@Gag: better don't think, that the public opinion will stay like this.

At the start of the German Abwrackprämie there were also several articles like this, even full net-blogs of people with this opinion.

But what had happen, when it was running? A kind of national hystery!
Noone had expected that.

Thousands of people have lost their rationality. They only see "2500 € from the government! I want to have it know!"
So this is the reason, why a lot of cars were scrapped, which have a higher value than 2500 €. And many people, which normally cannot afford money for a new car, are having now high credits just for this reason (and a lot of them will not be able to pay all the debts back).

So just wait, until this British scrappage-regulation will be released. You will be wondering, how crazy the people will react.