Public views of net zero

If someone believes the most pressing issue facing the planet is excess carbon dioxide, and if they believe each one of us and every country has to do more to prevent “climate disaster” you would expect them to vote Green, the one party who put this issue above others. They Ā demand much more is done immediately to bring about these changes and criticise the other parties programmes which allow continuing use of fossil fuels without the restrictions and tight shut down timetables Ā the Greens Ā would like.

In the 2019 General election in the U.K. just 2.7% of voters voted Green. In last week’s local elections the Greens were in seventh place in numbers of Councillors elected.

You would also expect those who want rapid action for fear of disaster to rip out their gas boilers and scrap or sell their petrol or diesel cars. Again, it is a tiny minority that has taken both these steps.

When I ask constituents for their views the overwhelming majority accept that CO 2 is a greenhouse gas. They are not sufficiently persuaded of the urgency to make a sacrifice to get rid of the car or find the big sum to replace the boiler. Some argue that all the Ā time India and China carry on expanding their coal based systems world CO 2 will rise whatever we do. A minority do not believe man made CO 2 will do the damage envisaged, or it may be offset by less sun intensity or water vapour and cloud changes or other variables. Many await better technology answers and cheaper and better products to help them eliminate their own CO 2. Today many see the price and availability of gas and oil as more pressing issues that concern them.

223 Comments

  1. Ian Wragg
    May 8, 2022

    Just this week we have had a new uk made high efficiency gas boiler heating an indirect water/heating system.
    The plumber recommended keeping the gravity system as he expects power cuts in the coming years. At least we have a store of hot and cold water.
    In August I will be purchasing a petrol car.
    That is what I think of net zero.
    I will also be denying you my vote until you stop this lunacy.

    1. Ian Wragg
      May 8, 2022

      BTW, it’s not a minority who don’t believe in CO2 being responsible for anything to do with climate. The vast majority think it’s a scam for tax purposes.

      1. Mark B
        May 8, 2022

        +1
        Of course it is a SCAM. It’s the only way they can bleed more money from us and into the coffers of their donors and mates legally.

        1. Lifelogic
          May 8, 2022

          One thing that is surely immoral currently is the very large increases in utility standing charges (in effect a per house poll tax). Poor people can cut down on usage, wear extra jumpers, sit under a duvet, heat just one small roomā€¦ but they can do nothing about these rip off standing charges.

          1. Mark
            May 8, 2022

            People who avoided the fly-by-night companies who went bankrupt through buying business at loss making prices without investing in hedges are being asked to pay for the consequent losses: that does not seem fair to me. Also, standing charges are rising because OFGEM has decided to load all the grid costs for extra transmission lines for connecting up wind farms and for system balancing costs and for beefing up local distribution cables and transformers to power EV chargers and heat pumps on to standing charges. Previously, wind farms had to pay a share of costs themselves, and the rest were spread over actual usage.

        2. Pauline Baxter
          May 8, 2022

          +1 That makes sense.

          1. Pauline Baxter
            May 8, 2022

            My reply was to Mark B. Giving taxpayers money to donors and mates of the con party.

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        May 8, 2022

        No, a majority didn’t believe that it was possible to make ships from metal once either.

        1. Hoof Hearted
          May 8, 2022

          And what happened when they didā€¦ā€¦.they didnā€™t have to rely on wind anymore, Hallelujah.

        2. SM
          May 8, 2022

          But think how environmentally polluting metal ships are!

          I’m waiting for some climate-change believers to recommend the re-introduction of wooden ships and galley-slaves.

          1. Pauline Baxter
            May 8, 2022

            Well SM we could use all the illegal immigrants as galley slaves!

          2. MFD
            May 8, 2022

            Dont worry SM , thats the direction they are trying to go. Unfortunately we Brexiteers have caused them to rething the plan- pity about that isnā€™t it?

        3. Lifelogic
          May 8, 2022

          Not hard to demonstrate in about a minute, using perhaps aluminium foil, that metal with air in the ā€œholdā€ floats. The ones that did not believe in metal ships are probably the same types of scientifically illiterates or religious fools who currently push net zero agenda, co2 devil gas religion and the climate emergency!

