UK electric cars sales fall — people can’t afford to run them on wind and solar grid

The UK set to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, but awkwardly, the average cost of charging an electric car has jumped by 58 per cent since last May, so sales are falling, not rising. The UK can’t afford to make them either, with BMW sending their UK electric mini factory to China. President Xi will be happy. The West thought the Glasgow commitments was a climate plan, but really it was trade deal.

h/t Notalotofpeopleknowthat

Electric car makers put the brakes on UK production because many drivers think the vehicles are too expensive

Calum Muirhead, Daily Mail

It is now expected that the UK will produce 280,000 fully electric cars and vans in 2025, down from previous estimates of 360,000.

The forecast means only a quarter of car output will be electric within the next two years, lower than prior forecasts of more than a third.

The command-economy of gas meets the command-economy of cars and pretty soon we’ll be riding horses:

In its latest report, the Advanced Propulsion Centre, which provides taxpayer funding to makers of zero-emissions vehicles, said the ‘uncertain economy’ was expected to push drivers towards cheaper car models for a longer period.

So much for that theory.

Green fantasies are a luxury item. It takes a lot of money to be this stupid. If only they had built nuclear plants or allowed cheap gas fracking…

If only they could do maths.

9.8 out of 10 based on 111 ratings

147 comments to UK electric cars sales fall — people can’t afford to run them on wind and solar grid

  • #
    Honk R Smith

    Is the scheme intended to be affordable?
    They seem to be purposely making food unaffordable.
    At least vaccines are free.

    380

    • #
      MrGrimNasty

      They’re not free, the payment was stolen from every one of us, even those that never wanted anything to do with it.

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      • #

        EV drivers are freeloading on the rest of us by using the extensive road infrastructure without paying for it. They get grants towards buying a EV , often travel for free in pollution or congestion zones and expect the tax payer to install roadside chargers accessed from lamp posts

        When the full cost of running an EV is applied by a govt who realises they need to replace the fuel duty not paid by Ev’s then presumably EV sales will dive further. I believe the income from each ICE car is some 1500£ per year.

        450

        • #
          Leo G

          Automotive engineering informs us that road wear by motor vehicles increases with axle load according to a 5th power rule. Accommodating heavy vehicles requires increasing the strength of paved surfaces, and changes the sensitivity of the effect, but the 5th power rule still applies.

          An EV is about 25% heavier than an equivalent-use ICE vehicle, implying it causes three times the road wear.

          390

          • #
            Ross

            Similar law of physics should also apply to car/pedestrian accidents involving EV’s. If you are going to be hit by a car, choose an ICE vehicle, because they are relatively lighter by size. Maybe there should be additional charge for EV’s? So not only extra taxes for wearing out the roads more but also for additional hospital care for the increased intensity of pedestrian accidents. Then add in the additional costs for extinguishing EV fires ( verse ICE vehicles). All in all, EV’s are looking very expensive for society in general.

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            • #
              David Maddison

              EVs also have an enhanced risk of pedestrian collisions because they are nearly silent and people don’t hear them.

              In Japan, EVs are required to produce an artifially generated noise. I think there is an EU requirement as well.

              https://youtu.be/TF1EkH2cyFE

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              • #
                Sambar

                Spot on there DM. When I was riding the treadly road bike ( kids wont let me any more Ha Ha) the electric vehicles would just frighteningly appear beside you. On the country roads where I live, even a couple of years ago, the roads where in poor condition and to have no warning of a vehicle approaching from behind often left me with no time for pot hole of dead animal evasion. Which way you fall becomes a matter of luck!

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              • #
                Ted1.

                40 years ago I declared Hondas dangerous for pedestrians. Other brands have followed their lead since. Engine noise is a thing of the past

                I read last week that Tesla 3s are outselling Camrys. I wonder, for how long?

                And I wonder, how many of those have been bought by government departments?

                30

        • #
          Ronin

          “When the full cost of running an EV is applied by a govt who realises they need to replace the fuel duty not paid by Ev’s then presumably EV sales will dive further. I believe the income from each ICE car is some 1500£ per year.”

          So as not to spook the horses, they won’t make huge moves on EV taxes, oh no, they’ll wait till most of the prey are in the trap before they spring it, you’ll own an EV (maybe) but you won’t be able to afford to recharge it, problem solved.

          50

        • #
          mundi

          The VIC government have a 2.5c/km charge. This only pay about 1/2 the tax an ICE does.

          The interesting thing is that 2.5c/km is about the same cost of electricity to drive an EV.

          In other-words – once you add tax – EV’s were never cheaper to run. They cost more, and cost the same to run once taxed the same!

          30

      • #
        Mantaray Yunupingu

        Mr GrimNasty. This depends on whether you pay federal tax…nett tax….or not.

        If, say, your total income and indirect tax (GST, Excises etc) is less than your return in federal goods / services/ payments received, then you are NOT paying for the jabs which are now harming millions of people.

        Tonyb. Sure EV owners are freeloaders….and none-too-bright to boot…..totally immoral folk who just love the idea
        that 6 year old kids are down the Cobalt and Lithium mines for THEM.
        Renewables and EVs etc are like every other cult items: you get free love and virtue at first but then the piper must be paid..

        “Charles Manson. Calling Charles Manson! Jim Jones. Calling Jim Jones…” There’s no such thing as a free lunch!

        [How did we get from EV sales tanking to Charles Manson?]AD

        00

    • #
      David Maddison

      At least vaccines are free.

      (Covid) Vaccines will set you free.

