Via JuliaM, we get the monocular moron telling us what cars to buy.
British motorists should exchange their petrol-driven cars for electric or hybrid vehicles and learn “eco-driving” techniques to cut CO2 emissions dramatically, according to Gordon Brown.
Really? Well, I have news for the cyclopean idiot; I will never buy a hybrid car. My next purchase has already been planned. Not a motorcycle, unfortunately, although I know what I want… I need a new car to get me back from France on a regular basis, so I’ll be popping into the Renault concessionaire in Clermont L’Herault and putting my money down an a diesel Clio. This, like other diesel manual transmission cars, will piss all over a hybrid car on the economy stakes – as has been demonstrated when a Prius was tested head to head with a diesel BMW. Now factor in the environmental cost of production and electricity generation and the scam becomes clear; hybrid cars, the darling of the green Marxists, are not green by a long chalk.
Sure, new technology may wean us off fossil fuels and the Tesla does look neat. In time, this may be viable for the mass market. In time. I would be more than happy to ditch petrol in favour of something that takes us out of the dependency on the middle east. But, and here’s the rub, there is nothing on the market yet that will do so. Therefore, I will not be putting my money in my pocket to fulfill Brown’s desire to pander to the green lobby. Tough. Get used to it.
The Toyota Prius (and similar vehicles) is a one-trick pony. Ideal for city traffic when they switch to electricity – providing you ignore where the electricity comes from – but who only uses their car for town driving? I don’t and never have. I, like many other users, want an all-rounder. The Prius is not an all-rounder. It is an expensive gimmick.
So, Brown can go fuck himself.
Then there’s the patronising bollocks about eco driving. Anyone who has taken advanced driving instruction will realise that we are talking about hazard recognition and vehicle sympathy here. There is nothing new about it, the green brigade have merely latched onto something we have been doing all along; driving smoothly, reducing wear and tear on the vehicle, maximising fuel efficiency and tyre life. All this by reading the road ahead and acting that little bit earlier, by lifting ones foot off the gas rather than a late brake application. This is simply good driving. I don’t need lectures from politicians about good driving.
By advising motorists on their choice of car and driving style, Mr Brown left himself open to accusations of interfering in yet another area of people’s lives just days after his controversial comments urging Britons not to waste food.
That’s exactly what he is doing and it is none of his goddamned business.
Did I say I am not going to buy a hybrid car? Ever? Under no circumstances? Well, some fat-headed politician telling me to is a surefire way of underlining my determination. Politicians do not tell me what to do. I do not obey politicians. They work for me, not the other way around.
I’m all in favour of eco-friendly driving. Turning off the traffic lights etc would see us half way there.
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What Mr. Brown forgets (and the one reason why I wont swear to never buy a hybrid) is that most people cannot afford to just up and sell their combustion engine cars – besides if the move is to reduce the number on the road who will buy them from us?
I drive a Volvo S40 – I say drive but in reality I cannot afford fuel to get to work on a day to day as it is a 30 mile round trip so opt for the bus instead; mainly its gets me to my gym, to the shops or to family and friends. I can barely afford the mortgage and now this clown wants me to buy a new car with a dubious environmental record because the guardianistas told him?
He truly has become detached from reality; is this what Nero was like in the last days of his reign?
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The reason I do this, is because it is not good technology. It’s a half-hearted sop to the green brigade. They, frankly, can go swivel on a sharpened spike.
Companies like Tesla are looking in the right direction – a complete move away from fossil fuels (at least, in this case, in the car itself). But as I said, not yet ready for mass market.
But, yes, who will buy our old, outdated cars from us when they are valueless? The man is a idiot. It is not up to him to tell us what to do.
“Eco” is becoming the all-purpose bien pensant prefix of choice and is beginning to rival the equally egregious and meaningless “social” as the trademark of progressive liberalism. I’m waiting for the Monocular One to use “eco-social justice” as a reason to bang up us AGW deniers for 180 days without trial.
What most of this is about is a diversion; Brown is determined to cling onto the power he’s been lusting after for so long until the very last minute and the hell with all the consequences of this (which are less than you might think; Labour are going to get a thrashing at the next election come what may).
So, all he has to do is avert the principal threat to his leadership: the debts of the Labour Party. The Party, you see, is organised in an unusual and very silly way in that the officers of the Party are liable for the debts of the party without any limit to this liability. Currently, the Labour Party owes some 24 million pounds; David Pitt-Watson has already been scared off taking the job of Labour General Secretary by this debt, which if called in would bankrupt all the Labour Party’s officers.
Bankrupts cannot sit as members of parliament, so if the Labour Party goes under then that’s it for Gordon, Harriet and co; instant bum’s rush out of office for them and probably a snap election too.
So, how to avert the crisis? What Gordon needs is a donor who’ll give him lots of money quietly, legally, and not want it back all of a sudden. The only entities that don’t hate him and do have the money are the big public sector unions, and then only if he carefully avoids stepping on their toes and doesn’t upset their members.
If he upsets these unions then he can kiss the rescue package goodbye and his premiership with it, so Gordon Brown is now the Unions’ bitch and lackey, at their beck and call from now until the election.
All this is most embarrassing for a politician, so what he’s doing is the political version of an old Navy trick: if in doubt make lots of smoke and try to divert the enemy. Hence the greenwash and assorted gibbering; Gordon cannot do anything constructive (like reducing outgoings to the Civil Service) or his union masters will crack the whip and bring their errant bitch to heel.