The Unionist's crisis

In Northern Ireland most people, politically, fall into one of two camps... they're Unionists or they're not. Unionism has been in trouble for quite a while with the largest party, the DUP in decline. Ever since brexit reared its ugly head things have got a lot worse.

As I see it there are two fundamental problems right now. 

In the run up to the brexit referendum, what remain campaigners discovered is just how challenging is it to sell everything staying more or less the same. The best campaign tactic was to talk about how much worse everything could be, and this was easily dismissed as "project fear". Many unionists recognise they have the same dilemma. Ultimately their pro-union message is one of maintaining the status quo and so, perhaps inevitably, there's a reliance on fear of the 'other'. 

The other problem is unionism has come to mean conservative. I find this strange because, looking at the DUP policy document a few years ago I found lots of progressive social policy. It was a far cry from the rhetoric we see today and clear the DUP was, perhaps until very recently, much broader in policy approach than one might expect.

I subscribe to the idea that politics is not about left v right, whatever those terms even mean... it's about progressive vs regressive. 

The DUP have become very much a regressive party and as the largest mainstream unionist political party they've dragged the idea of unionism into a regressive position.

Northern Ireland overall voted remain in the brexit referendum but the DUP campaigned for leave and got into bed with the tories to support leave.

Now we have the endless whinging about the consequences of the Northern Ireland Protocol from many unionist politicians, despite the fact it seemed obvious to everyone who paid any attention this was the only viable option.

I'm a fan of unions. I like trade unions. I like the European Union. I like the United Kingdom. No union is perfect; you can always move towards doing things better, but I do believe we're stronger together.... to quote some advert or other.

Unionists in Northern Ireland are failing to make the case for the political union. They're increasingly making a case against it. The more the bluster and noise aimed at the consequences of their own campaigning is matched only by their inability to offer any alternative, the less viable their arguments appear.

I don't think, for a moment, those who are unionists will suddenly vote for a republican party. However it's clear the DUP have alienated many of their voters. As a result the unionist vote will be fragmented, the DUP will lose the majority status they've enjoyed and Sinn Fein will become the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Unionism, if it's to have a viable political future, needs to progress. The old "Ulster says NO!" is very much still present in the current day DUP. The problem is "NO" is easy. You don't need to listen, engage, think, and you don't need to come up with any better options. You just stick your fingers in your ears, shout no and ruin everything for everyone else. 

I don't believe there's anything inherently conservative about the union. Until unionists can leave behind their increasingly far right, regressive and even hateful posturing, they run a very real risk of political irrelevance.

A pox on the house of Toyota

In late 2019 I bought a Toyota Yaris Hybrid. I needed a car, couldn't afford an EV at the time, and so I went for what I felt was the least bad option. At the time I wrote a post about how much I liked it. How times change.

The Yaris has gone, replaced by a Renault Zoe.

There were four fundamental problems with my Yaris. It was slow. It actually felt much slower than it really was. When it did run on electric power only it was great... quiet, smooth, but you could only do that at no more than 30mph with the lightest throttle and only for maybe as much as a mile but probably not that far. It wasn't actually all that fuel efficient. A real world 62mpg seems pretty good, but my old fiesta diesel bettered that. Then there's the biggie: my wife hated it. Specifically she hated the hybrid system and refused to drive it.

Recently it seems Toyota have been making a lot of noise about how rubbish EVs are and how hybrid tech has a future for at least the next 5000 years or something.

Toyota are in big, big trouble and they know it.

The company's fixation on hybrid tech being the answer means they've continued to invest in building petrol engines.

Toyota also have the Mirai, one of the only hydrogen fuel cell car on the market and they keep saying hydrogen is the future, supported by hybrids.

Here are the facts as I see them. Toyota put all their energy transition eggs into a hydrogen fuel cell basket and it's becoming very clear hydrogen is not going to be the future for transport.

The hybrid drive train pioneered in the Prius seemed futuristic and advanced 20 years ago, now it just feels like a dated tech cul-de-sac with no future.

Perhaps most betraying what Toyota themselves know to be true, that EVs are what they need to be building, they talk about how they've got amazing battery tech just around the corner with their "solid state batteries" which, so far, well... they don't appear to exist outside of the lab - but the inevitable world domination of Toyota's non-existent battery tech is still a line fed to customers by dealerships.

Toyota have proved they can build a really good EV because that's precisely what the Mirai is - an electric vehicle that gets its electricity from the fuel cell rather than having a large battery.

As a result of all this it appears Toyota have been lobbying to try and hold back any legislation that puts a stop to selling new hybrids. They're also actively lobbying for pro-hydrogen policies and I've commented before how problematic hydrogen is as a fuel.

I understand this from a business perspective. Toyota were mocked for the Prius with it's tree-hugging, fuel sipping, weirdness but they persevered. Now the tech is mainstream it's very much out of favour, and for good reason, but that hardly seems fair on the company that worked hard on cleaner cars.

But nothing stands still and Toyota's single minded focus on hydrogen & hybrid has left them heading down two different technological dead-ends. 

Whilst none of the car manufacturers have pivoted entirely to EVs Toyota are now well behind. They're not alone in this, Honda have made the same mistake, but they're still ahead of Toyota in dealing with this having brought at least one EV to market and ending production of their fuel cell powered Clarity.

Toyota don't get my ire for making mistakes about their technology direction, but to lobby against the energy transition that's oh so desperately needed is pretty vile. I'd much rather they put their energy into fixing the problem.