Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Charles; British climate tsar Alok Sharma, leader of Britain’s push to ban gasoline vehicles, who regularly ignores quarantine when returning from countries on the Covid-19 red list, has promised to trade his diesel automobile for an electric vehicle at an unspecified time in the future.
Government climate tsar’s dirty secret: he still drives a diesel car
Alok Sharma, the Tory cabinet minister and Cop26 chief, makes admission before vowing his next vehicle will be electric
By Ben Riley-Smith, POLITICAL EDITOR10 August 2021 • 6:46pm
The president of the Cop26 UN climate change conference has revealed he still drives a diesel car.
Alok Sharma, a Tory MP and member of Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, added swiftly that his next car would be electric.
The remarks came in a BBC Newsnight interview on the day a damning climate change report said it was “unequivocal” humans had caused global warming.
Asked “what do you drive” by the presenter, Mr Sharma responded: “I actually have a diesel car along with millions of other people.
“I don’t drive it very much. I take public transport from Reading [his constituency] into London every day. And I can assure you that my next car will most certainly be an electric vehicle.”
…
Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/08/10/government-climate-tsar-still-drives-diesel-car/
What can I say – whether its President Obama’s epic maskless birthday bash, Gavin Newsom’s shameful visit to the French Laundry restaurant, Nancy Pelosi’s Hair appointment during a lockdown, the Chicago teachers union leader partying in Peurto Rico, while claiming its “too risky” to return to work, Sharma’s contempt for quarantine rules and travel restrictions everyone else in Britain has to observe, or Sharma’s love for his diesel vehicle, a kind of vehicle he is working to deny to everyone else in Britain, one thing is clear.
Our elites no longer even try to hide their disdain for living by the rules they inflict on ordinary people.
vote him out
He’s my MP. Whom should we replace him with? Here was the choice of parties at the last election:
Conservative
Labour
Liberal Democrat
Green Party
All of them are fully paid up to ‘net-zero’ and the climate lunacy. The Reform Party didn’t stand and are unlikely to do so and there won’t be an independent standing. Essentially, like hundreds of other constituencies, there’s no one to vote for.
Parliament is the problem.
The parties are very much like houses were in schools – loyalty to the school first then the house you were in.
When all of your choices are between tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber, there really IS no choice, right? The USA has ‘enjoyed’ that situation for quite a few decades, now! When ALL the boats are in the same parade…
Then DO NOT VOTE or they will never change.
There is an argument between whether is is better to not attend and thereby reduce the turnout figure or to attend and spoil your ballot paper. It is true that the turnout figure is widely publicised but you have to hunt for spoiled ballots. But if the number of spoiled ballots soared then they would have to address why so many people took the effect to attend the polling station to do so.
Well that’s the problem, isn’t it, Rusty?
The current Conservatives got in because it was primarily a second Brexit vote, and they were not full-on Labour Corbyn-Communism.
That was reason enough to get elected in my book, but they are apparently now just as bad as all the others when it comes to saving the planet from global warming.
The only thing that got my vote for them (for the first time) in 2015 was when David Cameron let slip a casual unguarded remark that “we’ve got to get rid of this green crap”. His wife probably gave him a fearful slapping when he got home, but it gave me cause for hope.
That hope has now largely evaporated. Unfortunately, the other serious parties are all even worse at the moment. If one of them can give me a sign, I may consider voting for them.
“vote him out”
We have a parliamentary dictatorship. Vote him out and a carbon (oops!) copy will replace him.
He and his car could become useful. In a Mad Max world, he yields at least 3 gallons of biodiesel upon rendering.
There is another mechanism available but it would need a lot more work and by necessity a grass-roots campaign to get the votes required. If we started voting to recall the most high profile activist hypocrites in parliament then it might hopefully send a pointed message to the parties that these policies are unjustified.
I think what he drives is pretty trivial. The major issue is the credibility of COP26. There’s a welcome note of scepticism here and there in the public prints – import of virus variants, jetting in, attacks on IPCC’s AR6. This will mount perhaps a few brave journos may get round to looking at ‘futility’ with non-support by China, India, Indonesia etc
I drive a 1600cc four year old French diesel. With AdBlu I pay only £20 a year road tax and get 500 miles for £55.in five minutes.
