h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6233837.stm

Ye gods.

Crivvens. I wonder if he'll write himself a little jingle?

Please don't despair,
For when I'm mayor,
There will be cheese,
And nobbly knees.

Hmmm, maybe not.

"and says he has written 35 books"

Well, that's a good sign. Politicians often say they'll do things and offer no proof, don't they?

Maybe I could do it, if they're just clutching at straws now. Not that I'm a Tory, but I could do with a new job.

35 books? Right.

The Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles
The Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles - 2nd Edition
The Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles - 3rd Edition
The Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles - 4th Edition

...and so on. And surely Paul Gambaccini did most of the work anyway.

Hopefully Noel Edmonds will stand against him.

I'd rather Noel stood next to him, preferably against a wall...

Well if I lived in London I'd rather have Noel than him

There's a bit of barrel scraping going on here isn't there?

Well if the Tories are seriously letting that muppet run for Mayor, then yes

About 100 years ago the biggest problem London was facing was huge amounts of horse manure that was filling the streets. There seemed to be no solution to it. Then along came the infernal combustion engine and lo and behold the problems of horse manure vanished!

With the congestion charge and the general lack of speed of London traffic (it had fallen back to early C20 values again) we have a new development. Electric cars are beginning to take off. They are allowed to park in many places without charge and they are congestion charge free too.

I think Ken's plans are annoying a lot of people but they are having a significant effect in bringing about change in some bad habits.

Can you imagine living next to a motorway and not being able to hear or smell it?

Electric cars still pollute - they just don't pollute where they are running.

How energy efficient is an electric car anyway?

It depends on how you charge it doesn't it. If you use wind power or whatever you don't generate too much CO2. The adverts say they are about 95% energy efficient. They are much cheaper to run too. If you do 10,000 miles per year the fuel cost would be about £100 per year. In a bad month I can put that into the car in petrol!

Have a look at the Tesla for top end performance (reflected in purchase price) it outstrips the Porsche and Ferrari for 0-60 acceleration, top speed of about 140 mph, range of about 250 miles between charges and still only cost about 1p per mile on fuel. The other end of the market is the G-Wiz in UK (Riva in India). Top speed of about 45 mph with about 45 miles range. More and more appearing in London.

Sorry for moving away from Mike thingy as mayor!

Apologising for changing subjects in a hootoo thread? You're weird

*scratches vest to release odour of X-Files feemtoon*
I don't think I'm that wierd.

I know there's a thing now to combine ICE with electric motors in cars as if you use the ICE to power a generator for the electric motors it becomes much more efficient than when used to power the car directly.

They are called hybrids and they are becoming quite mainstream. Lexus even have a 4x4 that is a hybrid. It's still a gas guzzler though, when the electric motor isn't running!
http://www.teslamotors.com/ is the link to Tesla. Don't expect a milk float.

What I get annoyed at is the fact that the technology is there to make biofuels. They work just as hard as petrol and diesel, are tried and tested (alcohol fuelled cars in Brazil, anyone?) and don't cost all that much to make. However, the government can't exactly claim duty on all that old chip fat you may want to pump into your Honda so that's probably why we're still waiting.

I'm really not convinced on the electric front. There are a couple of Toyota Prius drivers round our way and the fact is, they're too bloody slow!

Nah, Vestboy, I don't mean the hybrids, there are cars where the ICE doesn't connect to the wheels it just powers the electric motors/charges their batteries. Sure it uses fossil fuels, but it's a lot more economical than an ordinary car. Also fords if you put chip fat in your diesel engined car you still need to pay the fuel duty on it or you can find yourself in court.

Similar to diesel-electric trains?

What's this? A hootoo thread that starts out silly and becomes serious? I've seen it all now.

Never underestimate the serendipity of thread drift.