Closed. The boat sank, the sharks won.

Richard Branson is in the news again.

All very laudable and a move in the right direction but I don’t believe he does anything without a commercial motive. I can’t help but applaud while feeling very suspicious. Everything he does is about money, money and more money. He seems unscrupulous in his pursuit of his own personal fortune.

In some of his megastores they stock porn dvd’s next to the Disney section - what’s that all about then? Hell of a mesage there Richard! What are you saying?

But that’s another rant - this is a green post.

Bio-Ethanol is slowly being put in our petrol because:

Ordinary cars can run on blends of 5% biofuel and 95% petrol, and this is quickly and silently emerging as a standard fuel at Britain’s service stations.

Personally I think the way forward is for people like Branson to cut or eliminate the profit they take from the public transport they own and to make it affordable. Huh? Own? Public? Brain fart there. Drop your ticket prices Richard! Drop them so low that I will consider travelling on your trains. Oh and making sure they run on time would help too.

Example - it costs me about £30 to fuel my car to get from home to my parents and back. The same journey by train is £120, with at least one change and then a bus, taxi or parental pick up at the other end. By coach it’s nearer £60. Where’s the incentive for me to ditch the car? I can comfortably fit me and my kids in, pile it up with the stuff we want to take and it goes door to door at the cheapest rate. Even locally, it costs £3 to get me and the kids into town. I take the car and it’s £2 for parking and I have a nice large boot to bring shopping back in.

I think for me the way to go is dual or flexi fuel cars - when I can afford it - they are so hideously over priced! Flexi fuel cars now include a Ford and a very nice looking Saab. Although I do have my eye on a Honda Civic Hybrid. There’s also the Toyota Prius.

Go on. I challenge you all. Richard Branson, Honda, Saab and Ford. Toyota too. And anyone else involved in the commercial side of this. Drop your prices. Take the cut in profit. Make us WANT your cars, make us want to use your transport networks. Take the hit and lead the way.

If anyone at Honda, Ford, Saab or Toyota perhaps might read this - I’ll gladly test one of your Hybrids for a month or so and then rave about it in here!