Sir, – Your correspondent Gordon Pay (August 5) is ecstatic about his electric car and says he has no problems with it, but that more charging points are needed.
Mr Pay would receive a government grant of up to £5,000 towards his electric car and pays no emissions tax so no wonder he is happy.
It is a bit like the rich householder who puts up solar panels and effectively his poorer neighbours pay.
Owners of electric vehicles also get free parking in a charging spot and can leave their car all day with no wardens to bother them.
The loss of fuel tax and vehicles emissions taxes will require additional taxes somewhere else.
Will the 20% tax rate be increased to 30%? Will road charging be introduced?
Mr Pay may think he is helping to save the planet but Scotland only has 2.6 million vehicles and 0.13% of global emissions.
The world has 1.2 billion vehicles and this is forecast to grow to two billion by 2035. Most of the world will continue to use petrol or diesel engines.
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road,
Linlithgow.
Environmental propaganda
Sir, – When are responsible and right-thinking people going to condemn the insidious propaganda from the environmental movement?
It would seem that so-called professional commentators have now lost all sense of objectivity and reality in the face of this continual onslaught from the greenies.
And we reached an even higher level of absurdity with the government’s proposal to ban all petrol and diesel cars by 2040.
Even if such a thing was practical how will they generate all that electricity to provide so much battery power?
Remember they have just committed to spending £20 billion on a nuclear power station, which will not even cater for Britain’s ongoing annual increased base-load requirements.
This environmental trend is causing so much suffering to vulnerable people.
Over vast areas of the undeveloped world, hundreds of thousands of people (especially children) are dying due to diseases such as malaria, cholera and malnutrition and the simple remedy lies in providing clean water.
Sadly, however, so many are being deprived of this basic need because environmentalists are blocking their use of their own fossil fuels which would allow them to generate electricity required to provide clean water.
This fact alone should be sufficient reason for all right-thinking people to unite in condemning the unfounded nonsense about global warming.
Jim Parker.
9 Banchory Green,
Collydean,
Glenrothes.
Lost taxes will be recouped
Sir, – Gordon Pay waxes lyrical (August 5) about the virtues of his electric car and claims that the electricity required for a mass transition from fossil-fuelled vehicles can be met from “a rapid rise in renewable generation”.
It would appear that he has not read the DUKES energy analysis report indicating that there was a significant reduction in renewable generation last year from the previous year due to a lack of wind, rainfall and sunshine.
He suggested that an individual’s electricity needs for an electric vehicle can be met from roof- mounted solar panels.
Perhaps he may not have noticed that we all do not have roofs.
Electricity may be cheaper than fossil fuels now as claimed but most certainly will not be when the government takes action to make up for the loss of some £30 billion a year in fossil-fuel taxes.
GM Lindsay.
Whinfield Gardens.
Kinross.
A reminder of childhood
Sir, – After a week of listening to ever more conflicting news about just about everything I escaped to the kitchen to prepare supper.
My husband appeared asking what I was making.
He spotted some fresh peas, still in their pods, and smiled.
He is a child at heart and so I smiled back as he took a handful of said peas and began to shell them.
With outstretched arm he opened his hand which was filled with sweet smelling, round, shiny peas.
We started to eat them and were immediately transported back to our mothers’ kitchens as they scolded us for pinching them.
Try it, and recall those halcyon days when the sun always shone, your bicycles beckoned, fields of gold were available to run through, and your mother in the background called, “come in and wash your hands, your tea is ready”.
Barbara Sturrock.
12 Invergowrie Drive,
Dundee.
Help refugees stay at home
Sir, – Calls for the UK to take more Syrian refugees come in the context of an ongoing lack of clear thinking on the issue.
About 90% of Syrian refugees are in the nations surrounding Syria, in states that lack the resources to meet their needs.
Financial assistance here brings huge humanitarian returns.
The wildly disproportionate sums spent on the wealthier and fitter 10% of refugees who manage to reach richer nations might be admirable but it is illogical to encourage this gross disparity of investment.
The well-being of the 90% around Syria is not less important than the 10% seeking relative prosperity in Europe.
Why is $135 invested in each refugee in Europe for every $1 spent to help each one around Syria?
The reconstruction of a nation after conflict can be severely hampered if refugees do not return, especially the young and educated.
Providing for a meaningful life in neighbouring areas is the best way to help refugees and their states.
Richard Lucas.
Scottish Family Party,
272 Bath Street,
Glasgow.
An ill thought-out proposal
Sir, – Have enthusiasts for electric cars thought things through? The government proposal to electrify the entire car fleet will require 10 new Hinkley Point equivalent power stations.
The quoted range of electric cars is the most favourable range. The range will be halved in a Scottish winter with heater, headlights and wipers all on.
Plugging in and uncabling is a chore and recharging takes up valuable time. A new network of substations and connection points will cost billions of pounds.
Modern internal combustion engines have minimal emissions, the technology is tried and tested and the lifespan of a diesel and petrol car is double that of an electric vehicle which will be scrapped when its battery gives out after six to eight years
There is also the health and safety aspect. When a large battery is burst, the consequences can be horrific.
William Loneskie.
9 Justice Park,
Oxton.