Let’s make this absolutely clear. A subsidy of between £2k and £5k on electric cars, starting 2011, is “Good” protectionism. All the other forms of protectionism are bad, but if it’s the Green Industry? Well that’s totally different.
The Government has a problem – that problem is that people don’t want electric cars. They want us to want them, so they’re going to help us to want them by using £250,000,000 of taxpayer’s cash to reduce the sticker price of these awful things. Bribing us with our own money to create a whole new dependent industry: Rapture!
The scheme starts in 2011 – which gives the car companies plenty of time to begin designing, testing then mass producing what’s sure to be the hot sellers of that year. At least, that’s what Labour hopes, but I suspect the car manufacturers will wait until the next General Election before investing hard cash – assuming they have hard cash left by then.
Labour assure us that by 2011 they’ll have enough renewable energy sources feeding the National Grid to offset all the addition electricity required by these toy cars. Despite the obvious rationality and believability of this plan, I’m still left thinking, “clowns.” I wonder why?
Well, I’m thinking “clowns” because that’s exactly what they are. No offense to clowns, obviously.
But on the negative side for the LDs, Labour’s doing a grand old job of daring us to go further. I can see it now: Lib Dems screaming at Labour, “You’re not going far enough!” while the rest of the country backs away from us looking slightly embarrassed – and a bit scared. Except for the Greens, of course, who glower at us and call us traitors.
With Green stuff, you just can’t win. I still stand by my opinion that it’s electoral poison. The only reason this policy is even being considered is because it’s the only way the Government can dump money on the Car Industry without incuring the wrath of the EU.
The real pity is that the market will not be allowed to decide what comes after oil based engines – the politicians want to do that for us.
Imagine at the start of the Betamax/VHS war*, the British Government had decided to subsidise sales of Betamax players to encourage companies to build factories and so on. In the real world the market decided that VHS was the better technology (it had longer tapes to record onto… who knew?), and so it’s a very good thing we didn’t sink taxpayer’s money into the rival, but this is what we’re about to do to the car industry. We’re about to plough1 serious cash into the Betamax of Next Generation Personal Transportation.
At least, that’s what Labour will do to the car industry if they get a 4th term. I’m thinking… “Electric Leyland” I’m thinking… you know what? New Labour is very, very dead isn’t it?
*Let’s not have any boring Betamax Versus VHS arguments. This you can’t win, and it’ll just be humiliating for everyone involved.
1 – Thank you Blackacre, via Pedant’s Corner.
