Time was when Conservatives opposed price controls. They offer only temporary relief from higher prices. They put business off investing more in increasing supply which is the best way to get prices down or to level them off.
Price controls usually end in higher prices and the need to scrap them to rebuild capacity and investment.
Mrs May’s imposition of price controls has already led to the bankruptcy of many energy companies and to the effective nationalisation of a large casualty. It is now proving incapable of preventing a huge increase in energy prices.
As I have been explaining to government for a long time the U.K. is now short of energy and cruelly dependent on imports Ā from a Europe which is even more short of home energy than we are. The EU is our supplier of last resort and the Ā EU’s supplier of first resort is Russia.
In this week’s debate Labour revealed it thinks it wrong to get more of our gas out of the North Sea. They do not seem to understand that such gas would land by pipe on our shores and be available for our grid. Much of it would be sold under long term contract to U.K. users, reducing our dependence on volatile spot market gas from the EU at times of need.
We also require more reliable electricity capacity. The failure of the wind to blow has forced the U.K. to burn coal and buy in more gas from abroad to keep the lights on at the same time as business and homes needed to burn more gas to keep warm. The government seems to want nuclear to be the answer, but this will not start to kick in until the next decade. In the meantime we need answers on where we get the extra electricity capacity . I would keep all existing fossil fuel stations so they are available for when the wind does not blow. I would also like to see more pump storage and hydro to increase back up and flexibility in the system. If the government wants more wind energy it needs breakthroughs in battery or hydrogen technology and capacity to store the surplus energy from windy nights to use on windless days.
The loans to energy companies to delay part of the price rise leaves customers facing an even bigger bill in future. There is the danger that some companies will not be able to repay the loans leading to taxpayer losses.What we need is an energy supply answer to rising prices, and a tax cut to ease the squeeze.
February 4, 2022
This is what happens when chumps are in charge, under the direction of the chump in chief, the toxic eco zealot Johnson. It is not all down to him. The energy crisis has been building since the 1990s but he is responsible now and he has failed, abysmally, to respond to the demands of the crisis. They could start by suspending the Climate Change Act; I assume that is possible under the Civil Contingencies Act? It would be a declaration of intent to get to grips with the energy crisis. You have described numerous measures the government should now act on. I doubt there will be a swift end to the energy shortage.
February 4, 2022
His new policy advisor is an ecoloon. The previous one a communist.
I despair at the way we are being governed.
Sunak on TV yesterday justifying his socialist policy on loans and grants but still adamant that vat remains on energy.
Why will the government not admit that vat is still a Brussels competence.
February 4, 2022
“His new policy advisor is an eco-loon” so who is this? Carrie?
February 4, 2022
Andrew Griffiths probably appointed by Carrie.
February 4, 2022
Perhaps that’s why they prefer to put taxpayer’s money towards reducing the huge increases in the bills instead of a windfall tax on the offshore wind farms.
The cost of renewable subsidies to each household is around Ā£400. Half of the subsidies go to offshore wind via ROCs and the companies collect this and then sell electricity at the market rate. They were making Ā£150/mWh last year and because the price has increased they now make Ā£210/mWh, which is 4 times the previous market rate.
What does that tell you about the Conservative leadership?
February 4, 2022
Law at Nottingham then accountancy it seems – so probably little or no understanding of energy, CO2 or climate.
February 4, 2022
I calculated that for December the market value of wind output averaged about Ā£215/MWh, valued at hourly day ahead prices. Those in the Renewables Obligation scheme will get varying amounts according to how many ROCs per MWh they are entitled to on top of those prices. Each ROC is in practice worth around Ā£56/MWh. Most onshore windfarms get 1ROC and most offshore ones 1.8-2ROCs per MWh, with the floating wind farm Hywind getting 3.5ROCs. On top, all are entitled to sell REGOs – Guaranatees of Renewable Origin, or greenwash certificates that are worth over Ā£6/MWh. So we are looking at effective prices of Ā£275-Ā£417/MWh for wind farms. Yet the government seems to think that it will be able to procure new wind farms on CFDs at prices of Ā£50-60/MWh, just to scale the windfall. I have my doubts about that cost, but these windfarms were perfectly happy to collect their subsidies on top of market prices that were below Ā£50/MWh
February 4, 2022
I wrote hear a long time before, we cannot literally afford these Tory party idiots in govt. to think Labour has a better economic record on building up debt says it all.
JR is a lone voice in his party. This why over the last 12 years he has not been in govt. his views and ideas on the economy are sound and appear conservative. Why would anyone not select one of their best economic players? That is why he will never be in govt with Johnson at the helm. His ideas might work and where would that leave his socialist/Marxist govt.?
February 4, 2022
I wonder how many ‘former’ communists are left inside No 10.
February 4, 2022
In all probability, more than that is inside the Kremlin.
February 4, 2022
Well I’m sure the extreme capitalist Oligarchs (criminals if you prefer) ensure they are rarely in Russia, let alone the Kremlin. I doubt the average Russian has any belief in communism, none is evident after all!
February 4, 2022
I agree, Mickey.
February 4, 2022
Indeed but May and now Boris/Carrie have made the insane Net Zero agenda their flag ship policy that and the vacuous levelling up. Though I note Boris took a private jet to Blackpool the other day (trains from Euston are just as quick Boris) so he is clearly not really a believer in this mad agenda, rather like Truss and her Ā£500k private jet flight to Australia (how many pensioners homes would that heat?). So why are they pushing this crony capitalism I assume or is it just Carrie.
February 4, 2022
Is it that Boris doesnāt believe in the green agenda , Lifelogic, or is he thinking like a socialist? Them and us? We do what we want to have a nice life, and you lot do as we tell you.
February 4, 2022
Much talk in the media about people not being about to afford to put the lights so children can do their homework. With one bright LED lamp the cost is only about 0.2p per hour (circa just Ā£3.50 PA).
Heating is rather different nearly 60p per hour for a 3KW electric heater cheaper to wear more thermals or use an electric blanket!
February 4, 2022
At least the MSM is awaking to the absurdity of Importing gas oil and coal when we’re sitting on a sea of the stuff.
The noise is getting louder and Joe public wishing realise the con which is the liblabcon.
Going cold because stupid heat pumps can’t raise the water temperature above 50 degrees in winter
Having to pay Ā£10k to increase the consumer box up to 100amp to charge an unaffordable EV or power a heat pump at the same time as you’re trying to cook the Sunday nut roast.
The chickens are coming home to roost very quickly.
I’d the Reform Party led by Farage canvas on the cancellation of the insane net zero policies they will romp home.
February 4, 2022
You’re spot on Ian….Farage with the Reform Party (late the Tory Party) would win with a landslide
February 4, 2022
+1 but with first past the post reform cannot win. They will just giver us Starmer/SNP.
February 5, 2022
At last the truth about the Net Zero farce is beginning to break cover. CO2 is not the climate driver. Net Zero will bring an unparalleled economic calamity. To the benefit of China. How will the sad ignorant greenies swallow the inevitable continued rise in CO2? Hopefully suicide.
February 4, 2022
No-one in the UK should be unable to pay their home energy bill out of their state pension I read that in France the big nationalised energy provider is dropping bills after a 30% rise (will that cost be passed on to British mugs because our Government hasn’t prepared).
LL “Much talk?” I only saw one such report in The i “The number of people who use public places to keep warm is set to spiral this winter as they struggle with soaring energy bills, experts fear. Children will be looking for places with sufficient heating and lighting to do their homework, said National Energy Action (NEA). Peter Smith, the NEAās director of policy and advocacy….said evidence shows people head to cafes, libraries and even A&E departments āto keep adequately warmā.
Is this sort of community solution such a bad thing? Surely it is something the libraries should prepare for an encourage and accommodate? They have to heat those buildings and staff them at ratepayers expense anyway and loneliness and seclusion is a big problem in this Country. Where I live the very large two storey library is hardly utilised, the local community hubs just frequented by the usual small cliques. The local churches could also do more as they do in higher-income areas with more mother and child groups and training, elderly meetings and activities. The supermarkets seem to be taking over ‘everything’ in town centres perhaps they could help? They’ve made bumper profits we are told.
* * * in Oct 2021
Isobel Hunter, chief executive of Libraries Connected, said public libraries are āgearing up to do much more targeted work with people suffering from destitutionā¦ because they know rates of people struggling in their communities have grown. There are plans for holiday activity and food programmes for children, as well as family film shows. Some families have said, āThis is the only cinema experience we have, we canāt afford ticketsā. āThe real point about libraries is that theyāre always thereā¦ thereās no stigma attached if you go in thereā¦ Theyāre really effective in providing that support, not just physical warmth but, really importantly, human warmth as well.ā
I’d like to know if there is now evidence of this happening over the past three months of winter, did people going into libraries pick up by the figures expected, did more books get borrowed and taken out, did they put on the activities?
February 4, 2022
Truss travelled in a government-owned jet. The Ā£500k “price” was just made up by the newspapers based on what it would cost to hire a private jet if you didn’t already have one, so the number of pensioner’s homes you could heat with that fantasy money would be zero.
February 4, 2022
Rubbish 150,000 litres of fuel there and back – yet two people on a commercial flight would have been more like 250 litres each. So just the extra fuel used would heat about 200 average homes for a year.
Then you have staff, capital cost and depreciation of aircraft, airport fees… due you really think the government run the plane more efficiently than a chartered one?
February 4, 2022
I seem to recall that that particular aircraft is on a short-term lease, when a purchase would have been far more economical.
February 4, 2022
Russia media mocking how Johnson incapable to stand up to his wife let alone any world leader! We have seen it with the EU, he lies to cover his failings. We saw him buckle to Macron over covid when lorries stacked up at Dover, fishing caved in and gave all the licenses to plunder our waters. Tory party have his destiny in their hands.
February 4, 2022
shame his hands are oily and wide apart?
February 4, 2022
I posted a while ago a statement attributed to, Bernard Keynes – “When the Facts Change, I Change My Mind. What Do You Do, Sir?”
Alexander Johnson’s inability to come clean and admit what you have clearly stated, ie this has been an ongoing problem caused by successive governments, both not planning and creating bad policy, is what condemns him. No one can say this was his fault but, what we can say is that he did nothing when people like our kind host were trying to alert him of the danger ahead. It is this that marks him as someone unfit for government office.
February 4, 2022
Presumably John Maynard Keynes, not Bernard…
But of course the facts haven’t changed. The UK always needed energy, it was always better if we produced our own, and it was always the case that going “green” would mean less, but more expensive, energy being available.
Minds of our rulers changed towards green, the facts didn’t.
February 4, 2022
> going āgreenā would mean less, but more expensive, energy being available.
No.
Wind is the cheapest form of energy currently and currently generates more than gas ..
February 4, 2022
It is not at all the cheapest – once you allow for the intermittency problems, the gas back up needed and the huge capital costs and recycling cost. Nor is it anything like zero carbon either.
February 4, 2022
It rather depends what you mean by cheapest. The lowest subsidy paid to onshore wind farms already costs over Ā£50/MWh, even when they give away their output for free. But they have been earning between Ā£275 and Ā£417/MWh under the Renewables Obligation scheme, while the average CFD pays just under Ā£160/MWh for offshore wind, and just under Ā£100/MWh for onshore wind. At the market price for coal, power can be generated for around Ā£45/MWh before green taxes. I think that’s a lot cheaper than wind. Nuclear power has also traditionally managed to undercut coal and gas even when coal and gas prices were much lower. These are all about currently operating generators. Other that on isolated days, it is still rare for wind to generate more than gas consistently – managed in February 2020, but not I think before or since. Have a look at this chart
https://image.vuukle.com/9ffc6604-feed-474e-a82d-c2de2f561502-9158ac5d-1a4c-414d-9372-ab56b3193602
February 5, 2022
I have a gas boiler for home heating and my house is well insulated.
The cheap wind energy is not showing up as cheap electricity at all, quite the opposite since charges for grid energy have soared.
To exploit your “cheap” wind energy I will in time have to replace my gas boiler with something electric which the government suggests should be a heat pump. But the “standard” heat pump is not sufficient since I have standard size radiators fed by microbore pipes. So I am faced with either extensive and invasive restructuring of my pipework and property, or use a High Temperature heat pump.
HT Heat Pumps cost at least twice that of a standard ASHP and have about half the efficiency (COP of 2 – 2.5) at best so needing more “cheap” electricity to operate.
