“Time to stop cars driving climate change,” writes a Member of the European Parliament at HuffPo.
Naturally, your assumption will be that the politician responsible for such bilge is either going to be Green or Labour or possibly from one of those lunatic fringe parties with large numbers of initials which they seem to favour on the Continent.
But no, amazingly, this chap – Ian Duncan his name is – represents the Conservative Party in Scotland.
By his own account, he appears to be fascinated by the work he does:
I am currently working on a dossier by the exciting name of ‘Proposal for a Regulation on requirements relating to emission limits and type-approval for internal combustion engines for non-road mobile machinery.’
No, I’m not taken in by that faux-jocular, pretend-detached “by the exciting name of”. Admit it, Ian: you love this kind of stuff. Some MEPs see their job as a necessary evil – a stepping stone to greater things or, in the case of UKIP, a chance to undermine the enemy from within. For you though, it’s just livin’ the technocratic dream isn’t it?
Duncan goes on to express his regret that EU as yet isn’t doing nearly enough to encroach on our freedom to travel by whatever means we wish:
Worth noting that not a single piece of legislation has sought to address the more fundamental concern that cars run on fossil fuels, the combustion of which generates significant greenhouse gas emissions.
Also worth noting is the fact that Duncan has no idea where electricity comes from. If he did, he surely wouldn’t jump to conclusions as fatuous as this:
And so what of electric or hybrid cars? As of December 2015 there were 419,000 registered plug-in electric cars in Europe. Not bad, you say. Indeed, but out of a total car fleet of about 240 million vehicles (that’s 0.175% for the mathematicians amongst you)? Given that we add 12 million fossil-fuelled cars to the fleet each year that means that the share of electric cars is actually falling year on year.
What do you think it is, Ian, that fuels the plants that make the electricity on which electric cars run? Let me give you a clue: it’s not solar and it’s not wind – which continue to form a small proportion of the total energy mix. It’s fossil fuels, you McBerk.
Another thing worth noting: Duncan may have landed his place on the Euro gravy train by wearing a blue rosette but he ain’t no real conservative.
If he were, he wouldn’t write stuff like this:
The UK has also sought to incentivise the take up of electric cars. The ‘Plug in Car’ Grant offered a cash incentive of up to £5,000 to all who bought an electric car. Launched in 2011, by 2014 half of the available grants lay unclaimed. Even free money was not enough to encourage the culture change necessary to convert the fleet from fossil fuel to electricity.
So electric cars are so crap that even when you try bribing people (with other people’s money) to get one, still they’re not interested? Hmm. To anyone of an even half way conservative persuasion that would be the market sending a signal that there’s something seriously wrong with electric cars.
And so there is. They’re inefficient, they produce more CO2 than they save (for those who care about such nonsense), they need constant re-charging and they’re a gimmick.
Therefore – as any conservative ought to recognise – the government ought not to be in the business of subsidising them because that results in a misallocation of resources and also unfairly discriminates against the intelligent and sensible, as well, of course, as the poor.
Duncan is why a lot of Conservatives left the Conservative Party. I’m sure he’ll be voting for Remain – and if he succeeds in his wishes, I’m sure he won’t just thrive under our Insect Overlords. He’ll very shortly become one of them.
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