Keir Starmer. By Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street - Number 10 Flickr page, OGL 3, Link. Image modified.

Radical Green British Government Imposes Soviet Style Rationing of Gasoline Vehicles

Essay by Eric Worrall

h/t michel – Remember when we used to laugh about Soviets queuing for years to purchase a Lada?

Petrol cars ‘rationed to meet eco targets’

Warning comes as consumer demand for expensive electric cars continues to wane

Matt Oliver,  INDUSTRY EDITOR 2 September 2024 • 9:32pm

Robert Forrester, chief executive of Vertu Motors, said manufacturers were delaying deliveries of cars until next year amid fears they will otherwise breach quotas set for them by the Government.

He said: “In some franchises there’s a restriction on supply of petrol cars and hybrid cars, which is actually where the demand is. 

“It’s almost as if we can’t supply the cars that people want, but we’ve got plenty of the cars that maybe they don’t want.

“They [manufacturers] are trying to avoid the fines. So they’re constraining the ability for us to supply petrol cars in order to try and keep to the government targets.”

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/09/02/manufacturers-ration-petrol-cars-hybrid-electric/

Even if people caved to this arrogant government coercion, Britain does not have the spare electricity to charge hundreds of thousands of new EVs.

A home EV fast charger uses around 10Kw. Half a million EVs plugged in at home around dinner time would draw 10Kw x 500,000 = 5,000,000 Kw = an additional 5GW from the grid. Spare generation capacity the UK simply doesn’t have.

UK faces 7.5GW energy generation crunch in 2028

Old resources are retiring, while new resources are slow to arrive

February 27, 2024 By Peter Judge

By 2028, the UK will face a power crisis as the grid’s guaranteed capacity will be less than power demands, according to a new report.

The crunch on capacity will be at its tightest in 2028, reaching 7.5GW, because the country is retiring old capacity faster than new resources can be brought online.

The situation is made worse by increasing demand for power, and delays to the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, according to a report from power plant operator Drax.

Read more: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/uk-faces-75gw-energy-generation-crunch-in-2028/

California has shown us what happens when the grid runs out of power. EV owners go to the back of the queue.

The burden of this latest green brainstorm will disproportionately affect poor people. It will drive up the cost of older gasoline vehicles, as people hang on to old vehicles longer.

The wealthy will not be impacted by vehicle sale rationing – no automobile dealer in their right mind would turn down a hundred thousand pound profit on the sale of a premium vehicle, if all they have to do to protect themselves from quota penalties is tell an ordinary person their vehicle has been delayed.

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Tom Halla
September 3, 2024 10:06 am

Smuggle Japanese cars into the UK?

Idle Eric
Reply to  Tom Halla
September 3, 2024 10:38 am

I wondered if the manufacturers could game the system by developing the most basic battery car possible, with perhaps a 50-mile range, sell that as cheaply as possible (<£10,000), and use that to meet their quotas for “electric vehicles”.

There might actually be a bigger market for such a thing than the £60,000+ models they’re trying to sell now.

Tom Halla
Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 10:43 am

It would be more traditional to just make an appropriate contribution to the Labour Party. Not a bribe, mate, I swear!

Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 11:10 am

Golf carts come to mind.

Idle Eric
Reply to  Streetcred
September 3, 2024 11:18 am

I believe there are street legal versions available, the speed is limited to 35mph though.

Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 2:53 pm

Perfect for the M25

bobpjones
Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 3:59 pm

Not in the UK.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  Idle Eric
September 4, 2024 8:34 am

There are and in many places one does not need to go faster. Cities are possibilities, side roads not main streets.

Reply to  Streetcred
September 3, 2024 11:39 am

Buy an EV and the price includes a golf cart. Claim credit for two EV sales. Try to break even, and make your profit selling ICE vehicles.

Even more elaborate: the dealer could immediately buy back the golf cart for £500 and donate it to a charitable org. for a nice tax deduction. Anything to inflate the number of EV sales.

Reply to  Streetcred
September 3, 2024 9:54 pm

The way the UK is going, they’d be better off selling mobility scooters

Bryan A
Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 11:57 am

China already does this. They travel between 17-24mph and go about 25 miles on a charge

https://m.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=cheap+chinese+electric+vehicles+

And they experience over 21,000 EV fires yearly

Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 1:08 pm

I think they did that a couple of decades ago re: CAFE standards where they manufactured street legal gas powered golf carts that counted towards their fleet CAFE requirements.