A wind generator may be “cheap” but that is irrelevant, it is the cost at the point of use that matters. As a further concern how much of the technology is produced here and how much of the money spent on it stays here?
February 5, 2022
No itās three times as expensive particularly when it doesnāt blow. And what about replacement costs after c 20 year life?
February 5, 2022
Lots of rerferences around about costs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source and https://www.carbonbrief.org/wind-and-solar-are-30-50-cheaper-than-thought-admits-uk-government
February 6, 2022
@ Peter Lord
You cite Wikipedia which is not an authoritative source, however in that item it clearly states that “the LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy) does not represent cost of electricity for consumer and is most meaningful from the investor point of view.”
The issue is simply the rapidly escalating cost of energy to end users, that the government has allowed to get out of control through mismanagement over a long period of time and because they are blindly following dogma.
February 4, 2022
And instead of cutting taxes, Bunter’s team are increasing them, and has anybody suggested cutting obvious ‘discretionary spending’, foreign aid/waste, HS2? No. So Bunter’s empathy with his voters doesn’t extend to keeping pensioners from freezing to death. Wake-up Tory party boneheaded, you will not survive this at the next election.
February 4, 2022
Agree
February 4, 2022
You would imagine the Climate Change Act could be suspended, but the chumps donāt want toā¦ they are still being led by the WEF and co.
āWhile we transition to net zeroā¦.ā Rishi Sunak said it yesterday, and I read the very same phrase on the WEF site yesterday. The government are just doing as theyāre told. Itās quite pitiful.
February 4, 2022
Yesterday Sunak said that “the extremely cold winter” was partly to blame for the energy price increase …. thus demonstrating that he’s as mendacious as his boss.
Apart from the occasional frosty day it’s been a very mild winter so far …. so mild that many days in December and January I’ve not had the heating on at all between 9am and 5pm.
February 4, 2022
A worrying remark – did he check with the Met Ofice?
We’ve had no snow, a handful of frosty mornings and all gone soon, minus temperature not lasting beyond breakfast. ‘the extremely cold winterā has actually been mild – so far.
February 4, 2022
Yep.
February 5, 2022
Agree itās deeply worrying. What a silly remark. Winters are cold. Thatās when we get Excess Winter Deaths in large numbers due to govt mismanagement
February 4, 2022
A reminder: you voted for the chumps. Most of us didnāt.
February 4, 2022
Andy,
Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens, the SNP are even “chumpier”.
February 4, 2022
You think it would be different if Labour was in power? This all started with chump Ed Milliband. They all think the same. Would world prices not be happening if Starmer was in charge? You keep spouting the same old nonsense, which gets us nowhere. Better to keep quiet and be thought a fool than to open ones mouth and prove it, day after day.
February 4, 2022
A reminder: the Climate Change Act was the work of the Blair labour government.
February 4, 2022
Why spoil things by presenting a fact.
February 4, 2022
Andy, if you voted for any of the 3 main parties you would have got the same if not more. Stop pretending to be such a smart arse.
February 4, 2022
Spectacular mind reading again. How do you know who people voted for? Well, of course you don’t . You just want to pour out venom and hate.
February 4, 2022
Well I donāt know about anyone else, but I didnāt vote for the globalists, Andy.
I voted Conservative because there was no Reform UK candidate (then Brexit Party), and Iāve never voted Labour who would be much worse. But, in truth, itās the blob behind the scenes who have too much influence on ministers and policy. Plus weāre still working on too many EU policies.
Iām sure many also had the same or similar view.
February 4, 2022
They’ll never vote for anyone else, so why do they keep whingeing?
February 4, 2022
NLH. Another idiotic comment from you in your efforts to support your mate Andy. Read the previous comments and learn.
February 4, 2022
I like your thinking, getting rid of the Climate Change Act is a must
February 4, 2022
Agreed.
February 4, 2022
Exactly right price controls almost invariable cause huge problems by interfering with the market mechanisms that ensure a match of supply and demand. The invisible hand is effectively paralysed by net zero interventionist idiots like Theresa May.
Sunak seems to think increasing taxes hugely then wasting billions in collection and distribution costs and then handing a small proportion back with strings attached is idiotic and economic insanity (it is what the EU did to the UK for 40+ years). Eat out to help out was idiotic and he is now doing the same for energy, insulation grants, benefitsā¦ what sort of moronic economics do they teach in Oxford PPE or was Sunak just too daft to understand reality? Or is it just crony capitalism.
Taxes were far too high for the economy already when Sunak came into office. Since then he has made it far worse decreases entrepreneurs relief by 90%, increased NI by 2.5% (both in total) and frozen personal allowance. We have also had far more red tape, we now get no indexation on capital gains, landlords are even taxed on āprofitsā they have not made (so often over 100% tax) this decrease rental property supply, job mobility and thus damages the tenants too. Sunak needs to cut taxes, cut the expensive net zero energy agenda, simplify taxes, have a bonfire of red tape and stop pissing money down the drain which seems to be a speciality of Sunak and this socialist & interventionist government.
Starmer/SNP would be even worse of course.
February 4, 2022
Stop creating false Phantoms (Labour / SNP) where none exist. You’re behaving like the people you condemn.
February 4, 2022
Labour surely cannot win without the SNP/Plaid/Greens can they? But what sensible English person wants the dire Sturgeon/Blackford to ever have any power over the UK?
February 4, 2022
They do already. They just scream, “independence referendum !” and up pops a dollop of English taxpayer cash.
February 4, 2022
LL,
Mark is right stop it. You are quite wrong and no evidence to support your scare mongering.
SNP vote on English matters, Gove got rid of the pathetic crumb of EVEL- despite Cameron promising to sort out the Lothian question twelve long years ago. Secondly, this lot are not better than Labour or SNP or Green, they have gone much further. May stated in parliament she would implement and build on Milibandās Marxist energy policy!! Labelled Marxist by Cameron! If you had not noticed these lot have stole all Labours policy and taken over the wasteful idea to waste billions on the public sector without any efficiency or value for money. Reported yesterday NHS wasted over Ā£37 billion on failed procedures, equipment and kit. Johnson wants them to have more money!!
February 4, 2022
+1
And member of their government in the HoL resigned because of government waste. They are putting up taxes everywhere and are doing the very thing LL you, quite rightly, complain about.
February 4, 2022
It could very well happen like you say LL meaning theyād also have control over all the England only matters such as health and education and what makes the prospect even more frightening is that Johnās colleagues, 553 MPs supposedly ārepresentingā English constituencies, wouldn’t utter one word of protest if it did happen. After all they mustnāt upset the Scots even if it meant the English getting well and truly shafted even more than usual.
February 4, 2022
The ‘market’ as you keep your faith in has failed because it is rigged by private people rather than government.
Profits of oil and gas producers (one in particular) increased four fold unexpectedly, with no genius action involved from directors who now stand to get millions in bonuses for doing nothing, whilst the people they took this money (and continue to take) from, shiver or cut back on food. Something to be proud of that is, especially when the biggest one calls it a ‘momentous outcome for its shareholders’.
February 4, 2022
I imagine that taxes on oil and gas producers will be really booming.
February 4, 2022
Shocking to think that Mayās energy policy was a slightly altered Milliband policy.
And oh my! Heās s Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero.
Look where basically a net zero policy has landed us!
February 4, 2022
Yet only a handful of sensible MPs (including JR, Lilley, Widecombe…) failed to vote for this insane bill and did so without even any sensible estimate of the vast cost of this scientific lunacy.
Sunak “we have always been the party of sound money and will always continue to be so on my watch” – and he even said it with a straight face!
Also I see that – The Bank of England fears that UK families are about to suffer the biggest fall in living standards since comparable records began three decades ago. Its new forecasts now show that disposable incomes (post-tax labour income, after inflation) will shrink by 2% this year, and by another 0.5% in 2023.
Looks rather an underestimate of the problem to me. Oh well – they can always take out an overdraft from one of the main UK banks at about 40% APR (the one size fits all, 80 times base rate) personal overdraft rates given to us by the FCA when the current BoE governor was in charge of it. The same banks charge about 1/4 of this at their overseas branches. So this rip off rate is reserved only for lucky UK customer – thanks to our moronic FCA.
To win elections it is the economy stupid! Next UK General Election perhaps May 2024 or the bitter end Dec 2024.
February 4, 2022
+1
February 4, 2022
LL,
This is deliberate financial attack on the public by the Tory party, not accidental. These were deliberate policy choices by intelligent people who had the best education. Economy and energy policies are the Tory Patryās to own as is immigration and now the Brexit betrayal by Johnson- annexing N.Ireland to EU, allowing ECJ, insecure borders- illegal immigration so bad Patel/govt now wants to stop publishing illegal immigration figures! Illegal immigrants costing taxpayer Ā£5 million each day, what cost of living crisis for them in four star hotels? Sunak failed to mention them yesterday in his socialist give away.
LL, and you think Labour could do any worse!! This lot has a,worse,econ9mic,record than Brown for building up debt. They are even increasing funds to Afghanistan! Giving/wasting our hard earned taxpayers money to terrorists! They evacuated from Afghanistan!
Any business chief who failed as much as BOE Fovernor would not be toast, gone without a blink of the eye. He writes to tell the chancellor inflation is up above target. The target used to be RPI not CPI. Therefore he has failed on a grander scale and not 30 years as reported but worse than that. RPI is about 2% higher than CPI!! The situation is worse than the govt claims. Add seventy year high taxation, worse debt, worse structural deficit and you see that Brown, Darling and even Corbyn would not be any worse. In fact the wasters Brown and Darling were much better!!
The Tory party has failed to achieve its economic target for over twelve years and the situation is now dire!!
February 4, 2022
National Insurance up, corporation tax up, inflation up, tax thresholds frozen. Wonderful timing for the May elections.
February 4, 2022
+1
February 4, 2022
So you sow is what you reap.
Over the last thirty odd years good practice, common sense and forethought regarding energy production, distribution and supply has been all but non existent.
Starting with the disastrous Climate Change Act passed by labour. From that moment on a new religion was created and politicians tried to out do one another in trying to keep in green thinking voters and indulged in no forward planning and the consequences thereof of their decisions and actions. Classic case of pissing without your flies open with the headlong charge to grow turbines and solar panel power stations across the land. Even as a child at school we understood if the wind doesn’t blow or the sun don’t shine they don’t work and even when they do they are only really efficient between certain wind speeds.
Warnings and concerns on the direction of travel was ignored from engineers and scientists but religious fervour quashed any form of clever common sense thinking. Here we are today in the biggest #### up since Mons and the lack of understanding arising out of ignorance, incompetence and greed decrees that the whole population will suffer big time. Primarily they are collectively with very exceptions too arrogant to admit they have got it totally wrong. Ladies and gentlemen please be upstanding and raise your glasses, to the ####### idiots.
February 4, 2022
A hefty amen to that !
+1
February 4, 2022
Turbo. I second that. What’s the point in giving us a loan towards our energy bills that has to be paid back? Don’t bother. I’ve not heard one minister say anything coherent over the energy crisis yet
They are all ignoring the obvious that government policy and total ignorance have got us here. No mention of the ludicrous actions of shipping in gas and coal when it’s under our feet. What a bunch of *******clowns led by Clown Boho. It really is quite shocking the low level of incompetence.
February 4, 2022
FUS, the answer to that is the same as student loans – It’s not expected to be paid back š
February 4, 2022
Perhaps the loan is paid after a standing order is signed for the next 5 years?
February 4, 2022
Know Dice. Bits going to be put on everyone’s energy bills for the next 5 years. ??????? What the hell?
February 5, 2022
It will be paid back because the govt will order the energy suppliers to increase bills. The only ones to dodge it will be those who die before 2023 year starts.
February 4, 2022
I would have said it was a high level of incompetence.
February 4, 2022
Quite – less a case of unintended consequences, more ill-considered policy
February 4, 2022
+1
February 4, 2022
+1 turboterrier. And we all remember that the Climate Change Act passed through Parliament almost unanimously!
February 4, 2022
Good morning.
You can always tell where government has been by the mess it leaves behind.
To be fair it was RedEd’s idea and she built on it. In fact, it was RedEd’s idea that we should eventually ban all CO2 from our lives and thereby created the Climate Change Act.
