History might not repeat but it does rhyme

The UK has a target to have only electric cars joining the fleet by 2040. The Labour Party would bring this forward to 2030. Which is rather a nice rhyme. From NAM Rodger’s naval history of Britain:

In 1690 Parliament voted money to build 17 Third Rates and ten Fourth Rates, specifycing not only the tonnages, as in 1677, but the number of guns as well. This generated a major problem, for the figures were not based upon actual designs or expert assessment. In particular, it was impossible to build satisfactory eighty-gun Third Rates of only 1,100 tons as the Act demanded…..The result was a bad class of ships: cramped, weak, unstable and overgunned….

…after 1688 innovation in ship design was stifled…

In the long run, a successful Navy needed to combine political support with technical autonomy, but in 1714 the machinery to make this possible did not yet exist.

And apparently not in 2019 either. For Parliament just decided that no new housing should contain gas boilers from 2023 onwards. No, not even if fed on biogas or hydrogen.

That is, having the centre prescribing the detailed technology doesn’t work. On the basic grounds of the ignorance of the centre. Fortunately we did once overcome this problem and so go on to rule the waves. Perhaps we should pick up on that echo and once again avoid the repeat of the mistake?

That is, set the incentives to reach a desired aim but leave the details to people who actually know something?