Reply to  Idle Eric
September 4, 2024 5:58 am

The Greens have constructed a big government mental box into which all must fit.

Based on real world experience, the Greens are finally learning, their mental box is not feasible, not affordable by any society, including formerly wealthy Germany.

For the Greens to admit their mental box was a mistake, is like the Catholic Church admitting Galileo was correct. That will never happen anytime soon.

The only answer is immediate, massive, civil, non-violent disobedience, until the Greens and their ideas are thrown on the dust heap of failed idiocies, along with socialism and communism.

Reply to  wilpost
September 4, 2024 8:17 am

IF GERMANY HAD KEPT ITS NUCLEAR POWER, IT WOULD HAVE SAVED $600 BILLION AND REDUCED EMISSIONS BY 73%
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/if-germany-had-kept-its-nuclear-power-it-would-have-saved-600.
By Jo Nova
 
If the Germans just did nothing at all, it would have been Greener
.
Germany already had nuclear power in 2002, if they just kept it and didn’t build all the wind and solar plants, they wouldn’t have had to spend $800 BILLION on subsidies, and would have cut their emissions by 73% more.
.
If ever there is a statistic that says there is something rotten in the State of Climate Panic, this is surely it.
I mean, does CO2 matter or doesn’t it?
Do the Greens care at all, or even a bit?
If there was a climate emergency and The Greens were worried about CO2, they might have protested that the EnergieWende was a reckless experiment.
But, if the Greens were tools for communists, foreign states, or banker-investors, then they might keep choosing options that benefit other countries, help Bankers or just make Big Government bigger.
Either the German Greens have utterly failed at the very task they set out to do, or they were really aiming at something else.
.
Ross Pomery writes at RealClearScience and  WattsUpWithThat

Study Quantifies Germany’s Disastrous Switch Away From Nuclear Power.
.
In 2002, Germany launched an ambitious plan to transition to renewable energy.
“Die Energiewende” initiated a massive expansion of solar and wind power, resulting in a commendable 25 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2022…
In 2002, nuclear power supplied about 20% of Germany’s electricity.
In 2023, it supplied none.
A layperson might think that cheap wind and solar could simply fill the gap, but it isn’t so simple.
.
Jan Emblemsvåg, a Professor of Civil Engineering at Norway’s NTNU just published a study comparing the ambitious German Energiewende renewable program with nuclear power:
.
“What if Germany had spent their money on nuclear power and not followed their policy from 2002 through 2022 (20 years); would Germany have achieved more emission reductions and lower expenses?”
.
Even German bureaucrats admit Energiewende “poses a threat to the German economy”
.
German Federal Accounting Office (Bundesrechnungshof) writes about the German policy dubbed ‘Die Energiewende’ in German, and it concludes:
.
The Bundesrechnungshof warns, the energy, transition in its current form, poses a threat to the German economy and overburdens the financial capacity of electricity-consuming companies and households’ (Bundesrechnungshof Citation2021a).
A whole lot of wind (green) and solar (orange) power were added to the German grid and it was worse than useless:
.
 
Given these results, there can be no doubt whatsoever, if Germany had invested in Nuclear Power Plants, instead of wind and solar, Germany would have decarbonized more, with far less expenditures.
.
The short conclusion
.
Germany would have reached its climate goals with a substantial margin at HALF the expenditures of Energiewende.
The Germans have done this experiment so we don’t have to.

NOTE: Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York State, etc., should immediately abandon wind and solar and build nuclear plants
.
These costs do not included:
 
1) The added burden of expensive electricity on the well-being of businesses and homes,
2) The opportunity costs of money that could have been spent more productively elsewhere,
3) The loss of talent, brains and industry to other countries.
.
Building new nuclear plants was still cheaper than wind and solar.
The paper goes through another scenario, where more nuclear plants were built with careful estimations of the costs and long times to construct plants and still concludes that the Germans would have saved $400 BILLION
.
Impact on Germany’s Business
.
Not coincidentally, in 2024, Germany has some of the most expensive electricity in Europe, business confidence is low  
VOLKSWAGEN have just announced that after 87 years in production, they might have to close their German factories.
Volkswagen, founded in 1937, said on Monday, it could no longer rule out unprecedented plant closures in Germany as it seeks ways to save several $billion.
.
Chief executive Oliver Blume said: “The economic environment has become even tougher and new players are pushing into Europe. Germany as a business location is falling further behind in terms of competitiveness.”
Volkswagen employs around 650,000 workers globally, almost 300,000 of whom, MOSTLY HIGH-PAYING, HIGH-TECH JOBS, are in Germany, and the threat of factory closures sparked an immediate fierce backlash …
.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  Idle Eric
September 4, 2024 8:33 am

You mean like golf carts?