The deceit was the use of a minor gas important to the cycle of life to rob people of their wealth and eventually their liberties. The Tories bought into this SCAM and played on it, some making a good living from it. Now the a perfect coming storm of high energy, food and government costs are landing on the Tories laps and its gonna hurt at the polls in May. I think this will be the turning point !
February 4, 2022
Indeed but rather hard for Boris to turn as he/Carrie have made it (and the COP26 fiasco) his flagship policy. Furthermore nearly all MPs (mainly all deluded art graduated) support net zero and the mad May agenda has been put into law without even needing a vote I think.
February 4, 2022
If they can’t change their minds in the face of disaster then the PM goes, along with his very poor Cabinet. It’s up to SJR and his pals to do something tangible for the sake of the country rather than the party, which is being killed anyway by inaction and ludicrous decision making. We can’t do it for at least another 2years, by which time we will not have much left to change to. Time to get those letters in.
February 4, 2022
My husband and I had a rather heated conversation about climate change, with a neighbours son, a year or two ago, and his (the son) parting shot was that heād studied climate change at university- so our scepticism couldnāt be right. Says it all!
February 4, 2022
Educated into stupidity like so many – was it at UEA that hot bed of the climate alarmist religion?
February 6, 2022
You really should wind in your neck …
University of Cambridge – MPhil in Holocene Climates (Faculty of Earth Sciences and Geography;
“This MPhil offers an 11-month programme of advanced study and research into the natural and anthropogenic causes and ecological and societal consequences of Holocene climate variability. The course is intended for students with a strong first degree in geography or a related discipline, such as environmental sciences and (paleo)climatology.”
The Holocene period covers the last 2.6 million years to the present day.
So the lad could easily have been educated at Cambridge, or Bristol, Edinburgh, UCL, Oxford, any number of universities.
February 4, 2022
That generation has been brain washed. What they appear not to appreciate is that the claim that net zero will prevent global warming is a scam. The IPCC only looks at so-called man made warming. It ignores what happens in the natural world such as the influence of the sun, clouds, volcanic activity and so forth which, throughout time, have been the decisive influences on global climate change. The language has been changed over time from AGW (anthropogenic global warming) to climate change to net zero to obscure this omission of natural influences.
February 4, 2022
OT, you simply show you have never read an IPCC report. Sun, clouds, volcanic activity (and all the āand so forthā you do not have the first clue about) are part of the past meteorological analyses, which show global temperature going up.
And from the very first report in 1990, IPCC has been the International Panel on Climate Change.
February 6, 2022
Regardless of the IPCC’s name the term Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) was the early clarion cry, the club used by activists to beat the non-believers into submission. The banner term was changed a few years ago to Climate Change to avoid unwelcome debate around the actual contribution by man.
February 7, 2022
Well thatās your right to think that the āearly clarion cryā was made by āactivists to beat non-believers into submissionā. Except that climate change has now been studied as such for more than fifty years, with in-situ and remote sensed measurements by various scientists including meteorologists, hydrologists, oceanographers, cloud physicists, satellite engineers, ā¦
As for you saying āto avoid unwelcome debate around the actual contribution by manā just shows that as a layman you do not know where to look for the accumulated scientific information (NB, not all going in the same direction) and you just rely on your favourite newspapers/websites where you only get comments at least once removed (and usually filtered) from the original scientific studies made using these measurements.
The debate you call for has been going on for at least twenty years e.g. between oceanographers/āatmosphericistsā discussing the actual amount of energy going into the oceans, to what depth, its impact on various oceanic currents, its potential in reducing equator-polar latitudes transfer of energy and impact on salinity, potential in reducing/enhancing development of tropical storms, potential in impacting zonal circulation (jet stream, trade winds), ā¦ and all these trying to figure out what are the contributions of natural vs. man-made variations.
February 4, 2022
Sharon. All part of the master plan to brainwash us all into accepting the crap that’s coming our way . It’s only the older generation that can see through it all.
February 7, 2022
Oh yes, the older generation unable to figure out (just an example) how various remote sensing measurements can be obtained.
āOnly they can see through it allā: what a laugh.
February 4, 2022
funniest thing I’ve heard today. He would wonder ‘why are you all laughing’.
February 4, 2022
Fraser Nelson is surely right today:- āThe lockdown establishment will never accept that its policy failed
New research suggesting that shutdowns made little difference to mortality is likely to fall on deaf earsā
Lockdowns will be seen as the “single biggest public health mistake” in history Prof. Jay Bhattachary )Stanford) has warned.
Well that or gain of function experiments in leaky labs I suppose!
Someone on Question Time rightly pointed out that vaccination of young men and boys especially are almost certainly causing far more harm than good. Needless to say the daft language graduate in the chair cut him of at the knees with her idiotic interruption.
February 4, 2022
+1
Exactly so!
In this dystopian world facts donāt matter any more!
February 4, 2022
+1
Feelings trump facts !!
February 4, 2022
+1
February 4, 2022
The precedents for climate hysteria and the green crap we get as a result are notable. It’s the same phenomenon and from much the same people
February 4, 2022
Indeed. Remoaners, Climate Alarmists and lockdown enthusiasts are largely the same people they often know nothing about science, maths, climate, CO2, energy or engineering either.
February 4, 2022
Will the lockdown establishment ever admit they were wrong? Not sure, LL. It may depend on who they were, ‘experts’ or politicians. I had the impression at first that it was the experts who recommended lockdown, and Johnson and his cabinet who reluctantly went along with it. But no – if you look up the minutes of the SAGE meetings of 18th and 23nd March, the day before the first lockdown, they did not recommend lockdown as such. They observed that social contacts were already being massively reduced at that point anyway, without further intervention. They also stated that ‘Given the clear links between poverty and long-term ill health, health impacts associated with the economic consequences of interventions also need to be investigated.’ In other words, SAGE advised making a cost/benefit analysis of the impact on society of bringing in restrictions. So it was Johnson and his government who decided on a lockdown, rejected a cost/benefit analysis, and who are responsible for that disastrous decision.
February 4, 2022
+1
I had that same impression.
What you say is very interesting.
February 4, 2022
It would interest the public, too, EH, if we had proper journalism to do the reporting. The information is all out there. ‘Hidden in plain sight’ as the saying goes.
February 4, 2022
There is such strong evidence for the damage being done by vaccinating young people yet our politicians remain quiet on the subject. It’s become a taboo subject just like discussions on race and cruel religious practices.
February 4, 2022
Could you please provide the āstrong evidence for the damage done by vaccinating young peopleā. Thanks in advance.
February 4, 2022
you are trying to be difficult, aren’t you?
February 4, 2022
What dāyou think? There is āstrong evidenceā, what is wrong asking for getting info about it?
February 5, 2022
I would say it is a fair question, if someone says there are facts to back up their opinion then they should cite their source, otherwise the opinion is unsubstantiated and may be wrong no matter how many others agree with it.
February 5, 2022
hef …actually Sir John removed (?) my sarc addition.
February 5, 2022
I’m not sure I can post the links to the data on here but I’ll have a go.
February 6, 2022
An example of one piece of evidence is a Danish population based study involving 5m individuals published in the BMJ;
“SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and myocarditis or myopericarditis: population based cohort study” 16 December 2021.
It concluded “Vaccination with mRNA-1273 was associated with a significantly increased risk of myocarditis or myopericarditis in the Danish population, primarily driven by an increased risk among individuals aged 12-39 years, while BNT162b2 vaccination was only associated with a significantly increased risk among women.”
February 4, 2022
I’ve just watched the January 2022 MHRA Board Meeting. What a joke. They spent most of their time in self-congratulation and commenting on how well deserved their gongs were. No effort to investigate vaccine deaths or damage.
February 4, 2022
Nelson isnāt right. The study you quote is exceptionally poor – which is why it only featured in the gutter press.
Things would be so much easier in this country if so many of your stopped indulging in crazy conspiracy theories.
February 4, 2022
I’m not sure that these lackeys actually believe the tripe that they replicate, amplify, and propagate, Andy.
They just seem intent on filling the internet with nothing else, perhaps in the hope that the more credulous will absorb it by osmosis or otherwise.
February 4, 2022
NLH. You should know.
February 4, 2022
Ditto the left.
February 4, 2022
John Hopkins University has studied lockdowns too and from their meta analysis they concluded they “only reduced COVID-19 mortality in the USA and Europe by 0.2% on average”. It is evident that non treatment of other diseases because of lockdown restrictions is a major problem for those unfortunate enough to suffer from them. The ONS itself has reported that 8,974 deaths from “alcohol specific causes” in 2020 were 18.6% above 2019.
February 4, 2022
The study featured only in the papers you don’t like, Andy: the Mail and the Telegraph.
It was a meta-analysis of many studies of the outcomes of lockdowns. Already by March last year there’d been over 30 papers published showing that lockdowns don’t reduce deaths, nor was there a correlation between length and severity of lockdowns, and health outcomes. By now there isn’t the slightest doubt, except with you last-ditch holdouts, of the harm that lockdowns did to our society, and even more to poorer countries in the third world. Your faction will still be muttering ‘conspiracy theory’ when the rest of the world has learned the lesson of submitting to biosecurity fascism. Just look around you: people are waking up in so many countries now.
February 6, 2022
The report is by teams at by John Hopkins, Lund U (Sweden) and Centre for Political Studies in Denmark is merely reported on by Fraser Nelson. It is a “preprint” yet to be peer reviewed and one of the scientists criticising it said it was of good quality and would likely get peer reviewed. Another critic is Prof Neil Furguson who didn’t believe lockdown applied to him and I wouldn’t trust to … well do anything.
As such it’s quality has not been fully tested but looks promising, Fraser looks probably right while you are definitely wrong as always.
February 4, 2022
I agree with Fraser Nelson that they will never admit they are wrong, unless/ until of course some are taken to court for deaths and harms caused by lockdowns, vaccines or lack of treatment etc by our ‘NHS’.
February 5, 2022
@LL – But you bombarded this blog with many unsibstantiated demands that males be given priority with vaccination, claiming evidence you never actually offered, eg on January 20, 2022
“Plus his vaccination of children which the figures suggest does rather more harm than good and the failure to vaccinate men a bit younger than women in the vaccine roll out ā as risk logic clearly dictated was sensible. This cost many lives and would have saved money and protected the NHS better too. They were following duff science or politics not real science alas.”
So now you are saying they shouldn’t be .. citing as authority “someone on Question Time”.
Is this the attention to detail, the scientific rigor we should expect and respect of a Cambridge graduate ?!
February 4, 2022
Some of the culprits ,who made the mess we are in ,sit in The House of Commons
February 4, 2022
@Bob Dixon; Indeed, one even writes a daily diary. š®
That said, the main culprit was sat on the opposition front bench, he was sat to the side of the Shadow Chancellor.
February 4, 2022
The culprits are the voters who elect the people who sit in the House of Commons.
The Tory Brexit pensioners have run this country for most of my life. I think they do an embarrassingly poor job – which is why I have never voted for them.
Most of you spend your time complaining about how bad things are and yet you carry on voting for the same people who have created this permanent mess we are in. Itās really rather odd.
February 4, 2022
@Andy; You mean those like you who elected the last Labour govt that passed the Climate Change Act, and caused Brexit by signing the UK up to the Lisbon Treaty. Or perhaps the blame just lies with politicians, making far reaching policies that the public have never been asked about directly nor even often mentioned in manifestos.
I also agree, it is odd how some people carry on voting for parties and polices that perpetuate the same mistakes, even perpetuating the mistakes of Mrs Thatcher (such as the climate scam), so why do you do it?!
February 4, 2022
Hey, I read that there are a few jobs for people like you going at No.10 just now, Jerry.
February 4, 2022
You said you did once, and only voted for Blair once….
I suggest you get an appointment with the ‘Memory Clinic’.
I imagine several on here are familiar with it?
February 4, 2022
I voted for Blairās party once – 1997. Other than that I have never voted Labour in a general election. I have never voted Tory at any election.
None of this is my fault at all. But I do find it very amusing watching you all moan about it.
February 4, 2022
If you had asked the staff they would have told you how to put a cross in one of the boxes. Not using your vote seems a shame.
February 4, 2022
Andy. Did you need to be shown how to hold the pen?
February 4, 2022
The panic that flooded through the political parties as they all adopted the green dog syndrome. You have got a green dog, I have a greener one to try and out do one another.
The few politicians that understood the whole process were ignored and banished to the back benches with green crosses on their lapels to ensure people didn’t listen or sĆØek an alternative approach.
