Boris Johnson’s ambitious plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 is floundering as the scale of the undertaking becomes clear. The affordability of electric cars, the need for extensive charging infrastructure, and the risk to industry jobs are just some of the hurdles that are derailing the country’s green industrial revolution. Will the U.K. be ready, asks Matt Oliver in the Telegraph, or is ‘carmageddon’ inevitable?
With a year to go before Britain hosted the Cop26 climate conference, Boris Johnson was preparing to make an eye-catching announcement.
The then-prime minister was poised to set out his 10-point plan to spark a green industrial revolution – and the centrepiece was a vow to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
A highly ambitious target, this was five years sooner than the deadline he had set just nine months earlier, which car industry bosses dismissed as “a date without a plan”.
It was also a decade before the target outlined by his predecessor, Theresa May, only two years beforehand.
“Our green industrial revolution will be powered by the wind turbines of Scotland and the northeast, propelled by the electric vehicles made in the Midlands and advanced by the latest technologies developed in Wales, so we can look ahead to a more prosperous, greener future,” Mr. Johnson said in November 2020.
His speech, the Government said, would put the U.K. on course to be the fastest G7 nation to decarbonise road transport.
Yet the new sales ban – described by the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders as “immensely challenging” – represented a huge gamble, with the potential to either turbocharge or tank Britain’s domestic car industry.
And astonishingly, for such a consequential policy, no detailed proposals to achieve it had actually been drawn up.
Instead, Johnson and other ministers hoped the stretching target would cement demand for electric vehicles, galvanising businesses to manufacture supplies and build the legions of chargers that would be required.
“It’s like the classic example of putting a man on the moon,” one former minister involved in the policy says.
“When Kennedy said ‘We’re going to put a man on the moon’, he did not know how they were going to get there. He just said this is the target – and they got there.”
Fast forward to today, however, and the scale of the undertaking has become clear.
Electric cars still remain unaffordable for most households, while a huge upgrade of the power grid will be needed in order to boost the number of vehicle chargers in Britain from 42,000 at present to the more than 300,000 being sought by ministers.
Meanwhile, to serve demand for vehicles domestically, around five battery ‘gigafactories’ are needed in the U.K. – with hundreds of thousands of industry jobs at risk if they are not secured.
Experts say we are now at a crossroads. A report published this week by the Climate Change Committee, the statutory Net Zero watchdog, said that rising electric car sales were promising but work to build chargers “now needs to scale up more quickly”.
Separately, industry leaders say time is running out for Britain to secure the gigafactories that will be the bedrock of its future car manufacturing base. A failure to do so, while sticking with the 2030 ban on new petrol car sales, threatens a jobs bloodbath.
As the clock ticks down, alarm is growing that Britain will simply not be ready for 2030 – and a delay is increasingly likely.
The U.K.’s commitment to reach Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require emissions from vehicles to be almost eradicated.
Surface transport, including cars, accounts for the biggest chunk of Britain’s annual carbon emissions, representing 23% last year.
This was about 105 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, the Climate Change Committee’s latest report says, which was 3% up from 2021 but 8% below pre-pandemic levels.
The reduction was mostly down to increased working from home, rising fuel prices and so-called low-traffic neighbourhoods, with a small contribution from rising electric vehicle sales.
But a crunch point is fast approaching at which sales of electric cars – which have much lower lifetime emissions than petrol ones – will need to do more of the heavy lifting.
Worth reading in full.
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A while ago I came across this from Joseph Sobran:
“The concept of envy — the hatred of the superior — has dropped out of our moral vocabulary [and thus] the idea that white Christian civilization is hated more for its virtues than its sins doesn’t occur to us … Western man towers over the rest of the world in ways so large as to be almost inexpressible. It’s Western exploration, science, and conquest that have revealed the world to itself. Other races feel like subjects of Western power long after colonialism, imperialism and slavery have disappeared. The charge of racism puzzles whites who feel not hostility, but only baffled good will, because they don’t grasp what it [white excellence] really means [for the non-whites]: humiliation. The white man presents an image of superiority even when he isn’t conscious of it. Superiority excites envy. Destroying white civilization is the inmost desire of the league of designated victims we call ‘minorities’.”
This accounts for the Dawn Butlers of the world quite well.
I’m not a psychologist but it seems to me that a “poem” like this must be a sign of the author’s inferiority complex.
I don’t know if Dawn Butler is modelling herself on ‘The Oracle’ or what but I think she sounds full of herself. Was it her that had to apologise to Andrew Bridgen ( or maybe it was Farage ) for something she wrongly accused them of? Can’t remember…
Anyway, I get a bit peeved when people refer to themselves as ‘minorities’ ( e.g, ‘Black and Ethnic Minorities” ) because though that may be true when looking at the population overall, look at many cities and towns now and they most definitely are not. You could easily walk down the street and be the only white person. That’s not diversity.
For instance, there’s no coming back from this now, is there? Just to show three different areas;
https://x.com/BFirstParty/status/1841402844106146302
https://x.com/BFirstParty/status/1840738511776858623
https://x.com/BFirstParty/status/1841040437160575427
On a global scale, whites are very much a minority – 8%.
Personally I would be more convinced about the superiority of black culture if I saw a large number of white Europeans desperately trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach the shores of Africa in search of a better life.