Reply to  Tom Halla
September 3, 2024 12:05 pm

We don’t need to smuggle them in, lots of them are actually built here.

Tom Halla
Reply to  Oldseadog
September 3, 2024 12:15 pm

Then the Japanese market cars would not be conspicuous. Jack up prices enough, and someone will try.

Reply to  Tom Halla
September 3, 2024 1:59 pm

You’re underestimating them. What will happen is that there will be charges per mile driven, and this will be higher, rising to unaffordability, for ICE cars. The charges per mile will be justified because of the loss of gasoline tax revenues because of the swap to EVs, but it will turn out to be very useful in many other ways.

Reply to  michel
September 4, 2024 1:26 am

There would be a credible legal challenge to that as ICE vehicles already Pay Per Mile thanks to petrol/diesel taxes at around 65%.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  michel
September 4, 2024 8:36 am

What about the possibility of a EV recharge tax?

max
September 3, 2024 10:10 am

I guess this time, they got what they voted for. Way to go, Tories.

Robertvd
Reply to  max
September 3, 2024 11:13 am

Labour got less votes than the 2019 elections. People don’t like progressives that’s why the Tories (Labour 2) were voted out.

Idle Eric
Reply to  Robertvd
September 3, 2024 11:40 am

Mostly Covid in reality, plus the energy price spike resulting from Ukraine.

Reply to  Idle Eric
September 4, 2024 1:28 am

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Where did that fantasy come from?

Reply to  max
September 4, 2024 1:31 am

The Tories own this just as much as Labour, when Sunak announce the ban on ICE cars was to be pushed back from 2030 to 2035 he left all of the penalties for selling ICE’s in place. So every ICE car sold after 2030 came with a £15K fine. Smoke and mirrors.

Reply to  kommando828
September 4, 2024 3:43 am

Apart from Reform all of the political parties are behaving like headless chickens over net zero. It’s time we had some proper scientists in Parliament instead of PPE graduates and lawyers.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  JeffC
September 4, 2024 8:37 am

Proper scientists, ok, but what about NORMAL people?

richardw53
September 3, 2024 10:19 am

I’m not defending our Labour government by any means, but this is the result of a Tory policy. They imposed a progressively reducing percentage of production of conventionally powered cars per year, ending in 2030.

Idle Eric
Reply to  richardw53
September 3, 2024 10:31 am

Nothing stops Labour from reversing the policy.

Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 11:15 am

Given their sizable parliamentary majority, is there anything at all that can slow down Labor’s descent into madness? Perhaps HRH Charles III could intervene? /s

Jim Turner
Reply to  Frank from NoVA
September 3, 2024 11:27 am

Unfortunately it looks like we are stuck with them for the next 5 years, it doesn’t matter how unpopular they get, fanatics will never go willingly. Most new governments get the unpopular stuff out of the way first, in the hope that the electorate will forget by the next election, but this lot have two long term disasters on their hands – immigration and net zero, so I expect this government will end disasterously, unfortunately they may take the country with them.

Reply to  Jim Turner
September 4, 2024 1:47 am

The knives are already out for Starmer in the labour party.

Corbyn has a personal beef with Starmer for branding him antisemitic, and he want’s his old job back.

Local elections in May could damage labour badly. Punishing the elderly wil not be forgotten and nor will him calling every British citizen objecting to immigration a Nazi be forgotten.

We are due energy price rises before winter which will be blamed on Miliband.

The May elections could be a bloodbath for labour, the tories are nowhere as their leadership campaign is shocking. The casual voter is now listening to the Reform party simply because the other two parties are so bad.