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            May 8, 2022

            The Leave voters of the day, yes.

        4. Peter2
          May 8, 2022

          That’s a very poor analogy NHL.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            May 8, 2022

            It isn’t an analogy at all, Peter.

          2. Peter2
            May 8, 2022

            It’s still very poor comparison however you want to define it NHL

      3. Lifelogic
        May 8, 2022

        +1 and the vast majority is correct. Alas in parliament the vast majority voted for the climate change act and support Theresa Mayā€™s (and Boris/Carrieā€™s) moronic net zero expensive unreliable energy agenda.

        Furthermore the ā€œsolutionsā€ the government push – wind, solar, storage, EV, hydrogen, heat pumpsā€¦ do not even really work not even in CO2 terms nor economic terms. Plus China, Russia, Indiaā€¦ will never cooperate anyway. Finally CO2 is not a serious problem nor a climate runaway emergency anyway. Indeed a bit more CO2 and even slightly warmer is a net positive. On this as with the EU the public are right and government (almost all parties) wrong.

        Just watched good new interview with Michael Portillo at the Cambridge Union on Youtube. He get things mainly right. Especially on the need for freedom of speech especially at Cambridge and Universities.

      4. Pauline Baxter
        May 8, 2022

        Ian Wragg. Well said.
        I was surprised to be told the majority believed carbon dioxide was responsible for global warming.
        I thought even today enough people still had sufficient common sense and scientific knowledge to realise that carbon dioxide is a harmless and beneficial gas.
        It is obviously a SCAM.
        I had not realised it is for tax purposes.

        1. Mactheknife
          May 9, 2022

          Its not about tax as such, although our utility bills contain about 25% of green taxation in the form of Renewables Obligations. You can consider these legalised theft.

          The real purpose behind the climate lobby is redistribution of wealth. The socialists know that socialism worldwide is dying, so they need a different vehicle to pursue their aims. Just listen to all the talk of ‘climate debt’ by the west’s leaders after COP 26, even as far back as when Gordon Brown after the Copenhagen summit called for 100Bn to be paid to Africa as ‘climate debt’.

          Twenty five years ago the UN unanimously declared that ‘global warming’ existed and formed the IPCC to ram home that message and force governments into policy changes and financial commitments to various parts of the world. Sensible scientific voices have been silenced by other scientists who are after the hundreds of millions governments are spending on research each year.

          Its all a self fulfilling prophesy and it seems the once sceptical Bojo is now a full fledged member of the hair shirted sandal wearing brigade.

          1. Paul Cuthbertson
            May 10, 2022

            Just ask yourself where the billions contributed to the Paris Climate Accord are spent. Climate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    2. Sharon
      May 8, 2022

      Ian

      That is what Iā€™ve been reading others have done or will do.

      My son is having gas central heating fitted to his flat tomorrow, because canā€™t sell it without!

    3. Ajay Gajree
      May 8, 2022

      I’m with you

      The Tories cannot expect the vote any actual conservatives until they drop the democracy free Climate Agenda they are foisting on the Country

    4. glen cullen
      May 8, 2022

      Youā€™ll never see a ā€˜heat pumpā€™ fitted in Westminster

      1. Jim Whitehead
        May 8, 2022

        GC, +1, that’s a nice ‘smack of wet fish in the face’ to the posturing protagonists of the ridiculous.

      2. alan jutson
        May 8, 2022

        Glen

        I think they will, because remember its not at their expense, it is at ours, likewise the running costs, if they are cold because it is inefficeint they will simply turn up the thermostat, or switch on additional sources of power/heating, again not at their expense.
        Virtue signalling is great and all the rage, especially if you do not have to pay for it !

    5. alan jutson
      May 8, 2022

      Ian
      Indeed the problem is actually the government policy itself.
      None of us have a clue as to how many more taxes are going to be lumped onto us under the excuse of net Zero in the future, so thus trying to figure out what is a sensible investment as a replacement for time expired cars, heating systems, and fuel choice has become farcical.
      When Councils start to tax people different rates for Parking a car at different rates per hour (whilst it is parked, and when emissions are zero) based on its emissions when running, we really have lost the plot. Likewise Towns and City’s imposing different rates and rules on emission Zones and categories of vehicles.
      With the goalposts moving every week, how can anyone make any sensible decisions about anything.
      One thing is for sure, one way or another we are being fleeced by government decree, and by Ministers who do not have a clue !

