They’re testing a ban on petrol and diesel cars in the City. That’s my city, the one with a capital ‘C’. The City of London. Just so you know its not Manchester or Salisbury, Birmingham or Norwich. Do people drive in Norwich? Anyway, they’ve picked a little road near Moorgate and they’re going to ban ‘normal’ cars there either on a permanent basis or from maybe 7am to 11pm, kind of thing. If the trial is successful then they may roll this out to the entire square mile next April. To improve air quality. Which is noble. And needed. But what about deliveries. There are (literally) millions of deliveries every day. And collections. From our postman. So he’d have to get a ‘lectric vehicle too, presumably, to avoid the £130 fine. And the delivery companies may be forced to change a fleet of vehicles. Or a significant part of it. The DHL type people. FedEx. Which is fine. They may be able to afford it. But many deliveries are done by owner-drivers, trundling round in beaten up, 14 year-old Transit vans, eking out a meagre, self-employed living. And yes, they spew out diesel fumes and all manner of toxic waste into the environment, but can they afford to cough up 25 grand (guessing, got no idea what they cost but that’s pretty much a starting point for the class) on a new leccy model? Or need to find an extra 600 quid a month in payments?

The idea of a ban on oil burners is a good one. Personally I’d be happy with a total ban on all vehicles in the entire central London area on safety grounds. But a City of 12 million people that produces as much as London does needs a lot of service. And services. So although the best time to attend to the air pollution problem is ‘now’, there’s a lot of contingencies to consider.

Particularly as ‘tests have shown’ that, and this’ll surprise you, electric cars ‘fall short on mileage claims’. Which is a bit like virtually every other type of claim for new cars being shown to be rubbish, but the ‘e’-variety of rubbish. So they don’t get the emissions figures wrong. They don’t grossly overestimate the fuel consumption. They just promise you more miles than you’re ever going to get. And they all do it, and they’re all way short. Like, 100 miles short on the promised 300 on offer. That’s ‘short’ by any standards. You think you’re gonna get to Newcastle but you conk out in York and have to sit with a plug for half an hour pulling your hair out. And this creates a new phenomenon called ‘range anxiety’.

And I’ve never had that. I’ve had ‘almost run out of petrol’ anxiety, I live with ‘is Lila ok’ anxiety, almost thrive on ‘what can I eat now’ anxiety. I could be anxious for England. But range anxiety? I want some. You can never be too anxious.

Happy Thursday

A xxxx