To be fair, the £1 it costs on an ad-hoc basis is way less than me driving to the supermarket to spend 30 minutes walking round and driving home again
It's much easier to select 75% of your shopping at the click of a button (since typically most of the "staples" are the same, week to week) and then spend ten minutes selecting the remaining 25% of your basket (whilst sat on the sofa, half watching the telly) rather than dealing with the hassle of the supermarket.
We buy significantly less since we only put the stuff in our (virtual) basket that we want - we're not distracted by the various 3-for-2 offers (and whatnot), we save a lot of time - we don't have to deal with other people's screaming kids - we don't have to take screaming kids round (and subject them to a horrible time in a supermarket when they can't be trusted not to run off, and you have to end up bribing them with some expensive "treat").
You don't have to worry about lugging the bulky items into your car, you don't have to worry about the size of your boot, you can order bulk purchases (so that you only need to pop to your local convenience store for eggs/ bread/ milk in between a fortnightly shop).
All that convenience for a quid or so (we typically have a late evening delivery)... it amazes me that so many people still do wander the aisles. Online delivery isn't for everyone, sure, some people have a lot more leisure time to waste, but it's a big improvement - and (to try to get back on topic) means that people don't need a car for their groceries - if we could convince more people to give up cars for their daily commute then it becomes horrendously expensive to keep a car for those irregular days out to National Trust properties with long drives.
I'd support a large push in electric and have solar panels and electric charging as standard in new homes. Just like fibre optic should also be a standard on new homes. Even if it just goes out to a junction box on the street somewhere. At least it's ready for potential fibre in the future.
Agreed.
Futureproofed houses.
Is it OK for trains to create diesel fumes & poison rail staff and passengers as well as the wider environment but not road traffic? Has rail electrification been cancelled because Network Rail can’t control costs and get contracts done on time?
Yes - that's exactly why it's been cancelled.
If you take twice as long to electrify half of the GWML at twice the original price then you can't be surprised if the people paying for it get cold feet about other projects (after deferring things like wiring to Bristol/ Oxford until later).
Even as a railway enthusiast who wants his local lines wired ASAP (and has never voted Tory), I can understand why Grayling decided to rein in the spending.
The problem lies with "the railway", not with the politicians.
I did see it, but I don't believe it changes the argument. In a single journey, one delivery van is going to be able to make deliveries to a significant number of houses - which obviously still means a lower total motorized-vehicle mileage and therefore less congestion than if all those households individually drove to the supermarket.
Agreed - much more efficient - one modern van can travel round the suburbs, rather than twenty old cars all heading to the supermarket (and needing parking spaces etc provided whilst there).