      1. Paul Cuthbertson
        May 10, 2022

        AJ – Your Final paragraph. Follow the money. How many in the HoC really care about YOU?

    6. graham1946
      May 8, 2022

      And I will keep my multifuel/wood burner as cuts are a certainty. It was put in in the first place for the same reason – our sub-station was built 12 feet below ground level in a pit and every time it rained hard it blew up. It is now at ground level and electricity is now mainly reliable, but for how long with too much demand and not enough supply?

    7. Fedupsoutherner
      May 8, 2022

      Ian. I’ve also recently bought a petrol car. I said to my husband today that perhaps we should think about buying another oil boiler for when ours breaks down and also parts for it.

      1. miami.mode
        May 8, 2022

        You need to be careful there fus. In 2005 when it became a legal obligation to fit condensing gas boilers it was more or less impossible to find a gas fitter who would fit a non-condensing boiler. The rules on boilers may change in the future.

  2. Mark B
    May 8, 2022

    Good morning.

    Many people want to be ‘Green’ and kind to the environment. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is, whilst they are happy to do their bit, it must come at either very low, or zero cost to them. The government is right to make this an important issue, however, to what extent it goes forward is a matter of some debate. And it is here that I have a problem. So far we really have only one side of this debate, the Climate Change fanatics (and they are fanatics) and the Net Zero Zealots. All other arguments are either suppressed or marginalised with even the most basic common sense arguments ignored or ridiculed.

    When CO2 was first being mooted as a Greenhouse Gas I looked at what percentage of the atmosphere it made up. I, at the time, thought that CO2 was the third most popular gas in the atmosphere, but I was wrong. To my surprise, not only was is not the third most popular gas, it also made up such as small amount that I thought; “Hmmm. There is something fishy going on here ?” In short, I became better informed and more sceptical. Things just did not make sense.

    My point is this. People simply do not have ALL the facts to make an informed and reasonable decision. And government clearly has not done due diligence on this matter and has, without mandate, embarked on a course that is very destructive to mine and to other people’s lives. The so called ‘science’ is not settled, far from it. Ice core samples from glaciers from Greenland have proved that there has been far higher levels of CO2 in our atmosphere than now and no one has or will discuss what caused the last Ice Age.

    Like many things I believe this SCAM is being used as cover more more nefarious purposes.

    1. Sharon
      May 8, 2022

      Plus 100, Mark B

    2. Peter Wood
      May 8, 2022

      The ‘other side of the argument’, quite so, where is it?

      Reasons to be sceptical,
      1. We hear most fervent arguments from politicians, trying to sound like scientists.
      2. We are told we must keep the temperature rise to under 1.5 deg. C above ‘pre-industrial’ temeperature, sometime about the 1850’s. Precise, exact – not so much, and just by coincidence near to the end of the ‘litte ice-age’.
      3. We know how to remove CO2 from the atmosphere – GROW MORE of anything with green leaves. Not so difficult or expensive.

    3. George Brooks.
      May 8, 2022

      Your first paragraph says it all Mark B and if those two factions got their way we would have the country back as it was in 1945/6. The whole approach is so ludicrous it has to be a scam and tax trap!!!!!!!!

    4. MFD
      May 8, 2022

      Yes +1 x 100% Mark.

    5. IanT
      May 8, 2022

      Carbon dioxide is about 0.04% of the atmosphere, with made-made carbon being about 3% of that.

