Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP (Wokingham) (Con): Will the Government now allow and encourage more domestic production of oil and gas, to help reduce the cruel dependency of Europe on Russian energy?
Elizabeth Truss, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: We certainly are committed to using the UKâs oil and gas fields. Energy independence is vital. We also need to invest more in nuclear, which my right hon. Friend the Business Secretary is working on.
March 1, 2022
At least Truss seems to have a useful view on matters. We need energy and we need it now – not in 10 years time.
I think recent events have shown us the Achilles heel of the ‘globalisation’ mantra, where we were told all this interdependence would stop future wars. What say you Sir J. ?
March 1, 2022
I say watch Trumps CPAC speech. Brilliant and conservative views. He also condemned Trudeau tyranny. Suggest Truss and the other socialists in govt watch and learn.
Strangely it is hard to find. TWC has a copy if JR is interested.
March 2, 2022
If you put CPAC into the YouTube search box you’ll get plenty of speeches, including Trump, de Santis and Farage.
March 3, 2022
Really âla creme de la cremeâ. Beware indigestion.
March 4, 2022
Pleased to see you liking and supporting good speeches by these people hef
This site is doing you some good after all.
March 1, 2022
“We need energy and we need it now â not in 10 years time”. Indeed we do and we need it to be affordable and on demand. Preferably locally fracked natural gas as we already have a huge distribution network for it and it is the most efficient, flexible and the cleanest for electricity generating.
March 1, 2022
She does not really explain how we can have Net Zero and all the other things she mentions.
March 1, 2022
This is war.
There is a perfectly good case for emergency, temporary divergence from the ideals of international agreements on limiting CO2 emissions – which I otherwise resolutely support.
March 2, 2022
So all of a sudden coal, gas, nuclear and fracking is OK
Please let us know when you change your mind again.
March 2, 2022
What a prize one.
March 3, 2022
You said it.
The conclusion is obvious.
Suddenly your keeness for all thing green is reversed.
March 3, 2022
P2, what is better, someone who can change their mind when circumstances are changing, or someone whose mind is stuck in their way of thinking of forty years ago?
March 3, 2022
I was surprised at NHL’s sudden dramatic conversion heffy.
Are you two close friends?
March 4, 2022
No P2, but your comments are often so content-free that âI feel my dutyâ to introduce a bit of contradiction to give some shine to your vacuous comments. Am I not useful to you doing that?
March 4, 2022
Please feel free to add a bit of contradiction hef.
Sad you let yourself down by calling my comments vacuous.
I don’t call your comments vacuous.
Such is the aggressive attitude of left leaning remain supporters like yourself.
March 2, 2022
The Business Secretary is ‘working on it’. For God’s sake the Tories have been in power for 12 years and still they are ‘working on it’. This has been coming for at least 20 years, it was obvious that our oil and gas would run out sooner or later especially as the Tories allowed the big firms to extract and sell as much as possible abroad as quickly as possible to make a big profit, rather than run the thing properly to benefit this country over the longest period possible. Also, we have no wealth fund as the Tories used most of the money to run unemployment and benefits.
March 3, 2022
And many here were saying this 10 years ago ! Nice of her to finally catch up.
March 1, 2022
It could be that over the next few years we will be thanking Putin for bringing some degree of common sense into this government over energy supplies. The fact that it has taken a war to effect this change is a sad reflection on the cabinet and civil servants alike.
But the situation in Germany is even more surprising. For the entire 16 year reign of Merkel, she appeased Russia and actively strengthened Putin’s position vis a vis her own country and the wider EU. Aided and abetted by VdL as Defence minister, for reasons known only to herself, Merkel deliberately ran down the effectiveness of the German military so that by 2021, it retained only 10% of the effectiveness it had in the 1980s and 1990s. She further compromised her country’s independence by making it almost totally dependent on Russian gas, compounding this massive strategic error by closing perfectly good Nuclear Power Stations for no valid reason.