The biggest myth is that the wind is free and today in our schools children are being brain washed into the green crap curriculum with no opportunity to seek alternative answers. It’s on the media in the press and media the non stop drip feeding of the word according to the green bible.
People still do not understand that even when turbines are operating alternative power generation sources are operating on tick over mode just in case the wind changes. The location of all these wind farms in outlying areas has in itself caused massive distribution problems at mammoth cost to get the energy produced into the grid system let alone the millions paid out in constraint payments.
February 4, 2022
@Turboterrier
You persist in your deluded view that the current difficulties we have over energy prices is due to the green revolution and our investment in renewable energy. Let us be clear about this, it is the fossil fuel industry that has imposed tremendous price rises for their highly polluting and environmentally damaging products. Why don’t you actually research the renewables industry instead of posting ignorant and provocative fossil fuel propaganda? Too much hard work for you?
This morning wind is producing 12.5GW of electricity, 35% of demand. In 2019 costs of curtailment represented 0.7% of the value of the juice that was produced
February 4, 2022
Sakara Gold :
The current high price for gas is because the climate alarmists have restricted the supply of this commodity despite its necessity for a civilised life.
Windmill power would not exist at all if fossil fuel generators were not on hand to provide grid stability and long-term back-up for when the wind doesnāt blow, unless of course we decided to live in a country where power was intermittent.
As Dieter Helm, professor of Energy Policy at Oxford University, pointed out in his āCost of Energy Reviewā for BEIS, the costs for intermittency are not currently paid by those intermittent generators who cause them, and this is the problem.
The reason of course is because there is no commercially acceptable non-fossil fuel grid stability and back-up existing and if it were to be created using windmill power and hydrogen as storage we would need to build 4 times more installed windmill power to provide this backup.
February 4, 2022
Sakara. There is nothing cheap about taking emergency measures to get coal fired power stations and asking gas stations to keep ticking over because we cannot rely on the wind or solar. My house has a full array of panels (installed before I purchased the property) and granted, when it’s sunny they do pretty well but the minute we get cloudy days they do virtually nothing . There is no way you can call renewables reliable. They are a scam.
February 5, 2022
S. G
Behave. Having worked in the energy sector all my working life and fifteen of them in the renewable sector you really should learn to remove knickers before urinating .when throwing around all your emotional claptrap. All you do is lambast those of us who have seen it for what it really is.
The best comment I everheard from a CEO of a big turbine based industry was laughing as he said it “the only thing green about our industry is the greenbacks it brings in”
From day one turbines have been scattered over the countryside with no consideration how to get power out and enable better systems to help balance the grid. You should stop believing all the hype, turbines no matter how many you have cannot operate as a stand alone base load supplier. Power is required 100% all day every day and 35% of demand means diddly squat if there is no backup from other sources of power generation.
The extra costs that are not only the subsidies and constraint payments but those to the farmer, land owners to the communities who lives are impacted upon by the installation of wind farms all paid for by the energy bill payers across the whole sector. It never was and has never been a level playing field.
February 4, 2022
Even the SNP recognises how disastrous a āsmash and grabā tax on North Sea oil and gas producers would be. The party understands how badly it would affect workers.
When the U.K. govt. levied such a tax before, investment fell, never to recover. I think that Osborne was responsible for that.
He claimed it was FAIR that oil producers should bear some part of āausterityā ( precursor to present cr*p).
But he was forced to relent because it is and was a disastrous policy and he had to give tax breaks to North Sea industry to go a small way to making up for damage done.
February 4, 2022
+1 Osborne also introduced the appalling (often effectively 100%+ interest double tax) on landlords, thus higher rents and lack of availability and job mobility for tenants. The man was a disaster.
February 4, 2022
+1
February 4, 2022
@EH; But no one was suggesting a “smash and grab” raid on the North Sea oil and gas producers, just a tax on their excess profits, above and beyond what they would otherwise have made, such a tax would allow for reinvestment, or could be framed to allow such. Do not be confused by the SNP, they only dislike the idea of such taxes because the money would be spent/allocated by Westminster and not Holyrood.
February 4, 2022
+1
Even the vote hungry SNP ( I use the word āevenāagain ) cares about jobs!
āSmash and grabā seems to be common parlance regarding tax on North Sea oil and gas.
Brown was criticisedā¦..
ā Gordon Brown was accused on Monday night of carrying out a āsmash and grabā raid on the oil and gas industryā December 5 2005 Financial Times
Later Osborne was accused of the same by Salmond.
Now an SNP MP is using the same term.
Over-taxing an industry is a good way of killing it off!
Or, I suppose a lockdown is pretty effective tooā¦.
February 4, 2022
politicians look for attention grabbing expressions and slogans. So many get reused another time.
February 4, 2022
I would like to see a tax on the enormous profits being made by generators under the Renewables Obligation scheme. These are very lightly taxed by comparison with oil and gas, and their extent has been much greater, because they are boosted by the subsidies they are actively paid on top of market prices that have risen much further. Unfortunately, the legislation and contracts under which they were set up protects them from any such taxes in any circumstances. However, I see nothing that prevents deferring payment of their subsidies which could be used to help fund loans to consumers.
February 4, 2022
The biggest and most ignored part of this whole sorry green journey is after all this time , money and effort the politicians again with a few exceptions still consistently ignore the elephant in the room.
The scrapping and safe environmental disposal of all the components of the turbines, solar panels, batteries and pcb’s. Who will be paying for all of this?
Answers on the back of a fag packet.
February 4, 2022
@turboterrier; Sorry but whilst you have spotted the white-elephant in the room you are ignoring the Bull(y) elephant behind you, the waste scam that has done so much to grow the green scam, as the old saying goes, “where there’s muck there’s brass”…
For what can not be recycled and thus re-manufactured, there are plenty of deep landfill sites, or deep sea disposal.
February 4, 2022
Jerry
Agree with the deep land fill and sea sites but they are solutions and do not address the problem.
I have been told that whole Net Zero is supposedly designed to encapsulate the whole process of design, manufacture, operational life and disposal to ensure there is no further impact on the environment in any shape or form.
If they want to push or railroad it through, then it’s all or nothing not just the bits that suit individual dreams and aspirations.
February 4, 2022
Yeah, because with the world burning thatās the issue. Face palm.
February 4, 2022
And the UK can solve it all on its own whilst the big polluters go on their merry way. All we have to do is get Starmer in, with the same policies as we already have, is that it Andy?
February 4, 2022
many might say the heat is very welcome for some months in the year.
February 4, 2022
Well done Rishi, jam today, gruel tomorrow… So what rabbit will his chancellor be pulling out of their hat next year when energy prices have not come down?…
The market (that our host puts so much faith in) has failed, if ever it actually worked, but worse than that govt polices have failed, it is not going to be very Eco-friendly when the plebs start burning their (melamine covered) furniture just to keep warm! Scrap the scam, scrap the Climate Change Act, scrap the idea that we need to subside windmills via a stealth tax on our energy bills and yes scrap the monetarist idea that P&W polices can not work or do more harm than good -they are a valid tool for certain economic times.
February 4, 2022
OT; I see the idea of road pricing, the spy on the windscreen as it was once branded, has rared its head again, the transport select cttee. suggesting a new tax will be needed to replace fuel duty (and VED) after 2030. There is no need to alter anything, EV’s can pay (and should always have paid) VED, whilst fuel duty could easily be paid on the electricity used to charge the EV using smart/pre-payment meter type technology built into the next generation of EV-chargers; coupled where needs-be to the unique vehicle ID information stored within and shared by the vehicles control systems, most of which the DVLA already has on file along with registered keeper. No need to use GPS tracking or mileage monitoring, both of which have privacy issues.
February 4, 2022
This is 1984 but with tech…the tories are already planning for a black box in every car by 2030 – to monitor your driving, see where your are, and so they can tax you……once again all for your own safety (it will be against the law to modify or remove the black box)
I don’t like this future
February 4, 2022
I’m with you all the way on this particular point, Glen.
Incidentally, have you ever fully charged your phone, then depowered it, and then left it in a closed metal container overnight?
You might well find its battery completely flat in the morning if you do, its having tried endlessly to make contact with the network – and all that means.
They are never truly switched off.
February 4, 2022
Jerry. Yes but charging by the mile will probably be more lucrative for them and have the effect of pricing many of us out of the market. Hey presto, why not kill two birds with one stone?
February 4, 2022
It’s not really about revenue collection it’s about control and monitoring – same way vax passports are not about disease control. Boris’ Build Back Better agenda has sinister ulterior motives.
February 4, 2022
Boris ā Build Back Bolsheviks
February 4, 2022
Quite. Make it a charge per kWh to encourage better miles per kWh performance in the same way that fuel duty does.
February 4, 2022
Remember all those MPs suggesting that competition in the energy market allowed consumers to switch provided to a cheaper tariff ā¦.well what happens when the competition has gone bust and the cheaper tariffsā no longer exist
February 4, 2022
The only kind of competition that would result in lower prices is proper competition among generators instead of the raft of special privileges for some of them, price and market access guarantees and subsidy handouts. Once upon a time we did have that. Now we have an utterly perverse system that ensure that the most expensive sources of renewables get priority – only the cheapest ever get curtailed or told not to run, while the fact that the real cost of coal generation is far below the cost of gas generation is ignored, with coal only being used as a last resort.
February 5, 2022
a glut of resource leads to lower prices. I don’t see an excess of energy of any source happening any time soon, do you?
February 4, 2022
Jerry
+1 well said
February 4, 2022
The UK is ruined, thanks to politicians of the last few decades. They saw an easy living in the EU, where the EU made all the decisions and could be blamed when the UK didn’t do so well. Being paid to do a job that was actually done by someone else was a great draw, and drew the wrong sort of politician. The sort that put self before country. Helped along by all the main parties who rigged the system by only selecting political candidates that supported the EU. The EU managed to bypass ‘meaningful’ democracy very successfully, and this was copied by Ted Heath and subsequent governments and political parties. It fell flat in 2016 as they all expected the advantage of the status quo to hold firm, as it had in the past. Parliament then tried to further destroy democracy to overturn the result.
The rot within Parliament and the Civil Service is too established. The UK cannot be saved unless we can remove the rot.
February 4, 2022
Shirley M
Brilliant post. Bang on the money.
February 4, 2022
Shirley
I would like to offer you some comfort but, alas, I cannot. This is only going to get a lot worse which, in a good way, will help.
As people get angry they will look around for someone to blame and, naturally, it is going to fall on the head of the political class. It is at this point that I hope other ‘players’ come on to the scene to effect much needed change. Dominic Cummings identified the problem but, he underestimated the his adversaries and the scale of said problem – The CS.
February 4, 2022
Shirley M :
Absolutely correct.
We now need a “No to Net Zero” referendum party.
February 4, 2022
Yesterday Shell plc announced historic, quadruple record profits for 2021 of $19.3bn – compared with $4.85bn the year before. Earlier in the week Exxon and the other fossil fuel majors announced similar results.
In a coordinated move last year, carefully timed to coincide with winter and a once-in-60 year four day reduction in wind speed, the industry claimed there was a “shortage” of gas and quadrupled energy prices right across the globe, which will be highly inflationary.
Those on the right of the party immediately claimed that the price rise was caused by a “shortage” of wind. This was seized upon by the usual dinosaurs who demanded subsidy to be paid to develop un-profitable oil and gas fields, onshore fracking of national parks and AONB etc.
The government has now announced a tremendous subsidy to the energy companies to reduce domestic bills, while Shell increases the dividend and plans to buy back billions of shares. We are being held to ransom by a powerful cartel of fossil fuel producers who’s business model is under an existential threat by the renewable energy industry.
BEIS has already announced a 75% windfall profits tax on UK energy supply companies. This should now be extended across the fossil fuel industry.
February 4, 2022
Sakara Gold :
If climate alarmists restrict the supply of fossil fuels, which BTW are still needed for a civilised life where power is not intermittent, then by the laws of supply and demand those who are still in the business of supplying fossil fuels will profit.
Prices and profits will fall if supply is increased.
China, Russia, India and the USA are all increasing their supply and burning of fossil fuels. The EU has declared gas to be green and has built an enormous pipeline to carry gas directly from Russia to Germany.
Whilst the UK prefers to import more gas, rather than produce it ourselves, despite home produced gas emitting less CO2 and providing jobs, taxes and exports.
