Essay by Eric Worrall
More proof ordinary people push back when green policies start to bite, regardless of what they say on climate surveys.
Britain’s next election could be a climate change culture war
Published: July 27, 2023 1.03am AEST
Ed Atkins
Senior Lecturer, School of Geographical Sciences, University of BristolA byelection in a London suburb has placed environmental policy at the centre of political debate in the UK, and could make it a key battleground in the next general election.
The Conservative party narrowly held former prime minister Boris Johnson’s seat in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, vacated after his resignation from parliament. The win has been cast as a victory driven by popular anger against climate policy, particularly London’s ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez) – an area where drivers of the highest-polluting vehicles must pay a fee.
The winning candidate positioned himself as the anti-Ulez choice, tapping into local anger at the policy. But as comments from media and politicians show, the Uxbridge story signals a new stage of national politics that demonises environmental policies. And my research suggests this could develop into an important new front in the culture war, with the power to help determine the next election.
…
The opposition to Ulez is highly partisan. Nationally, 59% of Conservatives oppose Ulez schemes compared to 23% of Labour voters. In London, 72% of those who voted Leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum opposed the Ulez expansion. Former Remain voters are evenly split, with 44% in support and 44% against the policy.
The Conservative prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has now distanced the government from green policies that could contribute to household expenses. Labour leader Keir Starmer acknowledged the role that Ulez played in the loss, saying that “policy matters” in elections. He also called on Khan to “reflect” on the Ulez expansion.
…
Read more: https://theconversation.com/britains-next-election-could-be-a-climate-change-culture-war-210351
The BBC interviewed residents after anti-ULEZ candidate Steve Tuckwell’s victory;
Residents of Uxbridge react to narrow Tory by-election victory
By Yasmin Rufo
BBC News…
Asked why they think the Conservatives held on to the seat, there is one clear and overarching explanation from voters here: the expansion of the ULEZ.
…
Mr Rolt, 50, supports the expansion of the ULEZ, saying he is “amazed that people in Uxbridge are happy living with dirty air“.
…
Another local resident told the BBC that he “never usually votes”, but felt “forced to vote for anyone that would stop ULEZ” as he was worried about how much he would have to pay to replace his non-compliant car.
Despite this apparent rejection of the scheme in Uxbridge, the mayor of London’s office says expanding the zone is “a really difficult decision but necessary to save lives”.
The clean air-zone is set to expand on 29 August, and anyone driving a non-compliant vehicle will be charged a daily rate of £12.50.
…
Polling conducted by JLP showed the ULEZ expansion was the second most important issue for people after the cost of living.
…
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-66267672
The pushback against ULEZ is encouraging, but there is a bigger question: Why aren’t British people pushing back harder against other green policies, like green energy?
Green energy is not cheaper and better for the environment, it is hideously expensive, and peppers the landscape with ugly, heavily subsidised mechanical monstrosities.
I believe the explanation for the lack of opposition is that most Britons are not aware of the true source of their cost of living pain.
People I know in Britain don’t blame green energy policies for their cost of living pain, they blame energy company greed. The BBC has been using their enormous, coercively subsidised media reach to push the corporate greed narrative, publishing numerous stories hilighting energy company profits, blaming the Ukraine war, and demanding the government do something about greedy energy company wartime profiteering.
But obvious green cost of living hits like ULEZ cannot be hidden behind the Ukraine war smokescreen, so are fair game for courageous politicians who are prepared to take a few risks.
There will be a day of reckoning, when everyone wakes up to how badly the BBC has let them down with their defective coverage of cost of living issues. The wildly popular upstart media company GBNews has provided politicians like Nigel Farage a high profile platform, which he uses to call out BBC green energy mistruths.
I believe some mainstream British politicians can already see the writing on the wall. A handful of politicians appear to be positioning themselves, quietly cautioning others about Net Zero, announcing reforms, creating a public record of concern which may save some of their necks when more British people start to ask the right questions.
