Mike Hosking: Slow vaccine rollout has left us sitting ducks

Shall we use the phrase of the age?

We dodged a bullet?

But did we? Wellington is back to level one as of midnight Tuesday.

Is this not the first time the country has had levels shifted for literally nothing.

Zero cases.

This time a bloke comes to the capital, wanders round the capital leaves the capital …and….and nothing.

Peter Joyce: Sexual Violence Bill - What does it change?

The Sexual Violence Bill trundles ever closer to becoming law. The sentiments behind it appear noble: to ease the trauma of the trial process for complainants and to correct perceived low conviction rates. However, it is really responding to pressure to jail more perpetrators. A 2019 Ministry of Justice report claimed only eleven percent of sexual crimes reported to police lead to conviction, and just six percent to a jail sentence.

Yet most criminal lawyers are opposed, and not only on the defence side. In the bill's second reading in Parliament, former prosecutor Simon Bridges spoke passionately against its two sinister clauses. He assured the House that he supports the broad intention of the bill in limiting courtroom “retraumatisation” but warned that those lethal clauses would put even more innocent men in jail.

Derek Mackie: Don't you just hate that!

Debate over the proposed Hate Speech legislation is raging at the moment. Even the mainstream media seem genuinely concerned because they rightly see themselves as potential offenders. Most stick strictly to the woke script so only a sudden brainstorm of independent thought or a cash injection from a private investor to restore their journalistic autonomy would put them at risk. A slim chance, I know, but one worth covering. 

 The Justice Minister, Kris Faafoi, appeared particularly ignorant when interviewed recently and asked what would qualify as hate speech. His reply seemed to be that he couldn’t possibly say but that the police would decide. But if he doesn’t know, what makes a police officer an authority? 

 The push for this legislation stems from the Christchurch Mosque Massacre but there is absolutely no credible evidence showing that if this law had been in place prior to the attack it would have prevented it or even warned of it. There is already existing legislation covering incitement to violence and threatening behaviour. Which begs the question, why is this government so keen to implement it? 

GWPF Newsletter: Green Tories warn about populist backlash over Net Zero costs

 

Biden's ticking climate clock: What happens when he fails to deliver?

In this newsletter:

1) Net Zero: Green Tories warn about populist backlash
Global Warming Policy Forum, 27 June 2021
 
2) Chris Skidmore: Prepare for the populist backlash, if Net Zero becomes an elite project
The Sunday Telegraph, 27 June 2021

Mike Hosking: Why can't we be more like Singapore on Covid?

 

Why on earth aren’t we like Singapore?

That question, by the way, is applicable to many facets of Singaporean life, but in this case let’s stick with Covid.

For a start, like us, Singapore has done a good job early. Like us, it’s a small island nation. Borders are comparatively simple although Malaysia to the north has been a bit of an issue.

But overall, along with places like Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia, and us, locking up has been effective. They sit at 35 deaths for a population of about 5 million.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Do Ministers even understand the proposed hate speech laws?

 

I am more alarmed today by the proposed hate speech laws than I was on Friday when they released.

Simply because it is now clear that key government figures don’t understand their own laws – meaning they don’t understand what they’re about to do.

This morning in a TV interview, the Prime Minister made several inaccurate statements about what the law is going to do.

First, she said this new law isn’t changing much. We already have a law that punishes people if they incite violence against people of certain nationalities and ethnicities, and all they’re doing is expanding that to include religion and so on.

Clive Bibby: Who are the deniers?

I have been wanting to have my say on this particular issue for some time.

Contrary to what my critics will say in response, l have chosen to do so now mainly because the evidence in favour of the “conservative” view on these matters is becoming too obvious to ignore.

While my comments apply equally to a number of critical conversations that have been dominated by “woke” philosophy for too long, l will restrict my observations to one issue that is both timely and of interest to a nation of peoples who value “fairness based on truth” even when the popular theory may be the one promoted by the “so called” experts.

I could list a number of these “ill conceived” dogmas that have occupied the headlines in recent times, including the fallacy that mankind is responsible for all but a fraction of climate change. But that would only stir up the hornets’ nest and the accompanying accusations of “denier” that many in this community would love to tattoo on my forehead.

GWPF Newsletter: Russia curbs gas supply to Europe

 

China uses climate weapon as a pawn in its trade war against Australia

In this newsletter:

1) Surprise: Russia curbs gas supply to Europe
Financial Times, 24 June 2021 

2) China uses climate weapon as a pawn in its trade war against Australia
Daily Mail, 23 June 2021  

Garrick Tremain: Treaty propaganda

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on Treaty propaganda! 