February 4, 2022
@SG; Give me one or two permanent ‘nodding donkeys’ in an ANOB to 50+ wind turbines around the edge, the latter being far more of a blight on both nature and beauty. People can be living within 5 miles of a production oil or gas well but be totally ignorant of its existence, not so wind turbines, nor solar.
February 4, 2022
Jerry. Yes I know personally of people living within a mile of gigantic wind turbines. Their lives have been shattered and fighting these developers is nigh impossible and costs a fortune. They are complete arse**les.
February 4, 2022
Your conspiracy theory that oil companies controlled the wind is a good joke – some new version of anthropogenic climate change, I suppose. Prices are not set by oil companies or even OPEC (those days disappeared in the 1980s), but by what buyers will pay or will not pay. You also appear to fail to recognise that oil and gas company profits were hit very hard by the combination of low demand and low (even negative) prices in 2020, and therefore it is no surprise that they are now a multiple of then.
February 5, 2022
@Mark; Good joke, prices are not being set by a cartel, yeah right, tell us another…
February 5, 2022
Where was the press conference announcing the price that everyone must pay? There is no Sheikh Yamani style announcement of prices – take it or leave it. New supply from Western companies is lower than it should be, as a combined consequence of governments preventing new fields and pipelines, and work delayed by the pandemic. Demand is higher than it should be because Western government have eagerly fostered coal and nuclear closures without adequate replacement. What has Russia sells it sells in accordance with contract terms. It has reduced supply to contractual minima for its own geostrategic reasons, but it has not set any prices in world markets or changed pricing unilaterally.
Prices are set by what buyers are prepared to pay in competition with each other in the tight market. Gas using industries find a point where they prefer to shut down rather than pay more, and that sets the price. Meanwhile oil and gas companies are prevented from responding to markets by climate agenda governments who are the real villains.
February 5, 2022
“It has reduced supply to contractual minima…”
Only to the northern/central Europeans,not to the Chinese or the Balkan countries.
February 5, 2022
@Mark; “Prices are set by what buyers are prepared to pay in competition with each other”
It is you who doesn’t seem to understand the “Market”, not me! When that supply is restricted but demand remains unchanged (or worse, increases) the world market price goes up, so when OPEC tried to end fracking in the USA and elsewhere about eight years ago they increased production, the glut forced the international market price down to below the price that makes fracking economical, and such was the effect pump price for petrol here ion the UK fell to below Ā£1 per litre compared to Ā£1.50+ it had been before. Same happens with gas producers, by design or otherwise, restrict supply and the world market prices goes up, cause a glut and the price goes down.
February 4, 2022
Surely tidal makes more sense than pumped-storage?
Yesterday we saw that the PM’s plan for sorting out problems caused by the PM will be to clear-out of No 10 all those who are not the PM. What an indictment of his character. He is the problem!
February 4, 2022
Lets get back to coal, gas, oil and nuclear
February 4, 2022
No, it doesn’t. There are not many opportunities for more pumped storage, and that is a limiting factor, and it has certainly been true that the Coire Glas project (originally 30GWh/600MW, now uprated to 1500MW) has taken a lot of effort to get off the ground, mainly because they needed to be able to draw down and fill up much faster than was originally permitted (at the expense of creating turbulence in Loch Lochy) in order to capture fluctuations in market prices to make the economics work.
However tidal energy is intermittent, and cannot be produced to match fluctuations in demand – it must produce to the timetable of the orbit of the moon and the earth’s daily rotation, and consequences include big gaps with zero generation. The facilities required to tame it are expensive, and the problems with integrating it at scale into grid operations are considerable.
February 5, 2022
You’d still need storage for the energy produced by the tidal generators to make the electricity dispatchable as needed.
February 5, 2022
Which reduces the output by 70% if you use the cheapest option of converting part of your tidal system to provide the storage – and then it only smooths out between tides, not across the spring/neap cycle. That makes it very expensive power, because the cost is higher for the extra barrages you have to build to divide it up.
February 6, 2022
Not sure about the 70% reduction if you use tidal flow generators
February 4, 2022
Sunak could not only reduce VAT on fuel to zero but also remove the “green” levy which is currently on average Ā£159 per year for each electricity bill. However instead he’s gone for some sort of weird student loan scheme which costs him nothing.
February 4, 2022
Same with business rates, they never reduce them but give a rebate (its easy to remove a rebate than to make an increase)
February 5, 2022
@glen cullen; Indeed, and the govt knows anything that has to be applied for is often not, given the hassle, bureaucracy and fear of being (criminally) responsible for a genuine error [1]. Many small & sole traders simply can not afford to spend the time on the paperwork needed to apply for a UBR rebate (even more so if they have to go to appeal), same with VAT and employee paperwork; small companies being held back by Conservative govt & Whitehall bureaucracy!
[1] easier for the likes of HMRC to go after the little man rather than the big multinationals and their expensive lawyers and tax-accountants who find ‘constructive’ ways to pay little or no tax etc
February 4, 2022
I saw Miliband on the TV this morning being asked about the green levies. He claimed they cannot be removed as they are ‘contracted’ or something similar. I cannot remember the exact phrase he used. Whatever the reason, the religion and cost of ‘green’ will be front and centre, regardless of the damage inflicted.
February 4, 2022
There is no need for them to be part of our bills, and there is no reason why we couldn’t at least defer payment on Renewables Obligations: the companies who have them are rolling in massive windfall profits and do not need the extra cash right now: consumers do. There are a raft of other green levies that I am sure could be made rather more optional at the stroke of a bureaucratic pen and a Statutory Instrument. That includes the now pointless smart meter rollout programme, since the current generation of meters will all have to be replaced soon any way when they are no longer able to talk to base via 2G and 3G. It includes the Ecohomes programme that delivers very poor value for money investment in insulation. The government has ignored the rules that allow it to set a lower carbon tax – something that is driving prices much higher.
I think if the public understood the very poor terms that were “negotiated” on their behalf for green subsidies they would be utterly horrified.
February 4, 2022
Please keep up the good work Mr Redwood. Iāve happened to watch bits of Newsnight recently and, although sketchy to put it mildly about how to get out of the energy mess, nonetheless even the BBC was showing a chart showing how expensive our electricity is with the proportion of it taken up by renewable subsidies. They are even now interviewing small businesses, so awareness and shock is growing. When you have time(!) perhaps you and your colleagues will also resume the campaign about the equally shocking government acceptance / tacit encouragement of unlimited inward migration across the Channel.
February 4, 2022
+1
February 4, 2022
Completely off topic (but brief)
I can’t believe there were only 1,000 spoiled papers in the by-election yesterday.
With the other parties not putting up candidates this was a fine opportunity to register distaste with the direction of this government by spoiling the paper.
February 4, 2022
Its shows contempt of the people when partyās decide not to put forward candidates and allow an election unopposed ….once again the elites know best
February 5, 2022
No Glen, it shows respect, for an MP (and their majority within the constituency) who would otherwise have served out a full elected term in office other than for a totally undemocratic act, it is those tring to take advantage of such a situation who are the ones showing contempt …once again the rabble think they know best.
February 5, 2022
So why go though the farce of an election, why not appoint his chief of staff, deputy or wife in his place to run out the remaining period before a general electionā¦the election was a charade and therefore an pretence to democracy
February 5, 2022
@glen cullen; “why not appoint [their] chief of staff”
Indeed, and I almost posted a footnote to that effect, but my thoughts were becoming longer than my original comment!
Perhaps every PPC should have to nominate a running-mate, someone who would be part of their parliamentary staff if elected, beyond their office duties they would hold a secure proxy vote (thus removing the need for MP pairings, that often collapse where majorities are tight) but would also take over should an MP die whilst in office.
Remember, had it not been for an act of murder (in the case of Jo Cox), there would have been no by-election, nor the pretense to democracy were an otherwise also-ran might have been elected via both a low turn-out and a safe protest vote, the latter surely being the true “charade”…
February 4, 2022
It depends how you look; 24% turn-out, 1,084 spoilt bulletins, 512 for the Psychedelic Movement, 400 for UKIP, 12,792 for the Conservative candidate. That puts UKIP in its right place, not even half the spoilt vote.
The major Party was that of those who safely remained āunder the duvetā.
February 4, 2022
Agree ā Not a good day for democracy nor for the leading parties manipulating the ballot paper or for the people who believed their vote was a waste of time
I sometimes think that the Australians have it right with mandatory voting
February 4, 2022
Actually a very similar result to that in Batley & Spen following the murder of Jo Cox. Similar turnout, similar share for the major party standing.
February 4, 2022
but pity the counting staff, faced with all that written abuse aimed at Johnson, Civil Servants, Advisors, Putin, XR lunatics…..
February 4, 2022
So now we see Sunak giving Ā£200 towards our energy costs and Ā£150 towards our council tax bills. This is just a temporary sticking plaster to appease voters, it does nothing to fix the underlying problem. It just eases the pain slightly for one year. What we should be doing is producing more of our own energy, cutting red tape, removing tax from insulation and investigating why council tax is so high. Here in the UK my council tax for one month equates to a year in Spain and I would never describe the Spanish as efficient. Councils seem to have no constrains placed upon them. The services they provide to me are nonexistent. Most jobs are now done by volunteers.
February 4, 2022
+1
February 4, 2022
Totally agree Christine. Not only is council tax at an exorbitant rate but itās also one of the most punitive and unfair taxes there is which take no account of income or ability to pay, merely the value of someoneās home. To add insult to injury Sunak is now handing out Ā£150 to every household irrespective of wealth as long as they only reside in bands A – D. Meanwhile those of us on modest pensions who just happen to live in a higher band get nothing when weāre already paying higher amounts for exactly the same services. When will these idiots realise itās people who pay these taxes, not houses?
February 6, 2022
What I found strange was a separate fund being set up to give money to those who don’t pay any council tax. What’s that about?
February 4, 2022
I’m not sure how this energy loan will work. If I have to apply for then I won’t , many other people will not too.
I would have liked the government to announce the we produce and explore for more gas for the UK market at the price before gas shot up.But alas the very people who make these decisions
Are the very same people who the increase in energy will have little effect on.
The Conservatives will be punished at the local elections and the general elections thereafter.
February 4, 2022
Socialism always ends up crippling business and hurting “the little people” Socialists claim to want to help.
We’ve had various degrees of Socialism for two decades now; with the green lunacy imposed as well for the last ten of them.
The people voted for real change in 2019. They wanted Brexit delivered so we stopped funding the Oligarchy in Brussels and regained control of our own country. And they also wanted a change of direction in the UK.
What we got was a very flawed Brexit and then Socialism and green lunacy on steroids.
Johnson and Sunak are running the country like a Labour Government with a minority which is propped up in power by a couple of Green MPs who can force their destructive policies on people who didn’t vote for them.
We must scrap the Green levies. If the renewable energy market can’t survive and grow without massive subsidies then it should be allowed to fail. The CON Party must finally stand up to the Green Extremists and we must use our gas, shale, oil and coal reserves.
February 4, 2022
Donna
+1
February 4, 2022
+1 Donna – we were deceived in 2019 and now every major party sings from the same (or similar) hymn sheet, regardless of what they promise, or what is in their manifesto!
February 4, 2022
@Donna; No, the govt is not running the country like a Socialist govt would, such a govt would have simply fixed the end user tariffs charged to consumers and business by the Nationalised energy boards, with the losses being paid from central tax receipts (or QE)…
What Sunak did yesterday was far more in keeping with what a real Conservative govt, such as those of Churchill, Eden or Macmillan, would have done in the 1950s had they faced similar circumstances. Did Sunak, the Govt, go far enough yesterday, no as they have done nothing to fix the broken and irreparable ‘market’. Has anyone ever stopped to wonder why the Conservative govts of the 1950s chose not to meddle with the basic structures of the utility and energy supply companies they inherited in Oct 1951, if anything reinforcing those structures over the next 13 years?
February 4, 2022
To achieve anything sensible, the green chumps in government need to go, and then once replaced the many international agreements need to be repealed, not just the climate change act. Trouble is weāre at the suffocation stage of greenā¦there is the risk of replacing one lot of greens for even more devoted greens. What a ***** mess!