      Remember, in the more extreme compliant WEF/WHO/UN compliant Nanny States such as Australia, many of your limited freedoms (e.g. like working, or in Vicdanistan, even getting a haircut) were dependent upon whether you were a participant in the covid vaccine experiment or not.

      Your papers please“, or, as the National Socialists used to say, “Ihre papiere bitte“. Who’d ever have thought we’d hear that in Australia?

      291

  • #
    Petros

    It seems that applying basic mathematics and principles of physics is an easy way to avoid making lots of stupid decisions. Of course our governments force some very stupid ideas on us despite mathematics and physics. Oh well, use this knowledge to make money. We are ahead of the pack. Enjoy.

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  • #
    Penguinite

    The message that EVs are PREMATURE ELECTRIFICATION has, finally, matured!

    320

  • #
    A happy little debunker

    £10 of Diesel will get you further than £10 Electricity (from a recharging station).

    280

  • #
    David Maddison

    The Left don’t fundamentally care whether the people can drive or not. They’ve always been opposed to personal freedoms, including the massive freedom to come and go in an uncontrolled manner afforded by the personal motor vehicle.

    Banning internal combustion vehicles, leaving an option of an electric car, is just a smoke screen for eventually getting rid of personal cars altogether.

    And, we also have Leftist/WEF policies of “15 min cities” where you can supposedly walk everywhere, just like in Medieval times when most people lived their entire lives never leaving the place they were born and worked, and couldn’t afford to do so in any case.

    Banning personal transport is, after all, a policy of the WEF*.

    Naturally, none of the above will effect Elites.

    * https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/goodbye-car-ownership-hello-clean-air-this-is-the-future-of-transport/

    Goodbye car ownership, hello clean air: welcome to the future of transport

    Dec 16, 2016

    More than a million people are killed in motor vehicle accidents each year, and many more are threatened by transportation’s contribution to global warming.

    Imagine instead a world where fleets of autonomous vehicles that are electric and shared (FAVES) slash the number of vehicles on the road by as much as 90%. Hailing and paying for a ride or delivery is as easy as tapping a smart phone app

    SEE LINK FOR REST

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    • #
      YallaYPoora Kid

      Sounds like you are describing Canberra although the 15 min limit might be larger. Government build public transport where there is little demand for it.

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    • #
      Old Cocky

      I

      magine instead a world where fleets of autonomous vehicles that are electric and shared (FAVES) slash the number of vehicles on the road by as much as 90%. Hailing and paying for a ride or delivery is as easy as tapping a smart phone app

      That’s largely the sales pitch for “cloud computing”, and lots of companies’ management bought into it.
      In reality, the capabilities are less than we had 30 years ago, and the actual costs for larger systems are higher than running your own data centres.

      As far as transport goes, it’s basically saying “catch a train or a bus, or take a taxi”.
      Or maybe they’re thinking of Philip K. Dick’s Johnny Cabs.

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    • #
      Doctor T

      And those of us who live in the country, helping produce the food and raw materials that keep the inner cities alive, and who can’t walk/cycle/ catch a train to work, can all get stuffed!
      The rank hypocrisy as well as stupidity of those driving these policies never ceases to amaze me.

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      • #
        David Maddison

        And those of us who live in the country, helping produce the food and raw materials that keep the inner cities alive

        And guess what, Doctor T?

        The abandonment of the countryside in favour of “rewilding” is a WEF policy as well….

        https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/what-is-rewilding-nature/

        Apparently “insect farmers” will be growing their “produce” in urban settings.

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        • #
          Doctor T

          Farmers are always the enemies of the socialist Big State.
          They feed the masses, look after the land, and more than anything, think as individuals.
          Always the first to be burned at the stake.

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    • #
      bobby b

      “Imagine instead a world where fleets of autonomous vehicles that are electric and shared (FAVES) slash the number of vehicles on the road by as much as 90%.”

      But, “the number of vehicles that are on the road” does not include all the vehicles not being used at the moment. Doesn’t matter (if you’re going to use a vehicle) whether you use your own or rent one – you’re still adding one vehicle “on the road.” So, won’t we have the same number of vehicles on the road whether they’re gas or electric? Just many more constantly-used, and thus wearing out faster, vehicles?

      Only difference I can see is that someone somewhere can tell you that there are no rental vehicles available for you right now, for that specific journey. Unless you get better at pronouns, or get your booster, or . . .

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      • #
        Old Cocky

        That’s a good point. By “on the road”, do they men registered for that year, or those travelling somewhere at a specific point in time?

        The latter shouldn’t change, but it potentially could reduce parking space requirements.

        50

    • #
      GlenM

      The dopey Left think that all live in urban agglomerations. Fools. We lived in a shoebox at the bottom of a lake but we never complained. You’ll own nothing but will be happy.

      80

    • #
      Dave in the States

      Imagine instead a world where fleets of autonomous vehicles that are electric and shared (FAVES) slash the number of vehicles on the road by as much as 90%.

      This gives the game away for those in the know. In America at least, transportation is a small fraction of “emissions” and private autos are a small fraction of that. If I recall correctlty it is about 15%. So what does taking 90% of cars off the road do? What does replacing a portion of the ICE fleet with EVs do? This is a war against individual freedom, not to save the environment.

      141

    • #
      Ronin

      “More than a million people are killed in motor vehicle accidents each year.”

      I would have thought that snippet of info very appealing to the UN, WEF and the rest of the climate mafia, a small percentage of their aims done for them for free.