For more information about the disastrous cost of living and economic impact of the global Net Zero push click here.
“ but there is a bigger question: Why aren’t British people pushing back harder against other green policies,”
Because ULEZ is not a green policy. It is about traffic congestion and clean air.
Rubbish.!
You know it is not about congestion, otherwise no cars would be allowed.
What don’t you comprehend about …
“anger against climate policy, particularly London’s ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez) “
It is flat-out an anti-CO2 greenie ploy. and we all know that you are well aware of that fact. [disingenuous as always]
Modern ICE cars are no “dirtier” than EVs.
CO2 is NOT pollution of any kind.
Good try Nick.
https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/cleanair/widgets/44947/faqs
… Why is the Mayor proposing to expand the ULEZ to outer London in 2023?
The triple challenges of toxic air pollution, the **climate emergency** and traffic congestion mean we need to reduce emissions and car use in London, particularly given the impact of higher emissions on the health of our people and the planet. To meet the Mayor’s target of London becoming net zero carbon by 2030, we need to do more to reduce the number of polluting cars on the road. …
Yep.. it is all about the insanity of Net Zero. !
The virtue-seeking reduction of the gas that gives life to the whole planet.
Totally meaningless for London, given that China’s increasing CO2 output
(thank you China for helping feed the planet.) !
Eric
That picture is out of date! The Congestion charge zone is now 7 days a week
“You need to pay a daily charge if you drive within the Congestion Charge zone 07:00-18:00 Mon-Fri, 12:00-18:00 Sat-Sun and bank holidays.
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge/paying-the-congestion-charge
If your position was true re air pollution, then can I remind you, laws already exist in the UK that prevent air pollution. The auto industry have been and are constantly monitored. Any vehicle that fails the exhaust emission test at the annual MOT (remember all cars over 3 years old are MOT tested) is immediately banned from the road.
We do not need hard up socialist councils or socialist mayors introducing yet more money grabbing systems to fleece the working class.
Lucky for me, here in Woke-achusetts, if a vehicle is over 15 years old, it can fail the exhaust emission test and not be taken off the road. Only after the garage drains your wallet trying to fix the problem.
They did away with annual auto inspections in my State years ago. Everything seems to be running smoothly.
Nick, don’t be daft. TfL has an enormous hole in its finances
Maybe you need to be here to know what’s really going on?
He, as a socialist, enjoys removing people’s personal responsibility and aspirations. He, as a socialist, likes to control people. He, as a socialist, is addicted to other people’s money.
I do believe that people are finally starting to push back. The fact that there are now dissenting voices in the political companies is proof. Starmer and Rayner and the losing Labour candidate in the by-election all saying they lost because of ULEZ and they need a rethink. Sunak, Gove and Reece-Mogg all saying they need to think about the Net Zero dates and the costs. If politicians are starting to waver over policies a few weeks ago were sacrosanct across the British political spectrum then it’s clear they’ve started to take people’s concerns seriously at last. Nothing may come of it, but again I am heartened by it.
Any political company that states they’ll remove the Net Zero and Climate Change Acts will win by a landslide at the next General Election.
It is not directly relevant, apologies for going off piste, but the overreach by Khan and his WEF/CCP control freak acolytes gives the game away, in the same way that the UK banking industry is being ripped apart by their own hubris and wilful blindness. All despotic empires eventually fall because the Emperors don’t do “consensus” that the silent majority know instinctively is the way forward – but Mr Stokes does not seem to – or want to – grasp that fundamental point.
True. All corporations, government institutions, Quangos and NGOs are fully in hoc to DIE and ESG. The majority of the electorate are not. This is the swamp that requires draining. However, it is everywhere and all-pervasive. The march through the instructions was almost complete. Farage is hopefully the catalyst for a rapid draining.
Nick,
Point to Uxbridge on a map and tell us when you were last there.