Reply to  HotScot
September 4, 2024 8:07 am

Huge majorities of MP’s for the UK ruling party are dangerous. Not enough ministerial jobs to keep the ambitious satisfied and that large majority means a large number can vote against the Govt and not bring it down creating rebel groups. The internecine wars it produces are always fun to watch.

gezza1298
Reply to  kommando828
September 4, 2024 11:24 am

There seem to be lots of jobs for ministers – apparently we have a Minister for Steel. Not sure how busy he, she or it is given we hardly make any steel and the last plants are closing down at which point suddenly they don’t get rebuilt as electric arc plants due to energy costs. You have to include all the PPS jobs as well as those with aspirations, so you can easily have half of the Labour MPs being part of the government and their electorate no longer represented in Parliament.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  HotScot
September 4, 2024 8:38 am

At least you have a third party to consider.

Reply to  Frank from NoVA
September 3, 2024 12:03 pm

Nit pick.
Now not HRH, (His Royal Highness); now is HM.(His Majesty.)

Reply to  Oldseadog
September 3, 2024 2:57 pm

Still only got 2 O levels, or was it 3? They disappeared that statistic ……

Reply to  Oldseadog
September 3, 2024 9:56 pm

Charlie’s not my Majesty, Elizabeth was, but Charlie’s not a patch on Lillbet

richardw53
Reply to  Frank from NoVA
September 3, 2024 2:07 pm

You mean he who launched the WEF’s Great Reset agenda, and runs his Aston on wine and cheese? Not a chance.

Phil Cummings
Reply to  Frank from NoVA
September 3, 2024 3:35 pm

Doubtful, He is just as nutty and a great believer in climate change, globull warming or whatever the latest name change is.

Derg
Reply to  Frank from NoVA
September 3, 2024 4:35 pm

What happened to the anti war democrats? Geez even Bush, Cheney and Romney staffers love Joe and Kamala. What war funding are they against?

Reply to  Derg
September 4, 2024 1:50 am

Much of the reason RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard jumped ship.

They may not be big scalps for Trump, but they are scalps.

Reply to  Frank from NoVA
September 4, 2024 3:44 am

Bring back Guy Fawkes!

Tom Halla
Reply to  richardw53
September 3, 2024 10:47 am

Appeasement means you hope the crocodile eats you last. Unless, of course, you are the crocodile.
British politics seems to span the breadth of the current US Democratic party, that is, from nanny state socialists to nihilist Maoists.

Reply to  Tom Halla
September 3, 2024 11:23 am

Don’t forget the the section of the ‘span’ currently supported by the Democrat’s newest best friends, the neocons.

Reply to  Tom Halla
September 4, 2024 2:17 am

It’s common to the US, UK and Europe. It’s the progressive ‘disease’. The Globalist idill of borderless nations with citizens singing Kumbaya, as cultures clash and host’s are terrorised by their guests.

But Kumbaya must be maintained because like every socialist policy, if it seems like a good idea then it can be made to work, no matter how much carnage it leaves in its wake.

That’s why the left are referred to as ideologues. If they have a ‘bright’ idea it must work in practice so needs no evidence to support it. The problem is, every one of them have their own ‘bright’ ideas they just know will work, which is why there is so much infighting in socialist governments.

This is the disease of the left and why highly educated politicians are inclined gravitate to the right, and the left ends up with the likes of Angela Raynor and Dianne Abbott in positions of responsibility.

Communism might seem like a god idea, assuming we all conform to Kumbaya politics, but decent conservatives understand the world doesn’t work like that.

Robertvd
Reply to  richardw53
September 3, 2024 11:16 am

Tory ? You mean Labour 2

James Snook
Reply to  richardw53
September 3, 2024 12:23 pm

It’s the lunacy of command economics which all Western Governments have adopted in their pointless obsession with Net Zero.

ethical voter
Reply to  James Snook
September 3, 2024 1:29 pm

Command economics are leftist tools. All western governments are leftist and will be so until independents dominate. Independents are the antithesis of communists.

Reply to  ethical voter
September 4, 2024 2:29 am

Interesting that Russia dumped communism for democracy and China largely dumped central planning for Capitalism, but the west has done nothing for hundreds of years to adapt to changing political times.

As the global south marches towards personal freedoms (the political systems in Russia and China are only about 40 years old) the west marches towards authoritarianism (France just jailed a Russian for free speech offences) and central planning after hundreds of years of declining wealth and influence.

We either wake up to this PDQ or the west will be the new third world in 30 or 40 years.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  HotScot
September 4, 2024 8:42 am

If one looks closely and honestly, Russia did not dump communism, they just renamed it. China did not dump central planning but they did allow low level supply and demand, but under “guidelines” from the party central.

ethical voter
Reply to  HotScot
September 4, 2024 1:51 pm

Russia and China are both totalitarian states. This is the norm for the extremes of both left and right party governments.