At least her successor has now made a U turn, vowing to rebuild the Bundeswehr and reducing dependence on Russian gas. Would this have happened had Merkel still been in charge ? I somehow doubt it.
March 1, 2022
“We certainly are committed to using the UKâs oil and gas fields. Energy independence is vital. We also need to invest more in nuclear, which my right hon. Friend the Business Secretary is working on.”
This is encouraging. I had only heard her up till now saying we must reduce our use of oil and gas.
March 1, 2022
A Damascene conversion from the Truss person. Wonders will never cease.
March 3, 2022
No ! Just a shrewd politician seeing the wind of public opinion change. Easy sound bite from her but no idea on how to deliver – typical.
March 2, 2022
‘Using the UKâs oil and gas fields ‘ is an odd expression, extracting more of our own gas and oil would have been a more logical response. Using our oil and gas fields can mean using them to show how much of a believer we are in the Greta religion that we are closing them down.
March 1, 2022
Just today Kwartang has said fracking is not the answer as the companies will sell at market rates.
This is nonesense because all mineral rights belong to the government so a condition of extraction could be a fixed price and exports only allowed after domestic markets are satisfied.
Using his theory no one should increase production and the price will drop. He li es in a parallel universe.
March 1, 2022
I came across this:
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/december-2019/the-plot-against-fracking/?mc_cid=87835ce38a&mc_eid=ee84cb59c6
“The Russians also lobbied behind the scenes against shale gas, worried about losing their grip on the worldâs gas supplies. Unlike most conspiracy theories about Russian meddling in Western politics, this one is out there in plain sight. The head of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the Russians, as part of a sophisticated disinformation operation, âengaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations â environmental organisations working against shale gas â to maintain Europeâs dependence on imported Russian gasâ.
The Centre for European Studies found that the Russian government has invested $95 million in NGOs campaigning against shale gas. Russia Today television ran endless anti-fracking stories, including one that âfrackers are the moral equivalent of paedophilesâ. The US Director of National Intelligence stated that âRT runs anti-fracking programming ⊠reflective of the Russian Governmentâs concern about the impact of fracking and US natural gas production on the global energy market and the potential challenges to Gazpromâs profitability.â”
March 1, 2022
Ian
Precisely, it depends upon what terms and conditions you (the UK Government) put in the licence to extract, that could be UK only, UK first, extraction and Tax rates, as well as the base supply price etc etc..
Clueless, absolutely bloody clueless.
March 1, 2022
“Just today Kwartang has said fracking is not the answer as the companies will sell at market rates.”
Complete B/S Kwarteng as it is rather expensive and wasteful to transport even if it were not the government could put export taxes on it until local demand was satisfied – the price of gas in the US has varied from about half that of the UK to 1/4 of that in the UK! But then one cannot expect the energy minister to know much about energy. Let us hope that at least he stops the concrete capping of the fracking sites that the mad regulators have idiotically demanded.
March 2, 2022
The corporate reply. Exposes who the government actually listens to and acts for – the big corporates, not the paying public.
March 2, 2022
It’s nonsense because every therm we produce is an addition to global supply, putting pressure on prices through reducing market tightness and cutting our import bill, while providing jobs and taxes to support the economy. Moreover, if we reach self suffiency we become insulated from world markets just as we were before.
March 1, 2022
” energy independence is vital…” So where is the government policy to bring it into effect?
March 1, 2022
That is a waffle answer.
March 1, 2022
As I write, fossil fuels are providing half of electricity generation needs. On a cloudy and windless day there is little photovoltaic or wind energy, unlike a few days ago when renewables were providing about half.
Are you sure the plan isn’t to deplete the world’s fossil fuels so when they run out we still have ours to fall back on?
March 1, 2022
Dave Andrews : âAre you sure the plan isnât to deplete the worldâs fossil fuels so when they run out we still have ours to fall back on?â
As I write wind is providing just 8% of demand.
I wouldnât worry about fossil fuels running out just as the stone age didnât need to worry about flint running out.