The real cost of that fuel is around £18, £38 is TAX.
How will they extract that tax loss from EV drivers?
We all pay VAT on electricity….
Trust me, they will find a way to make you PAY!
Road charging tracking you with a satellite. which was why the government was so desperate to remain part of the EU Galileo GPS as the US will not allow theirs to be used for this.
Governments are learning that they can raise the ‘vehicle’ tax to any level they want to, and it has NOTHING to do with the roads! It’s all just greed and lining their own pockets! Nothing of any value comes back to the taxpayer!
£18 + £38 = £55 ???? Or are we saying that ‘around’ is less than or equal to?
Diesel vehicles were the best way to Save The Planet™ until they weren’t. It’s not easy to keep up with the shifting trends. 😉
Not a very good start is it?
Dont feed the troll…
Mmmm, diesel….
It has a lot going for it.
Is that an attempt at humour?
Governments want to give the perception that electric cars are better by calling them zero emissions vehicles. Our U.K. government also calculates the emissions from electric vehicles by using current average CO2 emissions per Mwatt hour of generation. This gives a false figure for the utilisation of these vehicles, as extra demand can only be met by dispatchable generators, Nuclear, wind and solar already having given their available maximum.
Essentially electric vehicles are powered by gas and coal in the U.K. and unless the installation of non CO2 generation average generation capacity (Not nameplate capacity) can match the extra demand, (unlikely given construction rate and that we are losing three to six gigawatts of nuclear generation by the end of this decade. 3 Gwatts of Hinkley Point may be on line by then but I wouldn’t bet on it) then these vehicles will not achieve much, and that is before the extra resources to make them is taken into account. And on top of that there is the overhyped heat pumps they also want to get us to use, more work for our increasingly shaky grid.
(I say overhyped because electricity is used to calculate their apparent efficiency or coefficient of performance, so at 50% loss in generating, transmitting and distributing electricity divide that by half.)
To clarify, the three to six Gigawatts depends on Hinkley Point being on line by the end of the decade.
We’ll charge them at night using solar power. /wink
Worked for that one Spanish firm until somebody narked about the floodlights…
If Alok Sharma had an ounce of decency he would take his climate poisening diesel truck and drive it into the nearest creek !
Presumably whilst still belted in…
That wasn’t even coherent, never mind being “more intelligent than has ever been posted” here. All you’re doing is reinforcing the opinion that we’re suffering through the effects of your Dunning Kruger syndrome. You’re not only a one trick pony … you’ve beaten the poor thing to death.
You’re your own worst enemy, kid. Put some effort into a readable article. Provide the appropriate references and submit it to the editors like all other guest writers have to. Then it you’re lucky you’ll be treated to the most learned example of peer review you’re ever likely to have,.
Knowing how these people are corrupt to the core, he’s probably running agricultural red diesel in the, road going car, or even worse, legally using, used chip fat which isn’t so good for modern diesel engines.
Either way hypocrisy with these type knows no bounds.
I just watched this fool on a You Tube, “Some climate changes now irreversible, says stark UN report” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAzKu7jF83Q As ignorant as he makes himself out to be in the presentation, it is amazing that he has the ability to drive anything other than a 3 wheeled tricycle. I tried to post a comment on the site and they did not want to view what I had to say about their doom and gloom video.
I watched this You Tube in amazement at just how many unsubstantiated dire claims could be made in one video. It would be inspiring if some of the ones who comment on here about how terrible things are on Earth now would consider that, at present, there are more humans on the planet living longer & more comfortable and productive lives than at any other time in human’s existence on Earth. That is in a large part due to having a climate that is conducive to life on Earth and not one where there is an ice age. This is what life was like before the use of fossil fuels began to elevate humans from just being alive to being able to produce a comfortable life.