Reply to  richardw53
September 4, 2024 1:30 am

It was cross party legislation. Barely any MP’s objected to it.

Rud Istvan
September 3, 2024 10:28 am

Not going to end well.

Reply to  Rud Istvan
September 4, 2024 2:31 am

We are but a bellwether.

America beware.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  HotScot
September 4, 2024 8:43 am

America is too busy fighting on whether a man is a man and a woman is a woman to notice.

Giving_Cat
September 3, 2024 10:30 am

Tow hitch, diesel generator. Problem solved.

Robertvd
Reply to  Giving_Cat
September 3, 2024 11:36 am

So in the near future we’ll need a electric generator to generate electricity?

Reply to  Robertvd
September 4, 2024 2:32 am

No, a petrol generator to generate electricity.

Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 10:34 am

We’re going to end up like Cuba, relics from the turn of the century kept on the road until the 2040s and beyond by any means necessary, because we’re simply banned from buying anything new.

Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 11:49 am

Can’t have the proles defying edicts in place for their own good…the government will just refuse to license anything older than, say, 10 years old. You can keep it in your garage, but no plates = no driving on public roads.

Bryan A
Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 12:01 pm

Then they’ll ban replacement parts, then they’ll ban petrol sales

Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 12:41 pm

Or we’ll end up like the 1800s. If the Left stays in power, they will get older ICE vehicles off the road by levying huge taxes on gasoline. Fortunately, I live close to some stables….

Reply to  Idle Eric
September 4, 2024 2:35 am

I would argue we’re pretty well there politically. It’ll just take time for Cuban practicalities to catch up.

mleskovarsocalrrcom
September 3, 2024 10:35 am

This should go over well with people who can’t afford and EV, can’t charge at home overnight, or drive more than a few miles a day.

Tom Halla
Reply to  mleskovarsocalrrcom
September 3, 2024 10:48 am

Why do the peons need a car anyway?

Robertvd
Reply to  Tom Halla
September 3, 2024 11:39 am

And all peons are far right these days.

Tom Halla
Reply to  Robertvd
September 3, 2024 11:44 am

The UK looks like it is heading for the same outcome as Sri Lanka.

Bryan A
Reply to  Tom Halla
September 3, 2024 12:02 pm

Pee on peons

Reply to  Tom Halla
September 3, 2024 12:42 pm

Let them ride donkeys.

Tom Halla
Reply to  jtom
September 3, 2024 12:47 pm

Donkeys? So unsanitary! They should be carrying the Apparatchiki around in sedan chairs.

JamesB_684
September 3, 2024 10:39 am

When are petrol shipments curtailed, except for the wealthy political contributors?

Idle Eric
Reply to  JamesB_684
September 3, 2024 10:56 am

What I suspect they’ll do is introduce road pricing for all cars (including ICE) and keep fuel duty as well, in which case we’ll end up paying £10/gallon for the fuel and the same again for the right to drive the car.

Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 11:08 am

But at least that would be an Imperial gallon.

Giving_Cat
Reply to  Retired_Engineer_Jim
September 3, 2024 11:18 am

Snort. The issue will be what the £ will be worth in 2028.

Trying to Play Nice
Reply to  Giving_Cat
September 3, 2024 1:09 pm

.00002 yuan.

Reply to  Trying to Play Nice
September 3, 2024 9:59 pm

I like your optimism

Robertvd
Reply to  Idle Eric
September 3, 2024 11:50 am

And once most people have an electric car, you will need a special credit card to charge your EV, even when you are at home, with electricity prices for charging your EV much much much higher .

Phillip Bratby
September 3, 2024 11:16 am

I confidently predict that the UK power crisis will happen before 2028. I’m generator ready.

1saveenergy
Reply to  Phillip Bratby
September 3, 2024 11:09 pm

Same here, plus an acre of woodland & 2 log burners.
But problems when they get bold enough to restrict/stop fuel for the generator & chainsaw.
I’m too old to swing an axe (except at the bastards who’ve put us in this predicament ).

