Should be a great vote loser if publicized enough !
That's the issue! Right now, people simply haven't grasped the sheer scale of the changes that nearly all UK politicians have signed up to. They think that their houses will still be warm at reasonable cost; electric cars will be no different from internal combustion apart from the time it takes to charge them ......... and so on and so forth. After all, nearly every aspect of living has been pretty well continuously improved for most people since the the 19th century. It'll just carry on, but with some differences like a few hours to charge the car instead of 5 minutes at the filling station. In reality virtually every aspect of life as we know it is going to adversely affected and for the first time in living memory, those in power are signed up to making everybody worse off in real terms.
Already, the more honest people in the green movement are starting to come clean, and say that the issue of charging street side parked e-cars is a non-issue as there simply won't be anything like the numbers of cars or car-owners around now. (It's not just cars - the government's own climate change committee spokeswoman said on BBC4 a year or two back that everybody owning tools, or gardening equipment - and presumably washing machines and vacuum cleaners too - is a wasteful / proliferation of possessions that generate way too much carbon in their manufacture. We only need a single lawnmower per street and there will have to be share schemes for a vast range of tools, utensils, possessions we take for granted.) Use of a car will be an expensive hire (and road pricing?) job for special occasions only. Foot, bicycle, hired e-scooter, public transport will be the norm. Tough luck if you're elderly, in poor health, live in the remote countryside or wherever and need to get to the bank, shops, post office, school, doctor, hospital etc that have all been concentrated in fewer and fewer centres through other bean-counting policies. If you can't do it online, yet again 'tough!'. No wonder the gone and unlamented Matt Hancock thought that online diagnosis and GP consultations are great ideas and the way forward even after the pandemic ends. How many policy papers are being written though, or will be soon, in Whitehall about the changes needed to cope with people forced out of physical movement through loss of personal transport? Reopen rural railway lines and halts? Not a chance! In the present over-regulated H&S culture, even if Network Rail were efficient (which they're not), the costs of a simple two platform halt with a little bus shelter on each is astronomic. And .... today's safety regime says you can't have sleeper foot crossings with pedestrian-operated wicket gates to get to and from the far platform - you need a bridge and it has to be disabled person / wheelchair compatible. (That's half a million in itself!) Hourly (electric) buses to everywhere all day, every day? Who's going to pay for that? It's cheaper to give every passenger on these bus-routes and low-usage branch-line rail services their own Mini courtesy of the taxpayer. Oh, but that's where we came in - we don't want anybody to have private transport!
Rural folks are sleepwalking to disaster here. They seem 100% unaware of what's in store for them. Public discontent and the start of leaning on politicians is only taking place in the cities over the hated street closures and LTNs. This is the litmus test right now and greens / politicians will be watching outcomes like hawks. If greenwashed local authorities are allowed to keep these schemes with nothing more than occasional letters to local newspapers and grumbling, it's a green light for ever more intrusive changes and restrictions on freedoms. Sports and hobbies will in many cases be finished. The days of shooters walking to a local rifle range, anglers to the local river with minimal kit, even to the sole surviving local bowling or cricket club, are long gone . As
Tackle & Guns trade magazine pointed out in a recent issue, carp anglers can't use cars anymore, they need a fair-sized van for all the gear they take. Think you're going to drive in a 4 X 4 from south of the border to a weekend stalking in Scotland, e-vehicle or otherwise? Oh no you won't unless rich or are somebody with special state provided privileges as in the old USSR.
Since every party is signed up to this agenda, and are well aware of the implications on personal freedom and standard of living, we need a modern day Nigel Farage and a radical new party to challenge what is fast becoming political orthodoxy that excuses state control over aspect of our lives.