      The UK produces about 1% of global emissions, although this is of course a nonsense when we’ve been busy exporting our manufacturing (and jobs) overseas – and with them our carbon emissions. So the numbers begin to be vanishingly small when you work them out. Also, unless the large emitters do something about it, there is no point in breaking our backs (and economy) to make virtually zero difference.
      So I’m not against taking sensible measure to reduce carbon but I can see no sense at all in focusing on renewables without the ability to produce base power (when the wind don’t blow) – nor to do crazy things like going EV before we have the ability to charge them all.
      I have purchased two new ICE cars over the past 20 years, covering about 160K mikes in that time. I’ve just purchased another ICE car and will keep it for at least 7-8 years. My carbon footprint is lower than if I’d leased 4-5 EVs over that time – given that (according to Volvo) I need to drive about 52K miles in an EV before the extra carbon used in building an EV exceeds that of an ICE vehicle.
      So by all means reduce carbon using sensible measures (e.g. when they become available) and that make overall good sense. We are in an energy crisis because of a withdrawal of investment because of Government and ESG pressures – so no sense or foresight there – and it’s costing us dearly.
      Let’s have some coherent thinking from Government…

    6. alan jutson
      May 8, 2022

      +1

    7. David Cooper
      May 8, 2022

      Indeed, and we can add a further important point here, namely the fact that the UK’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is 0.04%, the vast majority being caused naturally and almost all of the remainder being caused by the likes of China and India who will pay lip service to targets and ignore them. Here in the UK, do we really need to be made cold, poor, hungry, dirty, immobile, bored and controlled in order for the governing elite to claim they are setting an example?

    8. BOF
      May 8, 2022

      +1 Mark B Proper debate has been shut down by an extreme minority. The question is, how have so many supposedly intellegant people among our law makers swallowed this scam, hook line and sinker?

      Also,.I have read that the Roman Warm was up to 4 degrees warmer than today. How did they servive to conquer Europe and build an empire?

      1. APL
        May 8, 2022

        BOF: “The question is, how have so many supposedly intellegant people among our law makers swallowed this scam, hook line and sinker?”

        Claus Schwab interview @2017:
        Schwab: “What we are really proud of now, is that young generation like Justine Trudeau err, the president of Argentina and so on, So we penetrate ze cabinets. So yesterday I was at a reception for Prime minister Treadeau and I know that half his cabinet or even more are for our, actually young global leaders of ze world economic forum”.

        Interviewer: “It is true in Argintina too”.

        Schwab: “It’s true in Argintina and it’s true in France now.

    9. Pauline Baxter
      May 8, 2022

      Yes Mark B.
      It is not only a scam. it is a GLOBAL SCAM.

      1. Sharon
        May 8, 2022

        My daughter and I spoke this morning, she in Sydney, Australia. She told me interest rates have gone up this week, and people are worried the country might go into recession. Hmmm!

        Isnā€™t that exactly what happened here, this week? In lock step again?

    10. Your comment is awaiting moderation
      May 8, 2022

      “Proper debate has been shut down by an extreme minority.”
      Exactly, if they had a sound case they wouldn’t be so afraid of debating it.
      When the Climate Gate emails were released they were enraged at the fact that the emails had been leaked but didn’t even acknowledge the obvious fraud that had been exposed.

      1. Sharon
        May 8, 2022

        Why can I see somebody elseā€™s comment awaiting comment?

        Sharon

        1. miami.mode
          May 8, 2022

          Sharon, it’s his/her nom de plume.

    11. Paul Cuthbertson
      May 10, 2022

      Mark B – Control of the masses, WEF agenda. Boris openly wears the badge. Your government does not care about you. The whole system is rotten to the core.

  3. DOM
    May 8, 2022

    Good morning

    The electorate don’t have a say. Their views are simply irrelevant. Their role is to finance their own subjugation through the payment of taxes to a political organisation that has embraced authoritarianism

    This brutal, fascist politics that we are seeing comes from above and appears to encompass all areas of human existence including environment, consumption, identity, mind, psychology, voice and the very nature of being

    John and his party accept the climate change narrative. They are at one with the views of Extinction Rebellion

    Reply I do not follow the net zero narrative

    1. R.Grange
      May 8, 2022

      Agreed, Dom. Someone believing in net zero can happily vote Conservative, given how keen this government is on implementing it. And don’t let anyone tell you it’s a national not not a local issue, For example in Wokingham Agenda 2030 is very much a local issue, promoted by a Conservative councillor with responsibility for ‘greening’ the borough in various ways. No need to vote Green with people like that already in power. True, the Tories have lost their majority here, but that won’t change the green agenda, as the LibDems are bent on the same pointless and expensive ‘carbon neutral’ policy objectives.

