As range, charging availability and performance have improved, our family is now on its third electric vehicle Like many families, we have always had two cars: one for long journeys and another for commuting, shopping and school runs. With the ever increasing cost of petrol, it made sense to find an alternative. So five years ago we bought a G-Wiz . Small, slow and very basic, the car made a certain amount of sense in town. It was small enough to park anywhere and nippy enough to make buzzing around the streets a lot of fun. It was never going to be big enough to be a main family car, but it did what it needed to do well enough. For anything involving the whole family, we simply took the other car. In late 2009, we had the opportunity to upgrade to a pre-launch version of the Mitsubishi i MiEV electric car. Big enough to take the whole family, travel further afield and fast enough to tackle motorways with ease, the Mitsubishi could genuinely be used as a main family car, relegating our petrol car to second place. It was an instant hit: the kids adored it and it was fast, practical and fun to drive. Because it was so driver-friendly and cheap to run, it rapidly became the car of choice for almost every journey we made. We kept hold of the G-Wiz when we took on the Mitsubishi. It meant our petrol car hardly travelled anywhere at all. Meanwhile, the Mitsubishi became the cool car on the block. Neighbours wanted lifts, friends of our children wanted rides. Everyone was impressed by the lack of noise, the performance and the smoothness. Thanks to its instant performance, the car could out-accelerate most other cars in day-to-day driving. When people had a short demonstration run and could see how user-friendly and competent it was, many of them were convinced that electric cars could be a genuine replacement for petrol power. We travelled an average of 22.5 miles a day and our most regular route was to the next village and back for the school run – a round trip of six miles. According to the Department of Transport, our car use was fairly typical. The average car journey is 6.5 miles and the average daily use is between 22-24 miles per day, while 93% of all journeys are less than 25 miles: ideal for an electric car. We charged the car up each night using off-peak electricity. Each morning, the car was ready to go. The total electricity cost in our first year was a mere £80. Of course, it was not perfect. The range of the car varied depending on the type of driving and ambient temperature. At the time, Mitsubishi stated a range of up to 80 miles (the latest production version has a range of up to 92 miles). That range could be achieved when driving in a city. But driving on a motorway, the range dropped to around 55 miles. Driving in the cold with the heater on, the range could drop to around 40 miles. Public charging points started cropping up in more cities. It became possible to travel further afield and recharge the car while it was parked. From my base near Coventry I could drive to Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Leamington Spa, Oxford, Milton Keynes and Leicester, knowing that I could charge my car up while it was parked. Our lease on the Mitsubishi came to an end after one year. We replaced it with a brand new Tata Indica Vista EV . Built by Indian car maker Tata from a brand new factory in the UK, the Indica Vista EV provides us with more space, greater comfort and a longer range. Meanwhile, our petrol car still sits idle with very little use. I suspect we may be ditching it completely in the not too distant future. • Michael Boxwell is the author of The 2011 Electric Car Guide , published by Greenstream Publishing Electric, hybrid and low-emission cars Travel and transport Ethical and green living Motoring guardian.co.uk
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Since One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest this gifted bit-part actor has played the psychopath to perfection – but don’t expect him to come out into the light in his new vampire movie Priest Fans of the vampire apocalypse sub-genre will already be en route to the nachos, but no matter what your taste there is at least one reason to recommend the newly released Priest. That reason, buried as he usually is in the depths of the supporting cast, is Brad Dourif. Because I don’t think it would be rash to claim Dourif as king of the character actors – champion of that noble tradition of bit-part players and background colour, a self-confessed “whore” who never fails to elevate even the dopiest hokum, psychotic creeps a speciality but capable of much, much more. Almost everyone reading will, I imagine, have relished a Dourif performance at some point in their lives, in part because the man is as tireless as he is gifted, in part because among his many jobs have been a number of near-inescapable cultural behemoths (leaving aside Star Trek: Voyager, he reportedly dispensed with his eyebrows to appear in two of Peter Jackson’s three Lord of the Rings films). But he’s due far more reward than a place for life signing headshots at comic conventions. For all his workhorse tendencies, it would be a mistake to laud them over his actual talent – the waxy delicacy of his features the canvas for a rare, skewed intensity, his unnerving presence never once played as smirky camp. But his gifts were obvious from the start. Because, of course, when we rewind as far back as 1975, we find him as the very newest of Hollywood sensations, and rightly so – the breakthrough Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and his pivotal turn as frail, doomed Billy Bibbit, a role he fitted so perfectly it was if Ken Kesey had foreseen a vision of him writing the source novel 13 years earlier. For a boy of 25 it was a staggering performance, deft and touching and every bit as compelling as those of Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher. His Oscar nomination was inevitable; a stellar career was assured. Except, as it turned out, it wasn’t. Instead of an ascension to the upper slopes of the industry, the decades since have provided a hectic route through strange landscapes and scenic backwaters. There were more great performances – shortly after Cuckoo’s Nest came some masterful jitters in the prime slice of New York kink that was The Eyes of Laura Mars, after that John Huston’s mordant Wise Blood, most recently a lovely moment as a melancholy alien (surely the role he was born to play) in Werner Herzog’s The Wild Blue Yonder. There were also roles in a number of grand cinematic missteps: the daddy of them all, Heaven’s Gate; David Lynch’s Dune, in which he gamely held forth about “the juice of sapho”; Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s rickety Alien Resurrection. But while Lynch would hire him again for Blue Velvet, and Herzog has used him as a one-man rep company, the best part of the last 20 years has been spent paying the bills in all manner of horror projects, from the iconic (in some circles he’ll be forever best known as the voice of Chucky in the Child’s Play series) to the altogether less celebrated – but always performed with respectful sincerity. In interviews, Dourif himself talks about the shape of his career as simply a product of a working actor needing work, particularly as a father – in the same year Cuckoo’s Nest came out, his first daughter was born. But sometimes when I think about him I also find it hard not to picture that otherworldly bearing and remember the example of another thin young man too wispy and off-kilter to be anyone’s male lead: Anthony Perkins. But then, much as I love Anthony Perkins, Dourif is by a long way the better actor, both more intense and more versatile. He could always do repellent (as racist wifebeater Clinton Pell in 1988′s Mississippi Burning his presence is skin-crawling) – but his Doc Cochran in TV’s old west saga Deadwood was a masterclass in unexpected decency, while what made his work in Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant so fine was the way he acted as a steadying hand amid the crazed whirl of breakdancing souls and watchful iguanas. And it’s important, I think, not to embrace him just because he’s a favourite of Herzog and Lynch, but because he’s been fantastic in their films as he has so many others – and because the risk with anyone so reliable is that they get taken for granted, particularly when the wonders they deliver are small in scale. I’m sure Dourif himself would see his career as anything but thwarted for all that he never did get that Oscar, and we should follow his example. Bills have to be paid, and it would be patronising to assume he would have been happier with his name above the titles of wood-stupid action flicks. In any sane hall of fame, his place is safe already. Horror Science fiction and fantasy Danny Leigh guardian.co.uk
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The detective’s creator says the character could return as a young man – could an Inbetweener do the job, or another teen with talent? Inspector Morse could to return to ITV in a prequel charting his years as an Oxford University undergraduate . But who should play him? Morse’s creator Colin Dexter is not one to give away too much of the great man’s back story – it felt like forever before we learnt his first name was Endeavour. But we do know that Morse’s time at Oxford spanned a doomed love affair and a lost scholarship which led him to join the army and then the police. And there are a few clues to be had from the short story Dexter wrote for the Daily Mail , on which the prequel will be loosely based. It turns out the young Morse was of “medium height, with a palish, slightly dolichocephalic face, and full light-brown hair, with the merest hint of ginger”. So Morse even had a long face as a young man. It sounds like a recipe for Matt Smith, frankly, although it’s hard to imagine him growing up to look like Morse and he’s a Doctor, not an inspector. The Inbetweeners are about to go to university, and one of them – James Buckley – starred in another TV prequel, Rock and Chips . But he’s not right, and fellow Inbetweener Joe Thomas is more of a Lewis than a Morse. Simon Bird maybe? Possibly. Morse would doubtless approve of Will’s fondness for briefcases, even if his fellow students didn’t . Other possibilities: Being Human star Russell Tovey; Rupert Grint, who would be a wildcard choice (offering so much more than a touch of ginger); and Misfits’ Robert Sheehan is about to have a little bit more time on his hands . But all of them look like also-rans compared with the Morse Jr in waiting – a young man whose face will be instantly familiar to millions of ITV viewers but has shown an uncanny ability to reinvent himself. He share’s Morse’s fondness for music – if not exactly the same genre – and, unlike the detective, is quite a mover on the dancefloor. Plus, he’s about to turn 18 – making him exactly the right age for when Morse turns up at Oxford. Step forward Britain’s Got Talent winner – and star of BBC1′s Waterloo Road – George Sampson! What? A terrible idea, you say? Then who would you cast instead? Crime drama Television Drama John Plunkett guardian.co.uk
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Classes abandoned at Valencia University after party advertised on social networking site A massive party organised by students using social networking sites brought university classes to a standstill on Thursday in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia. The law and economics faculties at the city’s university had to close their doors as drunken students began to run amok after more than a thousand people had gathered for an outdoor bring-a-bottle party at the campus. The party was organised as a protest against the university’s failure to put on a traditional student paella party this year. “It will end when people tire of it, or when we get chucked out,” organisers had promised on the Spanish answer to Facebook, a social networking site called Tuenti. “The aim is not to create a disturbance or to demonstrate against anyone, but to have a good time together.” Students carrying bottles, food, cooler bags and guitars packed out the campus, with the more drunken ones eventually disturbing classes. Authorities said they had suspended classes to avoid incidents. The students’ union said it had nothing to do with the impromptu party, but blamed university authorities for the failure to organise the traditional annual student paella party. Spain Europe Social networking Internet Students Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
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In a country known for its censorship, the internet has become a focus for complaints about the long-time ruling party It is a dangerous act in a country where graffiti can fetch eight strokes of the cane, and more dangerous still in that it parodies the leader of the long-term ruling Lee dynasty. With a few deft applications of spray paint, Skope One finishes a pig-head depiction of the prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, with a Nazi-styled SS logo on the lapel and an Uncle Sam-inspired banner emblazoned with the words “Lee Wants You”. “We shouldn’t be scared any more – it’s about time something changed,” says the 35-year-old artist, known locally as the founder of Singaporean graffiti. “We need to have this freedom of alternative speech.” Singapore is known worldwide for its censorship and corporal punishment. But in the runup to Saturday’s elections more and more people have started to speak out against the clan that has ruled Singapore for almost 50 years. Parallels with the Arab spring are striking, even if revolution is not just around the corner. Most murmurs of discontent can be found online: fear of reprisal is diminished for an anonymous blogger. On internet forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter, grumblings about high housing prices, the widening gap between rich and poor, immigration laws and the salaries of government ministers (among the highest in the world) are hot topics. The parliamentary republic’s incumbent People’s Action party (PAP) has been in power since independence in 1965, and is widely recognised as having turned this colonial outpost into a financial behemoth in a few decades. But it knows it has a battle on its hands. On Saturday, it will contest 82 of its 87 parliamentary seats, up from 47 of 84 seats in 2006. One in four voters in Singapore’s 5 million-strong population is under the age of 35, and the internet is a main source of their news. For the first time, political candidates have been allowed to campaign using social media, and the effect has been far-reaching: many Singaporeans say this is the most debated and politicised election they have seen. But not all young people will be using their mandatory vote to go against the grain. Some, such as 22-year-old economics student and first-time voter Sofina Toh, are swayed by the PAP’s recent apology for past mistakes and promise to do better. “The PAP has done so much for Singapore – just look at the country now from what it used to be,” she says. “Shouldn’t we give credit where credit is due? They’ve promised to make changes. Maybe we can give them another chance.” Others are not so convinced. “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me,” tweets a management student, Ong Rei En. At the political rallies, for which turnout has arguably been the highest in Singapore’s history, the energy is electric. An estimated 50,000 people crowded together one last time on Thursday at an outdoor