Congestion charge: Friends of the Earth v Porsche

[Simon88ification]

This infuriates me! These Tree Hugger's should mind their own business, end of the day you have 1 life and what these Idiot's are doing is literally trying to take over your life and dictate to you what you can and can not buy. If you work hard and want to treat yourself to a nice car you should strictly not have to justify yourself as to why you buy it, let anybody from one of these ridiculous organisation's dictate to me, I'll buy a Green car, a Green Range Rover to use only on a Sunday :)

[yozeroz]

FOE 1 Porsche 0

[sweetypie000]

pollution from cars is pale in comparrison to the buses, coaches and lorrys on our roads that rape the air and rip up our roads

but of course those services work for them as they are revenue earners. passing the blame onto car drivers and penalising them

i hate this country

[sweetypie000]

anyone voting FOR congestion charge needs their head examined.

£60 if you don't know if you entered the zone as a penalty. It's nothing but vile theft.

gas guzzler drivers CAN AFFORD TO PAY

some poor cunt who gets a £60 fine because they don't know they went in the zone can't

this is a tax on the poor over and over again

[dunsedog]

@sweetypie000 Its very clearly signed mate, all residential areas included in the zone are very rich so i wouldnt say it was a tax on the poor at all. London has PLENTY of transport alternatives, unless u are running a business there are very few justifiable cars trip into london u can make.

[sweetypie000]

@dunsedog "London has PLENTY of transport alternatives" such as ? expensive buses, cycling that you risk you life at everyday ? I've a car and I cycle 15 miles every day, I was also born in chelsea

now tell me the alternatives ?

"there are very few justifiable cars trip into london u can make. " ah, so I live here, have a car and every trip I make is unjustifiable eh ? So I should also pay £4 for a single trip on the tube, as well as bank rolling a car ?

you know nothing.

[dunsedog]

@sweetypie000 ok so i live just south of u in battersea and have choice of bus, overground, underground and as u said cycling(lanes), tho not all of them are viable for trip to a certain place 99% of the time one of them is. I said "very few" and u said "every" trip", im not denying u will need a car sometimes but if congestion charge acts as the incentive for ppl like u to use public transport instead of cars for simple trips in order to reduce congestion then its worth having imho.

[KrunchyJD]

Good, Ta motorists, there will be less of them, and more people walking and cycling

[4096x]

it's just another tax.

scrap it.

[davaub1]

porsche can keep their great design but they don't need such big engines ( except on circuits). 'prestige' and 'power over others' (showing off) seems to be the problem.

[bw01a]

Why is this environmental fag telling Porsche what to do? Porsche can do what they want, they are a private company. If you don't like their cars, don't buy one. I for one would love to own one, especially if they could quadruple the carbon footprint so I could piss off environmentalists trying to control everybody.

[aknight999]

porsche cant do what they want irrelevent of whether they are a private company or not. you cant do what you want, if you murder someone you go to prison. porsche and other hugely wealthy and influential car companies are choosing to knowingly harm OUR planet to line their pockets. and its people with attitudes similar to yours that are allowing them to get away with it.

[speedycatz]

"London used to be a communist city, but thanks to my guest (Boris Johnson) it isn't anymore!" - Jeremy Clarkson

[gloucesterharry]

Porsche were not campaigning against emission standards, they wanted to make sure that all companies stuck to them. They need to invest billions into meeting these targets and want other car makers to meet their commitments as well, and spent money on research and development so that porsche do not make less profit than others and therefore suffer as a result of reducing emissions.

They have proven they are willing and capable of doing that.

[gloucesterharry]

Ken livingston is a socialist piece of shit.

[gIoucesterharry]

Further to my rather unkind comment about Ken Livingstone, I was fortunate to meet him recently at a Scalextric convention. 

We had a quite a chat & even had a couple of races.

I completely retract my previous comment about him, he is a very nice, balanced human being & I have realigned my political views as a result.

I've even dug a pond and have stocked it with newts.

