the economy for all sorts of reasons.
July 28, 2023
Elon Musk’s model is not based on the German one but what he’s great at is being proactive and entrepreneurial in the car industry – something we desperately need here in the UK right now.
We got to do something fairly radical, quick – as our economy is in trouble and too focused on The City (which definitely has its real plusses, obviously, but is too much the brainchild of old Etonians from the 1960s who wanted to develop the UK’s economy to recover from WW2. But the model is out of date now. It needs radically tweaking. Yes, of course, focus on keeping The City. Whilst also developing Cambridge as Europe’s Silicon Valley and developing our car industry based more on that of Germany’s. And perhaps focus this part of the manufacturing economy in the North of England – Leeds or somewhere – to help develop the North of England.
Something fairly radical needs to be done. We’re sinking in political inertia. Politicians must create the climate for private enterprise to flourish. If not, private enterprise will look elsewhere.
July 28, 2023
The German car industry is being decimated. They have no energy, VW production down 25% (or thereabouts – from memory). The German Greens have engineered an almost total dependence on their filthy brown coal, having shut down the last of the nuclear power stations and dispensed with Russian oil and gas!
July 28, 2023
@Lynn Atkinson – yes just think VW relies on its own dirtiest form of energy production to get the Cars out of the door. Then the UK Government piles in to support them with UK taxpayer money for its Ministerial Cars. This Conservative Government – export UK jobs, trash the UK economy add to World pollution, then they try to preach and impose Net Zero on the rest of us. Its a nightmare. Should we feel bitter on how it uses our money?
July 28, 2023
According to statista.com, the peak in VW car production was 11.02 m in 2018. It went down to 10.82 m in 2019, 8.90 m in 2020, 8.28 m in 2021, and 8.72 m in 2022, so a 21% drop from 2018 to 2022.
UK car production in 2021 was down 34% its pre-pandemic level (āCar production falls to lowest levels for 65 yearsā, 27/01/2022, bbc.co.uk).
reuters.com, 26/01/2023, āUK 2022 car production fell 9.8%, but full EVs up 4.8%ā.
Why do I think about Matthew 7:3, the mote and the beam?
July 28, 2023
Germany has forced the EU NOT to ban ICE, but the U.K. has stated that itās closing the motor industry. So the position is not comparable.
Nevertheless the highly developed German car manufacturing industry is on it knees.
So take the mote from your eye and face the facts!
July 28, 2023
But that’s another matter – to do with Green Policy not the Car Industry itself.
In other words, not a reason for us in the UK not to try and emulate the German Car Industry.
July 28, 2023
@Ed_M
Tesla is a hybrid concern that has Toyota(its there factory redundant in California) and Mercedes(its a lot of their components) in the background, hence the relative quick rise of the Company.
Elon is very proactive in recruiting the people needed to keep moving forward. As for instance Tesla contacted my Son and flew him to California just to pick his brains (and try and recruit him)
He(Elon) is to quick thinking and practical for our bureaucratic Government to even comprehend. This crowd will still be looking at their notes when he has finished the project.
July 28, 2023
Ha, ha!
Good comment (and agreed from what I understand of Elon Musk – although he’s made a right hash of Twitter – although the social media industry is completely different to the car industry).
July 28, 2023
Ukraine is rich in mineral resources, of which lithium and rare earths alone are valued at up to US$12 trillion. The EU had an agreement for supply before Russia invaded. In the lead up to the invasion Germany refused to supply weapons to Ukraine. Then on 27 February, three days after the invasion, Germany and the EU blackmailed Zelensky into signing away the future governance of Ukraine to the EU in exchange for the weapons Germany had unti then refused to supply. It is hoped that defeating Russia will give the EU control of Ukraine’s mineral reserves. As Von der Leyen has already announced, post war reconstruction will be directed towards Energiewende and EU Green Energy. If this gamble pays off it will reduce dependence on China. An added bonus is that these resources will be developed by EU, mainly German, industry at huge profit, funded by international aid.
A further bonus fo Germany is that the war has provided cover for German re-armament. Its defence budget is set to double by 2030 and Scholz has declared his intention that Germany shall have the most powerful armed forces in Europe and lead European defence.