stadium to wave blue flags and wield inflatable hammers, the symbol of the opposition Workers’ party. As the crowds chanted for change and raised their fists in hope, police with machine guns watched awkwardly nearby, the sweat on their brows betraying the night’s humidity. Rally attendance does not always translate to the polling booth, however. In 2006, despite large crowds at opposition speeches, the PAP won 67% of the popular vote. Many Singaporeans have voiced concern that their ballots will be traced and their mortgages or jobs taken away from them if they vote for the opposition. Asked if Singapore is another Egypt in the making, Skope One furrows his brow as he bundles his spray-paint cans into a backpack. “We don’t want the same problems,” he says finally. “But we definitely echo the same feelings.” Singapore Protest Social media Facebook Internet Social networking Twitter guardian.co.uk
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Alex Salmond leads party to series of dramatic victories over Labour and Lib Dems, taking it to brink of overall majority in Scottish parliament Alex Salmond will hold a historic referendum on independence for Scotland after a rout of Labour and the Liberal Democrats put the Scottish National party on the brink of an overall Holyrood majority. After a series of dramatic victories over Labour and a collapse in the Lib Dem vote, the SNP leader saw a landslide for his party put him on course to win the largest number of seats ever won in the Scottish parliament – perhaps 60 of the Scottish parliament’s 129 seats – leaving him in command at Holyrood. After a night of extraordinary defeats for some of Labour’s best-known figures and a near defeat for the Scottish Labour leader, Iain Gray, Salmond declared he would stage an independence referendum within five years. Jubilant at the “historic” scale of the SNP’s victories, Salmond said he would first demand much greater economic freedom for the Scottish parliament, including the right to set its own corporation tax and increase borrowing powers to £5bn. Then he would hold his referendum. “Just as the Scottish people have restored trust in us, we must trust the people as well,” he declared. “Which is why, in this term of the parliament, we will bring forward a referendum and trust the people on Scotland’s own constitutional future.” The scale and extent of the SNP’s victories was wholly unexpected. Labour endured its worst election in Scotland for 80 years, losing a dozen seats including nine MSPs who have been at Holyrood since the parliament was formed in 1999. No party has ever held an overall majority in the Scottish parliament. Salmond had expected to form a minority government, and had hoped to match the previous record of 56 seats won by Labour under Donald Dewar in 1999. However, SNP officials played down predictions that the party could win an overall majority of more than 65 seats, estimating that it was much more likely to win closer to 60 seats because of the mixed electoral system used at Holyrood. One senior aide to Salmond said the unexpected number of SNP victories in constituency seats made it much harder for the party to get extra seats on the eight regional lists. The additional member system for Holyrood is designed to ensure that minority parties – those that fail to win constituency seats – share the 56 list seats to ensure they are equally represented. Asked about predictions by John Curtice, of Strathclyde university, that the SNP was on course to win 68 seats, he said: “I would very much caution against that. Bear in mind this is a system designed specifically for that not to be the outcome. It’s a bit like driving up a hill – the incline gets steeper and steeper the higher you go. It’s about diminishing returns.” There were too many regional lists yet to declare for the SNP to be confident of winning more than 60 seats at present, he said, adding: “If we were to win 60 seats, that would be a phenomenally good result, and by far and away the strongest mandate that any government has secured in Scotland.” John Swinney, the SNP’s finance secretary and a former party leader, also refused to predict an overall majority but said: “People have supported us in astonishing numbers across the country.” Curtice said the SNP had managed to “appeal to a vast swath of Scotland” and holding a referendum – an election pledge Salmond was unable to deliver on in his first term as first minister – was now a reality. “The referendum might now be a real issue for the future of Scottish politics, instead of being an area of theological dispute,” he said. Despite the scale of the SNP’s victory, the party has still failed to push support for independence above 30%. Significant legal arguments about Holyrood’s doubtful constitutional authority to hold a referendum also remain. Salmond has insisted the referendum will be “indicative” and not legally binding, but will hope the commanding position his party now has at Holryood could see popular support increase dramatically by the time he stages the referendum in 2014 or 2015. The former Respect MP George Galloway failed to win a seat at Holyrood after attracting only 3.5% of the regional list votes in