So global Gas prices might well be going up. Many seem to forget that oil does not just flow though pipelines, natural gas is required to push it along. UK Energy security not great as far as Fuels, Gas or even electricity.

32 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Carrot and stick. Carrots, like more EV grants or subsidized public charging, or even reducing the VAT percentage and lowering badly needed tax collection to pay down the massive UK public debt are issues.

There is also the stick of higher diesel and petrol prices. Some the UK government can control is the hydrocarbon excise duty but also supply issue affected by geo-political events like the Middle Eastern war that started last night. 20 % of oil comes thru the Straights of Hormuz and that might not be happening so much for the next weeks. Oil has already jumped a couple of dollars a barrel on Friday and has done another jump this morning. If I had an ICE car I might think about keeping my fuel tank half full or more. Issues like this might well help EV, and PHEV, sales.

I knew that you would come up with that kind of guff.

More carrots will just add to public finances' strain, so that is clearly not an option. Nor is the stick of increasing the cost of diesel or petrol, as that will just massively fuel inflation even more and place even more people into poverty.

There is no need for the UK to source oil from the Middle East; we are sitting on huge deposits under the North Sea, and also for that matter the situation in the Middle-East is also going to have knock on effects for other stuff imported in the UK, such as cars and EV batteries and the raw materials, etc., so everyone would be affected, not just ICE owners and drivers.

What I was referring to were ways of ensuring that should anyone want to switch over to electric-powered cars but currently cannot for varying reasons, they were empowered to the extent that many of them could do so comfortably.

There are many people within the grand scheme of things who are profiting excessively by things, and they know it. We have had for decades now, reducing taxation given out to those higher earners, and also the super-rich have gotten even richer thanks to these tax cuts handed out to them.

If taxation were applied in a fair and sensible way, then these things that we are constantly being told cannot be done due to lack of funds could be done, and everyone, including those super-rich, would gain benefit from that happening.

We also need to look back in history and see if this global warming is actually happening or are we being moonlit again.

There has been bad floods ever since records began. Here in Essex the earliest I can find records of was in 1450. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the population was very small back then; motor vehicles most certainly had not been invented and there was far less built-up areas so there was more land to soak up rainwater right where it fell.

This is a photo taken of a road here in Chelmsford back in 1888 when the population was just 10,500 as opposed to today's 188,803.

Local flooding in the past

If we all check local history, I'm certain that similar events can be found, so what caused those events if it was not a perfectly natural-occurring thing, I wonder? Was there suddenly a claim that global warming must be occurring and thus mankind had to stop burning things? I seriously doubt that.

There has been massive global flooding over the centuries, at a time well before motor vehicles and so on. So, what was the cause of such weather back then? Clearly not global warming caused by the burning of dinosaur juice and yet so many today are claiming today's weather is. It sounds like we are being taken for fools and all too willing to accept whatever we are told by officials without ever questioning anything ourselves.

In the 1887 Yellow River flood in China, for instance, at least 930,000 people died and maybe as many as 2 million. Is global warming to blame for that as well?

Some interesting links below for further info.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/367938123365897/posts/533443083482066
1887 Yellow River flood - Wikipedia
How did oil come to run our world? - BBC Teach

Edited 28 February28 Feb by Graham Butcher

North Sea Oil & Gas taken from under the North Sea is not owned by British Companies. It is sold on the Global Market. Many many new exploration licences are owned by companies in Israel.

30 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

North Sea Oil & Gas taken from under the North Sea is not owned by British Companies. It is sold on the Global Market. Many many new exploration licences are owned by companies in Israel.

That is perfectly true, but some is and it still does not have to be shipped via the Straights of Hormuz and so does not have to be influenced by the extra costs incurred; that is just what I was mentioning before – pure profiteering. We are being gaslit.

For instance, the cost of oil in Saudi Arabia is dirt cheap, because they don't have to ship it far and they have not linked their retail prices to an artificially created fixed-price cartel to maximise profits.

Here diesel is for more expensive than petrol, even though it was a waste product before the diesel engine was invented and requires less refining as well, so why are paying a premium for it? Look at the prices the Saudi's pay at the pumps compared to our prices as shown in the link below.

