Graham Butcher

I'll watch the videos when I'm back at the computer. But I thought you said you worked for the Customs, so since when did the customs have a battery factory in Northern France?

The problem with large solar farms is the sheer size that they need to be (ignoring the fact that the sun does always shine) and that amount of land is then lost for general farming purposes be it for livestock or arable, so we will be losing valuable space for growing our food on and as the population increases we will need more food. Solar as we deploy it today is not going to sustain us for long. Maybe need to look at ways of making all buildings having to have an element of solar generation and connecting them to the grid so that excess power sent around the grid to power those areas with less sunshine and also incorporate some form of battery storage for days when there is little sun anywhere? Wind generation would allow more land to be available for actual farming, but like solar, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Fossil generation means burning and producing CO2 and other pollutants, Nuclear runs the risk of a Chernobyl type event and also what to do with the wasted fuel rods. So is the answer staring us in the face, at least for the UK, and that is wave generation, from almost any point in the UK we are never more than about 140 miles from the coast (as the crow flies) but there is always going to be plenty of wave action all around our coasts. WE need to invest some serious amounts of money to investigate this more, I think.

You really must do better 😉 did you read the link that @Stonekeeper posted, it mentioned John Lewis, so it would seem that it is highly likely there is some truth in the link I posted and asked about, and also Alex Gerlis was given no explanation as to why his Smart EQ Forfour no longer qualified for a John Lewis policy, now this car only has a 80BHP motor and a small battery pack, costs just over £22,000, it is not one of the mega performance cars that your talking about.

@lol-lol Once again, you are sidestepping the points I raised and also not answering a direct question. I am not dealing with muppets like you seem to think, yes I am fully aware that John Lewis is not an actual insurance company, neither is Tesco, Asda, Coop etc but they all offer insurance and can be very competitive against the main stream insurance companies, with whom they deal with.

Well, if that statement was correct, then the title is also correct, as they did/have stopped offering policies on fully electric cars. You stated that your policy had increased by 30% last month, but was that with John Lewis and if so was that before the 30th September when the article was written? Like all things, there is a start date from which point forwards they would not be insuring new EV's. The only real way to find out if the article is genuine is for someone to try and take out a new policy for a fully electric car with John Lewis. I get all kinds of criticism if I post anything without dotting the i's and crossing the t's and yet you make a statement without any form of verification and then rely on something that a spokesperson allegedly said. Now if the title had said that John Lewis is withdrawing from the EV insurance market then you would have a point. If you are in a race then you can stop at any time and then resume but you cannot withdraw from a race and then resume, its all about wording.

Well that is not being honest and neither is the person who is paying extra for the privilege of pretending that they are only ever using green renewable energy. They are not using 100% green energy and if that is happening like your explanation then that itself is dishonest. It again just screams of a cash grab. Look at this way, if I was advertising that I can supply you with 100% organically grown fruit and vegetables, which always cost more, but I was only able to supply 30% of your order as organic but I made up the balance with produce I purchased from Aldi and didn't tell you or arrange a credit, and you later discovered what I had done, how would you react, even I could prove to you that I did later buy the 70% but gave it to someone else? Are you seeing my point now?

Can anyone tell me if this claim is true or is it pure BS? John Lewis stops insuring electric cars over repair cost fears (telegraph.co.uk)

My point is if you have 100MW amount of green energy available, and you have sold on these schemes, say 300MW of energy then the supplier has a 200MW deficit of energy that they have to top up their supplies with non-green energy. Therefore, they are not actually supplying me with 100% renewable energy, and the real kicker is that if I elected to take that option, it will cost me an extra £120 a year? They say it is traceable, but just how can it be? If you cannot be 100% certain that the electricity that your EV is being charged with is 100% renewable and didn't come from a fossil fuelled generator, thus while you are feeling proud of your self for not having a tailpipe emission, when in reality you may actually be part of the pollution problem but remotely. How can anyone be that sure.

If only things were that simple. I started out with Eastern Electricity and switched to Southern Electricity who offered far better terms and then they were taken over by OVO and the transition has just been completed, so that is how I came to be with OVO.

OK, I have been looking into the whole smart meter thingy and the tariffs that can be had, I'm with OVO and for a while today I was unable to get any details on their tariffs, but that has been rectified now, albeit I'm not convinced that its correct as I have downloaded now 17 A4 pages full of tariffs for electricity, most of which seem to be identical🙄, no details as the times that night rates etc are available. But I did find is a so green tariff, heavily lacking in any detail, zero indication of how the standing charges or the kWh costs or if there are off-peak prices etc, zero. They explain that I would get 100% renewable energy. I just wonder how the hell they can do that when, I'm still connected to the national grid which carries a mix of renewables and fossil fuelled energy. If there is X amount of renewable energy generated, when that is all gone, they have to use top up fossil derived energy. In England, renewable is either solar or wind and there is not enough of that to go round and indeed there are days when there is next to nothing wind or sunshine. So is this just a load of marketing hype or what, oh, and for the benefit of feeling smug in the belief that I'm using green energy, it will cost me £10 a month membership fee, for what? Answers on a postcode please

This what I have said before, the existing infrastructure is not sufficient for today's use let alone for the future.

