Too many Councils and some officialsĀ in government want to price, ban and regulate the driver off the road. They spend large sums of driver taxation to thwart the driver, to delay the car, and to prevent the use of certain roads. The road authorities under provide road space on the grounds that if they supplied more motorists would dare to use it. There have always been people in government wanting to do this. The numbers have intensified now that cars are seen as one of the mainĀ causes of CO 2 emissions.
The car is one of the great liberating inventions of the twentieth century. In the age of the horse you needed to be rich to afford a horse and carriage let alone a bigger carriage with several horses. Even keeping a horse for riding or a horse for work purposes was a difficult financial commitment beyond the means of many. As the twentieth century advanced the arrival of the Beetle, the Mini and other cheaper small cars empowered the many with the personal transport privileges of the few.
Most seventeen year olds want to pass their driving test and many aspire to own their first car. It is the way to personal freedom, no longer having to pleadĀ with a parent to be given a lift to a social or sporting event. A vehicle is the foundation of many small businesses, allowing them to get the person with tools, equipment, goods and materials to any home in the country to carry out some work and earn a living. For the retired and elderly the cars and vans of modern UK are a supply line, bringing food and goods to the door,Ā helping family and friends to visit and offering taxi rides toĀ special events . Those who want to ban or inconvenience the car are trying to frustrate much of modern life.
Those who do it in the name of greenery may be undermining their own aims. More traffic jams bring much higher fuel consumption with delay. More traffic lights bring stop start with further fuel burn. Taxing new cars too much impedes moving more vehicles onto the low emissions standards of the modern car over the older one. Promoting electric vehicles with a high CO 2 emission to make them can also be counter productive when the person has to charge them from aĀ grid mainly delivering fossil fuel based electricity.
Over time fuel efficiency and fuel types will evolve, and CO 2 will continue downwards. Taking more road space away from vehicles with every traffic management change, making junctions more difficult to get through, and having more traffic lights than roundabouts will frustrate the motorist, create congestion and put government at loggerheads with the many who see the car as a crucial part of their lifestyle and freedoms.
July 23, 2023
I gather that the move to EVs has other harmful side effects – as heavier vehicles they generate considerably more small particulate debris than lighter ICE vehicles, especially in the damaging PM2.5 region, and as heavier vehicles they are considerably more damaging to road surfaces. So anything but a universal panacea.
July 23, 2023
That’s in addition to the FINITE raw materials that has to be mined in Countries that don’t care much about eco issues or the age of their workers. The owners of those mines from the far East are gradually taking control of all commodities and manufacturing in the world until they are able to hold the West to ransom. Much like OPEC in the past. All in the name of the essential bogey gas CO2 that all plant life requires. ( UK produces 1% of the 3% total man made CO2, of the 0.04% in the atmosphere. Do the maths, it’s crazy). We have oil, gas and coal under our feet and sea’s, yet the legacies won’t allow their capture or tax it to death due to their Net Stupid religion. They should wake up and smell the coffee as the electorate are living the poverty caused by their rank stupidity in electric/gas/fuel prices. Recent elections have shown what ULEZ can do and the strength, depth and calibre of MP’s elected under our current system @ 25years and wet behind the ears. Just saying.
July 23, 2023
Indeed more tyre wear and tyres use loads of oil to manufacture them plus more road wear and more energy needed to mover these heavier vehicles about. Plus they are heavy even when the battery is empty unlike petrol cars and the batteries lose charge when standing too.
Load of energy needed to manufacture the car battery plus the replacement batteries needed after a few years.
July 23, 2023
A brand new Cradle-to-Grave study comparing Electric Cars to Internal Combustion Engine Cars revealed surprising results!
It appears that we would be better of keeping older cars going for longer since much of the emmissions are produced in the manufacturing and shipping of new vehicles, so old cars should be kept going so long as they are properly maintained and pass their annual emmissions test. Also EVs are not likely to have the same longevity as ICE vehicles.
The report is available on-line from the fairfueluk website
July 23, 2023
So the governments scrappage scheme is actually against the environment
July 24, 2023
Indeed keeping you old car almost always saves CO2 compared to causing a new EV and (short lived) battery to be built. Plus we have no spare low carbon electricity anyway.
July 23, 2023
A problem here is we have councils stuffed full of people whose job is to hinder motorists or extract cash from them. For them every new speed hump or parking zone is a job well done. Measurable success.
We need to elect councillors and higher-tier politicians (as a lot of this comes from national, EU-inspired guidance) who get these bureaucracts to change course.
July 23, 2023
They just following instructions and the extra funding from central government
July 23, 2023
Indeed collecting fines by mugging, tricking & fining motorists is a hugely inefficient way to tax people, is totally immoral and hugely damages the economy and productivity in the process. Even worse when the money is largely pissed down the drain by both councils and governments as it usually is.
July 23, 2023
And speed bumps achieve nothing – except broken springs and driver frustration.
July 24, 2023
And more fuel use, tyre wear, brake wear and more CO2 due speed up slow down driving.
July 23, 2023
Good morning.
The problem is, we have a date, but no plan.
And when you fail to plan, you end up planning for failure.
The other side to the problem is, population growth. The more people there are, the more the demand for personal transport. With more and more purchases being made on line, whether it be food or goods, these have to be delivered by road, rail or air. All consume energy and, in between each transport link, another road going vehicle has to make the connection right to your door.
There is no easy solution and no matter what subject we look at here, the same conclusions as to what the drivers (no pun intended) of this or that are, we come back to the fact that we have far too many people.
America, Australia, Russia and China all have the space. We don’t ! It is not necessarily that we need fewer cars, just fewer people, because forcing them off the roads and onto cattle trucks is not the answer.
July 23, 2023
Addendum
To underline my point above I would like to take people back to a subject here covered a little while ago – Hot desking.
The problem with host desking, and I have seen this first hand, is that, if you have 100 people and only say, 75 desks, that means 25 people will not be productive. Now if you have a transport system designed at the time to services a population of say 2 million and place a demand of say 4 million upon it, you have 2 million people who will get work late, or not at all. This is why I believe there is a great push for more home working because the transport system cannot cope. So if you now remove the cars from the transport mix, what happens ?
As anyone thought of this ?
July 23, 2023
@Mark B
Make personal transport the domain of the rich, the politicos and state employees. Everyone else can go take a hike(literally) – That’s Socialism for you
July 23, 2023
Agree – that’s been the secret aim all along – make the masses queue for infrequent buses or for strike ridden trains and leave the roads for the rich and powerful.
July 23, 2023
It’s ok though Mark B. The 1.2 million legitimate minimum wage immigrants they allow entry each year at tax payer subsidy, plus the lavish care of the 50,000 illegal criminals each year they allow entry to remain (without deportation), do not have a carbon footprint. If they did it would be totally opposed to the Governments own policy drive to achieve net zero by 2030, banning our ICE cars and gas boilers on the way. Of course this mass migration helps the housing crisis and reduces the 7.2 million waiting list in the English NHS. Dental provision is also helped as are school places for our children. Our culture, heritage, values, beliefs and way of life are not worthy of consideration and we should adapt to all and sundry and their extreme values who come here at our expense and like it without complaint! Vote for the Westminster Uni Party for more of the same!
July 23, 2023
Timeaction
Indeed too many people are the problem, as each one consumes produce and equipment which come from the earths resources, and add to its waste and potential pollution.
The Clue is in the name they have given it “Manmade” climate change, if it is not manmade, then surely almost pointless trying to do anything about it !
