I haven’t dug up the post, but I’m sure in the past I said that what we’ve got to do against “Chelsea tractors” is ensure that the bottom falls out of the second-hand market and then people will stop buying them.

And it is happening – prices and plummeting and sales are following:

Glass’s Guide, the leading guide to second-hand car prices, said that 4x4s were depreciating much faster this year than in previous years. A one-year-old BMW X5 is now worth only £38,800, compared with a purchase price of £63,397. A year ago a one-year-old X5, which cost £62,542 new, was worth £40,450.
Ian Archer, owner of Harringtons of Fulham, West London, said the high cost of fuel was also a factor.“It is always a difficult thing to tell an owner that their car is losing £1,000 a month.

And that Sian Berry, our Green Party candidate in tomorrow’s Kentish Town by-election, is quoted in The Times front page story is only icing on the cake…

POSTSCRIPT: Sian also appeared on Channel Four News and on Radio Two on the same subject today.

Walking the streets of Kentish Town tonight – yet more canvassing, or at least visiting Green voters we haven’t yet seen this time around – I was enjoying the pleasure – and it actually was quite pleasant, of wind-driven but very small rain droplets. Micro-abrasion for the complexion anyone?

But visiting Greens is a pleasant job – they’re a nice, characterful bunch, almost without exception.

… and the penguins just might win.

On Tuesday, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service to classify twelve kinds of penguins as “endangered” or “threatened.” The Center says the change could create legal leverage against activities that contribute to climate change or otherwise threaten the birds.

“We… believe that if and when penguins are listed,” said CBD staff attorney Kassie Siegel, “US entities that are responsible for large sources of greenhouse emissions will also be responsible for analyzing the impact of those emissions on listed species like penguins.”