Bob Edlin: Hate speech law consultation

The government has declared its intention to make hate speech a Crimes Act offence and to increase the penalties for inciting hatred or discrimination.

It has announced a public consultation on proposed changes to the Human Rights Act 1993

“… to strengthen protections against speech that incites hatred and discrimination; and seeking New Zealanders’ views about how they would make New Zealand more socially cohesive”.

Writer George Orwell would have relished the language applied by Beehive spin doctors to describing the objective. The government is launching a “social cohesion programme to address incitement of hatred and discrimination”.

Malcolm Roberts: Greens launch an attack - on trucks!

Malcolm Roberts, Senator for Queensland, discusses global warming scaremongering: Electric vehicles might be okay for suburb hopping in big cities, but I doubt there is a farm in Australia that would be able to run without any petrol or diesel. The Greens’ calls to ‘rapidly transition to electric vehicles‘ for their net zero economy by 2035 shows they have no clue of the energy requirements in transport, industry and agriculture.

Don Brash: The Future of New Zealand is at Stake

In January 2004, I addressed the Orewa Rotary Club by asking:

What sort of nation do we want to build?

Is it to be a modern democratic society, embodying the essential notion of one rule for all in a single nation state?

Or is it the racially divided nation, with two sets of laws, and two standards of citizenship, that the present Labour Government is moving us steadily towards?

But the spirit of the Treaty of Waitangi was expressed simply by then Lt-Gov. Hobson in February 1840.  In his halting Maori, he said to each chief as he signed: He iwi tahi tatou.   We are one people.

Over the last 20 years, the Treaty has been wrenched out of its 1840s context and become the plaything of those who would divide New Zealanders from one another, not unite us.

In parallel with the Treaty process and the associated grievance industry, there has been a divisive trend to embody racial distinctions into large parts of our legislation, extending recently to local body politics.  In both education and healthcare, government funding is now influenced not just by need – as it should be – but also by the ethnicity of the recipient. 

Since that time, most of the evidence suggests that the country has chosen to move further towards a racially divided nation, with two sets of laws, and two standards of citizenship. 

Viv Forbes: Are We Indigenes Yet?

Reference: “Indigenous Voice to Parliament to include regional voices to address local issues”: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-25/voice-to-parliament-to-include-regional-voices/100020562

The UK has seen many waves of invaders and colonisers – Neanderthals, Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Norsemen, Normans and more recently Indians and Pakistanis. Only Irish, Welsh and Scottish inhabitants have had the strength to get special recognition today. All are treated as ordinary citizens.

No human race evolved in Australia so we are all colonists or invaders. Several races walked, paddled, sailed or flew here over the past 60,000 years. Some displaced earlier arrivals, others mixed with locals and some became extinct. Some left rock art distinctly different from that of later arrivals and some destroyed or hid evidence of earlier tribes. Some were cannibals, some brought domesticated animals with them and all hunted native animals, sometimes to extinction. None can claim moral superiority.

Effi Lincoln: Why I stopped learning te reo

“These are strange days for Māori and politics, and the growing use of te reo is again a focus. Place names, greetings, familiar phrases: For some New Zealanders these words represent a threat”, said journalist Phillip Matthews disparagingly, in his Stuff article Mind your language: the backlash against the te reo revival (Stuff 11 June 21).

A “threat” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is defined as “an indication of something impending”.

Are you one of the New Zealanders feeling this threat of something impending?

If so, take heart, you are not alone and you are not a “flat earther”.  You have good cause to feel unease.  Something big is impending.  But to understand this, we need to step back from an immediate focus on te reo.  Focusing on this aspect of the threat is like focusing on the fin, rather than the shark.

Graham Adams: Winston Peters is back… and so is He Puapua

The NZ First leader claims Ardern’s government hid the radical report on Māori co-governance from him. Graham Adams reckons he will extract a heavy price for the betrayal.

With the help of a largely dismissive media, concerns raised in April by David Seymour and then by Judith Collins over the revolutionary report He Puapua were soon damped down. But now Winston Peters has entered the fray — and it became clear this week that he has a very personal interest in how it has been handled.

Peters alleges the report — which charts a path to co-governance between the Crown and Māori by 2040 — was kept from him deliberately despite NZ First and Labour being in a coalition government at the time.