Green energy may well make the EU a truly German empire. Third time lucky for its place in the sun.
July 28, 2023
I’m sure you’re right about German re-armament, Peter, but Germany is not going to get its hands on that tempting lithium for a very long time, if ever. The renewablematter.eu site says: “According to the studies of the Ukrainian geological service, in the ancient rocks of [the Ukrainian shield area] are hidden lithium deposits with great potential. Findings have been identified mainly around the area of Mariupol, the port city of Donbass.” There are thought to be more deposits in central Ukraine, around Kirovograd, though how long that area remains under Kiev’s control remains to be seen. At least as things look now, with the failure of Ukraine’s big offensive to make significant progress, the war is more likely to end on Russia’s terms than on NATO’s. If so, our geo-political strategic geniuses (not) will have helped to provide Moscow with a key raw material for the future. Brilliant!
The whole thing looks more and more horrific with each passing month. Time for the UN to do its job and seek peace negotiations, as it would do in any other conflict, but for some reason is failing to do in this one.
July 28, 2023
āSaving the UK car industryā I guess Sir John you are talking about the Foreign entities that are set up here. The Last UK manufacture āMorganā became foreign about a year ago.
As with all Foreign Investment it is temporary, it will move with the changing landscapes. As this Conservative Government squanders more and more of the UK taxpayers money, they make the Country poorer, so people have less money, less resources for the foreign companies to exploit so they will move on.
The Conservative Government has had 13 years to get on top of the situation, and what did they do at every turn accelerate the decline, squander the tax resource. They even funded JLR to remove the āDefenderā production out of the UK, loss of jobs, loss of revenue.
The Net Zero project was a smoke screen to push away more of the UK resilience, and self reliance while increasing the World pollution they claim to be solving.
July 28, 2023
āThe government should scrap the proposed penalties from next year on car producers who do not sell 22% of their cars as so called net zero vehicles.ā
I presume that a Chinese producer of only evs will avoid this Ā£15,000 penalty per car and only pay the 10% import duty?
There is no CAGW. The planet isnāt āboilingā – the UAH satellite data shows a benign warming of 0.13 degrees C per decade. Net Zero “solution” is designed by the communists, aided and abetted by capitalist grifters, to destroy the westās economies and democracy because It is impossible to achieve and its attempted implementation can only be brought about by forcing through communist style draconian measures.
John Kerry, President Bidenās Climate Envoy, recently spent 3 days in Beijing trying to persuade the Chinese to join the Net Zero club. They told him to get lost.
July 28, 2023
Why does Mr Gove say that the ban on ICE cars has to stay? Why are bank directors enthusiastically implementing ESG bans on oil and gas investment, leading to shortages and price rises? Why were they confident that they could get away with closing accounts of those customers who disagreed and watching their social media comments? The bright blue green Tories, the civil service, the UN, Carney, the IMF, Blackrock, the WEF and its supporters like King Charles all think that the Reset is all but done. The cracks in their plans are beginning to become known, despite all the propaganda from the BBC Trusted News censor. The costs and practicality of generating from wind and solar, batteries, hydrogen storage, pumped water, carbon capture and storage and the rest have not been taken into account by the incompetent ministries and committees of green zealots. The Reset is as likely to happen as one of Prince Charle’s climate forecasts.
July 28, 2023
Stred
Especially as both Talk TV and GB News are openly discussing that every organisation has been infiltrated by socialist, woke people!
People have really had their eyes opened by Nigel Farage’s banking ‘experience’ and today the ULEZ debacle. People are getting concerned that pay-per-mile is down the line for ALL cars!
July 28, 2023
Stop the ban, stop the subsidy and let the consumer & market-forces decide in a free market place, but protect with tariff cheaper than cost imports
July 28, 2023
Subsidy is never an investment. It is a bung to giant corporations, mostly. In essence, the transfer of money from the poor to the already rich, usually foreigners at that. Wind energy is the most noticeable one – billions paid out from our bills, with not much to show for it and certainly no reduction in bills, let alone a return on profit, even though wind fans say it costs very little to produce energy that way. It’s all a con.
July 28, 2023
25.5GW of installed capacity currently producing 2.57GW. Time they made these things work for all the investment put into them.
