Electric vehicles

[Tony Griffiths]

Tony, I don’t disagree. However, they aren’t exactly as environmentally friendly as we were led to believe, are they?

I think it's something of an open question and I tend to the opinion (along with the technical director of Jaguar Land Rover) that a modern diesel is hardly any more, and in some cases, less pollution that a petrol car - the various figures do seem to balance out. Still, it's a moot point...
In the UK the push to diesel was, as we know, by altering road tax rates based on CO2 emissions, the idea, of course, being to lower them by using diesel fuel which, by volume, contains around 15% more energy than petrol. The obsession with CO2, a trace gas that makes up just 0.04% of the atmosphere - and of which termites produce more annually than we do -  seems at best misguided. But, hounded by the Green Blob and desperate to jump on the "Environmental bandwagon", politicians all signed themselves up to demonising the gas - now called, conveniently, "carbon". And how far have we gone on this ludicrous journey? Last week, on the BBC (where else?) the words "Carbon pollution" were used. Pollution? By a trace gas that's necessary for plant growth? And to finish with joke : 12,000 years ago, as the ice sheets started to retreat from the British Isles, there was a moment to stop people driving 4-bullock carts. "Drive a 1-Bullock" was the cry. "You know it makes sense. Stop the ice melting." But they would listen? No, and the ice melted and melted and melted and the Dogger Bank went underwater and the cry for Brexit started - but not let's get started on that!