[raikkonen85]

lol

[1Nyro]

Please tell him to go fuck himself for me.

[santanafilmscuba]

good idea

[markmorrow8o]

Boris johnson is a fucking wanker, He only taxes to raise revenue. We live in a surveillance society in london, this is bullshit.

[bryman6000]

And therefore acnnot be charged for them. But people see all this shit on the TV and jump on the climate change/global warming bandwagon and then do whatever the government tells them to do...even at their own detriment!! Goddam sheep!!

You shouldn't believe everything you see on the news you know!!!

[bryman6000]

I'm with Porsche on this one!! I actually give money to Friends of the Earth every month but I'm not convinced of their legitimacy. Carbon tax/congestion charge is simply yet another way to rape the common man of what little wealth he has left. I think climate change is a load of bullshit too. The earth naturally warms and cools in cycles anyway...plus there are far more powerful greenhouse gasses outh there that are not being talked about at all...why? Because the common man doesn't emit them!!

[SAMJE123456]

Im a joiner i used to lose money driving my tools into london but now the houseing market has slumped i can see the light i just sign on the dole like every other foreigner It pays big money.And no congestion as well, Brilliant.

[gymlord]

Hey me too im a plumber, I used to love spending money on parking, royal borough of chelsea and westminster do a great deal 4 pound an hour. But the dole is the way forward, now I just sit at home doing shit. Im a foreigner in my own country

[julianlee1991]

yea

[Garythespoonman]

friends of the earth guy is actually right though, no matter how snobby or whatever he is.

[wrx831]

communists!

[PeowPeowPeowLasers]

What a smug pathetic individual the FOE representative is.

[gary63693]

Can i just say that, porsche may have band G but u can see cars with a band A still has to pay the same rate! What do FOE know. FOE, STFU!

[blindeyesbleed]

foe? FOE? conning the earth mor elike bunch of tossers

[wotdoesitmatter]

Saying his cars are the top of the tables for cutting emissions is like a 40 stone man losing 10 stone to be 30 being top of the Diet Table.

Porsche are climate criminals and so is anyone who buys their gas guzzling fashion statements.

[scouser1989]

The last time i was in london, i didnt bother paying it cus i couldnt use my phone whilst driving.

What is TFL gonna do, as the car is registered in swindon, and kept at an address in gloucester?

[michaeldouglas26]

The Trots and Bolsheviks of the 1970s did not go away, they're called environmentalists now.

[scouser1989]

I could not agree with you more.

[cmatcmextra]

LET'S LIVE LIKE IT'S 1699!

[sfcwarners]

go congestion charge!

[bdfm89]

ayupgaffa, some people can see there is a difference between living in caves and driving needlessly polluting cars. How can anybody justify using a 200 mph car in the middle of london when most traffic moves about 25mph...admittedly a porsche might look better than todays 'green cars', but if 'green' car producers adapt their designs to appeal to those people who use their car as a fashion statement then there is no justification for these cars WHATSOEVER

[ReevesyJR]

Oaesaface, What does your shameless bit of self promotion have to do with the debate on the congestion charge and its wider consequences? Or have you posted, by accident, on the wrong article? If the latter then forgive my outburst!

[1quadrider]

I support Porsche AG's position on several levels. First, it's important to point out that despite FOE claims, there is no concensus on the root cause of global warming(read climatologist Richard Lindzen, MIT). Second, even if we do accept global warming as man-made, although sports cars emit higher CO2 levels, they represent a tiny fraction of the car market - Porsche's global emissions are less than .01 of 1%. It seems this particular tax will likely have no effect on the environment at all.

[rf360m]

This is a badly thought out tax. It should be based on how much your car actually polutes, and not ono what it could potentially polute. If you drive a 'green car' 20,000 miles a year you are poluting far more than someone who drives a 911 5,000 miles a year. So if this is actually an attempt to help the environment then make a tax on fuel, like one pound per liter or something. This would tax people based on how much they actually polute each year.