The only positive I can see, is coming from the people. Active groups are highlighting so much of the socialist mess in govt. Lockdowns, vaccines, green stuff, NHS staff coercion etc , trans stuff, critical race, erosion of free speech and so on. Much is being forced into the frontline and is being exposed to the people and talked about. I hear of groups who are actively trying to bring about change and address issues on the ground.
Itās a huge battle we faceā¦
February 4, 2022
Alas about 90-95% of MPs are green chumps if you look at their voting records!
February 4, 2022
Listening to Mr Hands undergoing an encounter with the shut-down-all-discussion Mishal Husain, it sounded as if he was trying to explain to her exactly what you have been explaining to him on using our own gas and not overtaxing the source. Keep going!
February 4, 2022
I see only some Council tax bands are going to get some help with fuel bills, the others get nothing, as they are in effect going to pay back a Ā£200.00 loan over 4 years when bills will need to be Ā£50.00 higher than they actually should be.
Thus another complicated formula to move our own taxpayers money about, how much will all this cost in administration, when with one simple stroke of the pen he could have removed VAT with no admin expense at all.
Yet again another complicated expensive solution, which is not actually a solution at all !
February 4, 2022
Alan, I was reminded by acorn that vat is 5% on domestic fuel, VAT is Ā£70 on the average Ā£1400 annual bill. So the Ā£150 discount of Council tax on bands A-D is a means-tested way of reducing only 80% of the public bills. I suspect the Ā£150 will simply be deducted on the annual CT bill and rebated to each council by the treasury.
February 4, 2022
Just wait, when the time comes for these loans to be paid back, the extra will be applied to all bands, not just the ones that got the interim reduction.
February 4, 2022
+1
February 4, 2022
Dave. I think that is exactly what I heard tonight. EVERYONE will have Ā£50 for the year added to their energy bill.
February 4, 2022
Alan Jutson
For some reason, my 90 year old dad, who lives in a small two bedroom bungalow in south london is in band Eā¦ so he wonāt get anything! Crazy system and typically complicated.
Fortunately, his sitting room is south facing, so perhaps heāll be better off without this loan!
February 5, 2022
Sharon it is because Council tax bands are set on guesstimated house values, nothing to do with size, size does not matter it would seem, but it’s where you live that is important, the South gets hit hardest again.
February 4, 2022
Last para akin to taking out another credit card to repay the previous one whilst continuing to spend more than is coming in.
In the meantime our living standards are suffering the biggest drop since records began.
Economic lunacy driven by economic fools.
February 4, 2022
When is the government going to stop punishing consumers for their own dogma and inability to make things go right?
Time they got on with their day job of protecting us and making sure our security of person, food supply and energy are foremost in their minds.
Having heated rhetoric with Putin to otherwise distract us is old hat, not to mention juvenile.
February 4, 2022
I see it is being reported that the Transport Select Committee is now so worried about the future loss of Ā£35 Billion of tax from ICE vehicles, that it is now suggesting a road charging system for ALL vehicles, to include Electric vehicles (not taxed at the moment), which would take the place of fuel duty tax and VED, which they suggest should eventually be withdrawn.
I wonder how much infrastructure cost/spend would be needed for automated charging ?
On another point, just measured the actual and real return I am now getting with E10 petrol, with actual milage taken from complete fill up, to complete fill up over 1,000 recorded miles, so not reliant on a dashboard computer read out. Similar runs made, so similar conditions to past use.
Actual miles per gallon/litre is now 19.8% lower than with the old fuel !
This is an older style 3 litre v6 petrol engine, which I am aware is perhaps not typical of the average vehicle on the road, but just shows the extent of what a small change can do.
Yes the engine is suitable for use with the new fuel, I have a letter of approval from the manufacturer that the new fuel is suitable for use, and will not cause any damage.
Another example of the law of unintended consequences due to Government action.
Another hidden price/tax rise.
February 4, 2022
+1
Road pricing by the mile to replace car tax was inevitable – The EU was most keen on it, but despite having the satellites, they were unable to get enough support. It will be a heavy tax when it comes in, for by the time it gets implemented there will surely be less cars on the road. (Thanks also to E10)
E10 petrol is a total con – we now pay extra tax on our driving because we need to fill up more often, and we risk the rubber joints being corroded – so a double win for HMG as petrol cars will likely wear out early!
February 4, 2022
I think that dmaging our cars is part of the idea. Really, we should sue.
February 5, 2022
You should be ensuring the E10 goes in the petrol tank, not on the radiator hoses, the ball-joint bushes, steering arm connections – then they won’t corrode….
February 4, 2022
We could collect the shortfall by an annual windfall tax from the Electric Vehicle driversā¦.its them and their supporters that have got us in this mess
February 4, 2022
The duty element of fuel price is worth about 6p/mile (OK, a bit more if you are using E10 rather than diesel), plus 20% VAT. An economical EV is supposed to do 4 miles per kWh, so adding about 25-30p/kWh for EV charging would level the playing field somewhat. Just mandate that they record the electricity use and the job is done with no complicated infrastructure. Report your vehicle meter reading to the DVLC, or have it done via a smart meter automatically.
February 5, 2022
Mark
Yes should be simple, but existing smart meters, even the ones being installed now will not work in a few years time as they run with 2G and 3G technology which the Government plans to switch off.
So yet another range of smart meters will need to be developed and installed.
So called smart meters about as good as smart motorways, not fit for purpose.
February 4, 2022
The financial illiteracy of most politicians is truly terrifying.
But when BOE gives the Govt unlimited money to spend, then because of inevitable inflation, raises interest rates to stop the spending of the population many of whom have not enjoyed their normal income for 2 years thus exacerbating the financial disaster for them, while having absolutely no impact on the profligate PM, one wonders at the āindependenceā of the BOE because this looks like the work of a financially illiterate politician, namely the Chancellor.
There is no evidence of any sequential thinking on any subject whatsoever.
What are we going to do?
February 4, 2022
Every mxn and womxn for themselves.
February 4, 2022
We had all better start praying to our Gods for climate change to speed up.
We need strong sun and wind like now !
February 4, 2022
Currently outside my window it is a grey calm day.
Those God(s) have a very peculiar sense of humour.
February 4, 2022
Don’t speed the arrival of the next ice age, Mickey. Let’s make the most of this benign warming period while we’ve got it. Ice ages are the norm.
February 4, 2022
Rose you have obtained the elixir of long life? I don’t expect the next Ice Age to arrive anytime soon.
In fact Carrie is convinced that if we don’t double our loft insulation, and install solar panels we will all fry…possibly getting confused by St. Greta.
February 4, 2022
Itās called climate change now, but it was global warming before. Ever wondered why?
Could it be because they know darn well the earthās surface is actually cooling?
So, each and every hurricane or hot weather is splashed across every news outlet.
February 4, 2022
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Ronald Reagan
This is the worst government and parliament since WWII.
February 4, 2022
I fail to see any success of this governmentā¦.every time they intervene its turns to ***
February 4, 2022
all great thinkers remark ‘ rhubarb’ when momentarily lost for a pithy comment.
February 4, 2022
The most positive thing which could come out of the whole pandemic episode, now it is increasingly recognised that lockdown was a very damaging and failed policy, is people start to ask whether or not the same mistakes are being made in other areas. In the pandemic what weāve seen is very diligent, intelligent and well-intentioned experts come up with models which drove policy which they absolutely believed – āknewā even – were in the public interest. But it turns out the models were completely wrong, the policies exceptionally expensive and damaging, and a failure even on their own terms – there is no difference as we look around the world, between lockdown and non-lockdown outcomes.
Time to ask the same thing about climate hysteria and the green crap which is the policy result. We should not say there is no climate change, there clearly is, just as there clearly is covid, and itās dangerous (at least to some). But itās essential that those making policy insist on robust public scrutiny and debate on apocalyptic forecasts and the policies which are then adopted. This must include the involvement of dissenting experts (as did not happen with covid, they were shouted down and cancelled), in order that we donāt get driven by groupthink further and further into ruinous policy.
February 4, 2022
+1
But the problem is, there is always a hidden agenda. Something like Covid or Climate Change is always used to piggyback some other policy eg Cashless Society.
Never focus on the main issue, it is usually not the only thing going on.
February 4, 2022
How on earth did we get into this mess? Surely we cant let this shower of politicians and civil servants continue.
February 4, 2022
+1
February 4, 2022
By voting the same old way and not placing our collective boots on their throats.
If you vote the same, you’ll get the same. Perhaps it is time to try something different that the LibLabCON ? It worked for the Scots with the SNP. No prescriptions. Free hospital parking. Lower Council Tax Bills. Farmers getting FULL Subsidies etc.
February 4, 2022
Plus free eye tests and free dental checks and cheaper treatment, free personal care for the elderly and of course free tuition fees. Of course they can only afford all these freebies courtesy of that nice Conservative Government at Westminster, and the Labour one before it, and yet they deny all these things to England on grounds of cost. Why England continues to vote Conservative is the biggest mystery of all. Like you say Mark, itās time to vote for something different, Reform perhaps. The old donāt vote Tory and youāll let Labour in is now meaningless. If we vote Tory, we still get Labour, thereās no difference nowadays.
February 4, 2022
Jools. Yes! Reform! That’s exactly what we need. The clue’s in the name.
February 4, 2022
The chaos in Number 10 Downing Street seems to have spread through the wall to Number 11. Sunak’s announcement yesterday of a tin pot council tax reduction, and loans that will just push the problem out into the future will do little to help. A more simple, straightforward and effective answer to the problem, would surely have been to cancel the tax rises that are about to hit us and the VAT on fuel, but no, that might have given some benefit to the so called better off. And this is supposed to be a Conservative Government. No doubt we can expect further tax rises to pay for yesterdays concessions?
February 4, 2022
Any moment now, someone in government will tell the media ‘to let them eat cake’
February 4, 2022
fine with me, as long as its birthday cake.
February 4, 2022
They cannot as it would be seen as politically embarrassing.
So it is more important that the Tories save face than save the nation.
I just hope that such loyalties are returned at the ballot box, despite the obvious bribe.
February 4, 2022
They should scrap the green taxes . I presume they were put on to dissuade people using fossil fuels, but sky high energy prices are doing that, and if to make green energy profitable, again high energy prices have done that. So what is the purpose of them? High energy prices should have made green taxes redundant.
February 4, 2022
we have lived in this old house, not very eco-friendly but you get too old to move, and would have to give up what we value in so doing. Currently Council Tax is >Ā£2500 and Gas/Electricity almost Ā£2500. One day soon letters will arrive with the bad news of what these bills now cost.
I’d like to have some pension left to spend on Sky as we spend a lot of time indoors, and eating sort of becomes necessary. Holidays -what are they? Medicare? NHS non-existant. I just spent Ā£600 on getting a broken front tooth crowned, privately of course. Our 12 year old car keeps going, but people seriously ask ‘why not get an electric car?’ What world do they live in?
So voters, are you keeping a record of all the things this government has imposed on us – just in case you might have a wobbly moment at the polls in 2 years time?
February 4, 2022
When Starmer and Wee Nicola get in you might have people billeted on you as well as ever higher bills.
February 4, 2022
For once I agree with MT. Weāre in a similar position, the thought of moving is daunting at our age but our Ā£3,000 council tax and rising is a huge chunk out of our modest pensions and is becoming a burden. Plus we also live in an old property with all the expensive problems it entails. There is no such thing as cavity insulation but we are very conscious of how long we have the heating on each day. Itās our home of many years and we donāt want to move but out of touch rich boys Johnson and Sunak are making it more and more difficult for us to stay. Sunak assumes we are wealthy because we live in a band higher than D so we will continue to be clobbered with ever higher council tax bills and he could have made life a lot easier for us all yesterday if he had scrapped Vat and the green levy on our energy but they refuse to do so.. Interesting to see Johnsonās council tax for his flat above one of the most famous addresses in the world and in a prime London location at Ā£1,600 a year is only just over half of what we pay and no doubt he sticks that on his expenses. Theyāre alright Jack.
I also agree with Rose that it would be much worse under Labour although hard to believe thatās possible under the current bunch of fake Conservatives.
February 5, 2022
Jools – you make me really sad. To think my little digs at some inaccurate or ridiculous comments have only been agreed by you ‘for once’!
February 4, 2022
Sunak’s solution to the high energy prices are a mess, and not what you would expect from even a token Conservative Government .
