By Paul Homewood
h/t Paul Kolk
Vauxhall Motors last week announced the closure of its Luton van-making factory, which employs 1,100 people directly and many, many more across local and national supply chains.
The news shocked Luton, once a major hub of the UK’s automotive industry. Vauxhall has operated in this Bedfordshire town for almost 120 years.
This is just the latest disturbing industrial closure driven in large part by the overzealous net zero policies of successive UK governments. Unless mainstream politicians are careful, this relentless pursuit of environmental goals will seriously alienate millions of voters across our industrial heartlands – in fact, it already has.
The decision to close Luton was taken by Stellantis – the world’s fourth-largest auto-making conglomerate, comprising European and US brands including Chrysler, Fiat and Peugeot, as well as Vauxhall.
Carlos Tavares, Stellantis chief executive, said earlier this year that the zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate was making carmaking in the UK economically unviable – which is obvious, to anyone who has been paying attention.
Much of our political and media class, protecting their eco-credentials and averse to awkward details, have waved away the warnings. But Britain’s net zero policies, not least ZEV, are now imposing existential damage on parts of the country least able to withstand major economic shocks……………
What with the closure of Port Talbot steelworks and the Labour’s ban on new drilling in the North Sea, net zero policies are now seriously riling the UK’s trade unions.
Gary Brown, head of the GMB, the UK’s third-largest union, says Labour’s green policies are “hollowing out working-class communities”. No wonder Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is now “listening” and has pledged to “consult” on these ZEV rules.
“It’s good the Government now recognises policy and reality have been moving in opposite directions,” says Robert Forester, co-founder of car retailing giant Vertu Motors, often a lone voice across a subsidy-hungry car industry reluctant to question net-zero.
“We need a plan driven by the market, not by government diktat, changing the percentage targets to slow the transition to 2035”.
But powerful vested interests and party donors – including the EV charging industry and its financial backers, along with power companies producing the most expensive electricity in the developed world – are pushing Labour to hold their nerve.
Britain’s net zero policies – particularly those relating to EVs – are a fiasco, now costing serious jobs and threatening entire regional economies. This is what happens when politicians think they know best – putting vanity and ideology above economic and commercial logic.
Read the full story here.