Well, my daughter was born there (Hillingdon Hospital) and we used to live in South Ruislip when I was posted to RAF Northolt. But that was many years ago.
1999 – I have a good friend who lives there.
2016 – Shopping trip.
ULEZ has increased congestion. Cycle lanes, (which many cyclists seem reluctant to use) road closures and narrowing, as well as “traffic calming” measures all have slowed traffic, created bottlenecks and gridlock, so vehicles spend more time idling than moving. The air would be much cleaner if they just left London to go about it’s business.
Also, the increased congestion (and emotions) caused by the Just Stop Oil slow walkers.
it’s about control instead of persuasion.
1 million % correct meneer
And you believe in fairies?
ULEZ is about raising money.
How has air quality in London, say as an example, changed since WWII?
Are you aware how Mayor Khan has moved to improve the quality of air on the London Underground, part of his legal responsibilities running TfL?
And just in case you think I am deliberately baiting you, because you ignore requests to confirm precisely, say, how much atmospheric CO2 you would be content with, I will make it easy for you;
https://youtu.be/fMJwAlT7kdA
As others such as bn2K point out, ULEZ is nothing more than a Woke anti CO2 diatribe – you know, one of the triumvirate of essential elements for all life you want to be reduced without stating too what level – and it hits people on the lowest incomes hardest. I dont know if you have driven through many European ULEZ zones; may I recommend you do so through Freiburg, a spectacularly beautiful city of Gothic architecture with a world renowned University. It has a ULEZ zone and a major road which runs directly through the middle; the city authorities imposed the ULEZ zone some time ago but do diddley squat to combat the massive amount of very ugly graffiti especially within the ULEZ zone which disfigures this otherwise beautiful city – “pollution” in action.
Just as Khan does b****r all to combat horrendous air quality on the London Underground he virtue signals to con gullible people that he cares about people and the planet; people have sussed him out in such numbers that the by election that the Tories should never have won was lost by…. Mayor Khan, a true hero of yours by all appearances.
Because ULEZ is not a green policy. It is about traffic congestion and clean air.
So clean air has nothing to do with the environment?
Everyone wants clean air.
If saying ‘everyone’ (as all inclusive), with respect to any subject, you need to have an accepted definition of the subject.
Provide your definition “clean air” (and follow up with what ‘everyone’ is willing to sacrifice to obtain “clean air”). Keep in mind that most people aren’t even willing to go to the simple step of moving away, in order to get “clean air”.
More stokes nonsense.
The UK doesn’t really have a clean air problem.
The air comes straight off the Atlantic and it’s peanuts compared with other places like Paris or Toulouse.
Check this out.
https://aqicn.org/map/china/
https://aqicn.org/city/beijing/
or even better
https://aqicn.org/city/guangdong/guangzhou/baiyunxinshi/
When I was in Harbin in winter it was a London 1920s class FOG.
Compare now Paris Peripherique now on a congested friday?
https://aqicn.org/city/france/paris/boulevard-peripherique-est
or just outside the Blackwall tunnel again FRIDAY is peak.
https://aqicn.org/city/united-kingdom/tower-hamlets-blackwall
Nottingham city centre is about the worst in the UK
https://aqicn.org/city/united-kingdom/nottingham-centre
Yes, its partly about clean air. Its not about traffic congestion at all, it will have no effect on it. Its also a lot about raising cash for the London administration and particularly for TfL.
And in the publicity its promoted as having something to do with global warming, which of course just making everyone buy new cars will have no effect on.
The real objection to ULEZ ought to be that its being incompetently implemented and with unclear objectives.
It is reasonable to want to reduce car use in London and improve the viability of biking and walking. Its hugely destructive to have large areas of a city where the main use of the streets, to the exclusion of all other safe and agreeable uses, is by people driving through as fast as possible to get to someplace else.