“For most people there was often not enough to eat and life expectancy was relatively short since many children died. According to records of the royal family of the Kingdom of England, among the best cared for in society, the average life expectancy in 1276 was 35.28 years. Between 1301 and 1325 during the Great Famine it was 29.84, while between 1348 and 1375, during the Black Death and subsequent plagues, it dropped to only 17.33”.
http://www.halinaking.co.uk/Location/Yorkshire/Frames/History/1315%20Great%20Famine/Great%20Famine.htm
Alok Sharma is the darling of the Guardian readers and the metropolitan elites that have dictated the current government green policies. He can do no wrong in their eyes, especially as the Guardian steps in to defend him at the earliest opportunity – usually by criticising BoJo or ministers for not doing enough for the cause. He’s the British answer to John Kerry, quite frankly.
The electric car is a coal fired car about the same total efficiency as a ICE car this is because in most countries marginal supply of electricity is coal
Not usually one to defend a Tory but… is it really green to change your car before you need to?
Cars take a lot of energy to make.
His argument that he uses public transport most of the time actually seems like the green one.
Totally not. My step-father had a 16 year old Honda Accord from new, nothing wrong, no emissions issues, and he *HAD*, it was “mandated”, to get rid of it. There are acres of fields in the UK that are full of new, near new or little used, vehicles waiting for “recycling”. And there is nothing wrong with them.
Madness…
We had the same thing in America. Called it “Cash for Clunkers”. Used car prices went up. lower income people were hurt most. This from a progressive president.
MANY auto mechanics were hurt also. Take the “clunkers” off the road and no need to repair them, so less mechanics needed.
Perfectly fits the end goal of “progressives”, get EVERY CHILD into colleges so that they can support the liberal full employment mandate.
Yeah, I have vague recollections of that policy.
On channel Four in the UK, Guy Martin made a program about the fastest electric car. He was given a new electric Hyundai IONIQ, he had to travel 1100 miles from Grimsby to John o’groats It took him 27 hours 10 charge ups and cost £240 in electric, they said a Diesel car would have done the same trip in £140 pounds many many hours less time 😐 He said its a utter headache to find charging stations that work, or give fast charging… He will stick to Ice vehicles…
Channel 4 seem to have got their distance wrong its 555.1 miles one way ,according to Google .
And should take about 10hrs, in my van diesel, it would cost one way about 90 notes ,without stopping, although I’d need a can of jucie in the back just in case ,John o’groats is remote.
The only thing Ch4 was good for was enabling people to pick up the signal, reflected off of someone’s garage door, and Spitting Image.
“The only thing Ch4 was good for “
Phew! for a moment I thought you were referring to methane.
But you were referring to Channel 4 – owned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The government.
Thats nothing in Wales we don’t only get ch4 we get s4c as well which even the Welsh don’t watch,but its kept alive because its government funded.
Presumably he also drove back.
The post by sunny never stated it was a round trip, it would be wrong to presume, for all we know he had to double the mileage and more to find electric charging points.
I saw that programme. I was astonished at the cost of electricity. It’s supposed to be cheaper than petrol/diesel. If everyone went electric the government would lose huge amounts of taxpayer’s money through fuel duty and VAT, so they’d claw that back.
On top of the electricity cost there will be a charge per mile or they’ll put VAT on the electricity thereby making it even more expensive to drive any more than 75 miles from home.
Mr sharma
I have a modernish desiel van, it serves a purpose, I would not change to electric because it could not serve the purpose and on principle I will not change because policy would like me too.
I just bought a 1980s petrol small 4×4 bought for a specific job, a big desiel 4×4 wont cut it, and a electric never will , horse’s for course’s Mr Sharma which your government policies will never fulfil
Remember back on “How to win an election or not lose by much” (Peter Sellars et al) the Conservative potential Minister for Transport was
“Sir Orson Carte”?
But if you listen don’t miss his Labour equivalent
We in the UK have entered the new feudalism with the aid of a pandemic. The law has now become exceedingly complex. On one level it’s a simple distinction between elites and plebs. But we also have the victimhood hierarchy (CRT inspired, thanks USA) which also determines how the law is applied.
Back in the Blair days the answer to emissions was diesel and drivers were encouraged and enticed with deals like cheaper fuel, to buy one. Today it’s a problem. The manufacturers did a climate science job – they fiddled the data, bigtime. Now every evening on some TV channels there is an ad running which tells the viewers
“My Diesel Claim aims to get every driver of a diesel vehicle, first registered between 2009 and 2020, a chance of receiving up to £10,000 in compensation.”