Too many people are the problem !
July 23, 2023
Frankly I donāt believe these āGreen ambitionsā, they are merely an excuse.
We should invite the whole nation to individually sign up to a Green Programme in which they themselves will surrender their heating, transport, flights, technology and much else. Letās tell them the % of reduced CO2 per person – letās see how many sign up – especially the Royals, state sector and political class.
Letās be a World Leader in this endeavour.
July 23, 2023
When they ban private jets, helicopters, first class flights, flying half empty planes, 6 litre cars, EVcars (as they cause more not less CO2ā¦ and Ministers & our King of blatant hypocrisy complies fully, then perhaps I will believe they are actually a bit serious about CO2.
Reducing CO2 plant tree and crop food is clearly just a ruse for tax and control & not remotely serious science as sensible nobel prize winning physicists point out.
July 23, 2023
100%, well said LL!
July 23, 2023
Nice picture of Ed Miliband (of Climate Change act and his evil Ed Stone fame) getting out of a private jet and into Range Rover I note.
Do as I say and not as I do, in the King Charles, Emma Thompson, Rishi Sunak, Prince Harry/Meganā¦ mode.
July 23, 2023
Of course banning – private outdoor swimming pools , especially heated ones. We cant have resources sqaundered on water preposterously heating it.
No gov cars either. No security exemptions. Lets make private security illegal. They are living in a protected bubble, bought in or are “owned” assets.
July 23, 2023
Agree – The Greens only came third in the three recent by-elections ….the people didn’t vote for them nor their policies
July 23, 2023
+1 L A
Surely the BBC will lead the charge to sign up, meaning no more flights by their climate catastrophist to enjoy the sunny European summers.
July 23, 2023
For those in authority who like to make sure citizens behave correctly, cheap cars have been a disaster.
There are so many reasons to be ‘anti-motorist’. Car driving is an unnecessary and wasteful luxury which damages the planet. In the city you can always walk or ride a bike, for longer distances you can take the tube or bus to go wherever you want. The bus and train services can easily be unionised, ensuring the working man gets his fair share of the economy and highlighting the merits of socialism. There are not many people living in the country so their needs are not too relevant. One huge disadvantage of the car is that it can be driven totally anonymously without anyone being able to keep track of it or restrict where you travel.
July 23, 2023
You’ve obviously missed the millions of spy cameras along our streets and highways. They know exactly where you have been in your car.
July 23, 2023
Agree – but no one is watching the cctv’s – ‘130,389 cars had been stolen in 2022’ RAC
July 23, 2023
Don’t you agree?
The use & control of data and exercise of our laws & parliamentary representatives are being used in a completely benign way.
The problems that have surfaced re Mr N Farage are just mere accidental errors.
Our controlled admin and police state are true warriors defending the righteousness of the upstanding exalted class.
July 23, 2023
@David in Kent – you noticed, the Metro Left dream of the world…
July 23, 2023
Wow, are you crazy? Have you ever seen a plumber/electrician, road worker, builder or candle stick maker walking miles to peoples houses to do the work carrying their tools and materials…………………..?Thought not. Public transport does not exist outside London to any degree. Get a life and some education.
July 23, 2023
You can’t put an ‘off’ switch in an old car like the new EVs ….think smart-meter think EV
July 23, 2023
The restriction on motorists is driven by too many people in our country. A smaller population would enjoy freedom in comfort by not being pushed into awkward situations. Too many exert authority against those whom they are supposed to serve. They need removing out of the way.
July 23, 2023
You could clamp down on much of this nonsense by telling DVLA to refuse to hand over the details to these local authorities.
One of the fundamental principles of the GDPR is that organisations should only collect data for explicit purposes and only use it for this purpose.
With personal information connected to a car, it is legitimate to use it to manage traffic and for law enforcement. Using it for enforcing tolls or spurious environmental restrictions is not fair. Neither should they sell it to private parking companies.
So if the government wanted, they could temper this war on the motorist by legitimately refusing to hand over the data.
July 23, 2023
@James Freeman +1
Car Parking pay apps get to monetise collected data from you and your contact list outside of UK and UK legal jurisdiction, by selling to any foreign state that pays for it.
July 23, 2023
There is a reason . Some are reputed not to use the internet or mobile phones.
July 23, 2023
Gosh …. it’s just as well the Not-a-Conservative-Government; Not-Conservative-Councils and a former Not-a-Conservative-Mayor-of-London haven’t been doing any of this for the past 13 years.
If they had been, we’d have something to worry about.
Oh …. I’m reminded of the Not-a-Conservative-Council in Dorset, who thought it was a good idea to severely restrict the width of the main road to motorised traffic down at Wimborne Minsters and instead put in a super-wide cycle lane which was not being demanded by local residents.
“The cycle lane in question is part of the 2.3km scheme along Wimborne Road West, and Leigh Road, from Colehill up to just before the outskirts of Wimborne.
The scheme is part of the south east Dorset Transforming Cities Fund programme funded mostly by a grant from the Department for Transport but also being funded by and jointly undertaken by Dorset Council and BCP Council. Further funding has been provided on this specific route by Sustrans……The total width of the two-way cycle lane on Leigh Road is 3.5m (11ft 4in) and the total width on the two-way road is 6.5m (21ft 3in).”
The Not-a-Conservative-Government, Not-a-Conservative-Council and Sustrans certainly put themselves at loggerheads with the local population in Wimborne.
July 23, 2023
@Donna
You are right the work of the Socialist WEF extremists – that will teach people to vote for those that a lying
July 23, 2023
I recently read a local plan to construct 500 houses on a greenbelt near to us (Mass immigration has consequences!). It stated that there wouldn’t be an increase in traffic over time as we would all be persuaded/encouraged to walk, cycle and get public transport as time passed as part of the green agenda, encouraged by national and local policy. You really couldn’t make up the rank stupidity in our ruling classes. I told my wife she’ll need running/walking shoes or a bike with a huge basket to get the 5 miles to ASDA for the weekly shop as there is no public transport! Keep voting for the Westminster Uni Party for more rank stupidity.
July 23, 2023
Cycle-lanes Ā£4bn ….Ā£4bn ….and there hasn’t been any increase in use
July 23, 2023
You have to wonder what sort of muppets voted in “Not-a-Conservative-Government; Not-Conservative-Councils”; in all eight (leave the EU voting) Westminster Constituencies you refer to. AND, you will vote for the same way again, at the next General / Local Elections.
July 23, 2023
Sir John,
As the state gets more and more authoritarian and puts in place more and more restrictions on road use, there is much talk about fifteen minute cities. When I first heard the idea mooted, I thought what a load of tosh however, I am not so sure now.
Do you think, given you say road restrictions are being made on greenery grounds, that when everyone is driving EVs that the state will reopen all the closed roads again? No, nor do I.
July 23, 2023
++
I think though that they are gradually getting their 15 min prisons.
Everything done on apps.
Petrol prices. Parking difficulties. Buses not reliable. Train strikes.
There is little weekend traffic here at night now. No pubs to go to. No clubs.
So many businesses shut down. People crammed into their cramped little houses.
And summer weekends are a Hell of noise and ultra loud music.
Not even stopped by the rain last night.
July 23, 2023
Please don’t refer to them as 15 minute cities. That is part of the propaganda intended to make them sound user-friendly. They won’t be: people’s lives don’t fit into 15 minute locations.
The intention is to create 15 minute ghettos. But instead of guards, walls and guns, they’ll be policed and enforced by cameras, “environmentally-friendly” massive planters and fines if you dare transgress.