July 28, 2023
Dave Andrews :
They’re taking us back to the unenlightened past when we prayed to the weather gods.
July 28, 2023
Boris Jonson may have won a spectacular victory for the Conservatives in 2019, but his ludicrous and thoughtless pursuit of the Net Zero agenda promoted by his wife and her friends has been a disaster for the country.
With every opposition party now wanting to go further and faster towards Net Zero, whatever the cost, the only way I can see a Conservative victory at the next election is for the party to abandon the headlong rush towards EVs, Heat Pumps and the end of IC engine cars and gas boilers.
I said here months ago, that is the only way to put clear blue water between the parties ahead of the election and I believe it would turn the tide in our favour.
July 28, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
I guess there are any number of facts and statistics and anecdotal evidence out there regarding the production and operation of EV’s but here are two observations that I came across recently. I may have seen them in a Daily Telegraph article.
The production of an EV creates up to 70 per cent more emissions than their petrol equivalent. Presumably, this is related to the large battery component with its associated metals.
Electric cars need to be used for tens of thousands of miles before they offset the higher emissions, with VW’s Electric Golf becoming more environmentally friendly only after 77,000 miles, according to the manufacturer’s own figures.
Add these hidden emissions to recharging EV’s from a grid backed by fossil fuels and the environmental benefit of electric cars may not be all it appears.
It does not surprise me that our political class is pushing hard for EV’s. It is not so long ago since they were telling us all that a Diesel car would save the planet too. Might it be that they just haven’t got a clue and someone else is pulling the strings?
As for battery fires, I don’t suppose it will be too long before one goes off in the Channel Tunnel?
July 28, 2023
Uncertainty and change should be no surprise for industry ;it happens all the time and the Chinese have grasped the initiative at the moment . Looking back at the changes that have occured in my lifetime swings and roundabouts have always been in existence . Petrol and diesel driven vehicles are not going to disappear rapidly for a number of reasons and further innovation and change will continue .
July 28, 2023
Saving the UK car industry?
Well the Government blocking stupid schemes such as ULEZ would help!
I’ve just seen that the London expansion of ULEZ is lawful (really? I beg to differ!) and Sadiq now plans to push ahead with it.
Never mind the social and economic impact it will have on many individuals and businesses. If this Government had any backbone, they would have revoked Sadiq’s power to expand the zone. Instead they sat on their hands, politicised it for electoral gain and now will just let it go through.
The economy of London will now suffer as a result. In addition the long running Travelcard is now being axed by Khan. Meaning we ALL will be paying more for the privilege of traveling around London, when traveling from outside London.
Sadiq wants it both ways. Penalise people for driving into London, plus penalise them when coming into London by public transport. I’m certain he would build a wall around London, if he could get away with it.
I will now be boycotting London as a result of this decision and the axing of the Travelcard. I urge others to do the same.
July 28, 2023
Just to add to my previous post..
1) You will be penalised ‘doing the right thing’ by doing ‘Park & Ride’ at outer London tube stations with car parks. All of which will be covered by the ULEZ blanket. If I was to drive from Reading, park at Hounslow West, or Internet and catch the tube into other parts of London, I would still be penalised with the Ā£12.50 charge.
2) Axing the Travelcard means that those of us from outside London will lose the ‘tourist rate’ of using TfL services when bought with a rail ticket. Currently Reading to London Paddington with Travelcard is Ā£29.60, or Ā£19.50 with a Railcard.
Come January, you will only be able to pay for the journey to London (currently Ā£23.90/Ā£15.75 with railcard), then face a contactless cap of up to Ā£14.90 (zones 1-6) on top, Ā£8.10 if just remaining in Zone 1. ‘New’ fares in January (before next year’s fare increases) would equal up to Ā£38.80/Ā£30.65 with railcard for zones 1-6. How is this encouraging people to ditch their cars and use public transport?
3) Those outside London are not eligible for the scrappage scheme. Nor does the money offered fully compensate for buying a more recent compliant vehicle, now second hand car prices have increased as a result. I also do not see why taxpayers should be funding people to get a newer car. My taxes don’t find me getting a new car, so don’t see why I should be paying for others. Khan wants to fund scrapage, it should be coming from his budget, not Government money from everywhere else.