      30

    • #
      DOC

      Didn’t this blog have a recent article on limiting travel to within certain council boundaries and pay a price every time one crossed such boundaries. It was an article on such a policy being tried out in England. The idea was, personal transport was encouraged to be by walking or bikes. Only the elites and the monied classes are meant to own personal vehicles, it seems.

      The IPA had an article on Mao and his revolutionary methodology recently. People were disposable, and disposed of, if they weren’t peasants, soldiers or communist members. Youths, brainwashed were the enforcers. Seems those pushing the Democracies to ruination are following a similar course.

      10

      • #
        Joy

        Competing with a country like China means carrying on the same with regards automation and making people part of, that automation.
        No. other country has the population to compete nor the political/social infrastructure, yet.

        So in trying to compete the wrong way, nations have to resort to drastic measures, using their citizens like drones to move faster and faster, towards what, I wonder.

        There should be more of the trendy word “on-shore-ing”, taking place in the west, which is another word for doing it yourself at home.
        Made In England…Made In Australia, Made In The USA.

        China’s influence, it seems, is almost like Jupiter’s if nobody’s making a conscious choice to resist, everybody just follows suit. That’s aside from any political shenanigans or financial vested interest. I mean it’s a subliminal force. Faster, cheaper, whatever the cost to people or quality of goods or services. At some point someone’s going to have to say that’s enough of that. Let’s look at quality: Of life, of goods and services.

        treasuring free market forces to do their thing means the population becomes a force for good, not an encumbrance, where everybody has to do and be the same, even drive in the same direction!

        Stop buying Chinese goods everybody, if you can, keep it local and tell the greenies it’s good for the planet to give up strawberries in December.
        Problem solved.

        10

  • #
    RicDre

    The Clean Energy Manufacturing Renaissance Falsehood

    Essay by Eric Worrall

    The first line of the essay perfectly captures the mindset of “renewable” energy proponents: Clap hard people – every time you say “I don’t believe in renewables”, a Western solar manufacture company dies.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/15/the-clean-energy-manufacturing-renaissance-falsehood/

    150

  • #
  • #
    Neville

    TOXIC EV RUINABLES are a disaster, just like S & W and of course ZERO change to CLIMATE or temperature or weather FOREVER.
    This is costing stupid OECD countries TRILLIONs of $ while China etc laugh all the way to their banks.
    Why are we so clueless when data proves there’s no climate threat at all?

    201

  • #
    David Maddison

    Do you think Elites like Joe Biden will forfeit his 1967 Corvette Stingray, although I assume he is medically unfit to drive in any case?

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    • #
      TonyfromOz

      ….. although I assume he is medically unfit to drive in any case?

      As President, he’s not allowed to drive anyway, and I think that might also apply, after his term as President expires.

      Not just him, ALL Presidents, existing and former, and Vice Presidents as well.

      So, Joe has been forbidden from driving his 67 Corvette for the last 14 years.

      Tony.

      100

      • #
        Ross

        He just does photo ops sitting in the driver’s seat wearing his aviator sunglasses, so he looks cool for all the lefties.

        100

      • #
        A happy little debunker

        They can drive … Obama did it around the inside of the White House grounds, when a staffer bought in one of those brand new EV’s & G.W. drives on his ranch in Texas.
        They are not allowed to drive on public roads – and are chauffeured by the Secret Service everywhere.

        90

  • #
    another ian

    Around the area

    “Hydrogen Will Not Save Us. Here’s Why.”

    https://youtu.be/Zklo4Z1SqkE

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    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      Good one. Thanks.
      Dave B

      10

    • #
      Raving

      Interesting video and transportation via ammonia seems practical. Stiil don’t understand why if wind power and solar are so inexpensive, why industrial scale wind and solar farms cannot make a buck accumulating intermittent green energy.

      Otherwise it is just a …. No otherwise.

      Something doesn’t add up here

      00

  • #
    David Maddison

    Remember, the Elites don’t WANT you to have access to inexpensive energy or personal transport.

    They are deliberately reverting us to pre-industrial, pre-Enlightenment times.

    They hate non-Elites having personal freedoms and the (relative) luxury standard of living afforded to non-Elites by free enterprise capitalism.

    -No personal cars (WEF policy, see my post above)

    -No meat, eat insects (WEF policy ref 1)

    -15 min cities (WEF policy ref 2)

    -Digital identity that gives full tracing and tracking of non-Elites (WEF policy ref 3)

    Of course, there are many other such policies.

    Do you see a pattern?

    Ref 1) https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/07/good-grub-why-we-might-be-eating-insects-soon

    Ref 2) https://www.coinbureau.com/videos/the-wefs-new-plan-for-the-future-15-minute-cities/

    Ref 3) https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/davos-agenda-digital-identity-frameworks/

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    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Be Afraid, Very Afraid!

      Deliberate Evil on Steroids.

      72

      • #
        Greg in NZ

        The WEF’s NWO graphics for PI (Personal Identity) as per David’s Ref 3) is remarkably similar to a crown – corona – virus: a central sphere with spiky protrusions. Apparently this will make humanity run like clockwork in a perfectly ordered world… it is not, however, the kind of ‘world’ I want to be a part of. Schwab & Co can go suck kumaras [like sucking a lemon].

        90

  • #
    TdeF

    “If only they could do maths.”

    Unfortunately they have.

    There are thousands of FREE electric car charge points in the UK, often located in supermarkets, shopping centres, public car parks, hotels and sometimes service stations. Be aware there could be restrictions such as a set period of time or a requiring a purchase in-store, so it’s best to check.