      1. Mickey Taking
        May 8, 2022

        we had a clear view of wilding, or greening if some prefer, yesterday driving along Henley”s Fairmile.
        What was maintained, regularly mowed, well planted with regular beds of brilliant daffs, has now been abandoned to nature. A mile of foot high weeds -looking anything but an advert for Henley-on-Thames.
        Here is the future…

        1. alan jutson
          May 8, 2022

          MT

          The fields will look like this as well if we are not careful, instead of farmers planting crops they will re-wild if the subsidy pays enough, then we will need to import food from abroad, causing even more World wide pollution, thus even less food productive areas as more re-wilding becomes necessary to compensate etc, etc,
          Only a nutter would think this is a sensible policy.
          Saves the Council money for not cutting the grass though, even if signage and road views at Junctions are compromised.

          1. turboterrier
            May 8, 2022

            Alan Jutson

            Spent a few days walking in Wales near to the Breco Beacons..
            Never seen so badly maintained fields full of dandelions, buttercups and doc leaves Too infected to be any good for spillage. Farms where once there was 350 diary herd all gone and the farmers using out buildings for engineering and prefabricated building manufacturing.

      2. graham1946
        May 8, 2022

        I think I have said previously, our council is also bent on the ‘green’ stuff. It is akin to the ‘ban the bomb’ days when local councils declared themselves ‘nuclear free zones’ forgetting that bombs don’t differentiate. Why can’t local councillors get on with making sure the bins are emptied, the roads swept. planning is done quickly etc. Playing politics is for the professionally deluded in Westminster and even they are not very good at it.

        1. glen cullen
          May 8, 2022

          +1

    2. Lester_Cynic
      May 8, 2022

      Reply to reply

      Iā€™ve got the distinct impression that you do support the CC narrative!

      Or possibly more accurately described as Fence Sitting

      Reply If you are interested in my views you should read them first. In my treatments of CC theory I have set out the criticisms of it and have never made the case for it. I have worked from the fact that governments not only believe the theory but act on it.

      1. Lester_Cynic
        May 8, 2022

        You could have fooled me šŸ˜‚

    3. Hope
      May 8, 2022

      JR, do not allow it then, get rid of Carrie from office. Cummings view of him spot on. Johnson did not think like this when writing in the DT, quite the reverse he ridiculed those greenies.

      You condone his actions by leaving him in office. He broke the law and your party fined for his wifeā€™s wallpaper scandal, he broke the law for partying while locking down the nation- his top advisor and leading minister ignoring all laws and rules by shagging outside marriage vows!

      He is now embarked on many policy issues never given a mandate and broke many key manifesto promises to get votes! He continually lies on major issues like Brexit which got him in office and lied over Border down Irish Sea, checks on goods, breaking up our union with N.Ireland and annexing so EU and RoI can take part of our country! Gave up our fishing waters to the French while lying to say the opposite and now wants to pretend to be a leader over Ukraine when he ran away and sold out people in Afghanistan, preferring to save dogs than humans- according to civil servant whistle blower.

      Johnson is out of control. The nation cannot trust a word or any action of his.his answer to any problem increase taxes no matter how it is spent! We cannot afford the lying idiot any longer.

      Reply The Pm chooses his own wife. I have no power to ask her to do anything.

      1. Pauline Baxter
        May 8, 2022

        NO it is a reply to JR’s reply to Hope.
        Carrie, now Johnson, should not have been allowed into No 10, when she was just the Prime Minister’s MISTRESS.
        That point was made at the time.

        1. Hope
          May 8, 2022

          JR if he goes she goes. That simple.

    4. Jim Whitehead
      May 8, 2022

      DOM, +1,
      “the overwhelming majority accept that CO2 is a greenhouse gas”
      As long as we all fund the propaganda of the BBC why ever should the majority of the public understand and believe anything but that tendentious mantra?

      1. John Hatfield
        May 8, 2022

        Well said Jim.

      2. Your comment is awaiting moderation
        May 8, 2022

        The BBC have been peddling AGW fake news for many years and they will not provide a platform to dissidents.
        In return the government maintain the BBC Licence despite making pronouncements to the contrary.