Glasgow, confounding predictions he would be elected. With 60 of the 73 constituencies and three out of eight regions declared, the Lib Dems saw a near-total collapse in their vote across Scotland, losing seven seats and seeing a sharply reduced majority in Shetland for its leader, Tavish Scott, who had held the safest seat in Scotland. Scott’s future as the Scottish party leader is now in doubt. The SNP was the only beneficiary of the Lib Dem collapse – the nationalists’ vote rose across Scotland in proportion to the fall in Lib Dem support, delivering them 21 gains by 8.30am and a total of 46 seats. Salmond held his seat with 64% of the vote. The traditional political map of Scotland has been transformed after the SNP won constituencies in Glasgow once regarded as impregnable Labour seats and, for the first time, won Holyrood seats in the capital, Edinburgh. The party defeated the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour, taking five out of six seats in the city. Losing Labour MSPs included Andy Kerr, the former health minister credited with introducing Scotland’s smoking ban and a future leadership contender, the former ministers Frank McAveety and Tom McCabe and six prominent women MSPs. The UK Labour party leader, Ed Miliband, said Labour had to “reassess” its policies and position in Scotland. Scottish elections 2011 Scottish politics Scotland Elections 2011 Alex Salmond Scottish National Party (SNP) Labour Liberal Democrats Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk
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A BBC Radio 5 Live discussion about the joys – and flaws – of the station took an unexpected turn when a listener rang up to say it had been cited by his wife as the reason for their split. “My Mrs left me over 5 Live,” revealed the caller, identified only as Tony. Very possibly the station’s biggest fan, Tony likes to listen to the station so much that his wife walked out in despair after 14 years together. “The letter that came from the solicitor said my preoccupation with the radio had led to the complete breakdown of any social interaction between us,” he told Victoria Derbyshire’s morning show on Thursday. Apparently the “constant chatter” drove her mad, although the pair haven’t actually divorced yet. Tony felt free to share the details on air, safe in the knowledge that his wife wouldn’t be listening. Radio 5 Live BBC Radio industry Monkey guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A BBC Radio 5 Live discussion about the joys – and flaws – of the station took an unexpected turn when a listener rang up to say it had been cited by his wife as the reason for their split. “My Mrs left me over 5 Live,” revealed the caller, identified only as Tony. Very possibly the station’s biggest fan, Tony likes to listen to the station so much that his wife walked out in despair after 14 years together. “The letter that came from the solicitor said my preoccupation with the radio had led to the complete breakdown of any social interaction between us,” he told Victoria Derbyshire’s morning show on Thursday. Apparently the “constant chatter” drove her mad, although the pair haven’t actually divorced yet. Tony felt free to share the details on air, safe in the knowledge that his wife wouldn’t be listening. Radio 5 Live BBC Radio industry Monkey guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A BBC Radio 5 Live discussion about the joys – and flaws – of the station took an unexpected turn when a listener rang up to say it had been cited by his wife as the reason for their split. “My Mrs left me over 5 Live,” revealed the caller, identified only as Tony. Very possibly the station’s biggest fan, Tony likes to listen to the station so much that his wife walked out in despair after 14 years together. “The letter that came from the solicitor said my preoccupation with the radio had led to the complete breakdown of any social interaction between us,” he told Victoria Derbyshire’s morning show on Thursday. Apparently the “constant chatter” drove her mad, although the pair haven’t actually divorced yet. Tony felt free to share the details on air, safe in the knowledge that his wife wouldn’t be listening. Radio 5 Live BBC Radio industry Monkey guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A BBC Radio 5 Live discussion about the joys – and flaws – of the station took an unexpected turn when a listener rang up to say it had been cited by his wife as the reason for their split. “My Mrs left me over 5 Live,” revealed the caller, identified only as Tony. Very possibly the station’s biggest fan, Tony likes to listen to the station so much that his wife walked out in despair after 14 years together. “The letter that came from the solicitor said my preoccupation with the radio had led to the complete breakdown of any social interaction between us,” he told Victoria Derbyshire’s morning show on Thursday. Apparently the “constant chatter” drove her mad, although the pair haven’t actually divorced yet. Tony felt free to share the details on air, safe in the knowledge that his wife wouldn’t be listening. Radio 5 Live BBC Radio industry Monkey guardian.co.uk
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