    Of course it’s crazy. In Australia we have not gone as mad yet, but a lot is tax exempt, subsidized. And it will all come tumbling down once people are trapped. A government windmill and solar Ponzi scheme while everyone is paying a massive carbon tax hidden in their electricity bills and electricity keeps going up for everyone. The guillotine will come down when the sheeple are trapped. And all the windmills and solar panels have to be replaced. Disposables.

    One unsaid aspect is compatibility. There are FIVE types of plug! Plus the software and protocols in your car have to match the specific plug and charger or it will not work at all.

    But when you are saving the planet and electric green energy is allegedly both carbon free and cost free, electric makes more sense. Poor sods. Neither is true. Far worse than when all the French were forced to buy diesels and then diesels were fined for entering cities.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Apart from being even more socialist and EU than Australia, the commute distances are relatively short and there are more charge stations by far. But even in Australia Telsa 3s are outselling Toyota Camrys. In a country where thanks to Unions we no longer make cars, its a popular decision to go electric. But it’s nuts compared with hybrid. And the savings in importing petrol might just cover the cost of importing American wood chips so they don’t have to use dirty, dirty coal.

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      • #
        TdeF

        The Government article goes onto list the advantages of electric cars, some quite as shocking as FREE electricity, which is not listed. I also suspect some schemes like Tesla include electricity in the cost of the car from Telsa charging points. How the others do it I do not know yet. I cannot imagine buying a bun from a supermarket and they will fill your car for free.

        Electric vehicles have many benefits listed in the government promotion, including:

        Cleaner environment
        No congestion charge
        Lower running costs
        Renewable electricity tariffs
        Better driving experience
        Government funding
        Free parking

        Reduced noise pollution
        Increased resale value

        All subsidized by you and the other poor sods who do not have electric cars. A bit like solar panels. Other people’s money. And the more you do this, the more electricity goes up in price and the more you save (relative of course to the aforementioned poor sods). Until one day it all changes.

        I do not remember governments building refineries, supplying petrol lorries, building service stations and subsidizing fuel. Personally the Chinese should be paying for it all. Their CO2 output is more than all other countries combined but according to the Greens, Australians are the worst offenders per capita. Though there might be an island somewhere with fewer people and greater distances, a contradictory requirement.

        160

        • #
          • #
            DOC

            Exactly Brad. Popular media doesn’t seem to report on what happens at the end of the short life span of EV’s. such as the recycling and disposal problems. There’s the absolute necessity of replacing the battery pack, remembering before it’s fully defunct the battery pack loses capacity over the last years of its expected lifetime. That entails increased frequency of recharging – and all the inconvenience that action entails. The shell of the vehicle carries 8yo electronics. If that’s like most computers that’s a reason in itself to replace the vehicle. Then there’s the question of handling the old battery packs and wiring, recycling what one can.

            Maybe riding horses will become the new mode of personal transport for the peasants. The output of their digestive systems could be harvested as the only source of fertiliser allowed to be sold for what passes for gardens in the current race for high density infill in housing.

            00

    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      So many times over the years, people have been encouraged to do this or that with financial incentives. This is precisely because the action does NOT make economic sense otherwise. Then, when sufficient numbers of people have fallen for it and are ‘committed’, those incentives are withdrawn and those poor fools realise they’ve been sold a duff budgie. Of course, by then it’s too late.

      Rooftop solar is one recent example, with the feed-in tariff and grants used to make them look way more attractive than they are in reality. Then, when millions of homes have installed the expensive magic panels, the tariffs are reduced.

      I also recall, many years ago in the UK, people were encouraged to swap petrol cars for diesel in much the same way. Nowadays of course, it’s arguably cheaper to run a petrol car AND they have lower emissions.

      Never let governments tell you what to buy. They WILL get it wrong or stitch you up. Probably both.

      250

    • #
      Raving

      EV enthusiasts are going to hit a wall when fast charge points get saturated for those 300 mi day travel outings …such as long weekends.

      The more EVs on the road the more likely fast recharge top ups are going to become impossibly choked by waiting.

      Range anxiety with EVs risk becoming absolutely hated.

      10

      • #
        David Maddison

        And the logistics of providing a large number of high power charging points in one location are enormous. They would need their own HV power line coming from the nearest coal, gas or nuclear power station or sub-station.

        Tesla v3 superchargers are 250kW.

        If you had 100 of them, and you would probably need many more than that for long weekend traffic, that’s 25MW. That’s a serious amount of power to import over existing wires. They will need their own wires.

        30

    • #
      Ronin

      I wonder if mice look at traps and marvel that the cheese is free.

      40

    • #
      mundi

      UK makes up for the ‘free’ charges by having ‘time of use’ chargers, where you are paid for how long you connect – not the amount of power you draw. Yes (green) brits are that stupid and some of the companies are making over 3 pound per kilowatthour.

      20

  • #
    Frederick Pegler

    The time line for these fantasies is running out. They are no longer comfortably beyond the career time line of the people making this BS up.
    Soon they will have to face reality, or try to kick the can further down the road. If they do try to kick it further down the road (most likley). They will if find it lodged against the rock hard reality of power generation/supply vs need. As in the real baseload NEEDED to maintain the very basics of the modern world.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Consistent with the idea of eventually banning all private motor vehicles, EV or ICE, is the fact that in many or most local government areas in Australia it used to be a planning regulation that any new building developments provided off-street parking for all intended inhabitants. This requirement is now frequently excepted.