[dwike73]

Fuck all you dumb SUV drivers sitting on your fat asses in your stupid cars. Everyone hates you and now it's time to pay up. Porsche just give up nobody cares what you or your idiot cutomers think.

[cmatcmextra]

@dwike73:

I care.

[ReevesyJR]

The congestion charge as a whole is not, as it is proposed, an attempt to kerb emissions, but merely an envy tax enforced by a political bigot with quite disturbing ulterior motives.

[ukdean31]

If that's true, it will still kerb emissions, so I think the motives don't matter

[callforpeacenow]

Stop the TAX Madness!!! This is just crazy. Have you been on the tube recently??? It's a zoo!!! The great Ken Livingston of course never has to sit on a bus or take the tube - but we 'ordinary' people should drive a sh.. car just because of his Tax madness! When does this stop? The whole pollution story is a joke. Ken Livingston knows that most pollution comes from India or China these days, yet he does not do anything about that... pathetic

[andrewpmk]

The WHOLE POINT of this tax is to charge a higher tax on polluting vehicles in Central London. It is not disproportionate to charge more in Central London because there are far more alternatives to the car (like the Tube) there than there are in the suburbs and because pollution and congestion always used to be worse there. I hope that with $100+ oil and £25+/day pollution tax you luxury car makers like Porsche go bust. You aren't going to be able to win your court case you stupid car companies.

[ma2k5]

Only an idiot would think FoE won this. He made stupid arguements and did not even address the situation. 80p->£25... You must tax for USEAGE not for OWNERSHIP.

[trissss]

how many times did the porsche guy reframe by saying "the fact of the matter is.." ? like 3-4 times ? Good job at answering, guzzler.

[stopurban4x4s]

This is a total KO! for FoE and Londoners.

Why should a company that makes gas guzzling sports cars for middle aged ray-ban wearing toffs decide what is best for London?

[jeroenverhoeven]

Porsche is so outdated. You don't want to be seen in it, they are pathetic.

[forklifted]

haha he made him look like hamburger meat. ha!

[Scintillaterich]

I love Tony J. He's brilliant. The Porsche guy looked totally stuck in the 20th C.

[doughtybenjamin]

that FOE guy looks well not to offend any one not to well off!! if he was rolling in it im pretty sure he would have a porsche! or something of the sort!

this tax will penalize poor and rich its not fair!

the idea is good but i very much doubt it will work they way they want it to!

[doughtybenjamin]

this is stupid!!! that FOE guy has never driven a porsche and yet he says they should stop producing luxury post cars!!!!??? what! or they fail in business? these taxes are pathetic and will not work at all! this is another tax that we recive!! car tax, road tax, petrol tax, tax when you buy the car in the first place!!! this is like a fifth tax!!! except all the money goes into some rich persons pocket who runs london!!!

[zk0]

good work!

[abilityoflove]

This is not the way to solve congestion in the long run.

The only way to do it is that the government declares that from 2015, for example, no private vehicle which produces CO2 will be allowed to be used on the UK territory.

Then Porsche and other car manufactures would suddenly come up with new ideas and environmentally clean cars...

[mdilligaf]

We can't just say everything that produces CO2 is bad, you produce CO2 too and for example using trash or burning trees to produce energy produces CO2, but burning trees does (if they are replanted) not contribute to global warming because the trees remove as much CO2 from the air as is created when they are burned (or die in a natural way), so just banning CO2 would disable a lot of possible alternatives. Also they would just make cars use electricity.

[ayupgaffa]

I agree, lets all live in caves too.

[p44v9n]

yay FOE

[thePeshko]

Hahaha!!That slimy car seller had no chance to win the argument.I'm impressed of your work FOE,you're doing a lot

[calvinjones]

I think that the work that porche do in lobbying the EU against efficiency standards that made them look really bad.

[foley15136]

25 pounds a day!?!

How much does a gallon of gas cost in the UK? How much more in a major city like London?