Fenman

“These days”? It’s been going on for decades — and if you’ve only just realised then you haven’t been paying attention. “Yes Minister” is more than 40 years old and that was just reflecting what was then already long-established practice. Paul

I was thinking about this the other day. Living in the country I have an oil-fired boiler; presumably I will need to replace that on a similar timeline to the replacement of gas boilers. But it's already getting towards the end of its life so maybe I could do that sooner. As part of the inevitable upheaval of replacing it with an air-sourced heat-pump, I started toying with also covering the south-facing roof with PVs and installing a battery store, too. That also works with the EV car which, itself, can act as an additional battery store. I understood the cost of generating electricity through local PVs was falling to the point where the unit cost met or fell under the cost of central generation plus (expensive) distribution? I anyway prefer the idea of being more self-sufficient; my remote area is (rightly) a long way down the priority list for reconnection when there are storm-reated power-cuts. Could we be reaching a tipping-point? Paul

Completely agree. Though there is a workaround — the rear camera is very good and can be turned on at any time. Paul

An update on light interiors for the Ioniq 5: -- yes, the very light (almost white?) interior is a no-cost option on the highest spec trim -- Ultimate; -- on the mid-spec trim, Premium, the standard interior is a pale-ish grey fabric. Like you, I prefer light interiors and this looked good to me. There doesn't seem to be any other interior choice. A sunroof is not available on any UK model, even as an option, although it seems to be offered everywhere else in the world. I've just ordered a Premoim spec. Generally, the options list is incredibly small -- almost non-existent: I guess this makes choosing one much easier, but I'd have paid more for a couple of the toys avaialble on Ultimate if they were options on Premium. I didn't go Premium because it is only available with larger rims, and I don't want to sacrifice ride comfort to being able to pretend I'm a drug dealer with a pimped ride. Paul

I’m sure in time more will become known about the different side effects and different risks of all the vaccines. In the meantime we’d all better hope that Pfizer is at least as good as AZ as our government has placed an order for another 35 million doses for next year’s booster campaign. Paul

That doesn’t appear to be quite right: this report suggests that while the clotting risk from AZ is tiny, it is different (and worse) than the risk from Pfizer. Doubtless there’ll be more research and a clearer picture will emerge. Paul

Oh, I completely agree. It's why I gave a balancing example from the liberal (as it then was) Observer. And it's always useful to look at independent research into bias by groups like the Glasgow University media unit (assuming we all now again agree that "experts" have something useful to contribute). Paul

The Guardian doesn't have any proprietors in the normal sense of that word. It's owned by the Scott Trust, a not-for-profit foundation. I suspect that makes the dynamics of the owner:editor relationship very different from those where the owner is a tycoon/billionnaire. There are lots of examples of how terrible that relationship can be: when "Tiny" Rowland owned the Observer, the editor Donald Trelford had a fairly miserable time trying to prevent his newspaper becoming the mouthpiece for Rowland's corporate interests, especially those in Africa. Paul

I would have thought that if you chose to be part of the RMWeb "community" then you would be more likely to want to be part of the group/ crowd/ herd -- real loners won't be voluntarily joining together with lots of other people to form a "community"/ herd, will they? I'd have guessed that, generally, people who really yearn for the opposite of being part of the herd are unlikely to be very "clubbable" people. Though I guess an online "community" is much less difficult for them than an in-person club. By one measure, whether you're an extravert or introvert has nothing to do with whether or not you're the "life and soul of the party": it's about where you get your energy from. Extraverts love being in groups, and feel energised by so being; they need that energy to get them through the times when they're on their own. Introverts get their energy from when they are on their own, and need to spend that energy to help them get through the times when they're in crowds of people -- if they spend too long in crowds they are likely to end up feeling exhausted with "people poisoning". I'd guess where you are on the introvert-extravert spectrum has some sort of relationship with whether or not you want to follow the herd. Extraverts are more likely than introverts to catch Covid? Paul

A nice overview piece in today’s Guardian — and more praise for the new Enyaq too. The author does seem to be spectacularly badly organised, such that he even has to spend two nights sleeping in his car. But that just makes me think if he can anyway manage a long-distance EV journey, anyone can. Paul

It does look sharp -- if a bit low-slung and sporty for my old bones. But the thing that mystifies me is who on earth are these people who slap down 40 grand on a car without even having a test drive? Having tried the iD4 and the Enyaq on the road, what looked like very promising cars turned out to be not my cup of tea. I'm waiting for the Ioniq 5 now. Paul

I've found these particularly helpful: Autocar has an EV-only site with news and reviews Fully Charged is a Youtube channel plus extra sites devoted to all things EV. They've just taken on Jack Scarlett from Electroheads as their car reviewer, who I think is rather good (though I suspect some people may hate his style). Paul

So far as I can work out from Hyundai's horribly clunky configurator, the lovely light grey is only available as an option on the highest spec model. I can't see anywhere to specify a sunroof, either. Paul

I've been following the enthusiastic reviews with interest, waiting for someone -- anyone -- to dislike it. The worst complaint I've heard so far is from a reviewer who didn't like the feel of some of the interior materials. It's on my very short list of cars that I'm now seriously interested in (the Kia EV6 is the other). Hyundai has just announced a virtual UK launch on 4 August. Paul

The electric division of the Milwaukee Road (it was a toss-up between that and the Anaconda: I love those primitive heavyweight electrics). If you had allowed interurbans I might have chosen the Bamberger in the early 1950s. Paul

