The vast majority of British motorists will be outlaws in their own land under controversial new EU plans to ban petrol and diesel powered cars from cities. But critics said the latest Brussels blueprint to force people into 'green' cars, slash dependence on oil and tackle climate change, was bamboozling drivers and taking the European Union into "the realms of fantasy". I guess I'd fit in the "critic" category.
The European Commission says its plan to drive out 'conventionally fuelled' petrol and diesel cars within 40 years and replace them with 'clean' alternatives such as electric or hydrogen powered vehicles is necessary to save the planet. It is vital to cut pollution and stop global warming which scientists blame on carbon dioxide (CO2) - the so-called 'greenhouse gas' emitted from car exhausts.
The Commission is calling for a 50 per cent shift away from conventionally fuelled cars in urban areas by 2030, phasing them out altogether in cities by 2050.
Unicorns, anyone?
Brussels says the aim is also to achieve "essentially CO2-free movement of goods in major urban centres by 2030".
Setting out another major goal, it adds that by 2050 Europe should "move close to zero fatalities in road transport", with an interim target of halving all road casualties by 2020.
The best way to do that would be to take half the cars off the road. Waitaminute...I think I'm on to something here!
EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas defended the green policy drive: 'The widely held belief that you need to cut mobility to fight climate change is simply not true'
Coupled with proposals and targets covering road, rail and air travel, the Commission says its transformation of the European transport system can increase mobility and cut congestion and emissions.
Nobody will have to give up anything! I'm hoping for that change!
But motoring groups said it smacked of yet another assault on the motorist by authorities using 'green' measures as a smokescreen for more taxes and charges noting:'Drivers don't know whether they're coming or going with environmental measures'. They also noted wryly that with soaring oil and pump prices and fuel taxes, motorists face being priced off the road anyway.
And Christopher Monckton, transport spokesman for the UK Independence Party' said: "The proposals suggested by Commission take us into the realms of fantasy. They want to ban cars from cities, they want to force everybody onto rail and canals, it is if they have been taken over by the shade of the Victorian engineers. They may as well call for an end to wars and large subsidised chocolate cakes for pre-school infants as to make these impossible self aggrandising statements".
So not everyone in the UK has gone 'round the bend.