4) The economy of London will suffer as a result. This is predicted to be at least Ā£500m a year. How can the Government just stand by and allow Khan to commit economic suicide in London? Any hardship Khan causes to London’s economy SHOULD NOT be bailed out by Government.
5) If Khan wants to bolster TfL finances, he should clamp down on the massive fare evasion that occurs, estimated at over Ā£150m a year. In the times I’ve been to London, I’ve seen people jumping the barriers, and walking through open barriers in the evenings, without appearing to pay by swiping in and out on the readers. Jumping on buses by rear entrances and not swiping their card on the card reader. Khan pleads poverty with TfL, however what does he expect when many fail to pay for their travel!
ULEZ gas nothing to do with the environment and air quality. It is ALL about raising money for a poorly financially managed TfL.
July 28, 2023
The High Court have declared that the ULEZ expansion is ‘lawful’ …..thats because this toy government made it law and instructed the mayor of london to impliment its net-zero, environmental clean air and ULEZ programme
July 28, 2023
Indeed, but don’t forget that the globalists want our car industry to fail. It doesn’t matter if this is caused by cheap imports along with car-usage-destroying legislation, or simply a lack of realistic technology.
For a time then, we can look forward to most of us driving Chinese made cars, while our car manufacturers go to the wall – But, when the ban on shipped imports comes in, we won’t even have Chinese cars to drive!
July 28, 2023
Sir John
Is anyone keeping an eye on the container ship which is on fire in the North Sea with a a cargo of EVās including 350 top of the range Mercedes Benzā
Several crew members jumped overboard to escape the intense heat, one of whom died, it promises to be an ecological disaster, itās a UNESCO site of special significance, the batteries of electric vehicles spontaneously combust so all the virtue signalling folk who are doing their bit to save the planet are doing the reverse
Geoff buys cars on utube for the story
July 28, 2023
Companies can handle risk by estimating and speculating.āWhat they dislike is uncertainty and that often comes from the legislators who all too often have no business experience.āThe sooner this Government end the uncertainty over penalising internal-combustion-engine cars, the better for business.
July 28, 2023
It is a given that these environMENTAL policies are an economic catastrophe. What do others think will be the social consequences?
July 28, 2023
We are creating jobs and supporting start up’s in India though.
Ā£10 million in Avaana Fund a women-led-climate-tech fund supporting business and create jobs for women.
Ā£12 million to Nutrifresh an agri-tech start up enterprise
Supporting of the Chakri Innovation Lab which is developing innovative batteries for e-vehicles which do not need charging infrastructure and are fully recyclable, providing cleaner and safer alternative to older Lithium.
Very nice. I do hope investment and start up aid is on hand for British innovators and companies in all fields.
It would be nice to see some of our money invested in a huge skills package for our own people too, to make up for the dire and purposefully created lack of skills.
Perhaps we can then get back to making things, and rekindle the spirit of innovation that used to be prevalent.
July 28, 2023
@Michelle – Cynically, it gives them more money to keep Putin afloat, so he can keep attacking the Ukraine ā then the UK taxpayer gets to pay more to support the Ukraine
July 28, 2023
ULEZ will destroy the UK car manufacturing and support the Chinese EV production
I donāt blame the Mayor of London, I donāt blame the High Court
ā¦I BLAME THIS GOVERNMENT, ITāS THEIR LAW, and ITāS THEIR POLICY
July 28, 2023
Even if the mayor of London was against the EV, was anti net-zero and a climate change denier, theyād have to implement the law and follow the instructions of this conservative government ā¦.blame the PM, Cabinet, the Government, the Parliamentary Tory Party, the 1922 committee and all the MPs that voted for ānet-zeroā ā¦..change the bloody law
July 29, 2023
‘ULEZ will destroy the UK car manufacturing ‘
I think the metal horse has bolted. We can’t use British Coal to make British Steel to make make British Cars with British designs and British labour.
Our Governments threw the towel in the ring years ago…
08.04
July 29, 2023
Foreign car importers can use british subsidy
July 28, 2023
I’ve no doubt that the only way to save our auto industry is to vote in a new government of the Reform Party
July 28, 2023
It’s very difficult to post on here 4th Attempt. So will do it in parts.
