Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Brown announces ban on breathing.... and toasters

According to the mighty Gordon, there is a GOSPLAN proposal to ensure that every new home is zero-carbon emmissions within ten years. And what's more these home will be exempt from stamp duty.

What Gordon didn't say is that in order to achieve this he's going to have to ban toasters, open fires and breathing.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't hold your breath...

Anonymous said...

im expecting a tax break for cystic fibrosis sufferersand parents. Its gotta happen.

Benedict White said...

Forgive me Dizzy, but could I ask why a zero carbon house involves no open fires and no breathing?

Anonymous said...

"that every new home is zero-carbon emmissions within ten years. And what's more these home will be exempt from stamp duty."
My husband actually burst out laughing when he heard this highlighted on the news, he remarked that Gordon Brown was obviously not expecting to lose any revenue from stamp duty in the future!
We wondered how many people could "afford" the costs of achieving any where even in the ball park of zero-carbon emissions in houses already built, with a tax burden that continues to rise. Surely he does not want us to get into even more debt?

dizzy said...

BW, assuming you're serious, the claim is that these houses will be "zero carbon emmission homes". Open fires equals burning fuels equals carbon dioxide output. As for breathing, mammals breath in the atmosphere (21%oxygen,78% nitrogen, nearly 1% argon and about 0.04% carbon, then trace gases), they then extract the oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide.

THe only way you could create a zero carbon emmission home would be to not let anyone live there and turn everything off. Let's not forget as well that these zero carbon emmission homes will use untold carbon in the production process.

Chatterbox's husband has hit the nail right on the head really. This claim is a meaningless bit of spin. It makes out there will be a tax cut on something that is virtually impossible to achieve. He's not going to start giving away the revenue he gets from stamp duty.