Tuesday 31st July 2007

Tories Buy Flying Spur...

...And are promptly branded as hypocrites

---

Tory leader, David Cameron should have a big job removing all the egg on his sizeable

More polluting than a Prius. More fun, too

cheeks after MPs in Tory led Kensington and Chelsea constituency have bought a Bentley Flying Spur.

The councillors have been branded hypocrites by residents who were told to give up their ‘Chelsea Tractors’ and threatened that 4X4s would be charged more to park in the area.

The car does 10mpg and emits 423g/km of Carbon Dioxide, nearly four times that of ecomentalist car of choice, the Toyota Prius.

Tony Bosworth, from Friends of the Earth whined: “This car is one of the biggest contributors to climate change of any of the cars on sale in the UK today. A more fuel efficient car would not only be much less pollution but would also save tax payers a fair bit in petrol bills.”

Still, the sub 5 second 0-60 time and 202mph top speed should help them escape the criticism…

Source: News of the World

[Dino D]

Good on them. One of the richest nations on earth and the politicians drive around in Vauhxhauls. Lets stop pretending they don't have money.

Most African leaders have better transport than the PM of Britain!!

As for the 4x4 and environmental impact-no comment....but maybe they should try lpg on it....

[bad_roo]

Nothing like leading by example...

Edited by bad_roo on Tuesday 31st July 10:17

[sprinter885]

Just WHO has actually bought this? The MPs themselves or councillors for council use? Article could be a bit ambiguous?? Bit pointless for use around Kensington & Chelsea would have thought..

[cronk-flakes]

Article said:

Tony Bosworth, from Friends of the Earth whined

It's all they seem to do...

[flattotheboards]

top speed is 195mph not 202mph

[jd5]

> Tony Bosworth, from Friends of the Earth whined: “This car is one of the biggest contributors to climate change of any of the cars on sale in the UK today"

"whined" - AWESOME!

For me the maths don't add up in his statement I suppose by even answering this post we are giving the greens some credibility rather than machine gunning them off the planet and saving it from their carbon trail! However, being serious for a moment, I can't understand how Tony Bosworth's statement can possibly be true given the exremely small number of these cars sold! If it was a BMW 3 series or VW golf punting out these emmisions then I may try just a little bit harder to understand his point.

[Mattygooner]

Excellent! Good on them, completely goes against Camerons pro green agenda but shows the chaos of the good old Tories!

Im no expert but surely the whining Friends of the Earth muppet should know that there are far more harmful cars on the road than the new Spur, most un-loved big cars from the 70s 80s and 90s pumping out all sorts of crap. If the tories rode in on a methane pumping cow would the friends of the earth complain?

[Lawrence5]

LPG conversion ?

[sprinter885]

Article said:

Tony Bosworth, from Friends of the Earth whined

Wonder what his views on the various 747s,757s, Airbuses & not to mention the sundry Military jets burning up the ozone layer world-wide are doing to the atmosphere ? Pathetic.

[Marki]

I dont care if its their own money good on em , but if its public money then its wrong .

Its not made very clear is it

[A1GOY]

flattotheboards said:

top speed is 195mph not 202mph

Not according to the back of Autocar - I checked. Honest.

Al

[steaming2uk]

As usual the good ol' N.O.W. voices the opinion of the 'ecomentalists'(?) that the Prius is their choice. If only the ill informed N.O.W. journalists did a bit more research and a bit less sensationalism they would realise that the 'Carbon footprint' of the Prius was much larger than your average saloon car, given the production effort that goes into the batteries + the rest of the car.

[waynepixel]

Dino D said:

Good on them. One of the richest nations on earth and the politicians drive around in Vauhxhauls. Lets stop pretending they don't have money.

Most African leaders have better transport than the PM of Britain!!

As for the 4x4 and environmental impact-no comment....but maybe they should try lpg on it....

Nice car, and yes theses people are complete hypocrites.

[MilnerR]

If it is private money then so what, good on em for winding the greens up. If they made a Flying Spur that could do 80mpg and put out as much CO2 as a flea the greens would still be up in arms about it. The green movement has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with attacking the trappings of wealth.

[Dr S]

some animals are more equal than others

[clonmult]

It "produces 10mpg"? Thats a bizarre statement.

But related to this item, we've often got a bunch of Bentleys/various big cars (300cs?) with official badges on them by the offices here (by tower bridge); I think they're invariably the mayors motorcade (judging by the badges). Good old Ken and his pimped out black Bentley.

[gezkc]

Article said:

The car produces 10mpg...

Article said:

nearly for times that of...

I hope this article was deliberately quoting from the News of the World article. I'm sure Pistonheads wouldn't allow something to go out without spell/grammer checking it first.

[Apache]

Dr S said:

some animals are more equal than others

4 legs good, 2 legs bad 2 legs good

[Balmoral Green]

clonmult said:

I think they're invariably the mayors motorcade (judging by the badges). Good old Ken and his pimped out black Bentley.

Far be it for me to actually defend the newt lover, but to be fair, he doesn't have a black Bentley, he doesn't have a car at all. All three holders of the GLA's top posts and Assembly Members use public transport and taxis instead of a dedicated car service. And, as was said on the other thread, this is nowt to do with Ken anyway.

Edited by Balmoral Green on Tuesday 31st July 11:31

[mk1fan]

But what car does it replace? My council as two 1950/60's Bentley / Roller limos for use on offical state affairs. That's not a bad life cycle is it?

Utter bollox story though.