Michael Bassett: Helping the Underclass and Ourselves at the Same Time

Two bits of socio-economic news this last week collided. The first was that as many as 20% of Maori youth are unemployed, most of them on benefits. The second was the serious shortage of workers that is putting stress on horticulture and business owners for whom temporary workers from overseas have been doing the necessary work in recent years.

Limiting the number of imported workers is hindering our economic recovery from the pandemic. The government meantime seems content to keep the immigration doors nearly closed, believing that employers will be forced to lift wages for low-skilled jobs. Ministers naively hope that that will attract the unemployed to work. However, the government is bumping up benefits big time, meaning that many in the private sector can’t out-pay the state. Firms will probably go under. It’s a case of ill-considered ideology trumping common sense, yet again.

NZCPR Weekly: A Slow-Moving Coup

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter we investigate the slow-moving coup that’s being orchestrated by the Prime Minister to deliver Maori separatism by 2040, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr John Robinson explains why the values of tikanga conflict with those of a civilised society, and our poll asks whether you believe tikanga should be introduced into our legal system.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Hate Speech Law can go into the Awkward Friday Politics file

 

We’re going to have to start a file called Awkward Friday Politics.

Because we’ve got another one today: an awkward announcement wheeled out on a Friday in the hope it gets lost in the fog of beers, hangovers and weekend sports.  

This one is the hate speech law. 

And the fact that it's wheeled out on a Friday seems an admission that the government knows it's going to be awkward to sell to punters on a bunch of levels.

GWPF Newsletter: Secret China plot to declare the Great Barrier Reef as ecologically ‘in danger’

 

Peter Ridd: Great Barrier Reef has completely recovered' from 2016 bleaching event

In this newsletter:

1) Secret China plot to declare the Great Barrier Reef as ecologically ‘in danger’
The Australian, 22 June 2021
 
2) Peter Ridd: Great Barrier Reef 'has completely recovered' from 2016 bleaching event
Sky News Australia, 22 June 2021

Breaking Views Update: Week of 20.06.21

Saturday June 26, 2021 

News:
Hate speech: govt plans new law, tougher penalties
Hate speech will become a criminal offence and anyone convicted could face harsher punishment, under proposed legislative changes.

The government has this morning released for public consultation its long-awaited plan for the laws governing hate speech.

GWPF Newsletter: Biden rebuffed as Germany’s Armin Laschet warns against cold war with China

 

As Biden goes green, US reliance on Russian oil surges to record high 

In this newsletter:

1) Biden rebuffed as Germany’s Armin Laschet warns against cold war with China
Financial Times, 21 June 2021
 
2) As Biden goes green, US reliance on Russian oil surges to record high 
The Epoch Times, 17 June 2021

Kate Hawkesby: Sydney outbreak reminds us not to get too cocky over Covid

 

Quarantine free travel to and from Sydney is now paused. It remains to be seen whether Sydney itself will go into a lockdown.

But it raises the question of complacency.

Which we here should be very aware of too.

We have, for all intents and purposes, gone back to our normal daily routines and lives, we are enjoying our freedoms, and Covid here feels like a distant memory.

And we've taken our foot off the gas.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: People should be angry about the vaccine rollout - not the travel bubble

 

I’m pleasantly surprised by the decision to move to level 2.

I was fully expecting the government to take Wellington straight to the usual level 3 lockdowns Auckland’s been forced into, so I find myself feeling grateful for a reasonably measured response today.

What failed to surprise me though was the immediate public reaction to the news of the imported case.

The first caller to Kerre’s show this morning said we should never have opened the bubble to Australia until we’d all been vaccinated. 

Come on, that’s ridiculous. You cannot be that risk averse. 

Garrick Tremain: Options

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on 'options'! 

Henry Armstrong: The New Zealand Constitution and Political Duplicity - Shush … Be Quiet!

The New Zealand Constitution in 2021 is under threat from a very committed neo-Marxist government and Maori sovereignty activists, who have as their agenda, a totally transformational set of goals which will result in New Zealand losing its much-valued traditional democratic status and history.

Already, we are seeing the signs of a highly centralised economic and political system reminiscent of the failed Soviet Union under communism in the latter half of the twentieth century. Water, health services, local authorities, social welfare and polytechnics to name a few, are all in the process of being centralised. 