We’re told that these 15 minute ghettos will contain everything you need to live your life locally. So why aren’t they creating that environment NOW to encourage people and demonstrate that they’ll be an improvement for people’s lives? Instead, what they’re doing is installing the technology to enforce them.
Ignore what they say and watch what they do.
July 23, 2023
+1 Donna
When they have finished confining people to city ghettos, travel restrictions will be enforced in the country and we will be imprisoned in our villages.
July 23, 2023
@Cliff..Wokingham. You wont be driving EV’s or at least BEV’s there has been no plan in the last 13years for the UK to become self-reliant or resiliant in the electricity needed, so much so the National Grid is already warning people to cut back as there will not be enough electricity to heat and light your home. You van have a light home at home or in the office or you can charge your car – you cant do both. Then it of course depends on the French Government supplying the electricity, if they don’t need it as we do not have enough of our own ā that was the Conservative Government plan of 13 years.
July 23, 2023
As you say, Sir John, the car widened to many the privilege of private transport previously enjoyed just by the few. Now the 1% want to take it away from the many, and keep it for themselves. Councils and government apparatchiks serve as their useful idiots, with their green ideology.
July 23, 2023
Waiting to see the EV ZiLs driving down government only lanes, with blue light outriders.
July 23, 2023
Regularly happens, when they go to oh so important photo ops… err.. sorry meetings.
July 23, 2023
Clough
+1
July 23, 2023
George Orwellās genius was to explain that all ideologies result in extremist Governments.
Socialism leads to fascism.
Behaviourism leads to communism.
Environmentalism leads to nihilism.
The proper pursuit of law makers must be to eliminate ideological law in favour of natural law to allow individuals to self-calibrate society.
July 23, 2023
Freedom, choice, lower taxes and far less government and parasitic people please.
Michael Gove interview: āSeeing Starmer with Blair is like watching a bad tribute actā but Surely so is Sunak he even sounds like Bliar. Did the Brown Blair era do anything positive at all? Bortched brexit more dire EU, the US extradition act, wrecking the economy, evil counterproductive wars on lies, mad āall shall have degrees even if they have not understood their A levelsā education policiesā¦
āSunak vows to ‘double down’ on existing policies after two by-election defeats.ā Can he not see that what is needed is the exact reverse of this. U turns on all his daft, high tax, big government socialism & globalism, his net zero lunacy, his wars on motorists, landlords, small businesses, the self employed, his bonkers rip off energy policies, the dire Windsor knot and we need a bonfire of red tap. We need U turns on almost everything Sunak.
July 23, 2023
@Lifelogic
These people you mention are the ones that head to the WEF conferences, that teach the religion of Klaus Schwabās and the āGreat Resetā. Then they try to suggest the Socialist WEF doctrine is just a conspiracy theory, while all the time putting all the teachings into practice. The theory rubbishes the ideals of Conservatism ā that is why it has been drummed out of society
The New World Order being forced on you
July 23, 2023
+1 Ian B
These people are the ones for whom individual freedoms, freedom of choice, free speech and liberty itself is anathema. But that only applies to us, not them!
July 23, 2023
He knows what CMD once knew – They (the electorate) have no where else to go.
July 23, 2023
Plus higher particulates from their tyres, far higher repair costs, storage of second hand/scrapped heeding greater space etc. we are being lied to.
And in related news the chancer, also known as Michael Gove is asking the government to row back in green issues whilst there is a cost of living crisis.
This is the same Michael Gove that refused to sign off a major redevelopment scheme in Oxford Street because it didnāt reflect a low carbon future. Looking both ways as usual. Thank goodness for the āoff switchā
The head of M and S said the government lurched from one incoherent decision to another and it would have a chilling effect on future schemes.
Again this is the rubbish this countries businesses have to deal with. No wonder this government is considered anti business.
July 23, 2023
I have little doubt that this statement from Gove was approved by Sunout as part of the row back having done their secret polls and knowing the unpopularity of their Net Stupid policies. People aren’t going to vote for no ICE cars and no gas boilers end of. The Uni Party must go!
July 23, 2023
The roads became so overcrowded that inevitably something had to be done.
But it was a problem entirely overseen and caused by government.
Makes me wonder whether it was done on purposeā¦Problem. Reaction. Solution.
So many car loans. So much concreting over of front gardens.
So many immigrants wanting cars.
And now the āsolutionā ā¦a sudden withdrawal of travel.
July 23, 2023
āThe roads became so overcrowded that inevitably something had to be done.ā
Indeed build more road space, under passes, parking and bridges would have been the logical response to respond to demand perhaps using pay per mile funding. Instead they decided to block the roads instead, use motorist as cash cows and went to war on motorists and against the electorate.
July 23, 2023
The bicycle was the first means of cheap transport for ordinary people which gave them the freedom to travel when and where they desired.
Depriving people of their cars is a proven vote lower.
July 23, 2023
Horses came first.
But yes and electric bikes are even better as I can now go up hills – like being 18 again. Though non electric bikes are fuelled by extra human food intake so not actually very good for CO2 at all if you do the maths properly, consider the energy needed to grow and process the food and if more CO2 bothers you (logically it should not).
The government still claim on their web sites that walking and cycling produce no direct or indirect CO2. This shows these departments are either staffed by complete scientific idiots or just blatant liars? No other explanations that I can see.
July 23, 2023
The bicycle remains a very effective means of cheap transport for shorter journeys. The problem with it is it requires effort, which is too much to ask of the average pot-bellied Brit.
July 23, 2023
Also about 20 times more dangerous than driving per mile so take care where and how you cycle. Oh and in the UK you bike is rather likely to get nicked fairly regularly.
July 23, 2023
and the police don’t investigate nicked bicycles they refer you to a website to record only
July 23, 2023
Or eighty year olds like me, Dave I need my petrol car as I can then shop for food, it also takes me on holidays within Britain. My years energy use is less than the two week holiday energy use by those who fly on holidays.
Ps Out here in Devon the bus only runs past the farm gate every other day! Hardly useful is it?
July 23, 2023
I have several friends who are keen cyclists, but I only got on a bike again during lockdown and on quiet paths. You are more vulnerable on two wheels.
I note the cycling āpathwayā in Hammersmith features in todayās papers as having delayed traffic and emergency vehicles. It takes up half the road and looks completely over the top.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/22/jeremy-vine-bus-lane-scrapped-cycle-lane-congestion-tfl/
The trouble is you have all sorts of folk in quangos paid to talk up the benefits. Walking along King Street leads me to a very different conclusion.
That said, I do see lots of cyclists just south of the river (Waterloo/Blackfriars) who commute by bike. It still looks a risky business though.
July 23, 2023
Only if you manage to retain ownership and your health. Hire are bikes not cheap.
July 23, 2023
And in other news Sunak is threatening woke banks with closure if they close peopleās accounts. Obviously no threats to the public sector, universities etc that are infested with wokeism.
So they are going to close organisations that are worth billions to the economy and handle trillions of transactions.world wide?
Utter political virtual signalling bollocks trying to deflect from the fact it is his government that has crested/allowed this situation to exist in the first place,
July 23, 2023
Exactly. Who insisted on the woke ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) stuff that all corporates now have to comply with? The Uni Party.
July 24, 2023
Actually, it was the WEF. The Uni-Party just did as ordered.
July 23, 2023
It’s not just the car is it, banning gas boilers which are cheap and efficient to be replaced by heat pumps which are neither.