Saudi Arabia energy prices | GlobalPetrolPrices.com

The same thing goes here in the link below for just every country in the world retail prices are shown for petrol, diesel and electric and once again we are among the highest.

Electricity prices around the world | GlobalPetrolPrices.com

Edited 28 February28 Feb by Graham Butcher

UK Refineries are going. Diesel is hardly a waste product, it is early in the refining but the refining is being done for the lighter products, nobody is just refining for the Heavy fuels and products. As it was the Electricity / Energy to run them was up among the most expensive in the world. Oil & Gas used to generate that electricity. The Americas have the most supply of Oil in the World. There is the biggest producer of Crude Oil. The USA seems to be seizing others oil while it is being transported. This is 2026. A whole new world.

3 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

UK Refineries are going. Diesel is hardly a waste product, it is early in the refining but the refining is being done for the lighter products, nobody is just refining for the Heavy fuels and products. As it was the Electricity / Energy to run them was up among the most expensive in the world. Oil & Gas used to generate that electricity. The Americas have the most supply of Oil in the World. There is the biggest producer of Crude Oil. The USA seems to be seizing others oil while it is being transported. This is 2026. A whole new world.

The UK refineries going is a short-sighted thing and is a folly.

Diesel today is not a waste product, which is not what I claimed. I said it was once a waste product but the invention of the diesel engine changed that.

13 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

Much much more needs to be done in order to even make private buyers consider switching over.

1 hour ago, Evolution13 said:

North Sea Oil & Gas taken from under the North Sea is not owned by British Companies. It is sold on the Global Market. Many many new exploration licences are owned by companies in Israel.

I have heard that North Sea oil needs a market of $60 a barrel to be economic and $70 a barrel for the new fields as it is getting increasingly costly to get the oil in ever deeper water. Compared this to Saudi who can make a profit at $20 a barrel !

@lol-lol very true, that is what they say. But then there are so many liars out there. They fail to mention how much profits can be made buying Redundant Rigs or Unsafe ones from bigger companies and running them cheaper and taking the VERY BIG Tax breaks the UK Government / Tax Payers give them to decommission in lands far far away, and to mothball them off Inverness. George Osborne & Sir Iain Wood made the wealthy very wealthy, and the workers pay very high taxes and stopped them being Self Employed and getting dividends. The North Sea is profitable for many, especially the Crown Estates and supposedly UK citizens, but that is not how things actually work. I was working in the Offshore Supply industry in 1980 as were my friends onshore or off, and i have followed closely what goes on and then especially since my son went offshore 16 years ago.

Edited 28 February28 Feb by Evolution13

8 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

@lol-lol very true, that is what they say. But then there are so many liars out there. They fail to mention how much profits can be made buying Redundant Rigs or Unsafe ones from bigger companies and running them cheaper and taking the VERY BIG Tax breaks the UK Government / Tax Payers give them to decommission in lands far far away, and to mothball them off Inverness. George Osborne & Sir Iain Wood made the wealthy very wealthy, and the workers pay very high taxes and stopped them being Self Employed and getting dividends. The North Sea is profitable for many, especially the Crown Estates and supposedly UK citizens, but that is not how things actually work.

The $60 or $70 a barrel is partly made up of taxation on the landing of oil and the decision needs to be made how much the UK needs of a strategic local supply. As we know it us not just a tap that can be turned over as extraction requires many millions of pounds of equipment to land the oil.

We will need oil for plastics and other such use if not for burning in vehicles so definitely need a supply line of crude that is reliable ie not Middle East crude or other despotic states.

Lets see just how long the Forties Pipeline keeps flowing. It should have bee n started to be replaced 2 decades ago. Elephant in the room that the UK Energy Minister and others seem to fail to recognise.

Edited 28 February28 Feb by Evolution13

21 hours ago, lol-lol said:

The route from the M5 from around Tewksebury all the way thru to the M4, ie via M50, A40, A449 is poorly off for chargers i think. No chargers at Monmouth Services and only the occasional odd town car park low output charger that i can see.