Once established, communism is maintained by force and coercion. Communism resulted in the deaths of countless millions of otherwise innocent lives in the 20^th Century under such tyrants as Stalin and Mao. Such is the legacy of communism and neo-Marxism. It has utterly failed as a political system wherever it has been implemented. Such then are the lessons of history, within our own lifetimes.

Daniel J. Mitchell: US Pandemic Emergency Spending Riddled With Fraud

Politicians and bureaucrats are (self-interested) conduits for taking money from one group of people and giving it to another group of people.

Milton Friedman famously explained that this is why they largely don’t care about how much money is spent or how effectively it is spent.

No wonder government programs, agencies, and departments waste so much money, year after year, decade after decade.

This observation about careless profligacy also applies to so-called emergency spending.

I’ve repeatedly written about the perverse impact of unemployment benefits that are so excessive that people have big incentives not to work.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Has Govt set a target for the worst vaccine rollout in the world?

 

We’ve got to set the record straight on the vaccine roll out, because I have heard too many people now defending this vaccine roll out as a huge success - and basically just regurgitating the government’s PR lines on this.

So let’s clear this up. 

If you believe that the vaccine roll out is meeting expectations, like the government keeps telling you, then you must believe that the government has set a target of being the slowest roll out in the entire developed world.

Because that is where we sit. We are the worst performer in terms of jabs in arms.

Derek Mackie: "Climate Emergency", starring Jacinda Ardern - a tale of disaster, despair and loss!

Back in December 2020, New Zealand declared a climate emergency. Lots of other Western governments had already beaten us to it and decided things were so bad, climate-wise, that a new level of alarm was required to shake the public out of their stupor and make us appreciate the grave danger we are all in. The fact NZ waited so long before joining the club suggests that we were somehow sheltered from the worst effects of the climate crisis but now it was starting to hit home. 

 Most members of the public who watch the weather forecast, then step outside to see what’s really happening that day, would have been forgiven for wondering what all the fuss was about. Things seemed just the same as last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. There are certainly no signs of apocalyptic changes brewing in our atmosphere. 

 Anyway, what do we know? There must be lots of bad stuff happening in the background which is set to hit us next year, otherwise why would all these scientists and politicians be getting so worried. The media are certainly on board, bombarding us with claims of worsening weather patterns and extreme weather events. Surely, the comprehensive climate data collected over the past century would support the alarmist narrative and clearly demonstrate the imminent calamity. 

 Mmmm...it appears not! [1] 

GWPF Newsletter: COP26 heading for the rocks?

 

UN climate talks hit a wall over tensions about finance

In this newsletter:

1) COP26 heading for the rocks?
Global Warming Policy Forum, 18 June 2021  

2) UN climate talks hit a wall over tensions about finance
Financial Times, 18 June 2021

Melanie Phillips: Boris’s mind turns to mush

 

Is it Cabinet Cognitive Collapse or unbridled cynicism? Which is worse?

Whatever you may think about Boris Johnson’s character or fitness for the great office of Britain’s prime minister that he currently occupies, there has never been any serious questioning of his brain capacity. This is deemed to be sufficient to negotiate with the EU in Latin while simultaneously writing his book on Shakespeare and beating Emanuel Macron at strip poker.

However, something horrible appears to have happened to the Johnson grey matter. An early symptom of this affliction (which he seems to have contracted directly from an earlier and distressing victim of Cabinet Cognitive Collapse, Michael Gove) was his evangelical promotion of “net zero” carbon emissions to arrest “climate change”.

Kate Hawkesby: I wouldn't rule Winston Peters out

 

I don’t know what happened to my afternoon yesterday, but I found myself watching the livestream of Winston Peters’ speech.

I know. Who even am I?

I was standing by to hate it, hate everything he said, regular listeners will know I’m not a fan of this man. I was one of the first people in the media to rule him out last election when everyone said ‘you can never rule Winston out’… I did.

Partly because I thought his time was up, and partly because I wanted his time to be up, I couldn’t stand him.

GWPF Newsletter: US climate pledges on shaky ground as Biden’s climate agenda is bogged down in divided Congress

 

China is the real winner of Western climate politics

In this newsletter:

1) US climate pledges on shaky ground as Biden’s climate agenda is bogged down in divided Congress
Financial Times, 17 June 2021
 
2) On the brink of darkness: Texas faces risk of power blackouts on Wednesday
Bloomberg, 16 June 2021

Garrick Tremain: Facemasks!

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on facemasks! 

