Labour’s Callous Betrayal of The ‘Environmentally Responsible’ and Their Gravy Train – Watts Up With That?

From THE DAILY SCEPTIC

The Telegraph has a piece by a deeply aggrieved Nissan Leaf owner called Andrew Moore. He’s moaning because after having shelled out “to save the planet”, nasty Labour “plans to punish” him and as a result he feels “so let down”:

I switched to electric because I wanted to be environmentally responsible. This latest move feels like a betrayal of the families trying to reduce their carbon footprint.

As far as Mr Moore is concerned, being “environmentally sound” should go hand in hand with a lifetime of being exempt from road tax and fuel excise duty. Anything else is sheer betrayal:

Labour urgently needs cash, and EV drivers are easy targets [what, just like the rest of us? Ed.] I simply cannot see what they hope to achieve with this measure. The pay-per-mile tax is due to be announced by Rachel Reeves on November 26th, but I doubt it will survive contact with the public: it’s wildly unpopular and completely at odds with everything we’ve been told about Labour’s commitment to the environment.

Of course, it rather depends on what he means by “the public”. Most car owners are still driving ICE vehicles and more than a few of them don’t think too kindly of those who can afford EVs being exempt from stumping up like the rest of us. Suddenly, the plot thickens though:

I admit I have a personal stake. I’m Chairman of a local community energy company running three solar farms, and I firmly believe we need to minimise our dependence on fossil fuels and stop polluting the planet.

I bought a Nissan Leaf in 2020, as one of the early wave of EV owners. Back then, my wife Maura and I were running a company – I’m a retired biochemist – and at the time the then chancellor, Rishi Sunak, was offering good incentives to companies to adopt EVs, with low tax rates and a few thousand off the price.

Having an EV made “perfect sense”. Of course it did, just like the solar farms in his company which presumably benefited from taxpayer-funded subsidies:

For us, it made perfect sense as we mainly drove short distances and could charge the car overnight when electricity was cheaper. With no car tax and no petrol costs, it was economically and environmentally sound.

However, apparently unaware of the environmental cost of manufacturing EV cars and generating electricity on the numerous occasions when the sun is blotted out and the wind doesn’t blow, Mr Moore also seems to be unaware that the whole point of hybrids is not having to be stuck in a layby with a flat battery, because they handily include a petrol tank:

We also have a Kia Sportage plug-in hybrid for longer journeys which requires a degree of forward planning, locating charging points along the route.

He’s convinced it’ll be impossible for the Government to work out how many miles an EV owner has done per year. It seems he has no idea most EVs are connected to the internet through the 4G signal for their various ‘smart’ functions, by using an embedded SIM card. Nissan Leafs have a SIM in their Telematics Control Unit. The Kia Sportage also has one, usually an eSIM. One tweak of the software and change of the law and his every move will be transmitted in a trice to some central pay-per-mile database.

Mr Moore is also disgusted at being betrayed by Sir Sadiq Khan, who callously plans to deny him the chance to drive round London for free as well:

I was also furious when I heard that the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is planning to make EV drivers pay the congestion charge next year. Yet another step backwards.

People like me feel we have been lied to. The biggest personal effect is that it has put me off buying a new electric car, so it will undoubtedly hit this market. We had been looking at the new electric Nissan Micra, but now I’m thinking: “Why bother? My old car runs perfectly well.”

That, funnily enough, is exactly what an increasing number of ICE car owners have been thinking too, though they have a better chance of keeping their cars on the road for a lot longer. As for poor Mr Moore, who is now viewing the prospect of his freebie rewards disappearing as fast as Labour’s support, there’s only one way to end:

“I weep for you,” the Walrus said:

      “I deeply sympathise.”

With sobs and tears he sorted out

      Those of the largest size,

Holding his pocket-handkerchief

      Before his streaming eyes.The Walrus and the Carpenter, by Lewis Carroll

 The Telegraph’s piece is worth reading in full.