Member

Over the past 250 years, our trains have developed from coal to diesel to electricity power. We never countenanced the idea that we should use our rail network less, or travel less around the growing network of railways that built Great Britain for 200 years; instead, we invested in the technology that allowed us to continue to trade and travel with reduced emissions and pollution. Our electricity generation has gone from coal to gas, and now to solar, wind and nuclear; again, we did not suggest that we should phase out the lightbulb or electric kettle, or the factories powered by electricity that build the exports that are now traded around the world. We stepped up and became a world leader in carbon-free power. Petrol-guzzling road vehicles are now being replaced at an encouragingly fast rate by their hybrid and fully electric alternatives—and, again, we did not suggest the retirement of the buses that carried the people, and the lorries that carried the goods and served as the backbone of Britain. We pushed forward with battery and hybrid power plants, and the tightening of emissions standards for fossil fuel vehicles.