Yes as usual it’s the lawyers chasing whatever they can get.
I wonder if Alok Sharma and Allegra Stratton have considered contacting My Diesel Claim?
As I said, we have entered the new feudalism. In wealthy countries, the ‘Net Zero’ policies being pushed by environmentalists will make it harder for ordinary families to heat and cool their homes, to cook and to travel for work and leisure. Analysis by the UK Treasury warns that the costs of these policies will be borne overwhelmingly by the working class.
As intended.
https://mydieselclaim.com/
If they’re interested….
As usual the second question is information mining about me ,not the vehicle, information about me ,should be given by me at the end after I’ve been given enough information to make a decision to proceed, this seems to be a trend in almost anything we wan’t to do ,when I’m mislead into providing personal information I walk away.
And I would never ask a bunch of desperate solicitors to screw a car company ,that has given me many decades of happy motoring,
Its also insulting that the above desperado s would try to invite anyone to line their own pockets do people think in making a claim their going to get a large sum? No they will get a pittance the solicitors will get a huge amount and the real reason for the claims is to try and put the car manufacturers out of business.
I went against the ‘advice’, I’ve always bought a petrol model.
Going into smug mode….
Im going to say something way more intelligent than has ever been posted on this blog for a decade.
But not today.
Who’d have thought of that!
Totalitarians always have a nice twisted logic to justify their hypocrisy, while they use fossil fuels.
A BBC propaganda article designed to embarrass the government
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58170665
Our elites no longer even try to hide their disdain for living by the rules they inflict on ordinary people as represented by:
The almost 20,000 Private jets for the elites of our world.
The almost 10,000 superyachts over 24 meters in length, again for the elites of our world.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin sub-orbital spaceflight services company, for the very wealthy want-to-be astronauts.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic sub-orbital spaceflight services company, for the very wealthy want-to-be astronauts.
Once again, there is absolutely no reason to believe that global warming is real, so long as those who are pushing don’t act as if they believe it is real.
Fascinating how his mother has convinced him that he is the smartest person in any room.
If you have to over and over again, tell other people how smart you are, then you aren’t.
Only when he’s alone.
Play the ball, not the man, as our distinguished PM would say.
Meanwhile looks like a record European temperature… heatwaves and fires everywhere, exceptional rainfall and floods and here we are, chasing squirrels.
Is it you know you’ve lost the argument given the obvious weight of evidence for damaging warming?
Not in the UK
Apparently, the promised heatwave to come isn’t going to come after all
This has been yet another disappointing summer in the UK. There’s not a chance in H3ll it’s anywhere near record temperatures over the whole summer.
Too many forest fires across Europe for my liking. 0% due to ‘climate change’. They’ll all be accidental (campers, discarded cigarettes etc) or started deliberately by arsonists.
You’ve obiviously never read the specifications of a Windturbine. For example the Siemens Gamesa SG 4.2-145 Cut-in wind speed: 3.0 m/s, and optimum out is at 13m/s. All turbines watever the manufacturer have similar characteristics.
So your calculations actually highlight a situation that is worse than you thought.
My thoughts are that by using m/s, which may be the correct scientific units, is because most people even those buying these things can’t equate these speeds with something they know like mph or kph. 3m/s sounds quite low, but it is 6.71mph or 10.8kph. 13m/s is 29.08mph or 46.8kph. This is a constant wind speed, how often have you experienced a constant wind in excess of 30mph in the last 12 months? Imagine driving at a constant 30 mph with your head out of the window.
This sort of hypocrisy is evident with “leaders” from all over. What’s disturbing to me is the recent trend of people not only not condemning it, but going so far as to defend and justify it. But only when the hypocrisy comes from “their side”.
But despite his powerful warnings, Mr Sharma refused to condemn plans for a new oilfield off the coast of Shetland, that could see a further 150 to 170 million barrels extracted.
taken from a telegraph article about the impending world climate disaster on August 8th 2021.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/08/08/world-brink-catastrophe-warns-government-climate-chief/
Tells you all you need about where his real priorities actually are!