    5. Philip P.
      May 9, 2022

      This goes way beyond Johnson and his missus. Cameron’s Green Investment Bank initiative kickstarted The ‘greentech’ sector in Britain ten years ago. It took forward the green agenda ‘helping to leverage private investment into delivering a global low carbon economy’, as its website said. The objective was made clear from the start. Tory policy for years has been to effect behavioural change in this country towards green ideology so that market opportunities are created for new eco-technologies. A niche had to be created for them, and the media, the universities and other opinion-formers have ensured that that has happened. The young and gullible have been indoctrinated and their mindset as consumers will serve to determine the direction of travel. The Stock Exchange is all signed-up to the green revolution, of course. So let’s not delude ourselves that a change of PM would make any difference to the agenda.

      1. Paul Cuthbertson
        May 10, 2022

        Philip P – WEF Agenda.

  4. Nigl
    May 8, 2022

    Your last sentence, absolutely spot on as wind farm subsidies cost me ā€˜Ā£200ā€™ per year for 8% production. Your cabinet colleagues are akin to an all powerful brainwashed sect unable and unwilling to see the reality and prepared to spout the lies of those they worship, starting with their ā€˜Shamanā€™ Boris.

    And in other news I see Gove desperately trying to avoid criticising said Boris, is blaming your electoral disaster on failing to solve the housing crisis.

    He needs to get out more. For me, and everyone I speak to, it is Johnson why I voted against you and his lies/broken promises.

    If housing was an issue to vote against you, it would because of your obsession with ruining the Countryside in an already crowded south east and failure to deal with vast numbers of illegals pushing up demand.

    1. Richard II
      May 8, 2022

      In the Wokingham Borough local elections the Tory vote dropped badly in wards with excessive new housing dumped on them. It held up in wards that have been spared large numbers of extra houses. Not sure if that’s what Gove meant, but this is how the local Conservatives are ‘addressing the housing crisis’. It doesn’t seem to be working very well for them, though.

      1. Mark
        May 8, 2022

        Perhaps the new homes don’t house Tory voters: small homes on modern estates that are the likely slums of the future strike me as ways to pack the vote with others.

    2. Shirley M
      May 8, 2022

      If Gove believes there is a housing crisis, why doesn’t he speak up against mass immigration?

      Will we end up like China, or Hong Kong. All high rise with 3 generations living together in a 2 to 3 bed apartment. We can’t afford hotels for everyone, least of all these uninvited guests. When all the hotels are full, where will tourists to the UK stay, or will we lose our tourist trade because of the government policy to house immigrants in hotels? I assume the hotels had some trade before they were taken over by government, so what has happened to that trade now that travel has been restored?

      1. turboterrier
        May 8, 2022

        Shirley M

        Economic Migrants should be lifted from the channel and flown to the Falklands to be processed. Its British that would stop the legal sharks and silly protesters. That would stop the dingy invaders. Take away their place to hide.

        1. MFD
          May 8, 2022

          Turbo, I would not wish that on the Brits in the Falklands.
          It would be better if we told Mini Macron that for evert 10 illegals he misses we will cancel one French fishing licence , that solves two problems in one stroke

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            May 8, 2022

            Oh, how I’d love to see the results of that.

            Do you recall the little – trifling in fact – matter over which Operation Stack was necessary?

          2. Peter2
            May 8, 2022

            Operation Stack was a sensible precaution in case the stroppy French played us up.
            It turned out it was far less than you project fear extremists predicted.

          3. Nottingham Lad Himself
            May 9, 2022

            It was over a few fishing boats and a tiny area of inshore waters, nothing more.

            And the poster wants full-scale economic war with France.

            Normal people would just enjoy the laugh.

          4. Peter2
            May 9, 2022

            Does he really NHL?
            Roll over and let France have their way?
            Or stand up for our own interests.
            You need to decide which side you are on.

      2. APL
        May 8, 2022

        Shirley M: “If Gove believes there is a housing crisis, why doesnā€™t he speak up against mass immigration?”

        Bingo!