Future generations will have their own solutions â possibly even nuclear fusion.
March 1, 2022
So it takes the invasion of Ukraine by Western Europe’s largest oil-gas supplier to arrive at the obvious and simple conclusion that ‘energy independence is vital’? God almighty.
Bunch of incompetent and irresponsible halfwits who shouldn’t be let near a gas cooker never mind UK’s energy policy and voters vote for such people.
It is very simple. SNP, Labour and Tory and their progressive shock troops have become a threat to this nation’s security, its freedoms and its culture bar a handful of honourable MPs who refuse to pander to this green, racial and gender crap
When will the voter wake up and understand that protecting the 3 party status quo and its privileges is more important than this nation and its people?
March 1, 2022
Scary isn’t it……and Johnson is having telephone calls with Ukrainian leader. God alone knows what pearls of wisdom he’s offering. I believe he’s also flown, yes flown, into Poland as if his very presence is a calming entity. He could have saved the planet and just picked up the phone.
I think the fool is likely adding more fuel to the fire.
God help us if he sees this as his ‘Churchill moment’ his life’s calling.
March 1, 2022
Scary isn’t it……and Johnson is having telephone calls with Ukrainian leader. God alone knows what pearls of wisdom he’s offering. I believe he’s also flown, yes flown, into Poland as if his very presence is a calming entity.
I think the fool is likely adding more fuel to the fire.
God help us if he sees this as his ‘Churchill moment’ his life’s calling.
March 1, 2022
Watch Trumpâs speech at CPAC and take heart Dom.
March 2, 2022
HOPE – I watched and listened to CPAC from Day one. So many who comment on this site obviously follow the Main Stream Media and believe what is portrayed as news. “News” is not what happens, it is what a small group decide is the “news”and want you to hear.
March 1, 2022
+1
It’s either nuclear war or economic attrition (like we did to the USSR.) We are a bit skewered.
There is a bit of Better Dead Than Red going on in Britain at the moment. A bit silly as we’re Red already. So economic attrition would be better. Stop the sabre rattling.
Puti is not a ‘bad man’ in most of the world – that judgment is a matter of perspective depending on where you live. Only in the flabby and decadent West does anyone think that and they are yet to be shown that tangible wealth and military hardware – of which the EU has very little – is far more powerful than debased fiat and economies largely based on welfare.
The EU caused this.
It overplayed its hand.
March 2, 2022
Nah, Greta Thunberg caused it.
Or was it Eddy Izzard?
March 1, 2022
Liz Truss got a hospital pass on this one.
Government lack of policy creating a vacuumn, filled by the apostles of the green religion, has created the situation we find ourselves in. Everyone in the UK will pick up the tab for this totally unnecessary failure on the part of government. Absolutely nothing to do with Brexit or Putin, this one rests with politicians.
March 1, 2022
Yes but the politicians are not going to spin it that way are they.
They will use the situation in Ukraine as an excuse for as much and as long as possible and I dread to think what they’ll be doing while most people’s attention is fixed on this issue.
March 1, 2022
Nigel Farage always promoted a small state and self reliance but the government seem to be under the spell of Globalism and a desire to first destroy and then Build Back Better in the image of a Chinese style surveillance society. If that is the case then why is the G7 at odds with the CCP and Putin? Is it just about who sits at the head of the table or maybe conflict is seen as a way of dealing with overpopulation? I presume this is the kind of thing discussed at Davos.
March 1, 2022
I think your suspicions are correct. It is nice to see those who think they are leaders of men squabbling, isnât it ?
March 1, 2022
Farage always promoted Putin. Howâs that working out for him?
March 2, 2022
Putin stopped our fracking as well. How’s that working out, Andy ?
March 2, 2022
NLA, How did Putin stop UK fracking? Could you please explain. Thanks in advance.
