What strikes me in all this is the disproportionate nature of the beast.
What I mean by this is that ‘clean burning’ or the ‘carbon footprint’ approach to the environmental damage the human race does to the planet cannot be a bad thing, in principle.
However, accross the board, we do so much ‘damage’ one way or another, that targeting one thing becomes imbalanced and thus nonsense in the whole scheme of things.
I’m rambling a bit, but I’m sure the drift of what I’m trying to say makes some sense. Yes, make diesels as clean as possible, so yes, this type of technology should be embraced. Is banning diesels an option? I say no, and there’s plenty already said about commercial diesels being a necessity which touch on every commodity known to man, transport is an essential ingredient of every item we need or buy.
So after deciding what we ban or allow, there will always be us in our old 80s, or whatever, stepping over the current limits (which change by the day and at the whim of the politician in power on that day) and we’re the ones in the massive minority, who feel hard done by as a consequence of general legislation aimed at improving things.
I don’t want my kid and her kids to suffer from our stupidity, but there must be some limits to this approach. Industry is still pouring out serious levels of undesirables, and industry sponsors its own acceptance and protection because it can afford to.
We can’t.
There are exceptions though, through means of ‘exemption’ by age or by other means such as specialist ‘club’ membership, so I think we should embrace the changes for the better and at the same time lobby for ‘exemption’ to protect our tiny minority interests.
It’s similar in the gun debate, no entitlement to arm, period, but special cases where shooting is permitted on whatever grounds that work, private clubs, environmental culling, whatever.
There has to be a way to try.
You can own a 60 year old vehicle and escape almost all of the legislation governing emissions, and the like, so why can’t we lobby for similar exemptions for other reasons?
Just thinking aloud really, because if we don’t, then it’s bye-bye to our current passion, forever.
no car tax 
and no bullshit LEZs in the cities