February 4, 2022
Turbo. It will be a further charge on our bills. God forbid that those who have made billions out of this scam should foot the bill. It’s hard to know how to describe the complete plonkers in government that have brought us to our knees. The obvious is staring them in the face but they just can’t see through their pompous, arrogant, pig headed views. I would like to see a competent government in place but not much chance of that I’m afraid.
February 4, 2022
Shhh ! Never interrupt your adversary whilst they are making a mistake.
Other than that +1
February 4, 2022
O/T but of current interest: I see the PM is losing four of his advisers. Given how poorly he seems to have been advised recently, that’s probably no bad thing.
I don’t suppose the media would be interested in where these people were on 20th May 2020, or on the other partygate dates. Perhaps the police are, though.
February 4, 2022
The one that is sticking around is Carrie, can’t he see sense and get her to move out with family and staff to somewhere a few miles across London with no underground route to help. I’d like him to cycle or take a bus to his home….
February 4, 2022
Heard G Hands today for 1st time.
Batted questions easily.
He is articulate and measured.
Unfortunately voting record [wiki]
duff on some things.
February 4, 2022
L w M. I too heard Hands. Yes, batted away questions re the PM but unfortunately wedded to climate change / net zero claptrap. Did not even sound convincing then.
February 4, 2022
Never mind. People wake up by degrees.
I have faith that people are waking up
and can change.
February 4, 2022
The only way that the Conservatives can regain the trust of the electorate is for there to be a leadership contest with at least one candidate committed to abandoning the Net Zero 2050 policy.
I suspect that that candidate would win the leadership election by a landslide – at least among Conservative members, the only question is, how many climate fanatics like Johnson are there among the MPs ?
Given that voters are finally waking up to the ruinous cost of the Green Crap agenda, currently favoured by all political parties, a Conservative Government committed to putting living standards first and deferring Net Zero will be putting clear blue water between them and every rival. They will win the next general election by an even bigger margin.
February 4, 2022
ChrisS would the potential candidates even stand on Boris’ 2019 manifesto to overturn the tax increases and bring net-zero back to the more achievable 2050? I doubt it, this all seems like a game of chess.
February 4, 2022
When adults like Boris need to go back to school basics we may move forward but group-think consensus on net zero delivers us into the arms of Russia and China without firing a single bullet, never mind a toe-cap into Ukraine.
February 4, 2022
Ukretired123 :
Agreed.
The whole false āclimate crisisā (initially called global warming until it was pointed out that in the 1970s the BBC was saying an ice age was coming) caused by man-made CO2 emissions is a Marxist scam planned and promoted by our educational establishment who have been captured by the Chinese who now have 150,000 āstudentsā in our universities.
February 4, 2022
We do not have a political party in Westminster that has a coherent policy on energy. There may be individuals who have thought things out but parties no. Conservatives are currently responsible, but shambolic is too kind a word to describe their performance. We are surrounded by oil coal and gas, but due to current adherence to the green god are quite incapable of supplying our own energy needs. Importing those needs is hypochracy, the CO2 whose significance I doubt, is produced in profusion elsewhere, and then we are forced to import the manufactured goods we need. All because we can then virtue signal that we are free of CO2.
Energy prices to the public contain 20% in green tax and 5% in VAT. The green tax is a direct transfer of scarce cash from the general public to the owners and beneficiaries of the wind farm industry. A wealth transfer abetted by government. The VAT goes straight into the Treasury. If windfarms need that amount of money as a subsidy they are not viable as a business, just like HS2.
Because government limit the amount of home produced gas that the home market can use, the extractors can sell any extra on the open market. Shell alone are reported to have made Ā£12 billion profit in the last quarter doing just that. I would question why we allow our national gas asset to be exploited while we are starved of it. Why at least is it not the government which is earning that Ā£48 billion PA, and reducing our tax burden. My choice would be to extract for home use all our gas needs. Use said gas to produce all our electrical needs until such time as SMRs can bd brought on stream. To also use it for domestic and industrial heating and cooking until such time as Hydrogen is a viable alternative. To concentrate our gas needs on fracked gas which by US standards is 1/6 of the price we are paying. To ensure our needs come from our own sources at cost plus a reasonable profit for those who control the extraction.
Sorting out the above would allow British Gas or Centrica, Octopus, and SSE or OVO to supply energy competitively. The rest , EDF(french owned), E.ON and N Power (german owned), Scottish Power ( Spanish owned) would of necessity fall in line or out of our market.
The Chancellors contribution yesterday was shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. It will earn him no political points and benefit the UK energy consumer not one iota. He should rid us of the green levy and VAT , a 25% cut at one stroke.
February 4, 2022
Obviously a hard truth to accept.
February 4, 2022
The present Tories under current leaders are a disaster and a danger for individuals and the nation. This is a simple supply and demand issue of course. We could solve our gas supply problem significantly by increasing our own production of it and oil too but ‘Boris’, and his ‘greenmad’ Carrie instructor, and Greg Hands bring the increased prices on us by holding back and reducing production because they are believers in and enforcers of the new religion. This green religion is like any other new fanatic ideology – destroy existing system first. That is what ‘Boris’ is doing. High prices continue to damage industry too.
It would be legitimate to grant and encourage development of alternatives but the dictatorial imposition of change as is being done is unforgiveable as is his claim that he and his government are practising fair democracy in the process.
I read here that ‘Boris’ took a private jet to Blackpool. I did see him with his usual hi-viz jacket uniform, ( strangely this time in a retail environment ) waffling to a tv interviewer, but I bet he didn’t see Farage on GBNews last evening with an audience. His response would no doubt be to cook up a trick commentary and plot to get round the views expressed and dismiss them. Carrie was clearly very unpopular.
February 4, 2022
NEVER have I heard a more idiotic idea than lending the power companies money to reduce the bills to users! Is it really possible to find people of such low callibre? It seems the answer is yes. At the same time Labour want to steal money from N Sea operators in the form of a windfall tax.
This morning Mr Hands was on R4 and rattled on with the most extraordinary nonsense. Climate change, the old enemy and zero carbon by 2050. It will never happen. Mumbo jumbo while studiously avoiding any discussion on the PM.
The only reliable and sustainable solution that will keep the lights on and the bills payable is to pump oil and gas from the N Sea, frack and mine our own coal. Buying these essential products from other countries is madness and a danger to our country.
February 4, 2022
You had 3 principal jobs
Brexit ā You gave us a failed TCA & NIP
Economy ā You gave us tax, inflation and cost of living hikes
Immigration ā You gave us continued higher numbers of illegal immigrants
I think youāve intervened enough
February 4, 2022
If you need to intervene please throw the tax book on the fire and start again
February 6, 2022
Since by far and away most unlawful immigration lands normally at airports on visas but then does not leave, you have no idea as to whether those numbers in total have increased.
February 4, 2022
Does the EON man mean what he says about getting rid of gas, or is he just being like those CEOs who laud BLM for a quiet life?
February 4, 2022
Off topic, in a letter today criticising the DUP, Democratic Unionist Party, a former leader of the UUP, Ulster Unionist Party, refers to this Explanatory Note issued by the UK government on October 2 2019:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/836116/Explanatory_Note_Accessible.pdf
“UK PROPOSALS FOR AN AMENDED PROTOCOL ON IRELAND/NORTHERN IRELAND”
Which was the subject of this covering letter from Boris Johnson to Jean-Claude Juncker:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/836029/PM_letter_to_Juncker.pdf
stating inter alia:
“Third, it provides for the potential creation of an all-island regulatory zone on the island of Ireland, covering all goods including agri-food. For as long as it exists, this zone would eliminate all regulatory checks for trade in goods between Northern Ireland and Ireland by ensuring that goods regulations in Northern Ireland are the same as those in the rest of the EU.”
Interesting wording, “the same as those in the rest of the EU”, but more substantively how could Boris Johnson have proposed that kind of scheme when it would inevitably involve checks on goods circulating within the UK single market, GB + NI, which he now condemns as “crazy”?
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/boris-johnson-solution-northern-ireland-v33342371
Incidentally he also proposed that any physical checks on goods that were required could take place at traders’ premises or other points on the supply chain, an idea which Irish politicians instantly rejected.
February 4, 2022
Weāve always paid more in Britain, havenāt we? Cars much dearer, fags, booze, petrolā¦ were we paying off world war II ? This energy highjack will never abate. Theyāve ānudgedā us through covid, made organisations like the NHS and BBC screamingly expensive to provide lavish lifestyles for their posh mates. Strip these organisations back to their essentials and theyād be VFM. Just as they were running out of excuses ( Brexit done!) they ran up another WWII bill via covid and net zero. So we are basically effed. I trust very few politicians but I trust you John Redwood . Please stand. Or ensure that a huge rump of backbenchers get a real conservative to the membership in the final vote and we will vote him or her in. At the very least Iād like to see you in number 11.
February 4, 2022
+ 10000. John would make an excellent Chancellor but it aināt gonna happen, heās far too sensible and heaven forbid far too Conservative for the current parliamentary party. No doubt weāll get the usual duffers putting themselves forward. Sunak, Truss or Hunt. What a choice. Iād like to see Penny Nordaunt or Esther McVey put their names in the hat but no doubt MPs more interested in who will better their career prospects than who is best for the country will choose Sunak, Truss or Hunt or worse traitor Gove. But first we have to get rid of Johnson and it seems most Tory MPs donāt have the guts.
February 6, 2022
Esther is a pal of Kate.
Maybe I’m naive ( ok I am naive )
but the truth
always garners sympathy.
Always tell the truth.
February 4, 2022
Rishi Sunak has been touted as a future leader when Boris goes. I do hope the Conservative Party will strongly resist any temptation to promote this ‘globalist’. His latest pronouncements are a disaster – were they designed by the WEF? Let’s give the little people some pocket money to keep them quiet (and encourage the idea of universal basic incomes) then they’ll laud our latest Technocrat choice?
How much easier, logical, and competent would it be to introduce Net Zero VAT and green subsidies, whilst announcing investment in new UK energy sources and gas exploration. This is what we want to see. We don’t want ‘sweeties’ from the ‘child catcher’.
Keep going Sir John, keep pointing out the obvious, we need to hear strong, competent voices speaking loud and clear above the chaos – that there is another way.
February 4, 2022
I am not sure whether the loans to mitigate (and they only abate a smallish part) the rise in energy prices are politically wrong, as whatever the economics, the government’s political problem with energy prices is huge.
What I am sure about is the rebates on Council taxes are political lunacy. The best and simplest action would have been to impose a ‘cost of living crisis freeze’ on Council Tax which would have been popular with practically everyone except the still wasteful Councils.
The problem wth giving a Council Tax rebate is that once given(for which the government will get next to no political credit) it will be political hell ever to take it away. Certainly that can’t be done in 2023 or 2024 as the General Election will be too close. Just as when the government stopped the ‘temporary’ Ā£20 a week rise in Universal Credit or the extra free school meals almost everybody will grumble and there will be a huge political storm. The whole of the massive local government lobby, not only Council Officers, trade unions, Labour and Liberal Democrat Councillors but also most so called ‘Conservative’ Councillors (who have mainly become spokesmen for local government Officers) will all be screaming at the government for a huge Council Tax rise then. Are government Ministers, especially Sunak, so stupid that they never foresee nor even learn anything?
What, of course, they should have done with the money is stop the National Insurance increase so as to keep their their own election promise and with it their credibility for the next general election.
February 4, 2022
Exactly. Their credibility is shot come the next election. They have given Starmer a massive stick with which to beat them. āDonāt believe a word the Tories say in their manifesto, they canāt be trusted to keep their promisesā and it will be true. Sunak could easily have scrapped the NIC increase but he and his master refuse to do so – big mistake.
February 4, 2022
Now it has emerged that Boris Johnson reckons there could be a 30% chance of the UK negotiating a new deal with the EU over Northern Ireland but will not give any assurance that the UK could act unilaterally:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/04/boris-johnson-30-percent-chance-new-brexit-deal-northern-ireland
āI then asked the prime minister for a clear commitment that in the absence of an agreement with the EU, the UK government would do what they said in their command paper last July ā¦ and take unilateral action ā¦ the prime minister could not give me that commitment in those circumstances.ā
So this so-called “Conservative and Unionist”, so-called “Brexiteer”, UK government is still letting the EU, and therefore the Irish government, exercise a veto over the administration of part of our country which they have reduced to a kind of condominium, and they dare to call this “taking back control”, and the MPs who keep it in office do nothing about this national humiliation.