March 2, 2022
A lie – not unusual for you. Farage said he admired Putin as an operator not a human being over his handling of the Syrian war. He has not promoted Putin in general or at all, just remarked that he was at THAT time an astute political operator. One day you will get something right and not rely on your usual lies and fairy tales half heard from your peculiar mates.
March 1, 2022
In what way has privately-educated, man-of-the-PayPal Farage ever relied upon himself?
March 2, 2022
Is it a bad thing to be privately educated NHL?
Why is that?
March 2, 2022
Not at all, but how many of those enjoying its enormous benefits pay for it themselves as they go?
March 2, 2022
How can children pay for it themselves?
March 3, 2022
Quite – so he was never self-reliant, was he?
March 3, 2022
Pedantic nonsense NHL
March 4, 2022
“Brick means brick” being “pedantic”, claims Pete.
March 4, 2022
No
You require a child to pay for its own education.
Presumably that also applies to a child using the NHS NHL as a child is unable to pay tax
Eh NHL?
March 1, 2022
I wonder how long Biden and European leaders will be able to stay out of the Ukrainian war ?
When the full force of Putin’s military is unleashed on the civilian population and we start to see a very large number of casualties, pressure will grow from the public for an intervention, starting with an air exclusion zone and then ground attack aircraft taking out Russian artillery and armoured vehicles.
It would be a big risk for NATO but, seeing the long column of Russian vehicles approaching Kiev, one can only imagine how many civilian lives would be saved if the Ukrainians had the support of a few squadrons of Apache helicopters and A10s.
March 1, 2022
Yes, those tanks are sitting ducks for laser-guided weaponry and it must be very tempting.
However, Putin has made it crystal clear that he is mad enough to use nuclear weapons and so must be taken at that word, sadly.
The alternative is perhaps hundreds of times more civilian deaths, countless millions of maimed “survivors” and a radiologically-contaminated planet for generations into the future.
March 1, 2022
Directly attacking Russian artillery and armoured vehicles would be a step too far. Equip the Ukrainians to deal with them.
An air exclusion zone on the other hand wouldn’t be direct provocation to Russia, but can NATO enforce it perhaps just west of the Dnieper River? If not, how far? The only engagement would then be if Russia chose to challenge it, and then we shall see how their jets perform against western aircraft.
Do we stand up to bullies, or was that just the Britain of the last century?
March 2, 2022
I wonder just how long it would take to train some Ukrainian pilots to fly an A10 ? I can’t believe it would be too difficult. The US has hundreds these supremely capable ground attack aircraft that are already in reserve or are about to be withdrawn from front line service.
March 2, 2022
How does that help against artillery and missiles?
March 1, 2022
American Comcast owns LBC and Sky, both pushing hard for WW3 today.
March 1, 2022
WW3 would result in a few more casualties than that, I think.
The meddling EU started this. It’s why we left it.
March 1, 2022
Putin says that it’s NATO.
If it were the European Union, then why would he shrink from saying so?
March 2, 2022
NLH
Well why not offer Ukraine EU membership without Nato ?
Putin hasn’t said that either. And I’m sure Ukraine would accept the compromise.
Or would have… had the EU not already overplayed their hand.
March 2, 2022
Since when was the offer of European Union membership conditional on also joining NATO?
The pressure to join the first is coming from the people of Ukraine, not from any European Union institution. anyway.
March 2, 2022
Quite so, but do you not find it sinister that the very same forces which manipulated us to shut down our entire country on the pretext of health and safety are now goading us into possible nuclear war?
March 2, 2022
Chris.
In my opinion, we are already doing all we can do. We should not get further involved, no matter how bad it gets. Putin has nuclear weapons, and is prepared to use them. That must be avoided at all costs.
I don’t wish to see the UK obliterated. This is not our War. There would be no winners – we should stay out!
March 2, 2022
We have nuclear weapons but are not prepared to use them, that’s the difference between us and he knows it.
March 3, 2022
Yes, it’s the cynic’s interpretation of the Wisdom Of Solomon.
