Batteries Not Included

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A few hours ago, John Redwood tweeted: "The failure of British Volt to win investment and orders for a new battery factory shows there is still a long way to go to an all electric UK car industry. The government should drop its plan for an early ban on making and selling new diesel and petrol cars here." Really? This apparently off-the-cuff statement highlights all that stinks about the Tory Party and its government.

A government that fast-tracked and invested shitloads of dosh in a company [PPE Medpro] that didn't actually exist at the time, on the say-so of an interested party and which company signally failed to deliver anything whatsoever of use to the country at a moment of crisis; has stood back from assisting a company that might just have been a useful addition to this country's economy and the future of greening our benighted world, and which, according to Redwood, signals a generalized failure in the sector and therefore offers a green light to the automotive and petrochemical industries to carry on 'as normal'.

Rather than address issues, as always, the Tories will fall back on supporting the industries they are ultimately personally vested in. I suspect that British Volt was not on many of their portfolios: make of that what you will. Like so many of his fellows, Redwood has a track record in investment and wealth management: a money shuffler and a tax-avoidance counsellor. How can we trust our archipelago and our children's future to the likes of these people? Just plain wrong, on all counts. The pitchforks await...

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