Clive Bibby: Disingenuous - you betcha!

I feel for those who have taken the time to make submissions during the Local Authority representation review process currently underway throughout the country. 

It concerns me that any council could have succeeded in hoodwinking the public into thinking that anybody was listening — especially those submitters who might be partially supportive of Maori wards but object to the way it has been handled. 

It didn’t need to happen this way. 

Despite attempts by some of the nation’s most influential citizens to justify their local council’s contemptuous treatment of its own people, it is clear that this misguided move will do great damage to otherwise healthy interracial relationships.

You can’t force people to accept laws that are nakedly divisive when our recent history is one of acknowledgement of injustices, followed by significant progress with reconciliation and compensation. Why not build on that?

Bob Jones: The Disgraceful New Zealand Royal Society

The New Zealand Royal Society continues to disgrace its British parent body’s prescribed rationale of absolute respect for factual scientific evidence, every time it touches on maori issues.

Its latest unadulterated nonsense, published over the heading “New Research Shows Maori Travelled to the Antarctic at least 1000 Years Before Europeans”, showed no such thing.

The so-called “research” by a conservation biologist Priscilla Wehi, was based on oral history mythology and the rest was speculation. One of her colleagues, a Dr Billy van Uitregt added by way of attempted further explanation, “Oral tradition brought richness to the conversation”; precisely what conversation about what, he didn’t say.

GWPF Newsletter: U.S. Democrats start to splinter over climate policy

 

The Peril of Politicizing Science

In this newsletter:

1) U.S. Democrats start to splinter over climate measures in infrastructure negotiations
The Washington Post, 16 June 2021

2) ‘No climate, no deal’: Progressives threaten bipartisan infrastructure deal
The Washington Times, 16 June 2021

NZCPR Weekly: The Wrong Path

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter we question the Climate Commission’s recommendations and explain why they are not needed, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Derek Mackie outlines why the Government’s climate change agenda represents an ideological crusade, and our poll asks whether you support Jacinda Ardern’s car tax.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Breaking Views Update: Week of 13.06.21

Saturday June 19, 2021 

News:
Ngāti Toa Turning Their Home Ownership Dreams Into Reality
Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira Chief Executive Officer Helmut Modlik is excited with the purchase of 24 View Road, saying that iwi ownership now offers a viable option for iwi members to enter the property market.

Kate Hawkesby: So we can pay for cyclists, but not the America's Cup?

 

So I’m just not sure how we reconcile almost a billion dollars for a bridge for cyclists, which, by the way, will bring us zero economic return, yet we can put the brakes on the cheque book at $99 million for the America’s Cup.

The problems are complex. There wasn’t enough cash in the offer, that $99 million included ‘support in kind,’ so their base facilities and so on. But it just wasn’t enough.

And though many of us don’t care or think it’s just a rich man’s sport or whatever, you can’t discount the kudos, people, money and tourism it brings into the country. The millions pumped into the economy, the feel good factor, the job creation, the buzz.

GWPF Newsletter: Europe returns to burning coal because of a shortage of natural gas

 

Global fossil fuel use similar to 10 years ago, new report

In this newsletter:

1) Europe returns to burning coal because of a shortage of natural gas
Bloomberg, 15 June 2021
 
2) Climate hypocrites united: US and Japan block G7 deal on coal
Politico, 13 June 2021

Mike Hosking: GDP figure will expose our stagnant economy

 

Several things about our GDP number this week.

One, its absurd we are waiting till now to get details about the economy from January, February, and March. The irony being we are about to end the second quarter of the year and we haven’t even got the statistics for the first.

Two, just what is it going to be? The thing almost everyone is agreed upon is it’s not going to be very good. It’ll either be a bit above zero or a bit below it.

If it’s below it that’s a recession, given the last quarter of last year was below zero as well. If that’s the case, the government should be hanging their heads in shame.

Graham Adams: The dangers of putting media on the government’s payroll

Accusations by a journalist that the Prime Minister leads an unusually secretive government don’t tell the whole story about its desire to control information. Graham Adams takes a closer look at the guidelines for the new $55 million journalism fund.

Despite widespread cynicism about the Government’s ability to fulfil its promises — whether it is KiwiBuild, light rail along Dominion Rd, or planting a billion trees — journalist Andrea Vance still found enough fresh outrage last week to launch a blistering attack over a pledge Jacinda Ardern made in 2017 to lead “a more open and democratic society” that would “strengthen transparency around official information”.

