The Government has announced the sale of petrol and diesel cars will be banned by 2040, sounds a long time away doesn't it?

The reality is that diesel has been squeezed and marginalised for some time now - this is not a recent development. For some time now local councils have been encouraged to find ways to make it difficult for drivers of diesel to continue with this fuel. Congestion charges, clean air zones and similar schemes have all been used to encourage us to leave the devil's fuel behind.

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), who sound to me like they should be organising an organic carrot cake competition in the countryside somewhere, rather than over stepping the Department of Transport, have decided that more can be done to save the world from the evil of diesel.

They plan on giving local authorities more powers to create access restrictions on vehicles, such as charging zones or other measures to prevent certain vehicles using particular roads at particular times. DEFRA also announced that it will need to reconsider how diesel vehicles will be taxed in the future. It said: "Measures to improve air quality will therefore be funded through changes to the tax treatment for new diesel vehicles, or through reprioritisation with existing departmental budgets." So diesel owners, like me, can expect much heavier road fund licence fees than before - isn't that something to look forward to?

Why on earth did diesel become such a popular fuel then? For years when I was growing up I thought it was just the French and farmers who used this fuel. However, and yes I'm going to mention him...

Gordon Brown. A man who graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a first class honors degree in history when he was only 21 years old. Is responsible for many things...

In 1998 whilst Chancellor, and before he sold all of our gold and delivered us into the mouth of a huge depression, Gordon advised us all that diesel cars will be taxed less than petrol cars as they they pollute fewer grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometre on average. In 2001, good old Gordon introduced the new Vehicle Excise Duty rates that taxed cars with low CO2 emissions less, and in doing so made the diesel option that bit more appealing compared to petrol.

Zoom through our recent past to the present day and there are approximately 12 million diesels on British roads - I tried but lost count after 11.6 million. That is an awful lot of people and businesses that are going to affected in the coming years by the legislation of councils and governments.

We all understand the motives behind it - at least the main one on the surface - the need to clean our air.

Did we ever stop to think, before we accept the blame and punishment as drivers that there are inconsistencies with the logic of an outright ban on diesel for cars?

The European Environmental Agency points out that nearly a quarter of all NOx emissions comes from coal and other energy plants. Cargo ships are another source of pollution. A recent report found that just 15 of the biggest cargo ships currently pollute more nitrogen and sulphur oxides than all of the world's cars put together. That is truly shocking. I realise that they travel far out to sea and not on the streets of cities - but it's all the same air isn't it? Is it because they are owned by huge corporations and help to bring revenue to private enterprise that they are not under the same level of proposed legislation as the man in the van, ordinary folk?

Even zero-emissions cars won't be pollution free, as a previous study by the Gordon Brown's University of Edinburgh and engineering company INNAS BV found the extra weight from the battery packs results in higher particle matter emissions. Because EVs are on average 24 per cent heavier than their petrol or diesel counterparts, the study said their tyres will be under greater stress and wear out quicker, releasing particle matter emissions hidden in the rubber particle into the atmosphere at a faster rate.

Who knows if in 30 years time we'll all be taxed for the amount of rubber our cars produce?



