Vote Green

Get Drugs, Free Gaza etc 21 years ago we asked some difficult questions

We live in interesting times. But, you knew that already. The people in charge of our lives have no idea, except how to make it even worse. Worserer even. Our political choices, which might ideally lead to better times are just a small vote away. If you live in Gorton and Denton a suburb of Manchester, you have a chance to make a difference later on today (and in May at the local elections).

Bangernomics is clearly on board with Sir Oink a Lot with the Monster Raving Loony lot, but there is also the opportunity to vote Green. The thing is. Green does not seem to mean exactly what it used to back in the old days. However the 2024 Manifesto for the general election will do at explaining where they are on Transport at the moment.

Elected Greens would push for local authority control and proper funding for bus services, to increase these in urban areas, and in rural areas ensure that there is a bus service to every village.

We will empower local authorities to run bus services themselves if they see fit and provide a service that meets their community’s needs. Cities and sparsely populated rural areas will need different solutions; we need to give them the flexibility and funding.

Elected Greens will push for Investment in a modern, efficient, publicly owned railway, with affordable fares.

Within a decade we want to see all petrol and diesel vehicles replaced by Electric Vehicles (EVs). We would push for an extensive vehicle scrappage scheme to support this rapid transition to EVs, with funding rising to £5billion per year by the end of the parliament, supported by the rapid rollout of EV charging points.

Elected Greens would push for:

• An end to sales of new petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles by 2027 and to the use of petrol and diesel vehicles on the road by 2035.

• 20 miles per hour to be the default speed limit on roads in all built-up areas, allowing children, the elderly and disabled people to walk and wheel safely.

Elected Greens will:

• Push to spend £2.5billion a year on new cycleways and footpaths, built using sustainable materials.

• Reimagine how we use streets in residential areas to reduce traffic and open them up for use by the community.

• Adopt Active Travel England’s objective for 50 per cent of trips in England’s towns and cities to be walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030.

I tried to warn you. Anyway, 21 years ago, pretty much to the day according to the Word Doc properties I proposed to the magazine I worked at the time that we should question the Green Alliance of groups taking direct action. At the time they were targetting poor innocent 4 x 4 drivers, not SUVs notice, in London. If we fast forward to right now, the activist I interviewed, Siân Berry, is now MP for the Green Party representing Brighton Pavilion and one of her briefs is Transport.

I thought it would be interesting to chat in 2005, I was annoyed though that another journalist from the magazine was required to join in. That might explain why I moved on later that year. Anyway, here is the original story which has never been published before. Copyright me and all that...

4 x 4 Debate - James Ruppert

South Ken, not an area of the capital that Red Ken (Mayor Livingston) can be entirely comfortable about not least because it is choc full of off roaders. Off roaders that are conspicuously consuming fuel, road space and the moral outrage of activists like Siân Berry of Stop Urban 4 x 4s.

We are meeting her to find out just why an alliance of Green groups wants to stop 4 x 4s, however there is a problem. Siân has forgotten her wad of faux parking tickets with sarky bon mots like ‘bad choice of vehicle’ to wave at our photographer. “Its ok” laughs Siân, “because I can look suitably disgruntled around any off roader.” It’s a good job then that Motorcar Journalist has turned up in a Range Rover Sport which leaves Siân suitably speechless. That is no good to us, we want some serious debate so we park on double yellows and go inside a café for a skinny latte whilst outside full fat Lexus 4 x 4s prowl the Gloucester Road.

Siân is intelligent, eloquent and personable and all we have is a Motorcar Journalist, so thank god this is not a beauty contest. As a matter of principle Siân objects to 4 x 4s that are bought and used inappropriately, especially by families. The rather less principled Motorcar Journalist takes every opportunity to borrow off roaders from manufacturers, fill them with his family and go just about anywhere he pleases. So is there any common tarmac between them?

First off Motorcar Journalist is keen to find out if Siân wants to make any association between say the VW Phaeton and Toureag, “after all they are both 4 x 4s, the Phaeton is also a bit bigger and has worse fuel economy. What makes the off roader worse than a very large luxurious saloon?”

Siân avoids the direct question and outlines the two reasons why she objects to off roaders. “Very simply it is the damage they do to the environment and the damage they can do to others by not being very safe.” What Siân repeatedly says that she wants is a ban on advertising off roaders and a more punitive taxing system and higher congestion charges that will make buyers think twice and ideally trade down to something smaller. “People do not need 4 x 4s when they can fit inside a hatchback.”

Motorcar Motorcar Journalist pounces. “Your argument instantly unravels, as the whole basis of western consumerism is not based on need. While we live in a free and democratic society we will continue to drive what we want.”

Siân though has a fantastically idealised view of how British motorists used to be. Stringback gloves, flat cap and an exercise book to jot down mileages and overall average fuel consumption, she believes that driving and behaving safely and responsibly is now a thing of the past. “Advertisers are driving it home that anyone who buys a 4 x 4 will be the King of the road and can Lord it over every other road user.”

At this point Motorcar Journalist literally explodes and the froth off the top of the Latte is everywhere. “Your gripe is against modern society, not the 4 x 4. It is the fact that people are driving these vehicles, which annoys you and not the vehicles themselves. ” Suddenly there is a shuffle of paper and Siân gets out a list, it’s a hit list of really bad vehicles that the Alliance want banned from the urban landscape and it is based on crash ratings. All the usual suspects are there right down to the fairly harmless Honda CRV. There is even a recommended list of alternative cuddly hatchbacks. Motorcar Journalist points out that none of the Alliance’s recommendations include a people carrier which is what many families would switch to, denied a 4 x 4 option. Yet a people carrier is no more PC, being just as large, unwieldy and environmentally unfriendly. Luckily Motorcar Journalist has his own sheaf of stats which show that in Euro NCAP terms being hit buy a Toureag rather than a Panda 4 x 4 is infinitely more preferable. Of course star ratings can be used to prove anything and Motorcar Journalist makes the point that off roaders are becoming progressively safer, environmentally friendly and smaller. ”What you should be campaigning for is even better off roaders.”

Siân isn’t really interested, “what we are against is the trend towards more 4 x 4s. If this go on we will be in the same state as America as road deaths have stop declining as a direct result of people driving off roaders.” Motorcar Journalist is quick to counter that the US is a special case, with larger and dumber SUVs and unique driving conditions that can lead to more serious accidents. For Motorcar Journalist though it is the Alliance’s almost Leninist dogma that reveals what the campaign is really all about.

“It is the language that you use here and on your website that proves where you are coming from, ‘macho design aesthetics’ and ‘frustrated adventurers’. Admit it, this is all about class.”

“No it’s not, because I’m actually quite posh,” snaps back Siân good humourdly.

So who gets the last word? Well Motorcar Journalist reckons that the Alliance is trying to become an arbiter of taste for the nation. Siân though wants nothing less than the banning of 4 x 4s from urban centres and ideally making anyone silly enough to buy one pay much, much more for the privilege.

We have confronted the Alliance Against Urban 4 x 4s so you don’t have to. Trouble is you still risk getting a comedy parking ticket from a class warrior if you stray into the wrong type of conurbation in an inappropriate vehicle. You have been warned.

Thank you for reading and see you next time

Please consider buying my books here https://www.bangernomics.com/

Take a look at classic car history charts here https://www.thecarzine.com/

Free Car Mag contains thousands of stories and hundreds of magazines all for free

https://www.freecarmag.com/