But implementing something like this is a 10-20 year project, and it requires a comprehensive plan. You have to provide for the current economic and social activities in some way. Whereas what London seems to be doing at the moment is uncoordinated projects with no thought of the consequences and no provision or planning of the collateral measures needed. As for instance, suddenly to ban cars from a district, but make no provision for all the current needs that are currently served by vehicles. To put in a network of bike lanes scattered randomly over the city, and then be surprised when bike use doesn’t increase as you expected. The reason is, people need to have a safe route for their entire trip before they will move to bikes. And somewhere to park them once they arrive.
ULEZ is exactly the same. Its basically a ban on old cars and vans coming in to London. Where is the study showing that its the old cars that are the real air quality problem?
The same thing is happening with almost all the green/climate/energy measures in the UK. With the putative move to heat pumps there are not enough installers and not enough grid power to run them, if they could be installed. With EVs there are not enough charging points, and no-one has thought about safety in parking facilities and home garages. With wind, there are no plans to deal with intermittency. I have referred to the bike path mess, which seems mainly to have led to a boom in bike use during the pandemic (because fewer cars, hence safer), but has now turned into a bust as it turn out that things are no better than before all these bike lanes to nowhere were put in place.
I think its because the measures are not being done for practical reasons with proper thought through objectives. They are rather the political class both local and national publicly testifying to their membership of the Elect. Whether the things work is immaterial. And so they are not thought through, and they are not working. And the political class reacts by pressing ahead more strongly.
And finally, as in Uxbridge, the voters wake up.
My plumber, Gas certified etc, who has worked in Scandinavia, tells me unequivocally that heat pumps will never efficiently work in the UK because of such inconvenient things like non nordic insulation, lack of triple glazing, not cold enough and several other techie points at which point I glazed over. This when he fitted a 2023 version gas combo boiler which has an efficiency rating heat pump advocates can only dream about – £2900 vs £?10K+++?
let me summarise – let the markets decide. Windmills were replaced by steam engines and horses replaced by ICE vehicles which were more efficient than EVs. Try to buck the market and people will refuse to pay.
That’s utter bollox.
Modern diesels have catalytic convertors and particle filters.
They have up to 30% lower fuel consumption.
Petrol engines have made enormous strides in specific output and emission targets.
Fact is, the reason for higher emissions is BLOAT and sagging road infrastructure . (look at the giant M25 traffic jam most of the way round on friday evenings – TODAY).
+
With the strides in technology people have just added an extra 30% in road damaging weight – idem the Teslas and other hi end crap that’s peddled as ZERO emission. (ie. it’s usually Gas or coal powered – moving the emissions NIMBY style thru ugly electricity pylons outside GLC’s remit).
ULEZ does nothing about traffic congestion it just moves it elsewhere, while the trucks, the main vector of NOx multiply in numbers because of the road haulage cartel. (lots of which could easily be avoided)
All the guff about saving lives is lies lies lies.
It’s about raising money for TfL – a relentlessly bankrupt organisation and cash-cow for domineering trades unions and cronies.
In microcosm, here’s a related story = a guy fined £400 for leaving 3 empty glass bottles at a recycling centre beside a supermarket.
The official bins were full so he left them on the ground beside the bin.
Arbitrary. Capricious. Ugly. Evil.
Yet it was/is he who is at fault – not an incompetent council or the supermarket for not emptying the bins when they got full.
NB: Plastic bins. Bins made from fossils. Non-recyclable ‘recycling’ bins
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-66316458
There in is ‘Climate Change‘ – no matter what you do you will ‘wrong’ for doing it and will be punished.
By people who claim to ‘care’
Yes they do, but only for themselves. The basis of human society has collapsed because as ‘social creatures’ we are supposed to care for each other.
The love of, (correctly: addiction to) money is destroying everything.
Starvation is the root cause of addiction
and addicts will lie lie lie about anything and everything at any and all times. They will say and do anything to maintain and increase their own consumption of The Drug.
