The Duchy of Cornwall proudly announces that the Prince of Wales’s old Aston Martin has been converted to run on bio-ethanol – which is sourced as surplus wine from one of his Wiltshire estates. Which is fine by me. If a very rich man wishes to spend his own money in mildly strange ways, and is not really hurting anyone, then who am I to complain? (I personally benefit from the other-wordly advantages of living on the Crown Estates, and very nice it is too, even as a humble tenant without grace and favour.)
I think he should sack his PR, though.
What is presented as a noble austerity for the sake of the planet comes across as a highly elaborate self-indulgence, when just laying up the Aston for a slightly less thirsty car would surely achieve the same thing.
One might also say (and it might be the truth): “We had a lot of wine we couldn’t sell, so we looked around for something sensible to do with it, and discovered we could use it as fuel – even for the Aston Martin.” But they didn’t. Quite the reverse:
Sir Michael Peat, the Prince’s private secretary, said: “The bioethanol from our supplier happens to be made from wine. I think our wine is surplus English wine. It is wonderful. It is not corked.”
That quote’s in all press, so it isn’t a mis-statement coming out in a single interview. It was what the Clarence House establishment decided it would be best to say. They seem to think it is better to advertise not sane frugality, but his massive use of resources in being green – in judgment.
‘Champagne socialism?’ Is that when middle-class people drink it? In – you know… – restaurants?
Prince Charles is a twat of the first water.
Remember when he got Clarence House because he said he wasn’t happy “living above the shop” in Highgrove.
Remember he once wished to be a tampon?
I could go on and on but I have no desire to be a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a fine and noble web-site.
He really is a twat.
I wish Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II an exceptionally long and healthy life.
Seconded. I have heard, and want to believe, that he plans to abdicate when his mother dies. Not to avoid a job for which he is ill suited of course, because that would be like his great-uncle and his grandmother will have set out her views on that subject. But by the time his mother dies he will be getting on more than a bit, and the country will need a younger, more popular figure-head. So he will step aside, not selfishly like Edward VIII, but nobly. Or something like that anyway.
I rather doubt it. He has spent his entire adult life waiting to be king. Deciding not to take the job at the end of that would be an admission of his life’s total pointlessness, I would think.
The last person who became king at a relatively advanced age because his mother was very long-lived was Edward VII, and he was quite a popular and successful king, eventually. Prince Charles might attempt to emulate him. Given that he is indeed a complete twat, I can’t see it is very likely.
I imagine that before wine (11% alcohol?) could be turned into anything usable as motor fuel, it would need to be distilled fairly thoroughly.
How much energy did that take? Lots.
And where did the energy come from? The gas mains, I guess.
The whole thing sounds like a total fraud to this scientist.
Viscount Tonypandy, who taught Buggerlugs enough Welsh to mumble through his Investiture,
once told me that if brains were gunpowder, Charlie didn’t have enough to blow his hat off.
They only let him in to University because of who he was(especially with the A level grades he got)
An early example of positive discrimination perhaps.
If he really wants to help. Convert the cars of some of the English who are’nt able to afford a new car, or conversion.
It doesn’t really matter whether wine or grain is used to make the ethanol, it is equally stupid, using about as much energy to make it as you get out at the end. (Although that doesn’t stop GW going down that line either)
wonderful!
No one has commented on this from the Telegraph report:
About as stupid as the ‘undersize’ kiwi fruit(Link)
Hmmm
What’s that saying? Something about the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” So what about the third time.
Let’s see. A king called Charles who is a right plonker. A rump parliament more intent on perks than on the liberty of the people, happy to sell the country to foreign agents for obscure idealogical reasons And a sizable religious minority looking to impose its own morality by force.
No, I’m not going to google Mohammed bin Cromwell.
If Chuck becomes King. I’m leading the fucking revolution.
He really really is a twat. He has two decent sons so the solution should be obvious. Alas it never is with the house of Windsor.
Charles is (a) thicker than a whale omelette (b) totally unsuited to the role and (c) an utter twat. Have I called him that before?
Do you remember him and Vanilla getting the fucking dressing-up box out at Al-Anzar Universirty, Cairo? And his generally demented greenery and that “defender of faith” schtick. He is truly a cunt of the first water. It’s just a shame that when Phil the Greek (a man I increasingly like) was drowning some unwanted puppies he didn’t find space in the sack for his idiot son. Eddie might be a chutney ferreting waste of DNA and Andy might be a golfer on the take but Chuckles is something else.
Nick, I’ll trade you a Ted Kennedy for a Prince Charles. If you like, I’ll even throw a Harry Reid into the bargain.
Laird,
Only if you also take Tessa Jowell and David Milliband
I don’t know much about either, but I’ll take the deal. My rule of thumb is go with the devil you don’t know.
Laird, laird laird…. Trading socialists with a european will get you BURNED. Like American beer, the American leftist is pretty weak stuff, compared to the the heady brew of redistributionist zeal, ecolunacy and authoritarian nannyism found in the continental variety.
Bit lax on the uptake myself tonight
Plainslow.
Shoulda got this one in earlier.
You mean a kind of Princes Trucks Scheme?
So the Prince has a moonshine still! Who knew? Evidently the last batch turned out sub-par, and was poured into the royal gas tank, amid much fanfare. Good use for really bad booze.
Better luck next time, your grace.
Evidently not Elliot Ness.(Link)
Does Hizz Highnezz have a tax stamp for that still?
To work a twist on an old saying, “British wine is why the British drink beer.”