BTW don’t give a toss whether you print or not.
July 28, 2023
Firstly I think JR is OK.
Who do I Blame ?
The Security Services ( of all countries ) am no Russian/ Chinese fanboi )
July 28, 2023
Way back after the Philby etc debacle somebody decided let’s be open so nobody can be blackmailed. Big mistake. It opened the door to ageing politicians to groom young golden boys.
July 28, 2023
In is unbelievable that this pseudo-Tory government cannot see the problems we face by their religious crusade to net-zero. Why are they acting so devilishly irresponsibly to the citizens? What’s in it for them?
I can only conclude, they are going to be extinguished by extra-terrestrial forces for “those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”. Roll on please and let’s get the country back on track for growth and innovation.
July 29, 2023
Derek :
āIn is unbelievable that this pseudo-Tory government cannot see the problems we face by their religious crusade to net-zero.ā
Net Zero is a religion. The Irish government is intending to sacrifice 10% of its dairy cows in order to reach their Net Zero 2030 target ā 65,000 cows per year for 3 years ā to save the planet.
This is taking us back to the distant past. When did we last offer sacrifices to the weather gods?
July 28, 2023
Why are politicians trying to force as to buy vehicles with lithium batteries? Is it because they are all Arts graduates and never studied chemistry at school? Lithium is an intensely reactive alkaline metal that reacts violently with air and water which is why it is stored under oil. It is not a suitable material to incorporate into the design of vehicles. How is the new vehicle crash testing going by the way?
July 28, 2023
Has the introduction of E10 fuel 3 years ago, made any difference ? Is anybody in government measuring its impact ? All these crazy & mad green ideas and nobody knows if theyāre effective ā¦..china laughing its head off
July 29, 2023
glen cullen :
My wife’s car not only runs smoother on E5 fuel but with such a big decrease in fuel consumption compared to using E10, it is well worth paying the extra.
July 28, 2023
Reports say that the German car industry has not done much on EV tech because they are still looking at how to improve the existing ICE engines to run on hydrogen.
If they succeed, they will stay ahead of their competition.
Which will mean that they are miles ahead of the UK car industry – which is actually non-existent, it’s a case of other countries’ manufacturers building their products in the UK for financial benefits (lower taxes, govt subsidies, saving shipping costs, market cred of a “British brand”).
A bneter question might be “How do we encourage British start-ups to design and build cars in Britain (and stay headquartered here to pay taxes)?”.
July 29, 2023
XY :
Hydrogen for domestic car use isn’t going to happen. Hydrogen has a very low energy density by volume and the costs and dangers of distribution are prohibitive.
A far better option is to use green methane/LNG. LNG is already in use in millions of vehicles worldwide (including in the UK mainly for HGVs) and existing ices can be relatively easily modified to run on LNG.
July 28, 2023
We have too many cars on the road as it is with some families having 3 or even 4 cars . Rail networks are poor , motorways are congested , parking restrictions are ridiculous and we still have boy racers in old BMW’s and Audis causing accidents or near misses everywhere. To save our industry would probably mean unsold cars.
July 29, 2023
Sorry, Margaret, your analysis is misguided. We can only drive one car at a time so it does not matter how many cars a family owns. We choose to have six, but we only have two drivers.
Conservative governments and Labur before them, have allowed our population to grow every year for the last twenty year or more, through net inward migration. That is the real reason we have all sorts of problems from the NHS to schools and everything in between, including “a housing crisis” and congested roads.
How many years can we continue to add 600,000 people to our population without the country grinding to a halt ?
It is significantly detracting from the quality of life for our own people yet the politicians simply don’t care.
August 1, 2023
That is your opinion , mine is the thing I have stated and no one guides me into making observations . This is the typical arrogance of someone who is bent on trying to push their own views forward and not accept that others have a point of view.
July 28, 2023
āThe UK and much of the EU needs to wake up to the reality that China has gained control over much of the raw materials and fabrication capacity to make vehicle batteries for electric cars.ā
Chinese evs may be cheaper than European models but their sales will still suffer from lack of range, lack of electric power and charging infrastructure, high insurance costs, and, most importantly of all, the inherent danger of any Li-ion battery, which should/will restrict their use to open roads only.
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.