In fact we are built that way. (Homeostasis)
If that doesn’t describe ‘managed inflation’ – what does?
Hence the grandest lie (so far) of them all= The Inflation Reduction Act
Just like the recycling centre: It is a trap
How could I forget – here are The Caring People caught with their fingers in the money pot….
There’s a real blind spot on how far we’ve come. Nobody, for example, seems to remember the days of leaded petrol **, *** and ****
Paraffin heating is another I could go on but I’m enjoying the clean air in London.
There’s a fair chance I or some of my immediate family would have died of hypothermia during the 1950s or 60s without Paraffin, as would may friends and neighbours. Esso Blue saved countless lives
That was what we had. I remember the Paraffin tanker coming round and people queuing up with their containers.
Lest everyone forget, a reminder that Henry Ford was the first animal rescuer. His kerosene saved the whales, and saved a lot of money for consumers along the way.
The air in London is cleaner than it has been since the start of the industrial revolution. The clean air act (about 1953, after the great smog) saw to that. Particulate pollution is likely to increase as the number of EVs increases as the result of stupid government policy.
The air out on the streets of London is 10 to 100 times cleaner than the air inside people’s houses.
trufax
…to say nothing of the London Underground…
Don’t use it is the logical conclusion as it’s far worse than the streets
Hey, you gave the game away…shame on you!!! ( Stokes won’t reply now…..)
Probably even earlier than that.
Edinburgh was known as Auld Reekie since the 16th century. Despite the fact Edinburgh is quite a windy place.
Air is pure in Paris (France) too.
Here is an article about a book on that :
https://www.valeursactuelles.com/art-de-vivre/pollution-lair-de-paris-est-pur-mais-personne-ne-le-sait#:~:text=Tribune.,air%20ambiant%20que%20nos%20esprits.
Use Google translate to translate this article from french to english.
The autor of the book is a engineer (retiree), who has pushed for the obligation of the seat belt, instituted by a decree of June 28, 1973.
But politicians lie to the people ans cars are banned from Paris.
That’s bullshit to please the leftists who don’t like cars.
Leftists love cars, the fancier the better, it’s the only way most of them can get laid.
What leftists don’t like, is YOU having a car. Especially one that can go where they don’t wanna be.
About 10 years ago Edith Cresson tried (unsuccessfully) to ban the burning of wood for domestic heating in Paris
Macron has used a more expensive method, subsidised heat pumps
I think you mean the “British sheople”, which answers your question.
Ta mate
As I said before:
___
ULEZ is a Tory policy introduced by Boris.
The idea that, if it has any value, it should be extended to all impacted areas… is only sound.
Labour can be criticised for not cancelling ULEZ but not for choosing to expand it, if it’s not being cancelled.
And as the courts ruled that a child died of particulate pollution in the air, it’s hard to see how ULEZ can be cancelled, legally.
___
Richard Page pointed out that the child who died also had severe asthma. Which is true. But obviously is irrelevant.
The court ruling was that air pollution contributed to her death (if anyone has a cure for asthma, please share it). So ULEZ cannot easily be reversed now, legally.
The idea that Tory policies – that are backed by the Courts – should only apply in inner cities (where most people vote Labour) and not impartially, needs more justification.
In central London there are tubes buses etc – and congestion
Not so in outer London
Really SV? I used to live in South Ruislip. Our bedroom was about 50ft from the tube line and a couple of hundred yards from the station. There were lots of buses and lots of congestion. Ever been on the A40? Used to take me an hour to commute from Northolt to Stanmore. Congestion hasn’t got any better.
The ends of the lines, but no connectivity. And apart from Morden they are all in the north of the city. What should the south do?
You have to think about the whole. The surrounding counties etc
This legalism sounds an awful lot like the kind of excuses British politicians used to make when Britain was in the EU – “we’d love to fix this, but we have to obey EU rules”.