All over Europe the people are kicking back against the net zero ideology as they see it as an excuse for ever higher taxes and control.
No one wants this nonesense and when the technology improves they will naturally follow.
Your heading for a major falk by letting the two WEF stooges destroy this country.
July 23, 2023
āEver higher taxes and controlā exactly, also follow the money crony capitalism and vested interests.
July 23, 2023
Watermelons green on the outside red in the middle as James Dellingpole put it in his book.
July 23, 2023
NetZero is a Marxist wolf in green clothing.
July 23, 2023
Who would have thought we would have been green enough to fall for it?
July 23, 2023
Correct
July 23, 2023
I agree, Ian. Unfortunately, there’s the equivalent of a global civil service at work planning things alongside the rich elites, of which governments have been drawn into.
This is what I meant in previous months when I said that this needs smashing at national level… I think we’re starting to see this. The various nations’ populations are turning, and saying no, which is ushering in new leadership to work for the people, not the global leadership trying to build themselves a huge ‘government’.
July 23, 2023
I saw a very interesting clip of a promotional film (no idea of the date but fairly modern) put out by a company which either used or provided CO2 to improve and ripen tomatoes.
Was that standard procedure in greenhouses maybe to get early salad stuff?
This suggests to me that a planned world wide famine, rather than a āsave the planetā is actually what is going on.
July 23, 2023
Indeed CO2 is vital for life and for the O2 we breath. We are in a relative death of CO2 currently in historical terms. A little more CO2 increases crop yields (and can decrease their water needs slightly too) and increases tree and plant growth and greens the planet nicely.
July 23, 2023
It certainly feels like that, Everhopeful, especially after what happened in Sri Lanka. Just as alarming are the eco oligarchs’ plans for blotting out the sun.
July 23, 2023
Yes agree re Sri Lanka.
I mentioned the blotting out ( with sand was it?) on here some time ago.
My comment was deleted.
( Maybe because I included a name).
How utterly terrifying.
I think they are now trying to say that because of agriculture the earth has been tipped sideways!
( Telegraph article).
July 23, 2023
Some years ago I worked on a nursery growing salad crops under glass. There were butane burners in the tomato glasshouses which increased the CO2 in the atmosphere and seemed to impart more vigour into the long season crops. Whether this is still followed I don’t know, but there must have been many changes in the technology since then.
Unquestioningly, more atmospheric CO2 is increasing the amount of green areas world wide according to NASA. I’m not a climate scientist so can’t say which experts are right or wrong over their interpretation of the data, but the data fed to us on a certain medical subject over the last three years has left me very cynical about accepting at face value anything said by government, media and self-appointed “experts”.
July 23, 2023
David + L
There are no climate scientists- only failed geologists and computer gamers!
July 23, 2023
Spot On
July 25, 2023
We might also consider the value of the coercive EU advice that we should all go over to diesel becaue it was bettter than petrol for th envirionmnent.
July 23, 2023
CO2 does promote growth… countries that expel high levels of CO2 such as China or India, on NASA photos, taken from space, are massively greener than other parts of the world!
And it’s known that the ‘elites’ want to reduce the overlarge world population. You could well be right.
July 23, 2023
This is reply to David+L
July 23, 2023
You seriously think there are shadowy figures planning a world wide famine? Whatās the plan? Ban farmers from growing and selling food? Ahh, I hear you cry, āthatās what theyāre doing already! Forcing farmers to re-wild and leaving strips around their fields so wild flowers can grow.ā
But, of course, they are doing this to AVOID a famine. We rely on insects to pollinate, without them weāre all going to starve and, in case you hadnāt noticed, there has been a massive decline in insects during our lifetimes. So, while politicians try to do something about it and force the mechanised farming businesses to create the conditions for insect and bird life, you think thereās a conspiracy to create a global famine. The mind boggles.
That said, some pillock in government has just approved some chemical that kills bees.
July 23, 2023
So explain worldwide food price increases. If you accept prices increase due to scarcity?
How are the food imports from Russia & Ukraine doing?
July 23, 2023
Mike
If itās to avoid a famine, why do you think the Dutch government wants to take over and run the Dutch farms – some of the most productive farms in the world?
July 23, 2023
Everhopeful, you would be right.
July 23, 2023
A car, truck or van is often vital tool for work and work productivity. Try building or maintaining houses without them. The government is, as so often, making the country far less competitive and people poorer.
Certain business trips I do would take two days to do on public transport with a night in a hotel but can be done in one with my own car or van. Plus I can carry my equipment and bags. Plus you would need several taxi journeys too (taxis are actually cars but less efficient as often they have to do two double journeyās from station to the business – one way empty to drop me off and then to pick me up later plus you need need a professional driver with all their energy use.
July 23, 2023
Indeed, productivity is something that is vitally important which doesn’t get a mention. Our economic development went hand in hand with making it easier for people and goods to move around, from turnpike roads, to canals, to railways to cars, lorries and air travel. If they make it difficult for people to move around, then they collapse productivity , and make us a great deal poorer.
The leader of my council, Wiltshire council, became besotted with the idea of creating 20 minute villages, so I warn people there is that ridiculous idea rattling around the local bureaucracies. On hearing about it I took my local councillor to task and asked him to explain how we could possibly live our lives under such restrictions , he couldn’t.
The mention of these 15 minute cities or 20 minute villages reminds of my history lessons at school when we were taught about people being tied to the land and couldn’t move unless they had permission from their lord and masters.
July 23, 2023
All true Sir John, but……..
The majority of your colleagues actually believe in the new religion of climate change and net zero and refuse to recognise that CO2 is essential for life or the harm done by the bird and bat mincing machines producing totally inadequate power, or the environmental damage done in the mining of material for batteries.
The war against the motorist is a war against the economy and society.
July 23, 2023
@BOF – yes a religion that accepts no alternate view, no logic, no science
July 23, 2023
A point that is glossed over is the size of the average car these days, it’s weight and fuel consumption be it eletric, petrol or diesel.
Do you need a Land Rover to get through the jungle and rough terrian in the middle of workingham? Perhaps you do with the conditions the roads are in.
How often do you see cars parked up with engines running with people on their phones chatting or setting up their Sat Navs.
July 23, 2023
John McDonald
When I was a child my three sisters and I managed to fit in the back of my parents’ car. Nowadays, we’d all need a child’s car seat and a people carrier to fit us in! Could that be one reason why cars have got bigger, to fit in the car seats for children?
July 23, 2023
A car seat takes up the width of an adult. When they are about ten don’t need one. I have a ford fusion which I consider to be a small car or van. You can get three adults in the back. I am an age when parents did not have cars. Can only speak from ferrying three children around and grandchildren using car seats etc. A ford escort or cortina estate was fine but I would consider them small in size and weight compare to an SUV or very heavy eletric car.
The mordern day mini perhaps iÄŗustrates the point best. Cars have grown over the years.
July 23, 2023
So the governments scrappage scheme is actually against the environment
July 23, 2023
Thatās for āYour comment is awaiting moderationā above, sorry for the duplication
July 23, 2023
In my early teens my brothers and I would travel in the back of my fathers open back landrover, it was fun and nobody fell out ā¦..and today because it would be classed as an historic vehicle, it doesnāt have to pay ULEZ ā¦madness
July 23, 2023
Satnavs are becoming essential for longtime residents of Wokingham district.
If not take sandwiches and a drink, possibly a blanket and a torch in case you get lost and cannot escape the warrens.
