Richard Hammond reacts to Just Stop Oil's Aston Martin protest
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Richard Hammond slammed Just Stop Oil protestors during his appearance on Good Morning Britain as he chatted with Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley about his new show, which sees The Grand Tour host restoring classic cars. However midway through the interview, Richard Madeley brought up the Just Stop Oil protest, which took place in London, and how protestors might have an issue with his new show.
“Just Stop Oil who was spraying orange paint all over Aston Martin’s HQ in London yesterday would say that you are basically the devil incarnate for running these old cars,” Madeley pointed out.
“But you have a very interesting response to that?”
“Yeah, I mean, on the one hand, it is a really silly time to be setting up a workshop restoring cars,” Hammond admitted.
“But actually I mean, for one thing, that they’re trying to draw attention to their cause I get that.
“But a bunch of Aston Martins that won’t do many miles a year are not going to have a great deal of impact.
“Most classic cars because they’re old, the carbon footprint of their creation is long in the past.
“If they do less than 1,000 miles a year, their carbon footprint a year is about half that of your mobile phone or your laptop.
“Because we’re keeping old things going that have already been made and the resources have been mined. Any carbon footprint in his creation has been done.”
The former Top Gear host went on to point out that it is better to have an older car than to spend thousands on an electric car.
He continued: “You’re actually better off as for most people, even if you have got £50,000 to go and buy a new electric car which most people… nearly everybody hasn’t.
“And even if you did have, actually you’re better off keeping an old car going in many cases, as you’re not doing many miles.”
Discussing his new show, Hammond admitted he has lost money from renovating old cars.
“I sold most of my classic cars to buy equipment to restore other people’s classic cars,” he told the hosts.
“And then because we told them we could do it more quickly than we thought we could, I’ve actually paid to restore their cars on equipment I paid for.
“Let me put it this way, the U-turn on the corporation tax is going to increase.
“But it’s not going to affect me because you’d have to make a profit in the business,” he laughed.
Madeley went on to ask Hammond about electric cars and the fascination with “old metal”.
“I know we’ve got electric cars coming and that’s great. They’ll have their place… solid state has its place.
“But if you think about it, a lot of people use electric watches now to tell you how many steps you’ve done.
“But we still love the old-school analogue things.”
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.
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