Electric cars have their moments of course. Posing in a Tesla has merits among certain highly impressionable populations. Milk floats have always had their advantages. But in bad news for the success of technological development the government is insisting that by 2035 non-diesel and petrol cars are still going to be pretty bad for general usage:

The sale of petrol and diesel cars will be banned five years earlier than planned, under a climate change drive to be unveiled by Boris Johnson.

The Government announced in 2017 that it would impose a ban on diesel and petrol cars from 2040 as part of an effort to tackle air pollution.

However the Prime Minister is said to be speeding up the plans with a view to implementing the ban by 2035.

If the non-internal combustion engine cars were to be wondrous by that point then there’d be no need to ban them. For everyone would be purchasing them as a matter of choice. The only reason to ban people from purchasing ICEs is because they would be chosen given how appalling the alternatives are all going to be.

The ban is thus an admission - and insistence - from government that non-ICE cars are going to remain pretty terrible. But we’re going to be forced to have them, aren’t we the lucky ones?