    They (Elites) really are planning a future without cars (for non-Elites).

    140

    • #
      Dennis

      And as one “Independent” Teal MP was quoted speaking in the inner city electorate she wanted to represent, “we” would exempt Range Rovers because they are popular here.

      80

  • #

    If wind energy is needed for car-driving, take that 😀

    80

  • #
    Ronin

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/electriccars/article-11618621/Electric-car-public-charging-prices-58-eight-months.html

    Unless you have offstreet parking for your EV in UK, it is cheaper to run a diesel vehicle.

    80

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Having been in business and needing to make a profit I always knew this would be so, but I thought levying a road tax would be the trigger.

      Once costs limit how far you can drive from home, the big, expensive Tesla [which is no bigger than my Camry] would be redundant and a Leaf would be adequate for the daily commute. The Leaf would also be easier to charge at home, especially after the inevitable household power restrictions.

      20

    • #
      mundi

      In UK if you own a buisness power prices are 140p/kwhour. So its cheaper to run a diesel generator than use power from the grid.

      30

  • #
    Hanrahan

    The command-economy of gas meets the command-economy of cars and pretty soon we’ll be riding horses:

    Watching a western last night I realised the similarity.

    In westerns, if they ride a horse hard for a day they either get a fresh mount or rest up for a day. Somewhat similar.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    And because of the dumbing-down of the education system, I suppose few people, present company excepted, have heard of the Manure Crisis.

    https://fee.org/articles/the-great-horse-manure-crisis-of-1894/

    Nineteenth-century cities depended on thousands of horses for their daily functioning. All transport, whether of goods or people, was drawn by horses. London in 1900 had 11,000 cabs, all horse-powered. There were also several thousand buses, each of which required 12 horses per day, a total of more than 50,000 horses. In addition, there were countless carts, drays, and wains, all working constantly to deliver the goods needed by the rapidly growing population of what was then the largest city in the world. Similar figures could be produced for any great city of the time.*

    The problem of course was that all these horses produced huge amounts of manure. A horse will on average produce between 15 and 35 pounds of manure per day. Consequently, the streets of nineteenth-century cities were covered by horse manure. This in turn attracted huge numbers of flies, and the dried and ground-up manure was blown everywhere. In New York in 1900, the population of 100,000 horses produced 2.5 million pounds of horse manure per day, which all had to be swept up and disposed of. (See Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 [New York: Oxford University Press, 1999]).

    Reverting to horses is not an option.

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    • #
      b.nice

      The Manure Crisis..?

      That’s pretty much the “climate change agenda”, isn’t it !! 😉

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Thanks David.
      I’ve been searching for an article I thought I had saved for some time. It wasn’t this one but it similar, it noted that NY would have been 6 feet deep in manure but for the arrival of the clean automobile. IIRC Original attributed to a NY Commissioner about 1906.

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  • #
    TdeF

    And people are just starting to comment that while cars were becoming smaller and lighter and more environmentally friendly, adding 0.6tonnes to 1.5tonnes to make electric vehicles makes accidents far worse.

    Electric vehicles weigh as much as the 4WDs so hated by Greens. We all pay taxes to maintain the roads, taxes electric cars do not pay despite the fact that the damage from heavier electric cars will be much higher. Road taxes will have to go up dramatically to fund road repairs for electric cars. Plus the requirement for faster tyre replacement at rocketing prices because tyres are made from carbon and the predictably higher service costs for suspension which will wear out much faster. There will be no such thing as a light weight electric car, cancelling the substantial advances of the last thirty years to lighter, cheaper cars. The Audi E8 at 2500kg is a lightweight.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Also remember that excise on petrol is a major revenue earner for the public servants.

      Remember when LP gas was a fraction of the cost of petrol and diesel was cheaper than petrol?

      I can safely predict that the cost of driving electric cars will suddenly double when there is electric car ‘tax reform’ with politicians demanding that freeloading electric car drivers pay their full cost of ownership and damage to the roads and all the infrastructure which was not necessary when there were petrol stations.

      Then there will be a premium tax on electricity guzzling, road wrecking, accident causing super heavy electric cars. It’s a sure as Canberra needs more cash.

      60

      • #
        Ronin

        It’s not all that long ago Autogas was 15c/L, and Ford made a gas only Falcon which made more power than the petrol model by injecting the LPG as a liquid, then the grubbiment, never one to miss a trick, phased in the road excise on LPG making it almost as expensive as petrol

        00

        • #
          Chad

          No, it is still a cheaper fuel..$1.00 per litre, and practically the same performance and consumption as petrolq
          But the problem is not many servo’s have the pumps now

          00

  • #
    Dennis

    Meanwhile in Australia EV promotors claim that Tesla EV sold more than Toyota Camry ICEV recently, which seems to be lacking in details like considering the shortage of imported vehicles generally over the past two years here.

    EV are expensive and best suited to city and suburban driving conditions and in Australia definitely for general country roads and distances.

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      David Maddison

      I think EV sales are also artificially boosted by sales of EVs to woke government departments who have no problem with wasting vast amounts of taxpayer money.

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        Sambar

        “sales of EVs to woke government departments”

        Yup, local shire council is going to buy electric vehicles. These of course will be for the admin staff, the plebs picking up the rubbish and filling in the potholes still drive diesel.
        Its O.K. though as the local council buys “green” electricity at a premium to save the planet. I suggested that the admin should drive the cheapest vehicles available, however “its not possible to attract anyone to work here if thats all we offer”.
        Once again just another level of bureaucracy, the federal government tells us how to live, state governments implement the way we live then local government lets all the green zealots pretend that they are saving the ratepayers from themselves.