July 23, 2023
Until the Industrial Revolution ( the real and only one) nobody much needed to travel.
The great families travelled to avoid sewage, save money and make suitable marriages.
And many made Pilgrimages on foot and by horse I suppose.
But by and large not much travel until BR, Freddy Laker, Butlins and the dreaded motorcar
Most things were local up until at least the 1950s.
Staggering along after the āresetsā of two devastating World Wars.
What has happened since is entirely down to ( what can I say that is bad enough?) governments!
And now they are really going in for the kill.
July 23, 2023
As I have said before, as a child growing up in a London suburb, I/we lived in a 15 minute city. School was local. Shops were local. Dad worked in a factory a 10 minute bike ride away. Church was local. Apart from high days and holidays, we were almost always within 15 minutes of home. What was wrong with that?
July 23, 2023
Mike Wilson,
Snap. Every shop was within a stoneās throw of our house. They were useful shops too – not charity shops, tanning salons or bookmakers. The days before supermarkets.
Greengrocer on the corner. A grocer, known by his name, a few shops down. A couple of bakeries, a wet fish shop, butcher, a post office, a couple of banks, a cycle shop, a toy shop, a pub and attached of licence and a menswear shop. Across the road was a sports shop and, what as a child I thought was a strange, expensive toy shop, but was in fact selling model railways aimed at a grown up market. Just down the road was our local church.
That was in the suburbs. Earlier in London W9 I could run errands to local shops before I started school. There was no traffic. Children could play in the street. I had a look at the house a week ago. It is now split into several expensive flats, parking is at a premium. We had the whole house, but with lodgers in the basement and upper floor. That would not be feasible now due to inflated property prices.
The areas still have excellent public transport but the demographics have changed completely.
July 23, 2023
Mike
Same with me Mike !
Parents had no car or a telephone, we did not have electricity in the house until I was 4 years old, outside Toilet, no bathroom, open fire, not even a TV until I was 11.
Life so much more simple then, all the neighbours knew each other, you could leave the front door open without fear of Burglary, and Police patrolled the streets on foot or on a bike.
Interestingly not much mental illness about or claimed then though.
Welfare Benefits, what were they ?
Enjoyed my Childhood.
July 23, 2023
The cost of it, in the 1950’s food represented a third of someone’s income , by 1974 a quarter, and now 11% , if you want to do away with the productivity gains of distribution centres and supermarkets etc, then you have to be prepared to pay a steep price for it.
July 23, 2023
Totally agree with everything you have said.
But can I add one salient point.
No one has ever voted for ULEZ, or the replacement of diesel/petrol cars or 15mins ‘Ghettos’! Think it’s time for a people’s vote, a referendum.
July 23, 2023
You vote Labour, Tory, Lib Dem or Green and that is exactly what you are voting for.
Reform should be shouting from the rooftops āIf you vote for any of that lot you are voting to not have a car and to not be able to afford to heat your homeā.
July 23, 2023
@Jude you dont vote for a direction, this is a Socialist State. You are dictated to by those seeking self gratification. Look at the whole of the UKās political landscape and barring very few exception that is the case. Our political world is no longer about serving, it is about doing it my way and your views and logic are not permitted they have been cancelled.
July 23, 2023
YES
July 23, 2023
Jude :
Agreed, itās definitely time for a referendum.
July 23, 2023
don’t forget the daily Ā£15 congestion charge ….in addition to the ULEZ …..in addition to tax vehicle duty …..in addition to parking charges
July 23, 2023
I wonder if anyone has done any research on where most of the green lobby live, and how much their real income actually is.
Perhaps they live and or work in or very close to a City, where a variety of public transport use is readily available.
I can almost guarantee they do not live out in the sticks where a car is almost essential, where gas is perhaps not available, so you heat your home with an oil boiler, or a wood burner, because electric is horrendously expensive, and where the internet is either slow, or non existent.
The fantasy idea that one policy fits all, and if you do not follow it you will be made to pay, is an absolute nonsense.
Life, work, products, and services steadily evolve over the years.
50 years ago a 2000cc car would just about do 100mph (with a following wind), would travel about 30 miles on a gallon of fuel (if you were lucky), and it would give out some serious emissions, indeed so inefficient were cars then, a decoke of the engine (remember that) was often needed to be carried out every 30,000 miles.
Look at how we have now progressed, The same size engine will now often be capable of 130mph, will do 50 Miles on a gallon of fuel, is more reliable, more safe, and gives out only a fraction of the pollution of years past.
Competition within the industry has driven most of that change, yes some sensible legislation has helped, but competition for sales has been the real driver of progress, as with most consumer products, not Parliament or a Local Mayor.
July 23, 2023
+1
Volvo use to be the car industry byword for passenger safety. It was never a great selling point for other manufacturers but, NCAP ratings and customer demand soon changed this. And yes, legislation did play a role but, consumer choice was the main driver (no pun intended).
July 23, 2023
I do not know how many MPs would agree with you on this. I most certainly do though.
PS How many bulletproof limos does the current Mayor of London actually have to take his dog for a walk?
July 23, 2023
Why does he need a limousine let a lone a bulletproof one ? Johnson got around just fine on a push bike as London Mayor.
Has London under his tenure become that dangerous ?
July 23, 2023
Daniel Hannan today āBritain is now a poor nation. This is the number one issue we face ā yet our leaders ignore it. Our average living standards are lower than those in the least affluent US state. Slovenes are overtaking us and Poles are not far behindā
Indeed and why is this? Big, incompetent & totally misguided government, over taxation and regulation, the mad net zero energy agenda, open door to low skilled immigration, the lockdowns, the lack of fair competition in education, energy, healthcare, the BBC, the severe net harm Covid vaccines, over restrictive planning, the road blocking agenda, all the soft loans for duff worthless degrees, the woke and diversity lunacyā¦
July 23, 2023
@Lifelogic as in you handle, they dont use it – logic. You can have what ever you want first you create the money, the wealth, resiliance and self reliance – its called an economy. Every other way as with this Conservative Government is 100% destruction
July 23, 2023
The other side of the coin is that too many cars restrict the liberty of others. I live in a terraced street which wasn’t designed for cars at all, and more and more people with two or more cars and vans are moving in. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find a space for a visiting tradesman among the parked vehicles, and it is not unusual for the footpath to be blocked by an inconsiderate motorist. Buses take up to an hour to make the twenty minute journey to Birmingham centre when mired in the sea of parked and moving cars.
July 23, 2023
@beresford sounds like a lazy council unable to cope with the needs of their ever growing and paying taxes population
July 23, 2023
So why the ever increasing acquisition of cars? Our society has evolved to mean more aspects have become a distance from our homes. Shopping, schools, medicare and leisure all becoming non-local when once it was.
A solution could have been greater provision of types of public transport, but governments have gradually allowed this to decrease and unions have accelerated it with demands for excessive pay and protection from redundancy.
Local bus services have generally fallen, Beeching started the elimination of branch line rail services. lone transport methods using motorcycles, mopeds and bicycles have also decreased, to some extent by clear danger risks on overcrowded and hazardous roads. Fewer people will walk to buy and carry shopping – witness the large carparks at supermarkets.
Small but very effective obstacles are placed to deter car ownership, cost, vehicle safety measures, road signage, parking charges, road repairs neglected. Even groups now physically act at personal risk to prevent and delay the movement of vehicles.
So what can be done? It would seem until measures succeed in improving public transport, car use will be seen as more and more unsocial behaviour.