Always the other way around though, as we well know. Strange, that…
”The trial of a Syrian migrant accused of stabbing a 4-year-old girl in a German supermarket earlier this year began on Wednesday in a case that exposes the flaws in Europe’s open borders and offers a stark contrast between Western hospitality and the stricter deportation policies of Saudi Arabia.
Mohamed S. (34), a Syrian-born man with Dutch citizenship, is standing trial in Ravensburg, Germany, for the unprovoked attack on a minor on April 4, 2024, in a small town in Bavaria’s Allgäu region.
While standing in a supermarket with her mother, little Manuela (name changed) was set upon by Mohamed S. who stabbed her four times with a 20-centimeter kitchen knife.
The child’s stomach and intestines were severely injured, requiring emergency surgery to save her life.
The trial has raised serious concerns about the security vulnerabilities in Europe.
The court heard how Mohamed S. fled Syria via Turkey in 2015 and traveled the Balkan migratory route before entering Europe illegally and eventually being granted asylum in the Netherlands. By 2021, he had been granted Dutch citizenship, allowing him to move freely across the European Union.
In 2022, the Syrian national traveled to Saudi Arabia, seeking to stay there after obtaining a tourist visa. However, he was soon homeless, living in mosques, which resulted in altercations and his subsequent imprisonment.
Saudi Arabia, known for its strict immigration enforcement, deported Mohamed S. within two months back to the Netherlands. However, he traveled across the border to the German town of Wangen where he lived in homeless shelters and an asylum center before committing the heinous crime.”
https://rmx.news/article/syrian-migrant-who-stabbed-4-year-old-girl-in-germany-had-been-deported-from-saudi-arabia-court-hears/
The ‘fun’ never ends. I’m sure ”lessons will be learnt”. Not;
”Four Moroccan citizens seeking asylum in Spain escaped from a reception room at Madrid’s Barajas Airport on Tuesday night by climbing through a hole in the ceiling, according to sources from the country’s interior ministry.
After making their way through the roof, the men reached the top of the building and have not been seen since. The National Police have launched a search operation to locate the escapees.”
https://rmx.news/article/four-moroccan-asylum-seekers-escape-madrid-airport-detention-facility-sparking-security-concerns/
Black History Month could have a lesson or two on Benin and slavery.
And maybe the Bantu Expansion and the treatment of the Batwa.
Given prior knowledge about what most MPs look like and what most cleaners look like, most people if asked to place a bet would bet on her being a cleaner not an MP (though, assuming the story is true you do wonder what she was wearing). That’s just simple observation and using that to make an assumption – an assumption that any sane person knows might be wrong, but we make assumptions all the time. There’s no RACISM in it, “institutional” or otherwise. She doesn’t like it because (1) maybe she thought she was wearing fancy non-cleaner clothes or maybe more likely (2) it reminds her that black women are more likely to be cleaners than MPs – something that might upset her. Sick and tired of this bullshit.
This woman categorically doesn’t look as if she was working to make a living.
And yet so many dark faces are queuing up to come to this oppressive island.
My morning message to those people is, get used to me celebrating my greatness, I will not play small to make you feel better about yourself.
After spouting this twaddle the whiteness she should encounter comes in the form of a white jacket with long sleeves. Absolutely barking mad.
I think Steven Tucker left out the following important details. So I can confidently now say that Dawn Butler is a thoroughly unpleasant, race-baiter of a woman. Why in the world would she hero-worship people who committed these heinous crimes? Well I guess as long as said crimes were against white people then it’s all good. Showing her true colours alright…
”A Labour MP has come under fire for sharing a video that features a collage of black power activists who have been convicted of murder and rape.
In the Spectator magazine, Melanie McDonagh said: “What I think she is saying is that because human civilisation originated in Africa and her own ethnic origins are African … she is a cut above the rest of us.”
Alka Sehgal-Cuthbert, director of anti-racist campaign group Don’t Divide Us, said the footage was “offensive rubbish” and questioned the Government’s silence on the matter.
“Her ‘celebratory collage’ includes American activists who have been convicted of murder, rape, and openly espoused antisemitism.
“This is an elected British MP uncritically and publicly endorsing criminals and racial thinking. The American civil rights movement deserved better, and so do we.”
She added: “Butler is saying black people are superior to white people.
“It is good that she has exposed her racism for us to see. The Government’s silence on this speaks volumes about its cynical use of racism/anti-racism to police the words of many while giving free reign to the likes of Butler.
“If Black History Month gives a green light to this offensive rubbish, it’s high time for it to go.”
https://www.gbnews.com/politics/labour-mp-dawn-butler-video-collage-murderers-rapists
I grant the following to Butler: I’d never take her for a cleaner. Were I to meet her in the House of Commons, I’d assume she was some kind of professional slag some MP with weird preferences had asked to come there for a little bit of lunch break relaxation. This would also truly make her a chosen one. But certainly not because of her skin colour as I know plenty of people (mostly from sight, some a little better) not coming accross like this who share hers.
Jamaican, you say? Judging from the poetry, it’s more likely she’s Vogon.
The only person being racist is her and all those like minded, no one chooses their skin colour and maybe she should learn History, but no, peope like her just want to dismiss it unpalatble truth
If she took the massive chip off her shoulder she might be able to stand up proud and be judged well by others. Sadly self praise is no praise!
I really enjoy Tucker’s articles. Top marks, sir.
What Black History? The Industrial Revolution? Or is it intertribal battles and Genocide, still happening in Africa?
Why did she write her poem in Whitey language ? Should have been in her own chosen black one