I usually use the M5 to South Wales so there is the excellent Gloucester sevices setup now with even more Chargers but would be nice to have more choice. Also the north bank of the Severn ie Gloucester to Chepstow not great though most of that is England of course. If you can call the Foresters (of Dean) anything at all.

May be an issue getting Grid power to places like Monmouth Services but if they offer charging then drivers will probably spend money in the services.

None of the above is in Wales 🤣 There are Tesla open to all chargers at the bottom of the A449. Wales is a great deal more than the area around Cardiff.

I worked for a number of years for Halliburtons at their Haverhill factory producing pumping rigs for the the North Sea oil platforms and also special rigs used on many of the oil field fires by Red Adiar to extinguish the fires.

Halliburton, engineering solutions for global energy needs

I designed, built and installed many of the electrical control systems on them.

I would have been very happy to have continued doing that job, as I was held in high esteem by Haliburtons and also developed other things for them. But there was so much money to be made from the North Sea Oil industry that the British Government decided that they wanted to take control of that sector and control it thus make money from it. Halliburtons, being a large American company, originating from Duncan, Oklahoma, decided to pull out of the UK and go back home, leaving only a couple of service depots in the UK, Great Yarmouth and Arbroath.

They gave me the option of staying in the UK at Arbroath or going back to the USA with them, I chose neither (possibly the biggest mistake of my life) so I know that there is tremendous wealth to be had from the North Sea offshore platforms.

As @Evolution13 says, there are so many liars out there.

Edited 28 February28 Feb by Graham Butcher

30 minutes ago, Luckypants said:

None of the above is in Wales 🤣 There are Tesla open to all chargers at the bottom of the A449. Wales is a great deal more than the area around Cardiff.

Monmouth is not in Wales ? Has anybody told them and the sign needs moving then !

I am generally heading to more so the Newport area. Caldicot to be more exact. Magor services is poor, not as bad as Monmouth but poor with a couple of crappy low powered Gridserve chargers but Ionity has put 6 powerful chargers on a commercial site other side of the motorway junction but the Subway there does not seem to be open much. As I said, pretty poor in that area of SE Wales IMO.

Edited 28 February28 Feb by lol-lol

Monmouth is 100% in Wales, but it is only just.

4 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Monmouth is 100% in Wales, but it is only just.

Still confused about what is Monmouthshire and what is Gwent, all Cymru though.

Well done Dave takes it on, finally exposed what we all knew,

31 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Still confused about what is Monmouthshire and what is Gwent, all Cymru though.

Nope, the town of Monmouth is just inside the border; it is not in the centre of Monmouthshire.

55 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Nope, the town of Monmouth is just inside the border; it is not in the centre of Monmouthshire.

Indeed border sign just on the slope down in to Monmouth by the beautiful river Wye though by flooding and pollution by farmers have blighted it recently.

Good hill to get so EV regen down.

Going the other way the vigilant Glos police oft in the bridge trying to nick people and the M50, was a nice quite to push for the Duck's guts (200) now regularly patrolled not just the M5.

Granddaughter going to have to learn Welsh at skool in a couple of years. Lechyd da.

Edited 28 February28 Feb by lol-lol

Have to eat my words.....

12 new Gridserve chargers at Magor !!!!

About time and if course expensive Gridserve provider. Will still use the Ionity ones over the road if just charging and Subway open. Ionity have six more bases ready to put on charger towers on. Nice chat with etron guy a few weeks ago. Wow was he getting a mega Salary Sacrific deal ue about £500 less monthly payments than otherwise !!

Not quite electric cars, but closely related, the much heralded Aberdeen hydrogen bus fleet is to be scrapped just 4 years after they were introduced.

How many millions of £ have been wasted chasing this clean air dream? I had already previously demonstrated that the air quality was pretty good anyway.

Why has the world's first hydrogen double-decker fleet failed? - BBC News

On 28/02/2026 at 16:41, lol-lol said:

Monmouth is not in Wales ? Has anybody told them and the sign needs moving then !