Personally I think this kind of excuse making is a dangerous game. The British people are slow to anger but once they get angry I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end!
Their rules are no different to those of the EUSSR; in fact we’re going net zero faster, just to show Johnny foreigner we mean business.
The EU was used by incompetent politicians, administrators and businesses as a get out of jail card for failure.
With a 50/50 spilt of the population for and against membership of the EU I hope, for my grandchildrens sake, that the pro half don’t spend the next 40 years bitching and moaning like the anti half did while we were members and get on making the best of an unpalatable situation.
As an American President observed “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
It actually isn’t irrelevant at all – she died from acute respiratory failure and severe asthma – it wasn’t until 7 years after her death that a judge ruled that air pollution could be added to her death certificate. If Khan actually wanted to do something about air pollution in London, then TfL trains and the underground should be his first target.
I email my MP a couple of things asserting any warming is exaggerated and CO2 is irrelevant to warming because the effect of the infra red on the CO2 is not in addition to the effect on water vapour but instead of.
I am informed there is much misinformation, especially on the internet and MPs can only be concerned with peer reviewed studies.
Anybody got any links to peer reviewed assertions that atmospheric CO2 is irrelevant to warming?
Don’t waste your time on a drone MP
That’s my tip.
Your MP will just be reading from the script handed to him/her from party HQ. You could try asking for specific information (e.g for the specific “peer reviewed studies” that provide empirical scientific evidence of the existence of the positive feedbacks that are central to climate change hysteria; for the government’s estimate of the optimum level of CO2; for the government’s estimate of the impact on global CO2 and global mean temperature of the UK’s net-zero policy; for the government’s estimate of the impact on UK temperature of the UK’s net-zero policy; for a copy of the government’s cost-benefit analysis underpinning its net-zero policy, etc. etc.). The more specific the questions, the better. Stay polite, but be persistent and explain the significance of the questions. Your MP, of course, won’t be able to provide many answers and might, after trying to smother you with vague waffle, eventually give up on you; but there’s a slim chance that you’ll get them to recognise that they can’t answer your questions, which is at least a starting point.
Suggest you look up Patrick Moore and the CO2 Coalition, for just 2 sources – they will link you to a multitude of others.
and here they are again – getting fat at The Trough and handing out ever more and buck passes.
“”Oh dear we’ve accrued soooooo much profit – but The Virus and that awful Mr Putin made us do it
here
Meanwhile, in the torrent of dirge that passes for News, the UK Met Office and the BBC’s Matt MukRat execute an epic Shark Jump.…
“”The record-breaking UK heat experienced in 2022 will be regarded as a cool year by the end of this century, the Met Office says.
Its report shows that last year was “extraordinary”, with a heatwave pushing the UK record over 40C for the first time.
Hot years like 2022 will be the average by 2060, if carbon emissions are as expected, the authors say.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66304220
They Are Spoilt Brat Children – capable of exaggerating anything, telling any lie and passing any buck at any time so as the get their own way
Transient temperature readings less than 200 yards from a jet exhaust do not a record make. It would be foolish to make projections based on such readings – but they do, the fools!
“The record breaking UK heat experienced in 2022 will be regarded as a cool year by the end of the century, the Met Office says”
“In the context of the last few centuries the summer 2022 in the Central England/England and Wales was hot and dry. But it was not exceptionally so. The summers of 1976 and 1995 were both substantially hotter and drier”
https://mikehulme.org/the-2022-uk-summer-in-long-term-perspective/
Bloody minded and devious…
Highlights from Khan’s last general election outing
“”Since being re-elected in May with a slim majority of 2,524 after fierce opposition from Conservative candidate Mark Clarke, Sadiq Khan has gone on to become Shadow Justice Secretary.
But Nasser Butt, who stood against him for the Liberal Democrats and is an Ahmadi, spoke out about a campaign to prevent him being elected because of his religion.
