Labour’s Callous Betrayal of The ‘Environmentally Responsible’ and Their Gravy Train
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.
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“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.”
And what about the families whose money was taken away to subsidise your virtue signalling?
We should also remember when Gordon Brown gave tax relief to diesel vehicles. Everyone knew or should have known that diesel is worse for our lungs than petrol, and ofcourse the reason he gave tax relief was because diesel produces less CO2 emissions then petrol. So his policy was actually helping to damage peoples health while pretending to save the planet.
If Labour gave a flying f**k about the environment they wouldn’t be ripping up the countryside to (try to) build 1.5 million houses in 5 years, mostly on Green belt land.
I live South of Reading, and the number of houses being built is scary, but little is being done for infrastructure, schools, hospitals etc.
On top of that Solar farms and Wind farms are using up vast swathes of land, does that not count as environment and habitat?
Re Mr. Moore’s comment “He’s convinced it’ll be impossible for the Government to work out how many miles an EV owner has done per year. ”
I suspect he is correct. And I suspect the government knows they can’t really get mileage from EV’s. I suspect they are planning/proposing a known-to-be-impossible/impractical policy so that it can fail and give EV owners yet more reprieve on paying “their fair share” of road use.
Also, with this per mile road tax, it’s impossible for consumers to compare running costs of EV’s vs. vehicles using petroleum products.
I suspect these factors–and maybe more–explains why the EV road tax they propose/plan is different than for petroleum-based vehicles.
Other than they wish their new policy to fail, I can’t think of a reason why they can’t have a tax per vehicle.
Every vehicle has an odometer, and the figures are tracked once you get an MOT inspection carried out. It wouldn’t be hard for a government to require an annual submission for road mile calculation, even before MOTs kick in.
It really is a no-brainer, with a big bill at the end of the third year when the MOT becomes due.
They could just require the registered owner to enter the recorded mileage via their account, perhaps with a photo of the display to corroborate their entry. Reminds me of when I had a Honda Civic diesel that had zero road tax (when that was the policy for <100g/km). I had to pay nothing every year, but had to register that I wasn’t paying; that was the DVLA online bureaucracy.
So the next thing is that EVs will be fitted with Smart Meters that upload mileage travelled on a regular basis (no doubt cars built in China or having Chinese components already report such information to their political masters). Not that any of this absolves EV drivers from Pay Per Mile schemes – coming to main roads near you – return on investment in all those surveillance cameras.
All new cars will need to be serviced to maintain the warranty and have their mileage recorded. Older cars will be MOT’ed and have mileage recorded. It will not be difficult for a child to get this data, but Labour?
I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who took the subsidised EVs and the tax free electricity thinkiung they were virtue signalling. They should pay for road maintenance more than ICE cars because they are heavier and do more damage to the roads and emit more particles from brakes and tyres.
At least on account of above average road wear caused by the weight. As a hybrid owner I know that brakes last a long time due to regenerative braking, and no doubt EVs do the same thing. That said, popular SUVs whatever the power supply is might have the same problem.
Agree entirely. Poor, poor EV drivers – my heart bleeds for them!
Firstly, good job to if electric cars are taxed more, they can pay back the subsidy that everyone gave towards the purchase, so the rest of us will no longer be out of pocket. Secondly, I hate to tell all of the righteous EV drivers, but all of those lovely on board electronics your car comes with almost certainly include telematics, which most modern cars have. Using this, the Government can track every mile you do on every road, so no need for new monitoring systems on motorways etc., your car will be ratting you out continuously.
Idiot. Several levels of cluelessness going on in this bloke.
https://www.yealmenergy.co.uk/about
A great big crowd of over-educated products of the system.
“Andrew Moore has lived in Newton Ferrers since 2013 after relocating from Oxford. His background is in Clinical Biochemistry, and has previously established laboratories in the NHS, grown new diagnostic industries, and had his own consulting and publishing companies, as well as chairing a Parish Council. A major research interest for over 40 years has been evidence around treatments for pain. Andrew was previously a YCE director from 2015 to 2021 but took time oM [what is oM?] to work on an international pain project. He is glad to be back.”