July 23, 2023
The terror inducement of Covid encouraged a lot of people to use their cars, when previously they didn’t – and I suspect they continue to use them because the trains, buses etc are inefficient services.
July 23, 2023
Public transport is all well and good for when say 40 people all want to go from A to B at the same time. In the real world they want to go A to B, C to D, E to Fā¦ are different times and many need to call of a X, Y, and Z on route.
What use is public transport to get people back from a party in a village at midnight. You need taxis or cars.
The best transport then will be driver less taxis or just cars if sober.
July 23, 2023
I think the village parties at midnight witching hour are miniscule compared to the daylight trips we all need.
However the trips during the day to doctors/dentists, supermarkets and pubs/restaurants are rather more numerous…. cars (and drinking laws)killed off pubs/restaurant business. If roads were made less busy by providing reliable bus routes, perhaps definite hourly services people could rely on, starting before peak hours and running well into evening etc things would start to change.
July 23, 2023
The politically driven grinding down of the human spirit across the West will at some point experience diminishing returns as the naive wake up from their status quo slumber and suddenly become conscious of the damage that they have been voting for.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that all main parties support the horrors of woke barbarism to recalibrate our world, to politicise all human relationships and to open the gate to total State control.
Attacks on motorists is an attack on freedom of movement with environmental concerns merely a concealment device.
1997 will become a date most will refer back to and say that is when all of this woke, green cancer was triggered. The average voter being naive, stupid and utterly without historical appreciation will suffer from their choice
Always vote for candidates whose message is freedom and liberty of the individual not the candidate who promises more spending
July 23, 2023
Those who would legislate against the motorist will not get elected. They lead a war against peoples hard won freedoms, as you say. When they legislate against them specifically in towns and cities they are contributing to the demise of business in those places. Ironically they are legislating against their own income stream but are too stupid to realise it. The mayor of london typifies such stupidity.
As with most problems that pass before our politicians the decisions are political not practical. It they wished to correct the ineptitude of their mental processes they would apply logic.
All vehicles of ULEZ 4, 5, 6 are compliant so the first thing is to make the replacement and scrappage of those that are not financially acceptable with bold allowances and tax offsets. Second provide an excess of cheap car parking. Look at japanese solutions. Thirdly do everything possible to facilitate traffic flow. Lastly take a long hard look at all the taxation that relates to the car, motorbike, and truck. And do so in favour of examples manufactured in the UK. “Every little helps”, but make sure it helps UK citizens and industry. Governments for too long have been milking the motorist to feed their own white elephants, such as HS2. Election time looms boys and girls, time to answer back.
July 23, 2023
one of ongoing impacts of Covid is the backlog in driving test appointments, and the shortage of slots with driving instructors.
this is especially hard for people here on work visas, who need to pass a UK test within 12 months of arriving here as they are only able to drive on their foreign licence for the first 12 months.
(some countries nationals dont need to do this, but most do)
as you know its not usually my style to have sympathy with the far too large a population of work visa holders we have here, but for the few with genuinely unique skills that this county needs… we should be showing some leniency on this, say extend the time they have to pass a UK driving test to 24 or 36 months from arrival.
or do something radical like using military driving instructors and examiners to help tackle the civilian backlog.
July 23, 2023
I think you meant the impact of lockdowns, Iain, which prevented people like driving examiners and instructors from working. A usually mild respiratory infection doesn’t shut down whole sections of an economy.
But I agree with you on bringing in the military to help out. I’m sure they would put a lot of effort and goodwill into it, and the government needs to do something, to repair the consequences of its poorly-judged actions three years ago.
July 23, 2023
correct, sorry
probably not enough military to resolve it, but they could always ask retired examiners and instructors to come back to work for a while etc
July 23, 2023
It saves the cost of making the roads safe and adequate for needs if there are no cars, pure 100% naive political double talk from a lazy councils.
If you want people off the road, first put in place a proper cohesive public transport.
Here in Wokingham, the focus is on the bicycle. That sounds reasonable, but the way they go about is to make it dangerous for the healthy option ā the pedestrian. It is the pedestrian that has to give way and walk in the road. Would be Politicians practising in not thinking it through ā the new norm
July 23, 2023
What, then, is behind the attack on the car and on driving? It cannot seriously be said that the aim is to improve our lives. It seems that those behind the attack have taken the classic Reaganism “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” and are consciously applying it in a more accurate sense, namely “I’m from the government and I’m here to make your life difficult”.
Along with the internet. the supermarket and the foreign holiday – any more good examples? – the private car is one of the greatest symbols of freedom mankind has ever known. It is time to stand up to the sinister, evidently globalist, forces that are engaged upon an attack on those symbols of freedom in the name of false gods.
July 23, 2023
Surely any politician or civil servant who is deliberately causing traffic jams should be prosecuted just as (some of) the recent protesters have been.
I don’t believe any laws have been passed allowing them to do this.
July 23, 2023
Come on John, your words will not be taken seriously until you publicly condemn and reject the ideology of CC and the authoritarian construct that is NZ.
It is abhorrent to see politicians who believe in the free-market who remain silent on NZ, ESG and woke takeover of our private sector
Reply I am making progress by pointing out how many of the bans , high taxes and NZ controls are self defeating, add to CO 2,are expensive and foolish. Most people in positions of power do believe in man made CC and I need to stop them doing damaging things in the name of NZ.
July 23, 2023
Reply to reply. But if your colleagues genuinely believe in man-made climate change, which could supposedly make many parts of the planet unlivable, they will take high taxes and NZ controls to be a minor inconvenience by comparison. And they won’t really listen to you.
The hope must be that they don’t genuinely believe in the CC nonsense. Instead, they go through the motions of believing in it because they think they have to, to stay within the Overton window and get elected. If that is so, Sir John, your strategy has some prospect of success. I certainly hope you succeed, especially now that the Uxbridge result has put the eco-nutters on the back foot.
July 23, 2023
Fair dos mate, keep up the battle against the Marxists
July 23, 2023
Reply to reply
I take it that these same people who believe in Climate Change, (and I for one do because it has been happening for millions of years) no longer own a car, travel by aeroplane or have gas boilers ?
Because if they do own any or all of these, then how can they square the circle regarding their beliefs and, why gives them the moral right to make us suffer for them ?
July 23, 2023
The acid test is the āThatcher-Principalā ā¦Would Thatcher ban the ICE car or allow them to compete freely against the EV in an open & fair market ā¦let the people decide what they want to purchase
July 23, 2023
+1
July 23, 2023
The government is also restricting car use by rationing driving tests, with their inept running of public services.
I don’t mind so much if this means less congestion. Perhaps they should restrict even more by raising the driving standard so less people pass. They could also require anyone who is convicted of a careless driving offence to retake the test. Another idea – introduce a snitch phone number so you can report bad driving and multiple reports gets someone a retest. That should remove the people who honestly aren’t safe behind a wheel.
July 23, 2023
The use of onboard CCTV cameras is becoming more and more widespread due to increasing incidents of, ‘Crash for Cash.’ People can also send their footage of dangerous driving and other traffic offences to the police. However, as explained by someone to me this is not a simple process. More bureaucracy getting in the way.
July 23, 2023
My Grandfather was a milkman. I’ve a photo of him with his push-cart with a large milk container and measuring cans. When bottled milk came in, the Dairy started using horse drawn carts to deliver the milk. He never owned a car and I still remember going to the seaside for the day “on the charabanc” with him.