@J.R.I am trying to locate the article so can actually quote it so you can all decide on its validity. I'm having trouble getting either either my energy supplier or the network operator to either pull the fuse or fit an isolater. I need this done so the solar panel engineers can sort out the faulty system. They are refusing to work on the system while the supply is live. So it's my guess that I came this across article while researching this or from a news outlet, either way it was apparently a reliable source. As to getting the fuse pulled or an isolater fitted, both network operator and supplier say that they cannot do that. 😒

@toot This is no joke, it is not a storey, I can assure that this was a genuine report / article whatever only a few days ago and you would be miles away from the truth if you are attempting to make it out to be a YouTuber stirring the pot. I seem to recall that it came from a report by the National Grid or Government, if I can find it I'll gladly share it to prove that's it not a figment of my imagination or anything other than the truth.

I fully expect that once the majority have switched over to EV, that the electric prices will once again begin to climb as the suppliers will be putting their shareholders before affordable fuel for people to use in their cars to get to and from work. Also the unions will gain huge powers as industrial action would have a far greater impact. Arh yes the smart meters, I remember when they peddled that they would or could reduce your energy bills and were using that get to people having them installed. They forgot to add that would only be the case if you took action yourself and turned things off 😀. Now I read that smart meters are going to be mandatory and it may involve in police having to accompany suppliers engineers when installing them and in some cases having the police force entry to properties in order to install them, so why the heavy hand now?

No you are right, a drop of 3p a kWh is only a 10% reduction, so was it a typo thing or what?

Yes, I agree the infrastructure most definitely needs a good sort out and the problem you highlighted about cars waiting in line to use one of the few available chargers and the problems arising when there can be some heated exchanges between drivers about who is next is understandable as people just get charged and be on their way again. These things don't tend to happen with conventional fuelled cars.

That's my problem as well, the costs at public chargers vary massively far more than diesel. I'm currently on course for something around 750 miles on a full tank. I'm sure that once better price regulation is in place more EVs would find owners.

Yep, thats about right, people are just to preoccupied with their mobile phones keeping up with social media to take control of their safety and they walk around like zombies 🤣

Pedestrians stepping down from the kerb should not fear for their lives, correct, but that does not give them the right to expect a motorist to stop a vehicle on a sixpence just because the pedestrian wants to intrude on the space normally associated with vehicles, equally a pedestrian should fear for their lives with vehicles driving along on the footpaths either. Vehicles do not normally do that except at very low speeds while attempting to park in order not to block a narrow roadway. A pedestrian wanting to cross a road should be fully aware of their own vulnerability and exercise due diligence when entering a zone known to contain moving vehicles. Its called self-preservation. As to "In a small closed residential road, it is absolutely the place for kids to play" what makes you think that? What are gardens and parks for, then? By the phrase "a small closed residential road", are alluding to a dead end road like a close, for example? If so I live in one of those and only has 20 houses in it but it gets busy at times and its never a good idea to let children get comfortable being on a road especially when they are playing and paying due diligence for their own safety. They should be taught to understand that roads are not ever a good place to play, or are parents just too lazy to take their children's safety seriously and take them to a park where they can play in safety As regards to tin foil hat/car is king, do you love the use of slogans and sound bites, like "It's the will of the People" etc 🙄 You really don't think that there might well be another reason why they don't want large cities like London in the future and being less able to freely move to other cities in large numbers? Really? The distance between route A or route B might also be a major issue to some people when they have to pay per mile for their travel, as it is also increasingly looking like we all will be doing before too long, and also paying more for busy periods. Also, do you seriously believe that the Dartford Crossing fee will not rise as well? It is actually very difficult to average just 20mph driving in a city or most towns these days even in the dead of night as there few straight long roads that have a 30mph speed limit, most are short and there is a frequent need to go round corners, roundabouts and navigate traffic lights etc and bringing speed limits down to 20mph will just further compound the problem even more and will mean that average speed will drop even further and journey times will increase, just think about it, it is the only conclusion you can arrive at. Even driving across London's centre at 2:00AM yields an average speed of just 26kmh, which translates to just 16.1 mph, thats 3.9mph below the proposed speed limits and just 17kmh or 8mph at peak times. The best solution for that type of driving is not a cruise control, but a speed limiter that does not get disengaged each time you are forced to brake or stop, but allows you, the driver to decide what is the right speed to suit the conditions while not allowing to exceed the limit even for a moment, because you forgot to keep re-engaging the ACC. London is the world's slowest city | TomTom Newsroom

Actually ACC is not suitable, what you need is a speed limiter, my doesn't have that, do the latest Superbs have it?

Question, what is an LSP?

How did you get the Traffic sign Recognition working, I'd like to enable it on mine.

Interesting in that the article also references the plans in Oxford for similar and Bicester in Oxfordshire, confirming my post.

OK, say its £4, then ULEZ £12.50, and if you drive into central London and another £15 congestion charge, it is all becoming a cash grab and just London. There are similar schemes being planned in other locations as well. So a person who drives a non-compliant car, pays £12.50, then if they have to cross the river they pay again and then maybe a congestion charge, so at best they may have to pay £16.50 or £27.50 a day. And they will say it's all part of cleaner air for London, so use the underground instead and there the air is actually hazardous to health with air quality many times worse than it is on the roads.

Rule 8 At a junction. When you are crossing or waiting to cross the road, other traffic should give way. Look out for traffic turning into the road, especially from behind you, and cross at a place where drivers can see you. If you have started crossing and traffic wants to turn into the road, you have priority and they should give way (see Rules H2 and 170) I believe to be particularly dangerous as you may be turning left from a major road into a turning with limited vision due to bushes or a building preventing you from seeing if there people waiting to cross or indeed crossing. You stop as soon as you see them, only to have someone shunt you into the pedestrians because your back end is still on the major road. This is why I say that the rules have not been properly thought through. All too often, I come across zebra crossings located less than cars length from such junctions and is an accident waiting to happen.