March 2, 2022
+1
March 2, 2022
Everyone who has nuclear weapons is prepared to use them.What is the point in having them otherwise?
March 2, 2022
They are not for first strike but supposedly a deterrent. Putin is using his threat to a first strike to great effect because he is scared. If he loses face in this criminal endeavour he will be finished. We won’t ever do that, only a retaliation if we are struck first.
Putin has made a grave mistake this time. When the dust has settled he must be taken to the Hague and spend the rest of his life in prison for war crimes.
March 2, 2022
Many are determined to make this OUR war defending ‘plucky’ Ukraine.
We’d really be defending the EU, no Ukraine who were not under threat until the were subject of a West sponsored coup.
March 3, 2022
Putin has threatened everyone on this planet.
It is, personally, everyone’s war therefore.
March 1, 2022
With petrol fuel and gas prices rocketing and shortages looming, Mr Shapps is sending away existing orders in ships from Russia and Mr Kwarteng is the only minister in Europe who is blocking fracking or other alternative energy sources. With Conservatives like these, who needs Green loons? Even German Greens, who are as fanatical as any, have agreed to keep their nukes going while we can’t order a single new station while ours are closing within 8 years.
March 1, 2022
+1
March 2, 2022
The charade over ships is absurd. The UK imports 20-25% of its diesel consumption from Russia, partly the consequence of shutting down so many refineries. Consumers will now have to pay for the oil to be shipped elsewhere before being shipped back again to the UK, having apparently acquired a new origin. The beneficiaries will be oil trading companies. With Europe consuming around 4mb/d of Russian oil (out of total exports of there is no way they are going to replace the 40% of demand it represents from elsewhere. Grandstanding from ministers simply adds cost.
March 1, 2022
A politician’s response, ignoring the word “more” in your question.
Simply stating that they are committed to using the UK’s oil and gas fields does not say if there will be more of them, only that the existing ones will be used (as if we didn’t already know that).
Do you ever get the feeling that the format/procedures used in parliament don’t really work? You need to have a right of reply to any reply – or the ability to protest that the question was not answered. Perhaps the Speaker should be a lot more proactive in policing this, but he’s only one person and may miss things, so a right of appeal to the chair seems a good adjustment to make.
In the meantime, if you don’t mind a suggestion, perhaps the wording of questions should be more difficult to dodge – stress in the question that you are looking for an answer about opening *additional* fields and you would like to see the “additional” aspect addressed in the reply.
I’ve noticed how ministers consistently side-step the true meaning of your questions/interventions (and those of others), so perhaps the wording needs to make it more difficult for them to do that? Only trying to help btw.
March 1, 2022
The government is being devious and deceitful – do not fall for their lies. I know the civil service game with words and can see right through it. What they are saying is that, yes, they will continue to use the CURRENT oil and gas fields, but no, they won’t expand on these. Kwasi the xxx made this very clear on Twitter yesterday, when he said: “Gas is expensive. Renewables are cheap.” And talking of North Sea oil and gas he said: “More production won’t affect the price”. But as you were told, they will continue to use the existing supply, because “Turning off the taps increases foreign imports and puts jobs at risk”. This is just not good enough.
Just to underline his opposition to increased production, Kwasi also said: “Additional UK production [of gas] wonât materially affect the wholesale market price. This includes fracking â UK producers wonât sell shale gas to UK consumers below the market price. Theyâre not charities.” Kwasi is therefore not just a xxxx but a LIAR too. Not only does he ignore the basic law of supply and demand (more supply = lower prices), but he does not understand that transporting gas around the world has a cost, so if we can buy local gas it will INEVITABLY be cheaper than importing this. And he also does not understand that the government can set conditions on the right to extract oil and gas – such as requiring the producers to sell to the UK at a reasonable price (cost + a reasonable profit margin) rather than at an extortionate or fluctuating price.
Sir John, you have tried to reason with him, even having a meeting, but all to no avail. He is simply never going to do the right thing. You must declare that you have no confidence in him and try to persuade your backbench colleagues to do likewise.