My Dad’s first car was an Austin 7 purchased from our local Doctor that was already ancient and that used to stall at traffic lights. I used to be very embarrassed when he had to get out to crank it up again. I was 10 when I first went in a car. None of my Dad’s brothers could drive as they all worked on the railway (and had free passes). Dad had once cycled to Brighton and back in a day (from Wandsworth) and often used to say the old Austin was a much easier way to do it!
Both my sons have two cars and young families. My daughter-in–laws provide a seemingly constant taxi service to nursery, school, friends and after school activities (which are extensive). My sons both work from home but also still drive long distances around UK and to the airport. They have frequent UK staycations as well as overseas holidays. They are also very ‘Green’ in their opinions.
However, when I suggest that maybe we should have our milk delivered by hand cart or that they only go to the seaside once or twice a year (just for the day) – they tell me “Don’t be Daft Dad!”
July 23, 2023
Sir John
As with many things you have highlighted in recent times in this Diary this Conservative Government of over 13 years has been about banning and cancelling. Banning and cancelling anything that would move the UK forward.
Everything on the wish list (a wish list is all that it should be) is possible, but without the wealth and the economy that is also self-reliant and resilient to fund the future, what they are doing is 100% destruction of the UK.
Why people call this government the UniParty is because they as with all parties have merged with the WEF Socialist left. All this Conservative Governments policies play to the Socialist ideals of Labour and the Liberal Democrats (hence the UniParty). Traditional the Conservative way had real social justice and equality at it core, real prosperity for all, but first that meant an economy was needed, a real economy, to fund things and a future.
This Conservative Government has taken up the banner of everything advocated by the extreme left, ban everything, cancel everything and promise the world and no one will have to pay. The Socialist way is everything comes from increased taxes ā but of course in the political speak of the left no one gets to pay taxes that’s the exclusive domain of the ultra rich (and who cares about them)
This is not a Conservative Government so banning and cancelling as part of the virtue signal to appease self -gratification and ego is the order of the day. They are unable to āthinkā
July 23, 2023
Too many Councils and officials want to regulate the driver off the road. It’s all part of the lemming approach to net-zero.
Those pursuing their aims to wipe out car usage don’t even understand or explain their intentions or motives – Just because they are in a position of power they imagine they can walk all over us to make us fit in with their nightmare visions.
HMG is letting this all happen of course, and in too many way encouraging it. It’s not normal to find a group within society that could be called insane, but those pushing intolerant net-zero certainly come close to that state.
July 23, 2023
From new housing, road calming, the environment, ULEZ, net-zero, commuting, HGV deliveries, cycle lanes, pedestrianisation of cities, levy on fuel, levy on ownership, levy on insurance ā¦.the governments website is against the ICE car and plans its reduction ā¦make no mistake this Tory government wants to end ICE car ownership
July 23, 2023
Where I live and my age / body condition make me entirely dependent on the use of my car transport . The Bus Stop is too far away for me to get to so you can imagine how the post from Sir John today summed up my feelings . It is true that the roads are congested – especially at certain times of the day and the road networks are inadequate , however it doesn’t change my circumstances and there are times when I do have to move around . Running a car with all the expenses involved is a big concern – especially the tax element . I would welcome any way the costs and difficulties were reduced .
July 23, 2023
Cooling the planet by switching to electric vehicles is mostly a pipe dream without much reality behind it. Read e.g. the Manhattan Institute report Electric Vehicles for Everyone? The Impossible Dream by Mark P. Mills, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow.
July 23, 2023
Sir John
We need MORE CO2
Water vapour has a far greater effect on the temperature so why isnāt there a policy to ban clouds, at least thereās an argument that could be made?
Itās an essential nutrient gas, no one can argue that it isnāt, anyone pursuing a Net Zero goal is denying a scientific fact so why are the government going down this route?
Iām not a scientist but I can perfectly understand the principle so why canāt members of the government?
Reply Banning clouds would of course warm things up more and give us permanent drought. Yes plants need CO 2 to grow, but there are arguments over how much given other concerns.
July 23, 2023
You sau āBanning clouds would of course warm things up moreā
Not so simple, actually during sunlight hours it would reduce the suns warming and at night they would reduce the cooling. So both effects. Clouds within a mile or so of Earthās surface tend to cool more than they warm. Clouds high up in the atmosphere tend to warm Earth more than they cool it seems. Depends though on the suns angles, hight of clouds, types of clouds, the timing of the clouds, day or night, over a concrete city, a forest, ice or snow or a desert or the seaā¦ with climate things are rarely very simple!
July 23, 2023
Over a given area/point, Earth without clouds would have more solar energy coming to the atmosphere during daytime (right now with clouds about 30% of solar radiation (globally averaged) is reflected) and would increase the warming.
During night a cloudless atmosphere would lose more energy via increased infrared radiation to the space and cool more. TMALSS the amplitude of the diurnal cycle of temperature would be increased.
How things would be once integrated over the total surface of the globe and over 24 hours and an annual cycle is an āinteresting questionā, but a complex one as transfer of energy polewards (eg, Hadley circulation) or trade winds (east-west) in the tropics would likely to be (very?) perturbed. Also very likely to perturb the oceanic circulation.
July 23, 2023
The anti motorist coalition is part of the drive by communists and globalists to destroy the westās economies and hence impoverish , take over and control us.
They know renewables cannot provide the cheap. reliable and abundant energy they claim and that evs and heat pumps are expensive and far less practical than the fossil fuel products they are forcing us to use. So weāre heading for intermittent energy and impoverishment as they try to bring us back to pre-industrial living standards.
Their excuse is the completely false CO2 scam for which there is no historical, scientific or even empirical evidence such as worsening weather. Far from being a pollutant CO2 is the very basis of life and which is at historically very low levels and needs increasing to promote plant growth.
Do your own research and donāt just accept the nonsense put out by the Chinese controlled UN and WEF controlled western governments and media.
July 23, 2023
As you say JR āthere are arguments over how much (CO2) given other concerns.ā
Indeed but these are largely duff unscientific and hugely exaggerated arguments. Slightly more CO2 from the current positiom is almost certainly net positive. Plus the āsolutionsā they push to reduce CO2 clearly will not even work to any sig. degree not even in CO2 terms. Plus the cost is massive and certainly will do far more harm net than good. Far more people die of cold weather than hot and it would also lead to much famine & starvation.
July 23, 2023
Plus any CO2 reductions the UK make will just be taken up by China, India, Russia… the UK often just exporting industries and manufacturing to such places so the CO2 production end up overseas anyway. Probably even more CO2 overall.
July 23, 2023
CO2 is not the problem as Dr John Clauser, Nobel Laureate for Physics has explained. The problem is overcrowding caused entirely by the government’s desire to hide its dire GDP per capita (PPP) growth performance by flooding the country with unassimilable aliens and then claiming it has achieved GDP growth. The consequence for the English is rapidly reducing quality of life with no real increase in living standards to mitigate the damage.
We have far too much government. There is massive over-employment of Arts graduates in every layer of government dreaming up regulations to make our lives even less pleasant and less easy. Having Arts graduates with no scientific knowledge diagnosing scientific problems then providing their half-baked solutions is the absurdity with which we are forced to live.
July 23, 2023
It seems the virus “incompetence”, originating in Westminster and Whitehall has now infected local councils across the country. They are incapable of thinking outside of their box and follow the socialist principles of tax and spend to escape their poverty trap.
July 23, 2023
My personal view might seem strange to many, but based on observation it seems that polciy for many years has been about making the roads less congested for the rich to move more freely, without the riff-raff getting in the way in their droves, jamming up the routes.