February 4, 2022
This is what is happening in Northern Ireland now, thanks to Boris Johnson prizing his low value “Canada style” free trade deal above the unity of the country. But would his successor be any different?
https://www.politico.eu/article/dup-threats-brexit-protocol-not-make-damn-difference/
“DUP threats on Brexit protocol āwonāt make a damn bit of difference,ā blast Northern Irish rivals”
Ostensibly this protocol was supposed to be about protecting peace, but it is having the opposite effect.
February 4, 2022
There is a joke on Twitter that Net Zero is what you are left with after the green industry has scammed you of your money.
February 4, 2022
Just one more time:
a) It is almost always warmer on earth than it is now.
b) The last 800 years on earth have been anomalously cool – the longest cool period since the last ice age.
c) The whole climate change fixation is a truism outside our control.
Evidence: (one picture should be enough) the Greenland Ice Cores.
http://i.snag.gy/BztF1.jpg
That is all there is to say.
February 4, 2022
“You can interfere too much” – worse still Sir John “You can interfere NOT ENOUGH! All you say makes absolute sense such as Freeports, taking out VAT on energy,
Green tax and reducing taxes in general ,fisheries and agriculture and all the other things that need to be fully addressed and DEALT WITH which includes finally cutting loose from the EU so that we are Sovereign and Independent BUT NOTHING EVER GETS DONE. MPs need to be rutherless and force these issues through because just talking about it again and again and again and infinitum gets us NOWHERE initt! First ‘ Touch Down’ is Boris – get rid. Don’t destabilize yourselves and in doing so the Country. New Leader , new broom at the top; axe very, very powerful Civil Servants who rule the Country by default and replace with those who give advice to Ministers and don’t rule or overrule Ministers. This is the Party that once had fearless MPs who ousted Margaret Thatcher quickly, ruthlessly and efficiently when her time was over and we need such MPs as fearless as they were. You didn’t oust Margaret Thatcher but you were and still are a respected and straightforward no- nonsense MP and there are no doubt more of you that will act in the interests of us all and the Country. Put Party Politics aside – interfere and act please.
February 4, 2022
Fracking can resume relatively quickly.
If we can lock down the country (and the evidence says lockdown had an insignificant effect) then we can start up fracking in an emergency.
February 4, 2022
+1
February 4, 2022
Javelin. +1000
February 5, 2022
The Cabinet, if consulted, must be saying ‘frack off’.
February 4, 2022
” The U.K. is now short of energy and cruelly dependent on imports”
An excellent article by Ross Clark in today’s Daily Mail includes a graphic which shows where much of our energy comes from:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10474649/ROSS-CLARK-analyses-state-Britains-energy-reserves-face-soaring-bills.html
This should be enlarged, printed, and sent to every MP. Then, perhaps, we might see a bit of sanity creep in to energy policies…
February 4, 2022
Agree….however that piture shouldn’t just be sent to MPs its should be sent to every household
February 4, 2022
Just think where we could have been had the government not caved in to a small but very shrill green lobby by refusing to grant fracking licences.
British shale gas beds and geological formations are reportedly deeper and larger than the ones found in the United States. By now we could have been producing enough gas to disconnect us economically from the global gas spot market. In fact we could have been in a position to sell gas, at a handsome profit, to the EU. Pulling some of Putin’s teeth into the process.
Instead we must save Carbon emissions by, er, buying expensive gas on the international spot market, mostly Shale gas from the USA, and then shipping it over here in refrigerated tankers. How very cost effective and carbon neutral (NOT).
February 4, 2022
If there is to be a change of PM then I would say that, only GREEN REVOLUTION MPs in the TORY PARTY would be put before MPs to chose from, it is the party philosopies,, repeat, till the green tree goes the philosopy of the GREEN REVOLUTION will stay with every new TORY PM.
THAT is TORY party main policy that TORY party PM must follow.
February 4, 2022
Whoever they choose from their remainiac ranks, there will be a general election before long and that will be the end of them.
February 4, 2022
Yes, this is what I call democratic rigging by political parties. They restrict our voting choices to THEIR choices! There should be more power given to constituencies to choose the candidate.
February 4, 2022
Nicola Sturgeon chopping an inch off the bottom of every door in every school to “improve the airflow” is interfering too much too, top down command and control, allocation & rationing, take it or leave it, economy at its worst.
Ask the SNP for their peer reviewed scientific analysis of why this is a good use of money.
February 4, 2022
I just hope the school Heads have some powerful superglue for later.
February 4, 2022
I’m pleased to see the setting-up of ‘backbench policy committees’, which will allow CONSERVATIVE MPs the opportunity to interfere with the destructive policy output of No 10. I wonder if they’ll be linking into No 10 or, more properly, into their respective ministers?
Reply Bizarre announcement as we already have these!
February 5, 2022
Shows how much Boris was paying attention to them then! š
February 5, 2022
Did anybody tell Johnson there are ‘backbench policy committeesā?
Bit of an oversight !
Reply Yes,came as a bit of a surprise as we already have them
February 4, 2022
Talking of interfering too much, I saw this headline in the Independent regarding the “Online Safety Bill”.
“Tech firms which fail to protect users could be fined up to Ā£18bn, says Dorries”
Sounds like the thin end of government censorship.
The Tories are not conservatives.
February 4, 2022
The frame in which this attack on free speech is set is so sinister and deceitful that I find myself beyond concerned about the direction in the Tory-Labour client state are dragging us. The greasy Law Commission now packed with the usual woke fascists and Oxbridge grifters are obviously working closely with Whitehall, Tory and Labour to smash all areas of free exchange of information
The idea that such laws are designed to protect ourselves from ourselves and indeed others is utterly preposterous. Such laws are driven by party political and British State considerations rather than any desire to correct injurious human behaviour in the real world
I hope they genuinely ban all forms of speech both in public and online. Only then will people wake up to the horrors of what we are now going through
And where are TORY MPs who once elevated free expression above all things? None to be found now, none. It’s despicable
4m WW2 British war dead to protect free expression and Parliament abolishes speech and besmirch their sacrifices
February 4, 2022
Surely the only way to avoid high gas prices is to, well, avoid using gas. As it happens this is also great for the environment.
To see actual grid https://grid.iamkate.com/ is useful – earlier to day when I looked we were running at 50.1% renewable and only 24.3% fossil fuel. Total gas was only 22.7%, so we are already well on the way to phase expensive gas out.
Last years wind production was less than expected, but this years is looking where is should be.
We need to fix the wholesale market as you say, at least double wind turbines, add more storage ( like the new one near Oxford ) and phase out gas power stations. Greener, cheaper and not reliant on gas imports.
February 4, 2022
Quite. The last time we had high world gas prices after the Fukushima accident, we simply burned as much coal as we could and cut back on the gas generation. But we can’t do that any more. We depend on the unreliable wind that hasn’t been cooperative. See this chart:
https://image.vuukle.com/9ffc6604-feed-474e-a82d-c2de2f561502-9158ac5d-1a4c-414d-9372-ab56b3193602
February 5, 2022
So your message is to avoid higher gas prices by using more electricity at even higher prices and replace gas appliances with even more costly electrical installations instead ?!
February 5, 2022
No, I didn’t say that.
For electricity generation why not avoid higher gas prices by using cheaper wind instead, augment with more storage. Take gas out of the picture.
[ having said that, in reality I expect we need a good mix – wind+solar+tidal+nuclear+storage+… … we need to keep fossil fuel power stations around in case of extreme events, ie maintained but not often used ]
For home heating, its not clear if gas is cheaper than electricity to heat a house … thermal storage, far infrared and heat pumps are more efficient. I would expect as gas prices continue to rise, heating your house by electricity one way or another will become quite cheap compared with gas.
I currently heat my water with low-price off-peak green electricity (5.5p/unit inc vat). So no gas used during the summer at least. I’m currently looking at greener/cheaper alternatives for my gas central heating.
February 7, 2022
I have a gas boiler for heat and hot water.
I installed solar PV panels at roughly 2.5 times the cost of a boiler and during the summer it provides all the hot water we need, for zero opex.
The issue is domestic heating during the cold months when PV is not as effective and I must use gas for hot water and heating.
Switching to electric heating will be vastly more expensive in capex and opex.
Capex will be needed to replace the boiler with an air source heat pump, replace all radiators and microbore piping and repair walls and floors from the damage.
Opex increases because electricity is more expensive than gas to the user.
Artificially raising the cost of gas to the user does not make electricity “cheaper”, it makes energy more expensive.
February 7, 2022
BTW We had night storage heaters installed when I was a kid and I was cold all the time, especially in the mornings.
February 4, 2022
The only sane, practical way to reduce the gas we burn heating our homes is to use electricity. But not to power air source heat pumps. These are too expensive and not practical as they require at least twice the current surface area of radiators. Electricity must be used to power storage heaters and convector heaters. This will require massive amounts of CHEAP renewable electricity. This will require a huge investment in wind, solar, nuclear, hydro and storage of power. This government has no idea. They think they can just ban gas boilers and weāll all find Ā£15 grand for a useless air source heat pump.
February 4, 2022
Correct Mike. If we can’t afford to heat our homes now how the hell are most of us going to afford a heat pump?
February 4, 2022
First rule of thumb: electricity costs at least twice as much as gas. Second rule of thumb: you need to have dispatchable capacity to meet 100% of peak demand because you can’t rely on renewables. So you end up investing many times over if you avoid the simple choices of only choosing dispatchable generation, and using gas for heating in preference to electricity. If you want to do it any other way it will be much more costly.
February 5, 2022
Yep.
Alternatives to heat pumps include thermal storage and far infrared heaters … no idea why the government is ignoring these.
Although gas is cheaper per unit ( at the moment ) it can be less efficient and so not necessarily cheaper to heat your house. The blog https://www.theideastring.com/infrared-heating/ has some interesting points.
February 4, 2022
OFF TOPIC.
France’s fisheries minister has called for an investigation after a spillage of more than 100,000 dead fish off the country’s Atlantic coast. Video footage filmed by environmental activists shows a mass of corpses floating on the sea surface. An industry statement said the Margiris, the world’s second-largest super trawler, had reported a “fishing incident” after its net broke.
It said the fish were blue whiting, a rare species subject to quotas.
The lost fish would be deducted from the vessel’s quota, the statement added.
(THATS ALRIGHT THEN)
The Sea Shepherd France environmental group filmed the fish on Thursday, saying they covered an area of about 3,000 sq m (32,300 sq ft).
Its head Lamya Essemlali told Reuters it wanted to “raise awareness among the French public” about the trawler, which it said had been banned from Australian waters and frequented the Bay of Biscay.
February 4, 2022
Tory policy making ā Discuss policy opinion with local constituencies and voters, feed up to national debate and write policy manifesto
Win an election based on manifesto and policy broadcast
When in office ignore manifesto, throw the election policy commitments in the bin
Employ hundreds of none elected advisers to develop new policies based on the needs of (1) the UN, (2) the EU, (3) the wife and (4) our experience at the university debating society
February 4, 2022
Would north sea gas really be sold to the UK on a long term contract!?
February 4, 2022
The Norwegians certainly sold quite a bit that way. British Gas got to have the exclusive right to buy North Sea gas for the life of the field in the early days of North Sea gas. Banks financing projects tend to like firm revenue projections that come from term contracts – plus of course the ability for them to make a margin by trading around that. But the key point really is that the gas would come here by pipeline and would have to be sold here in the first instance. We don’t have a lot of export capacity for North Sea gas – it was only ever designed to cope with the small surplus we had when production peaked.
February 5, 2022
I note that one of the measures announced was a plan to spend some Ā£3bn on 0.5 million homes on energy saving measures in the hope of saving Ā£290 a year per home on their energy bills. That’s Ā£6,000 apiece, and a payback time of over 20 years – if no-one has miscalculated (and goodness knows what favourable assumptions have been built in this time). These green insulation schemes have an appalling track record of failing to deliver the claimed benefits, with the latest one having shut down in failure only a couple of months ago. We should not be investing in such poor value schemes, especially at a time of real hardship. Doubtless the cost will end up increasing our bills immediately because it has to be funded. Exactly the reverse of what is needed. Ā£3bn could knock Ā£300 off the bills for 10 million home-years.
February 5, 2022
Or they could spend Ā£0 bn and just open the gas fields in the north sea and lancashire….and maybe make revenue