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      Ken

      The Tesla just pipped the Camry on sales for the first time but remember they are both sedans which account for a very small portion of total sales.
      If you check all sales by brand Toyota is streets ahead of all others mainly due to increasing sales of SUVs and the Hilux ute.
      In overall terms EVs are still less than 1% of the Australian registered fleet as is the case in the USA and worldwide.
      The EV advocates get all exited about what are meaningless news grabs when the reality is their favourite is still less than 1%.

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        Chad

        Yes , tesla sold 10,877 model 3 EVs last year…
        Against a total vehicle sales of just under 1.1 million…..so less than 1% of the market .!
        And remember Toyota had huge problems with component shortages ( still do !)

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      Ronin

      “EVs are expensive and best suited to city and suburban driving conditions and in Australia definitely NOT for general country roads and distances.”

      No need to thank me.

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  • #
    Neville

    AGAIN our poorest continent Africa have quadrupled their population since 1970, from 365 mil to 1460 million today. See UN data link.
    And this must be due to a very benign climate since 1970 because Africa still doesn’t enjoy the benefits of a modern electrification system.
    Also Africa suffered the HIV AIDs disaster since 1970 and YET their life expectancy has also increased from 46 to 64 years today.
    This is solid proof that our climate has been a source of Human thriving for over 50 years and the last 100 years etc. Also see world UN data as well.
    Look up the DATA and think. The data proves that Humans are thriving today, YET we want to wreck our future? So why do stupid elites want us to BELIEVE in their BS and FRAUD?

    https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/AFR/africa/population

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      TdeF

      I blame the United Nations, the power hungry 40,000 overpaid elites with no actual job but trying to act as an unelected world government. With 193 countries in the UN, that’s over 200 full time people per country! What are they doing? This was supposed to be a forum, not a major industry. Plus another 40,000 on secondment.

      The very idea that the weather is now a major if not the major responsibility of the United Nations would have Franklin Roosevelt rolling in his grave.

      Now the UK is sending tanks to Ukraine in yet another undeclared war? Where is the UN?

      According to the Democrats, WWII is not over. Russian disinformation, Russian devilment, Russian hackers preventing Hillary Clinton from being President, Russia the evil empire. Whatever goes wrong, it is the Russians.

      The Republicans were very clear. The Axis of Evil was Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

      And no one mentions China, despite the Wuhan flu. Which was officially no one’s fault. Apparently.

      The only enemy apart from Russia is coal. Except now the UN/EU/WEF elites are coming for your gas stove.

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      Neville

      BTW global life expectancy was just 45.5 years in 1950 and has now increased to 73 years.
      And African life expectancy was just 36 in 1950 and today is 64 years.
      When will they WAKE UP? See UN data at the link.

      https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/AFR/africa/life-expectancy

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      And yet, every evening our TV sets are plastered with images of allegedly starving African children and mothers who, they say, have no access to food, water, health care or medicines.

      Does not compute!

      The charity industry is corrupt. I recall boarding a flight some years ago and, while I headed for cattle class (on a business trip), a representative of a charity (as evidenced by his shirt) was getting comfy in business class. The difference in cost would have been in the hundreds of dollars, making me wonder how many gallons of clean water could have been bought instead.

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        Dennis

        It annoys me watching those advertisement, they are not cheap to put on television.

        And support a Koala, for example, World Wildlife Fund advertisement in Australia!!!

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      • #
        Ronin

        With all the money donated by Aussies to charities to aid Africa, have you ever seen a Southern Cross windmill pumping fresh water for mum and her nine kids with her 20 L drum.
        No?, me either.

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  • #
    aspnaz

    China will keep on making equipment that uses fossil fuels, Russia will keep on supplying the fuel, leaving the door open for the western countries to eventually about face and kick the greens into touch. Only if WEF rules the world will poverty and imprissonment in the west become a realistic option for the authoritarians.

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    Hopefully not OT but I have an environmentally friendly solution for those wanting to charge their EV’s .

    https://www.startupselfie.net/2022/12/26/5b-hinged-folding-solar-array-rapid-deployment/?fbclid=IwAR3NAaGOv3ryM4csUcuKw6iX5xBmR4xnmOndIc6dfDF_g_PtSnnpzX5A9oo

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  • #
    John Connor II

    The “Greta effect” is for the greater good.

    Saving the planet one ev at a time.😎

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmiMAuSWYAI0WqY?format=png&name=small

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    • #
      Neville

      Good stuff JC, but the Chinese also use/abuse Chinese slaves as well.
      But poor African kids and homegrown Chinese slaves should suit clueless Greta, the WEF, the UN, the OECD donkeys etc.

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      • #
        John Connor II

        Of course they do, in a sense anyway.
        It’s still legal in around 90 countries.
        Should we have a post on the history of slavery and how blacks had white Irish slaves AND black slaves?
        That’d upset the historically ignorant reparation seekers.
        Colour and race are irrelevant when it comes to slavery. Heaven forbid we read about elite child trafficking and abuse.
        But so long as we get our warm weather only, range limited, explosion prone, open cut mine mineral planet-saving EV’s, what’s a few kiddies in some remote country matter eh.

        [Topic up for discussion is EV sales tanking not slaves but if you can draw a line between the two better than what you have we will consider it.]AD

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  • #
    David Maddison

    As Australia continues to decomission proper coal and gas power stations, where’s the electricity going to come from to provide all this power for EVs?