I am guessing he is jabbed, too… to the eyeballs, no doubt.
He hasn’t had continuous employment in any one thing, but has established this, grown that, had consulting and publishing companies (had?) and research…
Sounds like he’s been in a lot of make-work, non-wealth creating activity – jack of all trades, master of none.
Taking advantage of the public sector, and we all know how careful they are with other people’s money.
An absolute PIA then.
Andrew wants a good slapping! 🤣
Why should EV drivers be exempt from road tax? Just like drivers of ICE vehicles, they benefit from the provision of such items as:
road surfaces on which to drive
road markings
signage
drainage
traffic signals
With EVs being 10 to 30% heavier than their ICE counterparts (depending whose figures you use), they’ll cause more damage to the surface as well over time. Another argument for them paying VED.
Not forgetting particulate air pollution due to accelerated tyre wear…
I actually do feel sorry for Andrew Moore, because he, like millions of us, believed all the lies we were taught and told and brainwashed with, and he genuinely wanted to take personal action to “save the planet”, like millions believed in Global Warming, millions joined Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace and gave them money, millions welcomed hostile aliens who “don’t want to live here with us, they want to live here INSTEAD of us”, millions of brainwashed young women got sterilized to “save the planet” from overpopulation, millions of parents trustingly let doctors stick 72 needles into their babies, and millions of people all over the world took the CovidHoax Clotshots.
It’s not fair to sneer at people who have acted in good faith, trying to do their bit for the greater good, as they have been tricked into believing.
It’s better to celebrate the fact that they are slowly waking up.
He doesn’t make any noises which might indicate he is waking up.
He is complaining about losing his subsidies… He can take a running jump as far as I am concerned.
I don’t feel sorry for him I’m afraid. Even in its own terms of reducing carbon footprint, the money directed to him and others for electric cars and solar panels has not been good value for money. Draught excluders for the houses of pensioners would give much more return and would have added health benefits. Was going to say insulation, but if insulation is subsidised by the government it is almost always a disaster.
“Carbon footprint” is a bollocking nonsense of an expression.
But this example isn’t slowly waking up. He’s just annoyed that the subsidies are being withdrawn and he’s having to make a contribution.
He’s obviously not environmentally friendly because he owns a car, two actually.
And was going to buy a new one…but now will have to make do with the old one for a bit longer. Congratulations, he has taken the most environmentally friendly route!
What a sound chap ! 😀😀
My heart and my bank account bleeds for this poor man and his family, how dreadful it must be that he can no longer grift from the public whilst wearing his halo of virtue at our expense. Give me a bloke who has no intention of working and taking advantage of every benefit going, at least he does not hide what he is, wheras this bloke and his ilk.
I wonder does he dress in homespun and eat only vegetables he has grown himself, does he live by candle light or from his self powered windmill? perhaps he eats only herbs to heal himself and his children when they are sick. If not then its all just a luxury belief, as he still relies on God given fossil fuels to furnish his life.
Hahahaaaa
My sentiment exactly.
As an expert in pain relief he’ll have wherewithal to deal with getting if good and hard!
Cry me a river …
Bloke doesn’t know whether he is a virtue signaller or a grifter. He sounds suspiciously like both.
Anyone who trusts the government deserves to be screwed by them. They do it all the time. People should know by now.
“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.”
All cars have a yearly MOT which reads their odometer. It’s also read on sale or transfer. No additional technology or process is necessary to get this information.
An average EV weighs approximately 2,300 kg
An average ICE weighs approximately 1,200 kg
Therefore, EVs are heavier than ICE vehicles and will wear out roads quicker than ICE vehicles making them more environmentally ‘damaging’.
‘Virtuous’ Master Moore thinks ICE owners should not only foot the bill for road repairs but pay more and more often. And then there is the environmental damage of all the rare Earth mining which most likely involves child labour.
“Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience”
Adam Smith
Nice quote, never read that before
I know of a major company who recently removed non contractual salary sacrifice pension conts top ups for all, to help fund a government backed ev scheme, which of course only the self righteous rich nobs would be able to afford to partake in. So the rich few being favoured over the poor. I have no sympathy at any level for ev non drivers. I am often stuck behind one driving erratically slowly with brake lights going on and off for no reason.
My brother-in-law bought a small new EV. He says it has a feature which he called single pedal driving. If you take your foot off the ‘go’ pedal it starts using the inertia of the vehicle to recharge the battery. This slows the vehicle more than engine braking in an ICE (who does that these days – apart from me?) but less than applying the brakes. The on-board computer then decides to show the brake lights to warn the driver behind – even though the driver has not touched the brake pedal. Result: brake lights going on and off for no apparent reason.
Classic example of a solution looking for a problem.
Well thanks for that information. I call that crying wolf and an incredibly dangerous design which misleads the driver behind on what is going on. Yes I don’t drive on the brakes either, although my engine torque is pitiful for much of a braking effect. It’s still a smoother ride though.
Haven’t laughed so much since Grandma died.
So much like the earlier push to get people to buy diesel cars for their low CO2, good mileage, and cheaper fuel? And now diesel costs more than petrol.
Ho hum. Place not your trust in princes.
Never understood why anyone fell for diesel being better for the environment, even with lower co2. All you have to do is cycle or walk next to a busy road with diesels and you know it’s nicer near to be closer to a petrol car . It’s the nose and throat test, the nasty particulates are obvious and always were.
What a moron. Has he been a snail living under rock for the last few years? It’s CHYNAAAA, stupid. ( and India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Africa…….. ) Nobody ever mentions this herd of elephants in the room pumping out CO2 1000 times more than we can “save” by doing Net-Zero-Braincells and destroying our economies in the process. We are already the only G7 country that has shut down its quality steel furnaces, and to boot is closing down its pharmaceutical manufacturing, and where car manufacturers are cutting production. Yet morons like this seem to incapable of basic CRITICAL THINKING, and just drink in all the stuff that their eyeballs see and eardrums hear without question. According to mining.com, the global mining industry’s in-house magazine, CHYNAAA is building 700 new coal-fired power stations in China and around the world. America’s BBC, NPR (National Public Radio) puts it at 300, so split the difference at 500. Whatever. And this is on top of China’s existing 1100 odd coal-fired power plants. They’re laughing themselves silly at Europe’s self-destruction religion “climate change”. And how do I know “climate change” is a fraud? It’s because I have a hard science background and know the history of… Read more »
Just another brainwashed consumer who thinks he is being environmentally responsible but in reality he isn’t. Apparently he can’t see the hypocrisy of the climate scam and seems totally unaware of the environmental damage involved in producing batteries for EVs.
It is the well paid on higher tax bands who benefit from the salary sacrifice EV tax avoidance scheme. Often they have already used their lifetime pension allowance on salary sacrifice AVCs and need something else to reduce their contributions. The standard rate employees don’t earn sufficient to afford an EV or an AVC
“People like me feel we have been lied to.”
Why did you expect to be exempt from their lies?
Gullible, terminally stupid ….. or “minor player in the scam and didn’t think they’d come for you?”
It is very naïve to buy a vehicle or anything else for that matter based on what governments have filed our heads with. When it comes to the environment (mostly climate change) what we are told by the Political Class is mostly a smidgeon of the truth elevated into some planetary emergency for which no evidence actually exists, and their motivations for getting us to buy particular things or adopt particular behaviours are entirely POLITICAL.
Why did anyone think going electric was going to save the planet and therefore they should be considered saintly? What exactly do they think it takes to generate electricity? Anyone know.
“I switched to electric because I wanted to be environmentally responsible.”
Mr Moore evidently is not very bright. EV’s are not environmentally responsible and where did he think the money would come from to replace fuel duty?
You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.
Virtue signaling has a cost, who knew?
No sympathy when an entitled virtue signaler gets some comeuppance. Hope his insurance policy quadruples as well, for all the excess risks these vehicles create, that ICE vehicles don’t!