Frankemann
Reply to  1saveenergy
September 4, 2024 12:43 am

Don’t feel to comfortable – there are ways to get at your log burner too. In Norway we have started putting sensors in chimneys – for your safety of course.
We are from the government. We are here to help…

https://www.halden.kommune.no/tjenester/miljo-og-teknisk/brann-og-feiing/fyring-feiing-og-pipesensor/pipesensor/

Reply to  Phillip Bratby
September 4, 2024 1:39 am

Got some cheap 2nd hand PV panels when the silver framed ones were replaced by black framed ones. So mad greenies with aesthetics phobia have given me a cheap system. DIY battery setup, generator, multi fuel boiler at the ready for the Miliband blackouts.

Barry Foster
September 3, 2024 11:32 am

Americans should know that only 1 in 5 people eligible to vote voted for these clowns. But such is the state of our electoral system AND voter apathy, that’s all they needed to gain a majority government.

The good news is that they will be brought down before the next election, as they have (amusingly) gone for a economic system which is high taxation and high growth! Anyone reading who has a basic grasp of economics knows that you need LOW taxation to stimulate growth. They have also given wage rises to the public sector. As they (Labour) are in league with the big unions, they will cave to every demand. There’s trouble ahead, as Labour are planning to spend £53 million A DAY on Net Zero…yes, $69 million a day. That is not sustainable…and Labour is soon to discover that. It will mean that they will have to go back on ALL they said about Net Zero.

Robertvd
Reply to  Barry Foster
September 3, 2024 12:04 pm

They will have to print £ Zimbabwe style bringing the country down even faster. All those immigrants will feel really at home in their new country.

KevinM
Reply to  Robertvd
September 3, 2024 1:43 pm

What would “print £ Zimbabwe style” do to trade with China?

JamesB_684
Reply to  Robertvd
September 3, 2024 7:27 pm

It’ll be central bank digital currency (CBDC). Worth … << rubbish.

Reply to  Robertvd
September 4, 2024 2:39 am

When energy prices make it too expensive to live in the UK, the immigrants will flee back to their own countries.

They are economic migrants, they go where the living is the easiest.

September 3, 2024 11:41 am

Nice photo of Keir looking normal. I don’t know what others might think, but I’d be much happier if the political thugs who intend to immiserate us actually looked the part. Would it really be that hard for them to wear armbands or some other stylish totalitarian gear? Maybe they could import some of those really big military caps from the North Koreans.

Reply to  Frank from NoVA
September 4, 2024 1:52 am

Starmer always looks vacant to me, as if there’s nothing inside. Which, come to think of it, would explain a lot….

September 3, 2024 12:09 pm

Donald Trump Interview | Lex Fridman Podcast
I’m impressed how reasonable he sounds. Lex has a huge audience. Smart move by Trump. Next I’d like to see him on Joe Rogan, and nobody has a bigger audience!

John Hultquist
September 3, 2024 12:16 pm

I have become a Cosmic Observer – just watching crazy humans do odd things. I do not understand why they do these things. Neither do they as far as I can tell.

Editor
September 3, 2024 12:20 pm

It’s time for some very large peaceful demonstrations. Ones the media can’t ignore.

Come to think of it, they may already be happening (there isn’t anything the media can’t ignore if they so choose).

Reply to  Eric Worrall
September 4, 2024 2:55 am

More importantly, we can be criminalised in the UK for a Hate Crime incident, when the ‘Victim’ (not a complainant) accuses you of calling them a ‘nasty’ (undefined) name.

No criminal trial required, no evidence required, the police simply add this ‘offence’ to your criminal record because a ‘Victim’ claims, for example, that you misgendered him/her/it.

No, I am not kidding.

It is a matter of documented court evidence that a police officer interviewed an ‘offensive Tweeter’ (he re-tweeted a Limerick) and told him, “I need to check your thinking”.

Screenshot-2024-09-04-at-10.55.09
Reply to  HotScot
September 4, 2024 2:59 am

The ‘offender’ (an ex cop) took the College of Policing to court and won.

His website fighting back against this tyranny is here:

https://www.faircop.org.uk

rtj1211
September 3, 2024 12:40 pm

There’s nothing surprising here. When you have green zealots who are ideologues, not evidence-led pragmatists, this is the sort of ludicrous situation that you get.

Funnily enough, this might be the one that kills off the Labour Party for good.

Cars are an essential part for almost all UK citizens who live outside of inner London.

If diktat causes car usage to plummet without alternatives becoming rapidly available, I can see Starmer’s current unpopularity being a high water mark it will never return to before his credibility is terminally tarnished.