    Apart from that, a typical Australian household has a single phase supply.

    The maximum power that can be supplied per circuit at 240V (although the nominal voltage is now 230V) is between 4.8 – 7.6kW (20A-32A @ 240V, single phase, depending on location.

    https://afma.org.au/ev-charging-at-home-in-australia/

    Home charging stations are mostly limited to 20A single phase charging – which means a 12-hour charging cycle to get up to 300km of range. Some service and installation rules allow for 32A charging, which reduces the cycle to 8 hours.

    Apart from not enough power being generated due to the shutdown of real power stations, I doubt whether the poles and wires (and underground cabling) could deliver this much power if everyone had an EV.

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      David Maddison

      Another point is the government wants to ban gas stoves and they are already prohibited in many new developments in Australia (and I understand Kaliforniastan which is possibly as lunatic as Australia).

      That means induction or resistance stoves and these use a lot of power.

      Where will the power come from?

      That’s why cooked food will also be a luxury for non-Elites.

      The standard diet will become uncooked gruel and uncooked insects.

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      • #
        John Michelmore

        Yes, and that will ensure those mRNA vaccines included in your vegetables are not destroyed by cooking.

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    • #
      Paul Miskelly

      Hi David,
      Excellent question. You are very likely aware of two reports that address this question in the UK context, written recently by Prof Michael Kelly. I’m reproducing the links here for the benefit of others. As Prof Kelly shows, there is a swag of inconvenient engineering realities which, from Jo’s report here, I suspect are now beginning to assert themselves. The links are:
      https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2020/05/KellyDecarb-1.pdf, and,
      https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2022/03/Kelly-Net-Zero-Progress-Report.pdf

      And for Simon’s sake at #27, increasing the numbers of EVs sold simply makes the impact of the engineering constraints worse; that’s being reflected in the skyrocketing prices for electricity in the UK. Ignoring those facts, Simon, does not make them go away.

      Thanks, Jo,
      Paul Miskelly

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    David Maddison

    It is no secret that Australia’s and the world’s energy crisis is going to end very badly.

    It’s a very trivial exercise to work out that you can’t run an industrial civilisation on solar and wind unreliables. No complicated computer “models” needed.

    But of course, the plan isn’t to maintain an industrial civilisation is it…..?

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    Simon

    Globally, sales of EVs are up 54% year-on-year, and have an 11% share of the total car market. Plug-in hybrids have a further 5% share. Those figures are to end of September so will likely be higher for the whole year.
    https://insideevs.com/news/625651/global-plugin-electric-car-sales-october2022/

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      David Maddison

      That doesn’t make it right does it Simon?

      Majority opinion doesn’t decide what’s right, just what’s popular, just like it doesn’t decide scientific fact.

      There are objective measures that can decide correctness.

      If not, we would have more legally elected governments like the National Socialists wouldn’t we? The Socialists got the majority vote of 43.9%.

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    • #
      b.nice

      Huge subsidies to the elite, and leftist government and company fleet sales.

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        • #
          Philip

          Simon, do you ever think for yourself, on your own terms, or do you just read articles and let them decide for you?

          Serious question, not a hassle. You always seem to attach an article and state its message, but I rarely see you just type your thinking.

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        • #
          b.nice

          In fantasy land !

          Also, there is nothing in either link about removing the MASSIVE SUBSIDES that are given on EV purchases.

          “Explicit subsidies occur when the retail price is below a fuel’s supply cost.”

          LOL.. Fossil fuels bring in far more tax for governments, nowhere in the western world is pump price less than the cost. !

          And if you remove help for third world countries, that is just sending them further backwards .. the left agenda, writ large.

          Wind and solar bring in basically nothing !

          And remember, fuel tax rebates on production ARE NOT SUBSIDIES. !

          As for the IMF, as soon as they start using fake climate models and the imaginary 1.5 or 2C warming…… read no further.. Its bound to be nonsense.

          “Coal has the largest external costs due to significant emissions of greenhouse gas “

          BS !!!

          CO2 emissions are NOT a cost.. they are a massive benefit to the whole world’s ecosystem.

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        • #
          b.nice

          In your second link.. Notice the absolutely tiny amount of subsidies for coal 🙂

          https://media.nature.com/lw767/magazine-assets/d41586-021-02847-2/d41586-021-02847-2_19761078.png?as=webp

          There is of course, absolutely no reliable “renewable (lol)” replacement for petroleum, oil or gas.. or coal for that matter.

          When you and your fellow climate worriers are prepared to go without all thing that use fossil fuels…

          … then I might consider your comments actually worth something.

          But you NEVER WILL. !

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        • #
          b.nice

          When they remove the huge subsidies on EVs… sales will grind to a halt.. period. !

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        • #
          David Maddison

          Simon, where are all the coal, gas and nuclear power stations going to come from to charge all these EVs?

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        • #
          KP

          Good God Simon, that article was complete rubbish! Someone had a point they wanted to make and searched hard to find amazingly flimsy excuses to include completely unrelated items to push their barrow!

          The subsidies on oil include car accidents… What absolute balderdash!

          The moment someone mentions “social costs” you can be sure their argument is crap!

          Ah, right,- at the bottom is the IMF logo.. that explains it all! I was going to say the author ought to get a real job, but I can see its just an AI tossing opaque feel-good phrases together without any meaning at all!