I am generally heading to more so the Newport area. Caldicot to be more exact. Magor services is poor, not as bad as Monmouth but poor with a couple of crappy low powered Gridserve chargers but Ionity has put 6 powerful chargers on a commercial site other side of the motorway junction but the Subway there does not seem to be open much. As I said, pretty poor in that area of SE Wales IMO.

I'll concede Monmouth is in Wales 🙃

23 hours ago, lol-lol said:

Have to eat my words.....

12 new Gridserve chargers at Magor !!!!

And was about to point that out

https://www.gridserve.com/pressroom/watts-occurring-gridserve-celebrates-st-davids-day-with-extension-of-ev-charging-hub-at-roadchef-magor-services/

12 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

Much much more needs to be done in order to even make private buyers consider switching over.

Good to see substantial roll out of public charging, for example in your place of Chelmsford.

Charging was free for a week earlier this month.

More expensive fuel in the UK (due to current Middle East war and strangulation of world's oil supply), or shortage, or no fuel at the local fuel station more like the reasons to go electric ?

Our Town South Woodham Ferrers

RHS Garden Hyde Hall boosts sustainable credentials with...

Located in the Essex countryside near Chelmsford, RHS Hyde Hall has introduced 16 EV charging bays, including both fast (up to 22kW) and rapid (up to 50kW) chargers. The new facilities went live on Fr

52 minutes ago, Luckypants said:

I'll concede Monmouth is in Wales 🙃 And was about to point that out
https://www.gridserve.com/pressroom/watts-occurring-gridserve-celebrates-st-davids-day-with-extension-of-ev-charging-hub-at-roadchef-magor-services/

Gridserve don't even do a bit of a cheap offer to get people to use the Magor site, straight in at asking 89p per KWh !

On Friday HMRC lost case to maintain 20% VAT on Public chargers whilst home charging is at 5%.....

Maybe Chancellor will announce this adjustment in the Spring Statement tomorrow ie 3rd of March 2026 ?

Tax tribunal rules EV public charging VAT rate should be 5%

UK court rules ‘domestic’ VAT rate should apply for charging an electric vehicle on the public network, instead of the 20% currently paid by drivers.

Edited 2 March2 Mar by lol-lol

^^^ 'A UK Court', is that a court in England, Great Britain ?

32 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Good to see substantial roll out of public charging, for example in your place of Chelmsford.

Charging was free for a week earlier this month.

More expensive fuel in the UK (due to current Middle East war and strangulation of world's oil supply), or shortage, or no fuel at the local fuel station more like the reasons to go electric ?

Our Town South Woodham Ferrers

RHS Garden Hyde Hall boosts sustainable credentials with...

Located in the Essex countryside near Chelmsford, RHS Hyde Hall has introduced 16 EV charging bays, including both fast (up to 22kW) and rapid (up to 50kW) chargers. The new facilities went live on Fr

That was so well publicised that it seems that the local media sources were unaware of it. What actually happened, I suspect, is that they made all RHS members aware of it in an attempt to attract more of them to visit the site to increase revenue.

Yes there has been a slow increase in the number of public chargers, all of which I have seen are low power. Local 12 shops and a large doctors surgery share 14 parking spaces between. They have just made 2 of those spaces EV-only with charging bollards installed so 2 cars can charge and I have yet to see a car being charged.

Considering the ultimate aim is to get as many of us out of our cars and into PT, there is massive work to be done there as well. Last week I had to take my car in to have the AC fixed. The garage was 2.5 miles away and took just 11 minutes driving there. Had to leave the car, was told it would there all day, so needed to get home again. Walked to the bus stop, get a bus into the centre to catch the bus going near to home; length of route: 4 miles, 1 hr 25 minutes. Thirty minutes later, the phone rang, telling me the car was done (damn and blast) Off I go again back to collect it, this time it took 1 hr 15 minutes, cost was zero (free OAP card) but would have normally been £12 for the 4 buses. So thats 2 hrs 30 minutes for a trip would only taken 22 minutes by car. And this is supposed to be the future??

Edited 2 March2 Mar by Graham Butcher