It doesn’t matter how much you kiss Bibi Netanyahu’s genocidal backside, if the British people tell you where to go, it’s game over.

Reply to  rtj1211
September 3, 2024 2:21 pm

Pragmatists always get rolled by ideologues, which is why in the US our ‘conservatives’ are always ‘fighting’ to hold ground that they had previously ceded to the ‘progressives’ decades ago. As it turns out, you can’t fight something with nothing, or, as is often the case, a lot of free stuff with somewhat less free stuff.

Not to open a can of worms, but how does Netanyahu figure into EVs?

Reply to  rtj1211
September 3, 2024 10:02 pm

Funnily enough, this might be the one that kills off the Labour Party for good.

It hasn’t killed off the Tories – yet

Reply to  Redge
September 4, 2024 3:13 am

Starmer will kill the Labour party. The next election will be fought between the Tories and Reform with the Lib Dems a distant third.

We will have two ‘Conservative’ leaning parties in the House of Commons, harking back to the days of Conservatives and Classic Liberals.

Ironically it will be the ‘working man’ who votes to achieve this, the very people the Labour party was established to represent.

Even more ironically, the labour party’s own success in elevating the working man to the middle class has meant it’s traditional voter base has evaporated, and why the party now adopts identity politics via innumerable minority causes – BLM, LGBTQ, JSO, NetZero, antifa, Palestine etc. to invigorate their voter base.

Reply to  HotScot
September 4, 2024 5:52 am

Good to see you firing on all cylinders today. One small nit, though. It was not Labor that elevated workers to the middle class but their increased productivity within a market economy, all of which, as you pointed out earlier, is at serious risk in the West if we don’t get our act together shortly.

Reply to  Frank from NoVA
September 4, 2024 8:03 am

I agree up to a point. The unions had some considerable influence on workers rights, without which there would still be a serf underclass.

We can’t deny that the labour party working with the unions improved pay and working conditions. The problem is they were allowed to seize too much control.

Reply to  rtj1211
September 4, 2024 2:00 am

I know Labour MPs are pretty dumb (as are most other) but even they must realise how toxic Starmer is. In only a few weeks he’s managed to p*ss off and/or insult a sizeable chunk of his own party’s voters. He’s assembled a cabinet of all the talentless, with a particularly dim chancellor (who once worked for the Bank of England – perhaps explaining why they were so bad in controlling inflation). maybe he’ll be ousted by an internal coup, be replaced by the incredibly dim Rayner who’ll bring even more chaos, and an early election called. But perhaps I’m clutching at straws.

September 3, 2024 12:48 pm

It was the VOTERS who did this to themselves, thus I don’t give a dam for their self-destruction as they voted for it.

ethical voter
Reply to  Sunsettommy
September 3, 2024 1:41 pm

Yep. Democracys greatest weakness is that its quality is entirely dependent on the education, intellect and Morales of it`s voters. So, yes, democracy always reflects its constituents.

David A
Reply to  ethical voter
September 4, 2024 12:54 am

true, “democracys greatest weakness is that its quality is entirely dependent on the education, intellect and Morales of it`s voters.” yet true of all systems. Just substitute decision makers for voters.
So in my view, democracy without Fundementally constitutional republic protections of individual liberty, is easily turned towards tyranny.
https://anderdaa7.substack.com/p/does-absolute-power-corrupt

ethical voter
Reply to  David A
September 4, 2024 1:40 pm

Yep. Constitutional protections are a great help but in my view the tyranny is injected by the leftist structure of all political parties that are the dominant vehicle of democracy and totally unnecessary.

Reply to  Sunsettommy
September 3, 2024 3:06 pm

I totally agree. If the nitwits vote in Harris and Tater Tot Tampon Tim, that’s great. They will never know anything other than the shit and squalor they live in.

Reply to  Sunsettommy
September 4, 2024 3:19 am

Whilst I’m the first to agree, some of us fought back, which is why we have five Reform UK MP’s in the House of Commons.

I guess that would be something like RFK Jr. achieving candidacy for POTUS.

It is a significant shift to the right in British politics.

strativarius
September 3, 2024 1:11 pm

Onwards and downwards with komrade Miliband.

This has to be the most rapidly corrupt government to date. Favours being repaid.

