As the BBC constantly reminds us, it’s an era of public spending cuts and these nasty right-wing policies are allegedly hurting us all. Not, however, when it comes to tipping money down the drain on green schemes. Here the BBC doesn’t discuss the cost or impact at all – it instead routinely gives platforms for greenie zealots to pontificate why even more of our cash should be wasted.
NuLabour decreed back in 2009 that, despite the recession, at least £30m should be spent on providing charging points for electric cars – those inefficient, ugly CO2-guzzling death traps that only zealous eco-fanatics actually want. They are only being made because of the availability of huge manufacturing subsidies. Green-nut Boris Johnson, however, thinks they are a good idea, and he’s spending every penny of the available government subsidies on wheeling out thousands more charging points. True to form, the BBC mentions nothing at all about the cost, doesn’t take the opportunity to discuss the important (and only relevant) news point about the embarassingly low take-up of electric cars, and quotes a Green party member who predictably bellyaches that the shiny new points don’t use electricity from renewable energy. You couldn’t make it up.
‘at least £30m should be spent on providing charging points for electric cars ‘
That equates to what, one at Jonathan Ross’ house, one at the office, and a three scattered in between the two?
“quotes a Green party member who predictably bellyaches that the shiny new points don’t use electricity from renewable energy”
Couldn’t they strap some greenies to treadmills to generate electricity for these cars? Or use wind energy from veggies’ farts?
Nor need we do so Robin as long as the Comic Cuts Science Fiction fantasists have the conversation stone as long as we allow it!
They just make it all up as they go along-as if saying it just makes it so!
Surely not a Green Party member that isn`t Caroline Lucas ?…no other brands of green genie are available are there now?
Looks like Magnus, Hainz and Patrick were a golden age…David, Johnny and Fred now out of favour…and we`ve got Professor Pat Pending and Maggie Philbin as the cream of the Beebs science team!
Benny Hill was right-Ernie will yet be the fastest milkfloat in the west if we let these nutters continue to drivel.
Maybe a car could be devised that runs on perpetual self importance and regard with the obvious gaseous methane of theirs as biofuel in addition…
Would all the “renewable energy” sources in Britain combined be enough to power just the few electric cars around right now? When the rolling blackouts start in a few years because the grid just can’t handle consumption, those e-cars will make nice storage areas, planters, or playpens for the children.
LOL. You must have been looking a the Chevy Volt, which is junk, like most of the home-grown US cars. Poor build quality, risible mpg and lead-balloon residuals.
Actually, Hugh, I call it the Chevy Volga. Now, would you care to explain how your superior vehicles will be running when the grid can’t handle the consumption because production can’t keep up?
Good name for it. The UK doesn’t have the grid problems that parts of the US have, because we’re it bit more careful about usage. As for how we generate the stuff, the tree huggers have got most of it wrong, with the exception of solar and ground-source for hot water in houses. Coal is increasingly costly to extract, wood is an environmental nightmare, so it has to be nuclear. Part of the answer is about where we choose to live. The NYT carried an interesting piece on commuting and how ribbon development with increasing journey times is coming under a lot of scrutiny. And that’s a problem here as well.
Good luck getting more nuclear plants with the BBC leading the charge against.
Hasn’t the US Government, er, “bought” them all?
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Sorry Robin, but you’re on the wrong side of the argument. The Nissan Leaf has been in the showrooms for two months, and the BMW Mini E, BMW 1 Series Active E and the Smart For2 E are finishing field trials. All demonstrate that fully electric are capable of undertaking the sort of journeys most drivers do on most days and returning the equivalent of 200 mpg. All retain the handling of the petrol/diesel equivalent, and all can be charged from a 13 amp socket. To be sure, we don’t have charging points in the same way as we have petrol stations, but the investment from the emerging economies suggest it’s going to happen, and inductive charging may be way forward. Like most people who post here, I don’t like BBBC editorial policies, but my dislike of them hasn’t blinded me to the fact that the future of personal transport is electric.
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The BBC, self appointed spokescomrades for the green shirts have long peddled the eyewateringly retarded prediction that millions of electric cars will be on the road within the next decade or two.
In fact electric cars are about as popular as a case of genital warts, nobody is buying them even with the massive subsidies, they are crap. They dont work, they do not have half the practical real life range advertised. The tiny handful being sold and the cost to the taxpayer for that minute few cars is simply staggering.
Through history there have been some hilariously wrong predictions of the near future, personal rocket ships and hotels on the moon and millions of electric cars on the road =-O aint gonna happen, not enough rare earth metals for millions and millions of highly polluting batteries and motors. Political fantasy will smash into the buffers of reality with a shattering crash and those that brought this disaster about will retire on massive pensions. They will not take responsibility, they will not accept the blame.
Reminds me of the planning for the M1/M25 motorways, the then latest computer models predicted a fraction of the traffic the motorway actually had to handle, land purchases were based on on the wrong information so too little land was used, bridges were built too short to handle any increase in lanes. The government used all the expertise at its disposal and got it all completely wrong.
We could have told the regime in simpe terms, electric cars do not work, they will never work even with the thousands of the latest mobile phone batteries packed into them, nobody is going to buy them because they are too expensive and in the real world they do not actually work. This real world common sense is completely alien to these people though, the electric car looks great but on a cold rainy dark morning in rush hour the car may well actually conk out before it reaches town from the burbs and whats worse is that the mega expensive battery packs on recent models are already being replaced.
A small aygo diesel lasts longer, uses far less materials most of which can be reused, is far more economical and better for the environment. A few hundred electric cars bought by the regime and the few bought by individual muppets, the same people who would have plumped for the Sinclair C5 BTW. What a bleedin obvious complete waste of time and money.
All these cars will presumably be powered by wind farms and fairy dust?
Love the Aygo, C1 and 106; we have two of the three. But 60-70 mpg is going to be enough when we get the £10 gallon. As for the Sinclair and the blue shed above, they’re 20 years out of date.
For the BBC green policies are not ‘tipping money down the drain’.
They guarantee income.
The government plans to raise billions via the ‘green tax ‘ scam.
The BBC is funded by the government.
Electric cars may have a realistic future is a few years time, but it seems that the political power of the subsidised ‘greenie’ lobbyists (influential at BBC-greenie, of course) are disdainful of e.g. the present achievements of currently produced cars which use those (horrible!) carbon-derived fuels such as – diesel.
So BBC-greenies are not so interested in e,g, the Skoda report below 😉 (or similar achievements from Ford, Vauxhall, BMW, etc.):
“Skoda Fabia sets new economy record”
http://www.greenflag.com/news/stories/skoda-fabia-sets-new-economy-record-12187.html
The picture of that blue car looks like it’s a descendant from the British Leyland school of clueless design.
An omen ?
None of you have the faintest Idea about these ‘charging points’, have you?
Following a modicum of research, I have it on good authority that they will closely resemble a telephone kiosk, and as well as providing charging facilities for your new electric SUV, these additional features will also be incorporated:
Small television
Kettle
Shaver point
Standard lamp
Toaster
Twin electric hob
Comfy chair
Veleveteen curtains
Two three-pin sockets for your own devices
Small table
Selection of second-hand magazines
Credit card reader
Surveillance cctv
Oh, and I forgot the ubiquitous parking meter…
LOL. Living. In. The. Past.