The big white trees

Self interest vs the greater good appears to be at the heart of most political debates.

One of the main reasons (in my opinion) why there is resistance in most communities against wind turbines is the perception that property prices will drop as a result. The reasoning being that 'people do not like eye sores - turbines are eye sores, therefore people do not like turbines near their house'.
I personally find wind farms enchanting, something I don't hear a lot but suspect shared by others.

What if communities embraced these programs, instead of fighting them off, working to have them sited in most appropriate locations. This may at least insure that renewable energy generation has the best opportunity to provide the benefits we all need, carbon emissions reduction, energy security etc.

It seems to me that we expect the government to do it all for us. Instead of proposing our own solutions to the problem we wait for them to happen to us.

I believe that, once we all begin taking some of this responsibility, our self-interests will not suffer that much. Take house prices for example, these will bounce back in the long term because this will always be a necessity, wind turbine or not.

The government signed up to the challenge of cutting the UK greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2020. Overly optimistic or not; Are we bothered? Will we try to help? Or is it for them to do?
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Looking for a new car?

For the average Joe, buying a new car these days is as tricky as teaching your cat how to read;(strange you think) it is nearly impossible when you don’t really understand the workings of a car and not helped by countless of contradicting sources on what they can or cannot do.

With my latest purchase I decided to ask myself a few questions first:
1. Do I need one?
The answer was yes, the cost of convenience outweighed the benefits of public transport.
If only every town had London buses...even Londoners complain. My local bus service seems to only run during school terms, and what is a 10 minute drive into Coventry by car takes 2.5hrs by bus and 3hrs if it is a weekend.

2. Which one?
The most important thing to me is low running costs, I have come to appreciate that this means a lot of things.
I wanted my new car to be reliable, after all that was the main reason I was moving away from the second hand market. I learnt the hard way, over the last few years I had become used to shelling out £400 every couple of months in repairs, the car was practically new by the time I gave up on it. I wanted a new car that would not scare me with faulty/phantom sensor warnings some thing that would let me learn to appreciate real engineering workmanship.
I also wanted low fuel costs, the higher the mpg – the more open to persuasion I would willingly become. Not many manufacturers are going out of their way to persuade in this way it appears – this is looking at cars within the £6k to 10k range (my budget, the old car did not qualify for the scraping scheme!). Is this not important to anyone else but me? I feel as if I am the only one who celebrates beating my own record for mileage covered on tank of diesel.

Fiat 500 sounded good, but it has only just been on the UK market so not proven yet although Mr Clarkson and many others seem to have this in their favour. The punto gave me enough headaches to nearly write Fiat cars off my list but the 500 appears to have brought them a ray of redemption. Then there was the Toyota Auris, Ford fiesta and a few other small cars.

I tried a car for a week last month and took it back after I experience difficulty starting it up in the mornings. So no new car still, I wonder how others go about making such a purchase decision. Impulse? Brand attraction? But what would an economical spender do?

The search continues...