June 1st, another Cash Cow is born.

Today after some delay due to Covid, Birmingham launches its Clean Air Zone. A border of cameras around the city, ready to set digital cash registers a ringing. £ 8 a day for cars and £ 50 for LGVs, coaches etc.

Before I piss on this as yet another money making scheme, let me reassure the Karens, bacons and assorted bunny huggers, I do not deny that pollution is a problem. The point I am making is the city council has used the environmental issue to create a publicly justifiable way of raking in money without having to try hard.

You can bet there's a marketing agency behind this croc taking a good wedge into the bargain too.

So let's throw up some counters:

I think the Department of Transport would defend their standards applied to the annual MOT every road going vehicle has to pass to operate on the highway. Emissions are a big part of the test and have been for a long time.

Fail and if the vehicle can't be adjusted or repaired, it will be scrapped. I'll mention in passing, Diesels and goods vehicles Lorries, buses and the likes, have a solution called AdBlue which is metered into the fuel system to reduce emissions. The current Euro 6 engines are again as clean as any internal combustion engine can be with current technology assisting.

Putting a barrier around the city is tantamount to saying to anyone who's vehicle may be MOT'd and meeting DOT regulations, fuck off. You don't meet the standard Birmingham dictates, go work / do your shopping / enjoy hospitality in Tipton, Coventry or (insert non CAZ town or city here), we want a clean city.

Or, you can enter at a price...

And as for the price paid, what will they be using the money they raise for?

The Clean Air Zones pioneered by London and now copied by Birmingham and Bath, are a relatively short term bit of money making fun prior to the electric generation taking hold. There's your next cash cow in gestational form. The cost to recharge when away from home.

Personally, I fear for the businesses inside this zone, because I am certain that there will be many who will drive to where they aren't fined for entering a geographical location. As for deliveries of goods to these businesses, the charge is going to impact on the price they pay for them and ultimately on those purchasing them, That's if those businesses can survive yet another levy on their operational costs.

I saw a florist on TV telling how her relatively new vans were now subject to the charge. Her choice is pay up or buy new. I also saw some bell end who's overseeing this scheme, crowing about the vast IT infrastructure involved in the CAZ or more plainly, how to rake in money effortlessly.

Large IT schemes have differing levels of success. Look at Universal Credit. A system for handing money out which is an expensive failure. Collection seems to be a less ambitious yet more rewarding a project all round.

Politicians have long established that anything that's an issue, just tax it. Smoking, alcohol more recently the sugar tax. A lot of good that's done. Petrol has always been highly taxed, anyone know why?

Common sense and high commerce are like chalk and cheese. They don't go well together. Clever solutions take brain power and money to see through and won't necessarily be successful. I personally have my doubts about the electric revolution, but won't be around to witness the fallout thanks to limited mortality and frankly I could give a fuck.

The elements required to make batteries is finite and already there are issues regarding their methods of extraction on the environment.

Hydrogen is a sensible solution, but it's said to be more difficult to manufacture for use in vehicles. Note the word difficult, not impossible. And of course, once you've made the impossible possible, how do you make money off it?

I don't have the answers, but what I'm saying is gullibility is a commodity as abundant as say hydrogen and pandering to it is well handled by marketing agencies working hand in glove with bodies like Birmingham City Council.