March 2, 2022
+1
March 3, 2022
+1 Also
March 1, 2022
But Boris (even today in Poland I think) was still wittering on about a faster transition to renewables to reduce reliance on Russian gas/coal. Can someone sensible like Lord Ridley, Peter Lilley with some sensible & honest experts not explain some reality to the scientifically/energy illiterate PM, most MPs, the deluded climate change committee dopes and Borisâs deluded wife Carrie?
In 2019 wind and solar (both very unreliable & intermittent too) between them supplied just 1.5% of the worldâs energy consumption (total not just electrical energy this is). Hydro supplied 2.6%, nuclear 1.7%, and all the rest some 94% came from burning things: coal, oil, gas, wood, and biofuels. It is not that much different today. We need to get fracking, drilling and mining and invest heavily in better nuclear and fusion R&D and energy saving measures when these are cost effective & sensible.
March 1, 2022
Solar and wind also create considerable CO2 in construction, maintenance, the cable links and the considerable usually gas back up required for the intermittency anyway.
March 2, 2022
And the Russians could blow up the cables using their drones. They have already been looking at the data cable off Ireland.
March 2, 2022
A big white thing standing out in the ocean with blades going around to draw attention to them would be very easy to destroy.
March 3, 2022
But it would not make the country uninhabitable for 1,000 years if it were destroyed.
March 1, 2022
I’ve just read your tweets. I visualise an election debate in a few years where a Labour candidate simply reads out your tweets to a Tory opponent. ‘That’s not US saying that – it is your own MPs. Why are we so dependent on energy from abroad? Do you think it is carbon free if we import it?
Reply Labour are against using more of our own energy!
March 1, 2022
Reply to reply: On 21/05/2021 Labour lost his call on banning fracking in England.
The question, I guess, is why a Government with a large majority is not moving on the fracking question, especially given the international circumstances.
How do you explain the slowness of reaction if the whole Government and Conservative Party is all for using more of our own energy?
The CUP waffling does not make much sense to a non-political eye, even more so when at the EU level, gas (and nuclear) are (almost) considered âgreenâ.
March 2, 2022
Carrie and Lord Greencrap don’t like. gas because it burns.
March 1, 2022
Reply to reply: But I think your correspondent credits them with some grey matter whereby they might twig more quickly than your bunch! It’s an open goal!
March 1, 2022
Given we need immediate supplies of gas because we have little storage facilities left, could we not ask the present suppliers to increase their sales from the North Sea to the UK, and not export 50% of it onto the World market.
Indeed do we have any clauses in the current agreement that say UK supplied first if requested, which I would have thought should be a very basic term and condition of a UK licence in the first place.
Yes by all means invest in nuclear but that is decades away, we need power now.
March 1, 2022
That’s counter-deregulation, old son.
March 1, 2022
Fracking for shale gas is the only plausible solution. However, we are being told that the exploratory wells are due to be concreted over. Sheer brilliance!
How on earth is this Government hoping to get away from using Russian based energy, plus bring down energy costs, when it refuses to engage with the only real solution in the short term.
Boris was also going on about ‘net zero’ in his speech today, highlighting he still hasn’t changed his spots on this subject. He is prepared to let the country go to rack and ruin to appease the minority ‘net zero’ campaigners (whom will never vote for him), whilst continuing to frustrate those that did. He also needs to stop appeasing the unelected Carrie Johnson – who seriously needs to curtail her unwanted meddling/lobbying in Government issues.
March 1, 2022
I heard on Talk radio yesterday a guy being interviewed who said that we only need 20% of the gas thatâs in the ground in Lancashire and apparently it will last the whole of the UK at least 50 years but someone in London said no to fracking due to the tremors it caused. I understand the people of Blackpool were very upset as they were thinking of the jobs it would create in the region – is this true?? If so what is going on?
March 1, 2022
Mark J – is there any hard evidence for that last sentence concerning Carrie?
