BBC New tonight, and a quote from Gordon Brown:-

"One of the benefits to people in the advancing technologies of electric cars is a better Miles per Gallon!"

Mmmm...and Blair had not used a mobile phone until he left office....

The country is heading in the right direction with two such technologically adept stalwarts at it's helm....

Which direction that might be they have no clue.....

As GB is possibly the ONLY politician who makes David "Oh, you surprised me with that TV camera, and me just popping out for a paper and all" Cameron look like a reasonable alternative, please can John Prescott come back and lamp him one NOW?!

I can't stand that lot of tie-chewing toffs but I've even been having thoughts like "that Georgie Osborne seems like a nice boy". He was at a local fell race the other week all done up in his ruling-class rags but he was sat talking with some young local kids as ordinary as you please.

GB's other statement this week was more worrying: "PLEASE STOP THROWING FOOD AWAY". Sorry GB but if my Mum went to Iceland it would all be in the feckin bin. Out of touch? Was he ever in orbit?

Yes but Prescot coming out with that wasting food quote would be even more bizarre!

"Don't chuck yer pies away!"

and

"Put them bloody eggs back or I'll punch yer lights out!"

BBC New tonight, and a quote from Gordon Brown:-

"One of the benefits to people in the advancing technologies of electric cars is a better Miles per Gallon!"  -  Wrote Tony.

The press have apparently sought clarification upon this oddly vague seeming nonsensical statement from the PM. The folks at no 10 are now claiming that the PM meant the modern hybrid cars, in taking the average mpg of the vehicle. Still makes little sense that! So glad they answered that one then, a whole lot clearer that is now isn't it!

Oh dear God.

It's bad enough feeling you need to make cr*p excuses for a simple f-up without paying other people to do it for you!

Maybe GB thinks that if he sells electiricity in gallons he can charge more tax on it and reinvest it in giant windmills or guns n'ammo or something else dead useful.

Politcian quotes are great. I Like this one from George Bush (Snr)

"The French have no word for entrepreneur"

Or oil-fired... maybe even gas fired... power stations... but that's a bit hard to explain to a bear of very little brain.

I have tried on a few occasions to compare the ACTUAL total energy expenditure of different types of car and it is extremely difficult to do.

No matter whether you know the engine efficiency, it is the unseen energy costs that are hard to calculate...

When you start to look at how much energy it takes to drill, transport, refine, & distribute petrol/diesel and compare it with the amount of energy it takes to generate, & distribute electrical power (sharing a proportion of the construction costs of any power station etc.) you soon get very lost in unknowns. Then there's the environmental impact of disposing with all those nasty battery chemicals when the car eventually dies.

In short, despite my best efforts, I cannot really work out whether electrical cars are actually a good thing for the environment. Especially when you compare them to biodiesel running at the 100+mpg now attainable through mature diesel technology. Personally I think they might prove to be nothing more than a tax dodge; YOUR emissions end up being low but your overall environmental impact might be just the same or worse. Unless the nation makes a comprehensive switch to renewable / carbon neutral energy sources for electrical power generation then you are just passing on the emissions upstream, and leaving a legacy of toxicity to deal with in 10 or 15 years time.

Talk about a tangent! Sorry

John