United Kingdom V: Son of a beach

[Cassius_Smoke]

This is interesting. It has restored a microscopic level of faith in journalism.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-brexit-news-journalists-walk-out-no-10-briefing-a9314996.html

[charlesr]

Steven Garner prominent Brexiteer turns out to be the lying twat we all thought he was. Great British brand Norton collapsed a few days ago in scandal.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/30/taken-for-a-ride-how-norton-motorcycles-collapsed-amid-acrimony-and-scandal

[charlesr]

Sorry Stuart Garner

[vanpeebles]

The real Norton went out of business years ago.

[charlesr]

Yeah but this one was being held up by government as a shining example of how Britain would do great out of Brexit. A year ago, sky interviewed him and he said although their market in Europe was nose diving due to Brexit, it would be easy to double their business by looking further afield at China and India.

Although I think the whole bluster was just a smoke screen of PR to hide how poorly it was doing. So it's not really a Brexit story, but a corrupt businessman story.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/04/car-industry-petrol-diesel-ban-uk-electric-vehicles

Johnson announces a ban on petrol, diesel and hybrid new car sales from 2035 onward. The industry attacks him saying all he's doing is setting a date without a plan, he'll harm current day hybrid sales and the UK won't be anywhere near ready for electric only.

[fishbowlhead]

The UK, or planet for that matter, simply doesn’t have the resources to go full electric by 2035. Hes a moron.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that there isn't enough lithium in the world to supply just half of the UK with electric cars. Let alone the world.

[Brad]

The UK, or planet for that matter, simply doesn’t have the resources to go full electric by 2035. Hes a moron.

Yes it does. It can’t handle everyone charging their car all at the same time but by intelligently staggering charge times we only need about another 20 megawatts. The one issue that won’t go away is if I need to travel 500 miles in a hurry I’m screwed! It’s actually more convenient a lot of the time though. If you have a charging point at home I.e. you have a drive, then you’ll almost never need to visit a garage!

[QualityChimp]

Steven Garner prominent Brexiteer turns out to be the lying twat we all thought he was. Great British brand Norton collapsed a few days ago in scandal.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...ny-and-scandal

A Brexit story in three acts:

[Brad]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that there isn't enough lithium in the world to supply just half of the UK with electric cars. Let alone the world.

There’s plenty, we can mine more if we need it and we can get the lithium back out (recycle it) when the battery is exhausted. Also there are other minerals that can be used instead of lithium, should we need to.

[Hirst]

Hasn't Johnson ever seen Firebird 2015 AD? If you outlaw petrol cars, all outlaws will drive petrol cars.

[fishbowlhead]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that there isn't enough lithium in the world to supply just half of the UK with electric cars. Let alone the world.

Yup. I mean there may be other battery tech one day, but how many decades has that been a pipe dream for now “new more powerful batterys could be here in the next 5 years!”.

There simply isn’t enough lithium to build batteries.

[Neon Ignition]

It seems so stupid as well to target hybrids as well. Though petrol and diesel would need to be sold everywhere post 2035 for all the existing vehicles it's clearly a PR disaster for current say car sales to make such a sweeping statement.

[Dogg Thang]

There’s plenty, we can mine more if we need it and we can get the lithium back out (recycle it) when the battery is exhausted. Also there are other minerals that can be used instead of lithium, should we need to.

There is plenty, says Brad and also seemingly lots of other people. And as stated, there could be other battery tech. Johnson’s an idiot and, yes, of course he has no plan but if normal people think we can’t move from petrol cars in 15 years, one and a half decades, and aren’t coming with a better solution, then it’s just defeatist and is that usual “trying is the first step towards failure” thing that, firstly, gets us nowhere and, secondly, serves the worst richest people on the planet. 15 years is a long time. Seems better to aim for a goal than just shake your heads and say it can’t be done. Of course it can be done if the will is strong enough. It just benefits a very select group of people for it not to be done.

Honestly, some of you have such a bleak view of yourselves, your country and humankind that I don’t even know how you get up in the morning. You’ve been sold nihilism and you’ve made it your own.