You don’t have to: The Guardian uses a similar model to RMWeb so, unlike most newspapers, they’re perfectly happy for you to pay them nothing. I’ve never understood this hatred for The Guardian: they employ a wider political range of commentators than most media (Simon Jenkins and, for a long time, Max Hastings being among their most prominent columnists). They also employ people I think are bonkers, but isn’t exposure to a wide range of views an important part of not just swimming in an echo chamber? Paul

There are alternatives. I dunno: make it compulsory for cars to have a loudspeaker fitted which has a proximity alert, telling them to pull over right now? ALl the sound from that would be confined to the car, making it possible to have a less piercing warning for pedestrians, etc. That's probably a garbage idea, but what is interesting in your reply is your presumption that catering to the needs of a motorist who has deliberately chosen to coccoon themselves in silence is much more important than the environmental impact on humans going about their business in the open air. Priority for motorists yet again. And then petrolheads wonder why people start insisting on low-speed roads, blocking of rat-runs, and even legislation to discourage them from driving cars which pollute the lungs and brains of toddlers in built up areas. Back vaguely O/T, as a passenger I think these Flirts are rather good: much better than the tired old rattlers they have replaced. Paul

Cars are increasingly isolated from the outside world, posh ones now even having double glazing. The consequence is that any warning noise has to be increased in order to penetrate to the driver. It’s why the sirens on emergency vehicles are getting louder and louder. The fact this all makes it very unpleasant to exposed pedestrians is apparently of no consequence. Paul

Why should tax-payers have to subsidise those who want foreign travel by offering free tests? And how is demanding subsidies for foreign travel not “politics”, of which you claim there is too much? Paul

Twenty-thirty years ago I had occasional evening meetings with a work dinner in Edinburgh, and the Sleeper let me then get back to my London office for a normal start to the working day. It was theoretically ideal, had a whiff of romance, and in reality never worked. I called them "dozers" rather than sleepers -- random points jarring suddenly shaking you awake; your bed running side-to-side instead of front-to-back making every change of speed worse; and occasional stops in the middle of the night where some platform worker would stand randomly outside a carriage window and shout "Crewe" (or whatever) in their loudest voice... And without going into TMI, my bladder has not improved with age: a schlep along the corridor was never any fun (though I understand some of the new trains have ensuites). So I think it's a non-runner? Not necessarily, actually. It's hard to predict the future, but the trends seem to be: discouraging air travel (look at how some European governments made airline bail-outs contingent on them stopping routes which competed with high-speed rail); a shift to EVs (and it's difficult to see how aviation could do that -- though, as I wrote, it's hard to predict the future); a world in which we have to live with Covid, which makes individual sleeper compartments much more attractive than being crammed into an over-crowded short-haul plane; less mobility for much higher prices... That world might be a little more amenable to overnight sleeper services. Though I'm still not betting my pension on it. Paul

On a point of pedantry, many people living in the Medieval period were more widely-travelled than you appear to be assuming: by some estimates, at the maximum extent of its popularity at any one time some 20% of the population of western Europe was engaged in either travelling on a pilgrimage or providing economic services (inns, food, stabling, souvenirs, etc) to pilgrims. The Canterbury Tales wasn't describing an incredibly rare activity. Paul

An efficient tax system is one where it's cheap and easy to collect the cash, and which is almost impossible for people to avoid. Fairness suggests that people with more wealth should pay more than those with less. Taxation can also be used as part of a wider political policy -- so we put more tax on things we have decided are "bad", to discourage them (tobacco?), and less tax on things we think are "good", to encourage them (pension savings?). So I've never understood why we put so much emphasis on taxing income (which presumably we think is good), which encourages richer people to engage in tax avoidance; while minimising taxation on, say, land ownership -- which is one of the hardest taxes of all to avoid because you can't hide your land. An example: a dear friend lives in the US and owns both a Manhattan apartment and beachfront weekend house. He pays property tax on the latter that is assessed at a fixed percentage of its value (and it's something like $30k a year -- vastly more than even the largest Council Tax bill in the UK. And this is in allegedly low-tax USA). By contrast, in the UK we fix an upper limit on the amount property can be taxed -- a limit set artificially low, making it one of the most regressive taxes we have. Whenever it is proposed to tax land and property more aggressively, the rich middle classes engage in "shroud waving" and "whataboutery", citing mythical impoverished grannies living out their last days in vast stately homes who would apparently be made homeless by such a tax. They then go back to squirrelling away their own wealth in offshore investment schemes. Only the relatively poor end up paying the full rate of tax (as evil New York socialite billionnaire and convicted tax evader Leona Helmsley put it, "taxes are for little people"). Paul

Isn't it a bit mystifying that the chargers don't automatically update their own status to at least the most popular mapping apps? Why rely on human intervention as the main information source, rather than suppemental? Paul

If you get the NHS app (the ordinary one, not track and trace), it includes a list of all your current medications as well as proof of vaccination status (which you can download as a pdf). Paul Edit: Just realised I missed the posts a couple of pages back where the app was discussed. Apologies. But, related, I didn't now my NHS number either and the system managed perfectly well with postcode, DoB, etc.

Except the railway service was terminated in the 1960s, when the King’s Lynn—Hunstanton branch was closed (not Beeching’s fault: he had it on his list of core railways. But enthusiastic professional railway managers later put it up for closure). There’s a low-impact campaign to re-open it though, as a bypass has been built over much of the route, the chances are small. I’d have thought driving an EV was about the best Packham could do, sustainably speaking. Paul