Crush the Eco Zealots charter or … the last weak gasps of a collapsing political party
I don’t want to rehash the short history of the UK’s ‘ban’ on the sale of new combustion engine vehicles in 2030. (It included plug in hybrids, which are still petrol cars so it was always fairly limp.)
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I thought it was a good idea, I supported it because I saw it as a galvanising target date for the electricity and automotive industry.
It was instigated during the current Conservative administration and it was working.
It was a conservative idea, it was an idea based on science, made by conservative politicians, reported on by Conservative newspapers.
Investments were made, companies formed, plans put in place, and now, due to the very well funded lobbying by extremists within the Conservative movement and of course our old pals the oil industry, the tragically feeble man at the helm has made a truly pathetic attempt at clinging to power by fawning to this very vocal and aggressive minority.
The current Conservative administration have been in power for over 13 years now.
Everything that is wrong with this country, and the list is very long, everything is THEIR fault.
We have seen enormous changes in that time. Mostly chaotic, corrupt, divisive and petulant changes.
The Conservative party as a political force is now split, fractious, ungovernable and in constant chaotic flux.
Who is minister of what?
How many changes of Prime Minister have we had?
Who is in charge?
I have no idea and nor, it seems do the people supposedly doing the job.
I’m old enough to have seen this before. During the far more benign and calm last days of the John Major administration in the mid 1990’s, the number of dodgy Conservative MP’s going to prison for various flavours of corruption and thievery was extraordinary.
Plus the livid anti EU faction inside the party made Major’s life a misery, he referred to this gaggle as ‘those bastards.’ and in the 1997 election, the Conservative party collapsed in a fetid heap of backstabbing, recrimination and hatred.
But that was then, now of course, the levels of lies, misinformation and obfuscation has reached pandemic levels. No one believes a word any politician says, any well researched jounalism, or scientist or engineer says.
And yet a small gaggle of angry numpties are prepared to worship and support a very questionable comedian with long hair and a really long term very disturbing reputation.
Was the 2030 ban ever a plausible option, well, we’re never going to find out now, but up until recently it was certainly a solid target that had withstood the endless thrashing chaos of a dying political force in it’s inevitable death throes.
Will it make a difference. Will the general public breath a sigh of relief that they are not having electric cars ‘rammed down their throats?
No, of course not, the sales will continue to rise, the infrastructure will continue to grow.
What remains of UK automotive manufacturing, JLR, Ford, Nissan, Stellantis (Vauxhall) are all far too far down the road of electrification to turn around and throw away billions of pounds of investment.
The simple truth of the matter is once people drive an electric car once, they immediately understand it’s simply a better technology, a more sustainable technology. It’s a technology that is not tied, for ever, to one, toxic, economically unstable and politically volatile fuel.
So let the screaming loons at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, and the brilliantly clever and generously funded lobbyists spreading ridiculous stories in the Sun and other little newspapers.
At best, they can maybe delay the shift to electric ground transport in the UK for a bit, but this is a global tidal wave of change.
I’ve seen it first hand, it literally does not matter a toss what some temporary little leader pontificates about. It makes not a jot of difference.
Robert Llewellyn