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    • #
      b.nice

      And of course a large majority of these are EV and hybrids in CHINA…

      … where they are powered by the HUGE number of coal fired power stations that CHINA has.

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    • #
      b.nice

      Furthermore, many people that own hybrids, run them just on fossil fuel.

      https://insideevs.com/news/630341/plug-in-hybrids-arent-being-plugged-in-study/

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        Furthermore, many people that own hybrids, run them just on fossil fuel.

        I’m sorry but that’s just plain dumb.

        The hybrids, Prius is the arch-typical, are basically petrol cars with regenerative braking. [There are other cool things with them like extra power when overtaking] The ICE has started before you’re out of the garage.

        A plug-in hybrid, RAV4 best in class, can do commutes strictly on battery.

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        • #
          Hanrahan

          Who’s the dummy! Can’t do quotes right. 🙂

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        • #
          b.nice

          You have to remember, H, many people who buy EVs and Hybrids are mainly doing it for the virtue-seeking social quota.

          Probably too “busy (lol)” to remember to plug it in !

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    • #
      Raving

      Purchase rebates, Potentially low maintenance if batteries can be serviced. Great performance. No road tax. Off peak recharging costs. What’s not to like?

      Unfortunately someone has to generate the electricity. As EVs become more popular those speedy 30 minute fast charge top ups are going to become brutally expensive and/or impossible to find.

      Range anxiety is the EV hell, especially as more EVs go on the road.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        I suspect that here in my regional city charge points will be in oversupply.

        New, big petrol stations are popping up like the ’50s, all with big forecourts. There are four new Liberty brand servos that must have 100 pumps total. Mobil brand has reemerged with a brand new station and another has done a major refirb. 7 to 11 is building two new stores. Just the walls are up but the shop looks small with a big driveway. One is where a servo closed years ago and there MAY still be UG tanks but the other is ex residential. These, surely, must all be wired for charging when needed. The good news is that there is now competition in the petrol market.

        I see trouble ahead. Townsville is not big enough to have long commutes and most live in single homes so will charge at home. Going out of town people will likely choose an ICE.

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    DScott

    The workability of EVs is not the point. They’re not supposed to be practical, green, or workable. They’re intended to be the transition to no V’s at all. When enough people have been forced into them, or when enough ICE vehicles have been parked, your lords and masters will suddenly discover the obvious EV flaws that normal people have been pointing out from the start. What to do? Ban EVs, obviously. Et voila: Now you’re all living in pods in 15-minute cities and spooning in cold reconstituted cricket paste. EVs are the gateway to permanent lockdowns and immobility.

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      David Maddison

      Sorry DScott. The red thumb was an accident, was meant to be a green thumb.

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    • #
      Philip

      Clearly this is what the central scrutinizer is thinking of and trying to enact. However I don’t think it will come to that because it cuts into functionality at the personal life level too deeply, too locally. These are things you cant just ignore like people do with most political issues.

      As cynical as I am, which is very, I pull short of total dystopia. I believe society will push back in some way at some time. Or, perhaps people will spend extra and buy evs? Where is the protest from the extraordinary household energy bills in the UK? People do just end up paying more, adjust and barely talk about it. Or, the right will compromise and convince greens to adopt nuclear? I don’t know what but something will happen somehow.

      But the clowns that have control and are gaining more control, are going to do some serious damage.

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    Philip

    They will have to get rid of that 2030 rule. It just won’t work and at some stage someone is going to have to notice.

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    aspnaz

    Here in Taiwan they have electric buses and on the sides it declares “Powered by 100% clean energy”, except that they use coal and nuclear most of the time with a small fraction of wind. Also, here in Taiwan the government has eliminated 50cc gas scooters – I am not sure whether they have been banned or are taxed so heavily to make them too expensive – and they are all replaced by electric now and all very heavily subsidised. WEF and USA have their teeth into Taiwan.

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    Phil O'Sophical

    And cost aside, there is the impracticality. A few monied luvvies who could afford to virtue signal have recently publicly given up on their EV’s citing all the disadvantages and inconveniences.

    There is barely any push to create the necessary infrastructure either, which should be a red flag, if one were needed, as to true intentions. As Neil Oliver so rightly observed: “It was never about us going green; it was always about us going without.”

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    Peter

    Wyoming seems to go the other way. No more electric vehicle sales from 2035.

    https://wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2023/SJ0004

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  • #
    Joy

    UK electric cars sales fall — people can’t afford to run them on wind and solar grid

    Late comment but thought it might be of interest if some haven’t heard:

    British Volt which (battery manufacturer), have failed to find a buyer for the company.

    (They’re all waiting until it’s dirt cheap) ahem,
    for
    (people can’t afford these cars even if they wanted them and the penny’s dropped (PI) as to where the money comes from to prop the EV thing up. I People, normal ones, are taking note of cost of fuel, the notion of being forced into and EV and so on. The worm’s turning.

    Investors must have pulled out, nobody wants to touch it.
    It was a 4 billion pound project.
    Now, 300 staff made redundant,
    company now looking like it will be in administration
    (Except someone’ll buy it cheap)
    There’s money in lithium batteries, just not for cars in this country right now.

    Would have thought Cornwall is where they should be manufacturing batteries, little lithium ones…

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    Joy

    Excuse me for the bad editing there. Wonder what it would look like if I hadn’t taken twenty minutes to write it

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    • #
      Joy

      Now see it’s not an old post, it’s from today!
      Was searching under “uk” section on side bar and saw the title. Assumed it was old, hence didn’t read sorry again

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