Stalin would approve

Reply to  strativarius
September 3, 2024 3:07 pm

Sort of. They would be Stalin’s adversaries, so he would have to kill them. All’s well that ends well [spazz icon]

Trying to Play Nice
September 3, 2024 1:14 pm

Isn’t it about time England got rid of the inbred monarchy and all-powerful Parliament by taking a hint from some former colonies and devising a government controlled by the people, not a people controlled by the government. The 1st and 2nd Amendments to the US Constitution make it almost impossible for the government to do what some think it’s trying to do.

strativarius
Reply to  Trying to Play Nice
September 3, 2024 1:25 pm

We managed to offload [mental] Harry.

Parliament gives nought without struggle and bloodshed

Reply to  Trying to Play Nice
September 3, 2024 1:52 pm

Both 1A and 2A are under siege. To be sure, no aspect of the Constitution can survive a people who lack either morality or the will to govern themselves.

September 3, 2024 1:15 pm

European, USA, Australia, etc are only 20 some percent of total emissions. The rest are going to do nothing, so what’s the point? It’s beginning to sound like a religious cult.

September 3, 2024 1:47 pm

While we are on the subject of the UK here is devious Ed Miliband on wind energy. Notice how he sidesteps addressing the real problem of costly offshore wind turbines

Reply to  Michael in Dublin
September 4, 2024 2:59 am

What a patronising git Miliband is, whilst avoiding the question. The elephant in the room will come back to bite the Labour Party.

Is Miliband a gullible idiot or a liar?

Reply to  ThinkingScientist
September 4, 2024 3:22 am

Both?

Bob
September 3, 2024 1:51 pm

Government is the problem, sooner or later people are going to have to stand up to their government. It is the bureaucrats and administrators that are the problem. They are unelected, virtually unaccountable and almost impossible to get rid of. Our elected officials are either to lazy to hold these monsters to account or to afraid or just happy that they to can sit back and blame the bureaucrats and administrators as well. It is pitiful. We need to do something about it, they are causing us actual harm and costing us lots of money for no good reason. Our elected officials are not up to the task, they have had plenty of time and opportunity to fix the problem yet here we are.

September 3, 2024 1:57 pm

Even if people caved to this arrogant government coercion, Britain does not have the spare electricity to charge hundreds of thousands of new EVs.

True, not enough generating capacity, and there will be even less when they get through converting what there is to wind and solar.

But there is also the question of the local distribution network – there is also not enough local capacity to both charge all the EVs and run the heat pumps, if the government targets for both were to be met.

Even if they had the central generating capacity, and even if they could get it (from off the north coast of Scotland!) to the south, where demand is, there is then not enough local capacity to get it to all the houses at the same time.

The whole net zero project is simply hare-brained. The inevitable consequence is rolling blackouts. And higher prices for electricity to go with them. And of course the crash in the auto industry that the quota system is bringing.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  michel
September 4, 2024 8:49 am

And of course crash the economy.

September 3, 2024 3:54 pm

The Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate was implemented by the previous, so-called “conservative” government under Rishi Sunak. It requires 80% of new cars to be zero emissions by 2030 and 100% by 2035. The current radical leftists initially proposed all cars be zero emissions by 2030 but the more “pragmatic” Sunak pushed it back 5 years to 2035. In the land of loony leftists, the pragmatic person is the one with half a brain.

It will be entertaining to watch how this destroys the vehicle economy in the UK. It’s already started. This will vastly increase the popularity of the Reform Party and Nigel Farage who don’t brook suicidal stupidity.

September 3, 2024 9:30 pm

This summer in France between Lyon and Paris, on the highway, the entrance to a gas station was almost completely blocked by dozens of electric vehicles queuing to access the electric charges. After passing the bunch of deluded gullibles, we filled up and left with 800 km of autonomy 5 minutes later.

Idiots mostly learn real life the hard way, unfortunately, this very often leads to inconvenience for the general population.

The worst happens when those idiots are in power since they no longer suffer but may even benefit from the suffering they proudly inflict on the population.

observa
September 4, 2024 12:03 am

Oz starts next year with basically a carbon tax by another name-
British car manufacturers ‘ration’ petrol vehicle sales over government-imposed mandates (youtube.com)
You can buy any car you want as long as you pay the increasing annual tax to encourage the recalcitrants into cars they don’t want-
VFACTS August 2024: Record RAV4 sales drive hybrid surge as EVs stumble (msn.com)