The Bullgreen Blog – poking fun at “Green” and other political nonsense

I was just listening to a report about the latest attempts by governments to relieve banks of their “toxic” assets.  The problem is, apparently, that banks are reluctant to sell because they are unable to value these assets.  Old new, perhaps, since that ignorance was part of the cause of the problem.  The trouble is now that the banks have a sneaking feeling that they may be selling too cheap and losing out.  These people just can’t get it right, can they?

I heard Caroline Lucas (Green Party MEP) speaking on Radio 4 the other day and was pleased to hear her speaking against car ‘scrappage’ – a proposed deal whereby consumers are subsidised to scrap old, non-green cars. I don’t often agree with here – I consider her more a religious leader than a politician – but she doesn’t always get it wrong.

My own vested interest here is my large estate car, which would be anathema to the average green, but which I drive fully loaded surprisingly often. The idea that a vehicle with another 100,000 miles possible life in it being scrapped in favour of the creation of a vehicle that might be new and more economical is fine. Trouble is, if you think it through, you might conclude that the energy required to create this new car, even up to the point I start using it, is rather greater than that required to fuel the current one for the rest of its life.

Also, if we scrap the current one, we immediately introduce a further energy bill for the scrapping process, none of which contributes to getting me from A to B when required. When the current vehicle can no longer be economically repaired, then it will be time to scrap it, but for now, all the additional carbon cost associated with the vehicle goes to moving it.

The lesson here, children, is – be aware of the difference between capital costs and running costs. These apply to carbon usage as much as to financial accounting.

Lots of retailers going bust in the UK. I’m not sure if this is a tragedy or not. We lost our Woolworths about twenty years ago, and it wasn’t that much missed. A lot of the names that are going under leave me completely unmoved since in many cases there is no local shop and in quite a few cases, I haven’t even heard of the chain (“Passion for Perfume”).

Today, perhaps coincidentally, I heard someone on Radio 4 suggesting that maybe the UK has too many shops.

So much for brands!

And if I am asked once again whether a “brand” is the sort of thing I identify with, I shall decend to a very crude level of language indeed.