In fact, Ardern’s lack of transparency was on show very early in her prime ministership. Shortly after the 2017 election, she refused to release notes from the coalition negotiations between Labour and NZ First — leading one journalist to opine: “A month seems early for a new government to dash hopes of a fresh start yet Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s team seems determined to break the speed record when it comes to disregard for public transparency.”

From Vance’s standpoint as a journalist, little seems to have improved since then.

GWPF Newsletter: Swiss voters reject key climate change measures

 

Why the Swiss people rejected the new climate law

In this newsletter:

1) Climate referendum: Swiss reject higher carbon taxes
Swiss Info, 13 June 2021
 
2) Heinz Schmid: Why the Swiss people rejected the new climate law
Global Warming Policy Forum, 14 June 2021

Lindsay Mitchell: No better time to be a beneficiary

There are now so many Work and Income rules that have either been repealed, ignored or broken since 2017 that it's worth making a list:

1/ The penalty for not naming the father of a child dependent on a sole parent benefit was abolished. Taxpayer now picks up the liable parent contribution.

2/ The requirement to ensure a child on a benefit is attending early childhood education/ school and enroled with a GP is ignored.

3/ Sanctions for not meeting appointment and work obligations have declined significantly:

Melanie Phillips: The virus of irrational hatred

The Covid lab-leak theory has jumped from unsayable to most plausible. Why?

The sudden consensus that the most likely origin of the pandemic was a manufactured virus that accidentally leaked from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology really is a wonder to behold.

This was always an eminently plausible explanation, if not the most likely one. It has never been contested that SARS-CoV-2, or novel coronovirus, originated in Wuhan. The original consensus held that this was almost certainly the product of a bat virus being transmitted by an intermediary animal into human beings via the Wuhan wet market.

Wuhan, however, just happened to be the site of the Institute of Virology. It just happened that research was being done there not merely on bat viruses but on “gain of function” bat viruses — viruses which are altered to make them far more lethal to humanity, ostensibly to work out how to protect humanity from them but possibly as bio-weapons. Dany Shoham, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who has studied Chinese biological warfare, was reported on January 26 last year saying that the institute was linked to Beijing’s covert bio-weapons programme. The Wuhan lab also just happened to have been found previously to be following sub-standard security protocols for a lab of this degree of sensitivity.

Kate Hawkesby: Are we going to rush out buying electric vehicles...I don't think so

 

So we have on the back of the new cycle bridge for bikes, news of discounts for EV cars.

There should be no one in the dark as to where this government's priorities are by now.

But how much of it's actually going to happen?

The activist cyclists were breathless with excitement that their random peddle protest across the bridge had elicited real action. But hopefully they’ve cooled down their lycra enough to know it’ll probably never happen. Likewise I am skeptical about us all running out and snapping up EV's.

Bryan Leyland: “Things you know that ain't so” - electric cars

As the American humorist Will Rogers said: “It’s not what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.”

"Government policies on electric cars is a winner on all counts."

The reality is that it is nonsense on stilts. No matter which way you look at it, it is madness.

Poor people will be worse off because the policies will increase the cost of second-hand cars. People who live in the country or run a business that needs pickups or minivans will have to pay more even though an electric vehicle is not an option.

The chances are that subsidised electric cars won’t make much difference to emissions because the extra electricity needed can only come from burning more coal at Huntly power station. When the CO2 emitted during battery production is taken into account, worldwide emissions may well increase.

Ross Meurant: Providers or Power

Last week I penned a piece on hydrogen being promoted at the G7 as an alternative energy source for Europe. My conclusion was: Europe would do itself as massive favour if it accelerated the supply of Russian gas via the North Stream.

In this article I clinically debunk the myth that power generators: solar, wind and batteries, are the solution to protect the environment. In fact, I demonstrate that these, “Green Machines” will cause massively greater environmental damage than is the unfortunate by-product of the mainstream providers of power.

Some basic physics: there are limits on the natural sources which cannot be exceeded.

Best conversion rate of sun photons to electrons is 33%. We achieve 26%

Best wind conversion is 60%. We achieve 45%.

Therefore, we are close to the maximum capture of energy from these sources – providing the sun shines and the wind blows.

The solution some say is batteries.

Taking Tesla’s battery factory in Nevada – the world’s biggest; it would take 500 years for that factory to make enough batteries to satisfy the energy consumption of one day in the USA.