An election hustings at the Tooting Islamic Centre (TIC) on April 14 turned into a dangerous farce after hardliners shut down proceedings.
After arriving at the TIC, mixed-race Tory candidate Mark Clarke had to be locked into a room for his own safety after he was mistaken for Mr Butt by fundamentalists.
Mr Clarke’s election agent, Andre Walker, said: “We had to be locked in a room for our own security. The mosque committee were embarrassed by it and it was tense for a while…it was clear Nasser’s arrival would have been dangerous and a real problem. There was anger an Ahmadi was running.”
During the incident, Mr Butt said he received a phone call from a committee member who told him it would be best if he did not come to speak as had been arranged. It has also emerged worshippers were given precise orders at the TIC to urge Muslims not to vote for Ahmadi candidates.””
https://web.archive.org/web/20120318121727/http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/wimbledonnews/8451614.Election_race_infected_by_anti_Ahmadiyya_hate_campaign/
And Khan? Oh he knew nothing……. not many, Benny.
If it was truly about air pollution Khan should be banning all EV’s as they are by far and away the largest producers of pm2.5 due to tyre and brake wear from the weight.
and one more little thing they lie about, the Carbon Footprint of solar panels.
Ask Google or Ask Anywhere (the copy/paste thoughtless collusion is obvious and ‘sad’) to be told ~50grams CO₂ for each kWh the panel produces
But that assumes contemporary ‘modern western’ manufacturing processes using that especial energy mix, (i.e. lots & lots of gas with some hydro and nuclear)
But western economies simply cannot produce, using their energy, at the price the Chinese can – because the Chinese use almost exclusively Coal.
Hence the Carbon Footprint triples or even quadruples…..
https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/2023/7/3/solar-panels-are-more-carbon-intensive-than-experts-will-admit
And the land they’re planted upon (unless =desert already) becomes = desert
Solar Farms dessicate and kill plants & soils so promoting the arrival of Heat Domes = unwanted guests who invariably overstay their welcome.
While near neighbours just outside of the dome are battered by persistent & torrential rains, sudden & vicious squalls, T-storms, hail storms, tornadoes and flash floods.
No: Those things Do Not Comprise a Typical British Summer.
Crop destroying floods, rains and winds as I’m watching unfold right now out here on Cambridge Fen..
i.e. Combine harvesters working in spring barley (is ready to harvest now) and from 2 miles away machines the size of large houses look like they’re on fire – the black cloud of smut, spores and mould is that bad.
I thought they were ‘something on fire’ until I noticed that ‘they moved’
How The Hell will anyone/thing want to eat what they’re bringing home?
Winter Wheat fields that should have 5+ tonnes per acre look as though some combination of ArmyTank meets RoadRoller has been over 25+% of their area.
No matter, we can all blame Mr Putin and thus Brandon can bung Beyonce Zeledensky a few more cluster bombs while kids (thinking they’re ‘playing a game’) inside Vandenburg and Mildenhall AFBs pilot drones into tower-block apartments in Moscow.
(Not like ‘Revenge for 9/11‘ by any chance?)
And all along: Lies Lies Lies and more Lies
ULEZ was never about air pollution. From the start, the charges were way over the top when compared with the social cost of the pollution, particularly for those who drive Euro 5 (pre 2015) diesels. You heard it here first: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/08/11/the-social-costs-of-air-pollution-from-cars-in-the-uk/.
My question is:- How the hell is one supposed to read all that verbiage on the sign (pictured) whilst passing at whatever the legal speed-limit is at that location? I despair!
Oh! Hang on a minute! Are they assuming that you’ll be stuck in traffic congestion and will have plenty of time to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest”?
It’s not polluting vehicles that are penalised but just older ones. If a car passes the annual emissions test, it is no dirtier than a new one. The proportion of vehicles without cats and fuel injection is minute, and has no significant effect on pollution levels.