March 1, 2022
IPSA has decided that the annual adjustment to MPsâ basic pay, they will therefore receive an increase of 2.7%, bringing the overall salary from ÂŁ81,932 to ÂŁ84,144 from 1 April 2022….should be enough to pay for the new gas bill
March 1, 2022
Very noticeable how you asked for “more” and she conveniently dodged that part of the question.
March 1, 2022
Elizabeth Truss, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office:
âWe also need to invest more in nuclear, which my right hon. Friend the Business Secretary is working on.â
According to the statement made by the Rt Hon Greg Hand MP, Minister of State BEIS, in the House on 22/02/2022 the Government âis aiming for a final investment decision for at least one more large scale nuclear project this Parliament subject to value for money and relevant approvalsâ
Is this it for nuclear?
One new plant operational by perhaps 2035 if weâre lucky?
We are closing by 2028 all our nuclear generators (total 7.8GW) except for Sizewell B (1.2GW) which is due to close in 2035, leaving us with only Hinkley Point C (3.2GW) which is still being built and due to open in 2026 if it is not delayed as 3 of its 4 predecessors of this design.
So by 2030 we will have just 4.4GW (reducing to 3.2GW by 2035) nuclear capacity out of an expected electricity demand of 60GW?
With all our electrical energy dependent upon âthe breezes that blow around these islandsâ (Conservative Party conference speech October 2020).
Economic suicide.
March 2, 2022
ROW builds Korean, Japanese, Russian in Finland and Chinese nukes in 7 years and much less expensive. If we invited tenders to build 10 reactors, it could be done in time.
March 1, 2022
Energy independence would be far more effective against Russia.
I wish Ms Truss had not said what she said about supporting fighters from Britain engaging Russian troops in Ukraine. It’s very close to saying it’s ‘in our name’ and it will not be lost on Putin that British special forces (retired or not), their military connections and expertise could be sneaked in this way.
It’s one thing doing it covertly but saying it openly ???
It’s definitely caused an escalation.
Perhaps sitting in the turret of a tank has gone to her head – or is it the general hysteria among a population, MSM and BBC that we may not realise what is really at stake until, perhaps, a demonstration of a nuclear warhead is performed over the Nth Sea ?
In a nation that was scared witless by flu they ain’t seen nothing yet.
March 1, 2022
“We certainly are committed…” We shall see but I have no confidence that commitment will be honoured.
March 2, 2022
Clearly the government has no intention of increasing the extraction from our fields. To say we will continue using them could easily mean reducing their use.
Government is a betrayer of our security.
March 2, 2022
JR: “Will the Government now allow and encourage more domestic production of oil and gas, to help reduce the cruel dependency of Europe on Russian energy?”
You really have embraced Orwell.
The commentariat on your blog have been railing against the Tories policies on energy, for at least fifteen years.
This disaster for Ukrane was entirely the fault of the West, Biden who was Vice president in 2014 and encouraged the ‘colour reveloution’ in that country.
Putin has warned the UK and USA that this would be the result of Western policy toward Russia.
But you infants in government, actually the Tory party under David Cameron started the insane ‘Green’ policies that have led us directly to our energy dependency on Russia – nothing wrong with that as long as we choose to coexist with Russia and agree her need for neutral states on her borders.
This tragic situation is entirely the fault of Joe Biden, Vice President during the Obama administration.
NATO was originally a defensive organisation in opposition to the Warsaw Pact. It was changed to a offensive outfit for the bombing of Serbia, and then Libya. That should never have happened. And now the poor peopole of Ukrane are suffering.
You and your party are directly responsible for the unnecessary deaths of innocent Ukranians.
You must be very proud.
March 3, 2022
+1
March 3, 2022
I feel one area for exploration is rapid increase of hydrogen, what does it take to allow excess energy generated when generation is > demand to be used to produce hydrogen which can then be stored and fed into our natural gas supply or directly used for gas intensive industries. This can then reduce the times when wind power is closed down so improving the return on wind investment