Towards the end of the last century, planning authorities deliberately rejected plans for office buildings which has enough parking space for the number of people the building was designed to hold. Most people had to pay to park elsewhere, often some distance from their office.
The idea was to drive them onto trains and other mass transportation systems. Emissions were the common theme but they were merely a convenient excuse – the real reason is to get the pesants out of the way of the so-called “elites”.
If you’re rich, Ā£12.50 a day is peanuts to be able to swan around London in your fancy car without traffic jams.
July 23, 2023
Those who they wish to destroy the Gods first send mad! That seems to have happened to this Government & opposition. When have we ever had a government like this, that seems to do everything it can to frustrate voters?
Yet again, the Chancellor says there is no room for tax cuts! Why does it not occur to him to cut the cost of government to make room for some?
It seems the war is not just against the car but against the people. We desperately need a Conservative Party with conservative policies & values to vote for! But where is it?
July 23, 2023
John Kerry, President Bidenās Climate Envoy recently spent 3 days in China to plead with them to follow Net Zero only to be told by President Xi to get lost.
Neither side believes in the anthropogenic CO2 emissions scam.
The Chinese are not going to follow the West into destroying themselves when there is no climate emergency and anyway why stop an enemy when it is destroying itself?
The WEF driven western leaders are desperate to reduce the CO2 emissions from China, India and the RoW as their increasing emissions will eventually show there to be no climate emergency caused by CO2 and are currently ramping up the fear factor via the compliant media to get the de-industrialisation and destruction well under way and hopefully irreversible before their populations notice that increasing CO2 emissions does not lead to a climate catastrophe.
July 23, 2023
Agree with your understanding of how the WEF / UN have a stranglehold on governments, big business and media. NET ZERO is both disastrous for us little people and a complete scam, power grab. It must be resisted and must be erased from the statutes and from our lives. The future is bright only with fossil fuels.
July 23, 2023
āOver time fuel efficiency and fuel types will evolve, and CO 2 will continue downwards.ā
Only if you believe there is a direct, measurable correlation between cars and CO2.
July 23, 2023
We should accept that scrapping vehicles prematurely makes no sense because of the CO2 emissions generated by constructing a new car. We have to aim for net zero carbon by 2050, not 2030. A more gradual approach would be that all cars manufactured or imported after 2035 must be electric or plug in hybrids. After 2045, provisionally all cars must be electric or powered by green hydrogen. Such a relaxed schedule would eliminate scrappage costs and the market could adapt to new technologies, including batteries and charging points. We might be able to introduce ULEZs in cities and towns at a more sensible rate.
July 23, 2023
Sir John
What’s the alternative?
The bus is not reliable and create pollution
The train also is not reliable and very expensive
none of these will take us anywhere late at night,
if we were sick and had to go to hospital none of these will take me
can’t rely on a Ambulance unless you can wait for hours
July 23, 2023
The car is but one of many issues threatening the Conservatives.
14 years of Tory rule and we are all dramatically poorer and the country is a much scarier place that it was before.
You promised us cheaper food, yet recently Anne Widdecombe (she of the disgusting Union flag flounce in the EU Parliament after Brexit) was telling us not to eat cheese sandwiches if we couldn’t afford them.
Every single one of your policies has turned to dust.
July 23, 2023
“Much scarier place”
What are you going to do about XL Bully dogs (basically legalised pet lions) and their thug owners stalking the place ?
Legislate that all pooches (even toy poodles) are kept on a lead and muzzled ? Make life a misery for everyone rather than have the guts to take on problem people, as usual.
Tories have thrown the punishment vs reward system of the UK into TOTAL reverse.
July 23, 2023
Government says it wants to do more to encourage productivity, green energy etc. Yet at all levels from the local council to Highways England to Regional quangos and national government they do the absolute opposite.
For over two years the M6 J16 Crewe/Stoke has been restricted to 50mph the inside lane coned off with no work being done and the newly built exit slip road closed, everyone has to get over early miles before time, typically doing 30mph, with much harsh braking as the jack-the-lads (and crazy-Janes) leave it to the last minute and dangerously cut in to peopleās braking distances causing a ripple of problems. Even if this only adds 7 mins (it is often more, especially if someone breaks down with no hard shoulder anymore in that stretch of no-person-working āroadworksā) to each journey north and south it soon mounts up, people in London moan waiting more than 3 minutes for a tube! Government has to pay for recovery on that section, yet you hardly ever see anyone doing repairs at weekends never, no maintenance, no impetus to finish itās all just waste, productivity draining, dangerous and pointless. Government must be in agreement with this because youāre just stacking up the bills.
Then you canāt put charge points in under pavements, why if this is something government says they want to control, even paying for solicitors letters get ignored. So your government and officialdom of all parties arenāt interesting in the mechanisms to achieve so called goals.
Batteries donāt last as long as manufacturers claim, often you canāt get on fast speed recharge areas, they are no abundant, they are great for small local journeys but not for anything over 75 miles unless you have a hybrid or a known recharge point and time to queue and sit to recharge.
If government truly believed in this it would only have battery mobility cars. Arenāt mobility cars meant for short local journeys anyway?
The trains are just far too expensive, railway parking far too expensive. My son wants to travel from Edinburgh to London in August for a family event, Ā£175 return on a railcard + another train connection Ā£20-Ā£25, local parking charge or a high parking charge in Edinburgh. They are unreliable, the last one I took the air conditioning was broken, the meal a sandwich sorry problems with the ovens. Donāt get me started on strikes.
July 23, 2023
Agree that we are seeing more and more anti car policies. Higher car parking, cashless parking meters, traffic calming 20mph zones, ULEZ, congestion charging etc.
Let’s see the council and government working to make people’s lives better not worse. This fony environmental fundamentalism extremism is a blight to us all.
July 23, 2023
+1
July 24, 2023
I can remember Enoch Powell arguing against the reduction of the miniumum age of vehicle for an MOT from 10 years down to 3 years on the basis that it unduly penalised the poor because the car was the best means of their freedom to travel for leisure and for work and they could not afford newer cars. We now have excactly the same approach to electric vehicles and all matters to do with Green Energy: doesn’t bother the well off but disproportionately penalises the poorer people. Who cares?
July 24, 2023
My personal bug-bear is the re-wilding programme that creates hazardous approaches to junctions and roundabouts by reducing visibility just when you need it. Some parts of Wokingham District, like those around the Shinfield bypass, look an absolute disgrace and won’t get better any time soon as the Council has decreed that spend on the less fortunate (yet more on benefits?) will take priority over mowing verges. Thank car-hating LibDems for that.
July 24, 2023
My theory born out by fact in my area is that cyclists have insinuated themselves into traffic planning management and are making it impossible for motorists. This may well serve some purpose in city areas supplied with alternative public transport, but certainly not in rural areas.
July 24, 2023
Our leaders listen to their ideolog friends at dinner and in clubby meetings. They know they can get away with anything put to them, believing their fanatical elite groups who say the people are with them. The few people they rarely meet on the doorstep who object are just obscure minorities they are told and believe it.
Then there’s a vote against this fanaticism – a frightener for them. They now say they should perhaps change. This will only happen if they feel in real danger of losing power. Otherwise they will stick with their fanatical friends so they can contnue the nice dinners.
They sicken me. The people must throw them out and restore common sense – we suffer from their sinister actions to control our lives and this must end. Changing a few technical details is no good.