Autocar have this story today. It is disguised as a article about whether or not it is right to take the beating heart (or internal combustion engine) out of a classic car and replace it with an electric motor. It seems to be more of an advert for Kit Lacey's eDub Services who do just that.
But, then again, Michael Gove had already told us that we'd had enough of experts. He then went on to tell us to listen to the experts on Coronavirus.
Anyway, these particular experts are The Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens (FIVA) who issued a statement, stating that it
“cannot promote, to owners or regulators, the use of modern EV components to replace a historic vehicle’s drivetrain”.
eDub are offering to box up the original engine so that it can be re-installed if it is so desired.
I'd have thought that this way, more classics would end up on the road - and in a more eco-friendly way. Nobody is going to do this with all of the existing classics so the more the merrier. And more must be getting merrier as more and more operations set up to do this exact job.
Over in Wales (or over on Quest) is another example - Richard "Moggy" Morgan of Electric Classic Cars in Newtown is shown on Quest and the series returns this Thursday:
Not sure of their scheduling, they seemed to show half of the series then stop it.
I am a non-believer. Have been since I think I worked it out in an RE Lesson when I was in the Sixth Form.
But this Coronavirus has had me questioning my lack of faith.
Only a bit though.
The World is in a mess. We have morons in charge of the US and Brazil. We have evil people in charge of China and Russia. We have a habitual liar in charge of the UK. We have pollution. We have plastics in the food chain. We have climate change - ice-caps melting. We have chaos in The Middle East. The Amazon Rainforest is being destroyed - that's the lungs of the Earth!
Nobody in power has taken any notice of Greta.
Even the supposedly good guys like Justin Trudeau have disappointed us:
So what would God do?
Invent something to shut down industry and get people to stop using their cars. Invent something that Trump and Bolsonaro will badly mishandle in a vain attempt to protect their economies.
Here is what my exit from the motorway on my way home looks a bit like now:
Except there are more traffic cones and less Hillman Avengers today than in that 1977 photo I found on Google Images. Thanks to whoever added that credit to it - I feel slightly less guilty about using it when there are credits. Is that a motorbike in the exit lane? - I guess it must be but it's very hard to work out.
Anyway, I've digressed. This whole Blog-Post is inspired by this BBC story about how the AA say "Coronavirus will transform UK work and travel."
They predict "a permanent reduction in the demand for travel because people have learned during the crisis to use home-working technology."
Don't forget videoconferencing. I would travel to the local hospital for a specific meeting once a month. For me, it was a 10 to 15 minute drive which isn't a biggie - other attendees had to come in from all over the county - but the parking was a nightmare and as our employers would recompense us for fuel - that recompense would come from NHS budgets. We used Zoom this time - the only disadvantage was no chocolate hobnobs - we'll probably continue doing it this way.
"The chancellor currently plans to spend £27bn to curb congestion on roads and £100bn on HS2 – but if demand falls, that may not be needed."
Indeed, especially as his magic money trees will have other priorities. AA President Edmund King agrees, "anecdotal evidence from people lucky enough to be working during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown suggests that infrastructure funds might be better spent on broadband to support home working."
AND - IT ALL HELPS TO SLOW DOWN ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE!
"Other experts are calling for the roads programme and HS2 rail project to be put on hold for a decade so ministers can be sure they’re not wasting money.
They say if commuters spend just one day a week working from home after the crisis - or commuting later - the roads will be as empty as they are in the school holidays."
Now, I know Michael Gove believes we have had enough of experts, but our government does seem to have started quoting them so maybe that's another effect of the virus.
As for HS2, this Jonathan Pie video is an excellent argument for cancelling it - maybe a postponement for a decade would be a step in the right direction - don't watch it if you're easily offended by sweary language:
The Guardian's Stuart Heritage has two items of Paddy McGuinness news for us this week.
I haven't worked him out yet - Heritage not McGuinness - I do know he's better than Keith Watson of "The Metro" - but that's not difficult. I think for one thing, he does actually know about the show he is talking about.
Always useful in a media journalist that.
In the story that Top Gear is to be moved from BBC2 to BBC1, he makes some very valid points including that the move has been designed to “attract younger viewers and safeguard the future of the licence fee” but younger viewers (and myself) tend to watch shows on catch-up so won't associate it with a particular channel anyway.
I still don't approve of the current TG line-up but have to agree with Stuart that this series is very successful - possibly because it is now no longer a "mouldy old car show".
His words not mine - I like car shows and want more of them so would never stick the adjective "mouldy" in front of one - unless they were really crap - like the last two series of Driven or like "I Want That Car"
But Top Gear isn't crap.
It's just lost its way as a car show. The bungee last week could have been done sitting in a bathtub (although I did enjoy the deceit that leaving the handbrake on would stop him).
The rear axle coming off the Firebird was very funny - please tell me that wasn't faked.
But having just the one motoring expert is restricting. Don't tell Michael Gove,
...but we need more experts. Otherwise, dumb stuff that is popular comes to the forefront:
So asks some journo I've never heard of in The Mirror. He calls himself Fleet Streetfox although the silhouette looks more like a woman but then it would be "She calls herself Fleet Streetvixen".
Whoever it is, they really have got it in for Chris Evans and, to a very, very slightly lesser extent, for Jeremy Clarkson too.
Maybe he/she/it is jealous of the success & wealth of the duo. He/she/it does comment upon the £5 Million Evans is getting for taking over TopGear. Like the many people who complain of the millions of pounds the Top Gear stars get from licence-payers funds, they don't mention the considerably more pounds that come in to the BBC coffers as a result of the show.
The event that has caused Fleet's vitreol is filming around The Cenotaph in London including Ken Block doing doughnuts around there. An error of judgement that I learned about this morning listening to Chris Evans apologising for on his radio show.
Quentin Willson has helpfully come out to say how it wouldn't have happened under Jeremy's watch. Not sure why he is telling us this but it is on the BBC's own youth-oriented Newsbeat so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume they asked him for his opinion.
Jeremy, meanwhile, has been showing his softer, more liberal side...
I've not looked at the ins and outs of staying in or out of the European Union yet. But I have been noticing the sort of people giving us their views. The outies include Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Ian Duncan Smith and, of course, Nigel Farage.
This makes me want to stay in.
The innies include Professor Stephen Hawking (good start there), David Cameron (Oh dear), Jeremy Corbyn (Jury's out and don't mention The Cenotaph again) and now - Jeremy Clarkson!
Surprised me that one. But he's never actually said he hates Europe - just all the people who live there.
the Independent report his Sunday Times column, (which I'm not linking to because it costs) in which Jeremy claims to want to be part of a properly functioning EU - “Isn’t it better to stay in and try to make the damn thing work
properly? To create a United States of Europe that functions as well as
the United States of America? With one army and one currency and one
unifying set of values?"
The article continues,
Warning of a world order which saw Trump set against Putin, Clarkson
emphasised the need “to make the continent work the way the Continent
should – as a liberal, kind, balanced fulcrum in a mad world”.
At that point I wondered if he was taking the mickey.
But I don't think he is.
Reading his stuff from the '80s and '90s shows a very right-wing Clarkson but I did notice when the Star in a Reasonably Priced car was Alistair Campbell and again for John Prescott we had a much more even-handed, almost sympathetic Clarkson.