      3. Your comment is awaiting moderation
        May 8, 2022

        “If Gove believes there is a housing crisis, why doesnā€™t he speak up against mass immigration?”
        A very good point!

    3. a-tracy
      May 8, 2022

      Borisā€™ manifesto promise was not to increase NI – he broke it, Sunak part overturned his NI increase decision for the lowest paid (that didnā€™t break through to the public that it will be reversed in July and some of them will even be better off) and thats what broke him, not ā€˜partygateā€™. He should have fought that birthday cake fine it was a work food event for him too, if Carrie broke it by coming out of the private apartments with her designer and wanted to pay then good for her she was the one that did wrong, Iā€™m beginning to feel she is out to kibosh Boris and has been from Boris getting elected, remember the row in the flat that blew up when they were dating, one day sheā€™ll take him to the cleaners, my biggest problem with Boris is that he makes poor choices of personal secretary (a supposed senior that knows the rules and stops bad news potential from affecting the PM), his spads – what have they achieved – most of them resigned over their boozing ways at work (other poor choices of the PM). He needs some solid sensible people around him like JR – Iā€™ll know Boris means change will happen when people like JR and Philip Hollobone get roles to advice the PM because heā€™s made enough mistakes now on silly matters that anyone else would see coming from a mile away.

    4. Hope
      May 8, 2022

      Nigel,
      Johnson has failed to work out net zero cannot be achieved or entertained while pursuing a year on year mass immigration policy!
      JR and chums know what he is doing and condones it.

      Reply I condone no such thing

      1. Hope
        May 8, 2022

        Get rid of him then. You previously wrote of support of him and his partying ways. Make your mind up.

    5. Lifelogic
      May 8, 2022

      ā€˜to solve the housing crisisā€™ is very simple you just allow more houses to be built or you have fewer people.

      1. APL
        May 8, 2022

        Lifelogic: “you just allow more houses to be built or you have fewer people.”

        We have built more houses, but the demand for them is unlimited as long as mass imigration continues to increase. It’s so obvious, I can only imagine our MPs have each fallen out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down, then landed on their head.

  5. Javelin
    May 8, 2022

    The public view of NetZero s that the GreenParty have persuaded politicians there is imminent ice age, sorry global warming, sorry climate change, sorry climate emergency.

    University Researchers have rebranded their Grant Application of jollies to Antarctica more often than Political Party relaunches.

    1. formula57
      May 8, 2022

      @ Javelin – true, and more often than some well-known alleged war criminals rebranded their justifications for the Iraq War. Liars are always revealed through the number of times they change their stories.

  6. Everhopeful
    May 8, 2022

    Supposing there is a problem with CO2.
    Who has caused it?
    Not us.
    We just did as we were told.
    And now, yet again the ā€œgovernmentā€ wants to upend our lives.
    Who profited from the factories and mines and wars?
    Who has obliterated our countryside with houses and overfilled our roads with cars?
    Not us guv!!

  7. Shirley M
    May 8, 2022

    I do not believe the myth of climate change being caused by CO2. I do believe we have to find alternatives to fossil fuels, but we are far from the panic stage and we need viable alternatives before we abandon fossil fuels. The government ignores these myths and basic human requirements in their eagerness to virtue signal that Boris is ‘saving the world’ and to hell with the consequences for the UK.

    Boris may be popular with the world, after all he saves them a lot of trouble and cost and is eliminating their UK competition for them by pricing our goods out of the market with his high energy costs and high taxes, and also taking thousands of their young self entitled unskilled labour who maybe riot and set fire to things causing untold expense. If the masses of illegal immigrants coming to our shores were doctors, nurses and highly skilled workers (as the liberals try to claim) then they wouldn’t need to enter illegally would they? They would probably have automatic entry under the points system which is disgustingly low anyway in order to attract more immigration … if we are short of those skills. If we are not short of those skills then KICK THEM OUT and use the money they are costing us in benefits to help UK people.

    I still think they are deliberately destroying the UK in order to destroy Brexit and take us back into the EU. Our history, our lifestyle, our way of life, even our language, is all under threat. They are deliberately removing our ‘britishness’ so we all become ‘anywhere’s’ in preparation for EU federalism. Mass immigration of ‘diversity’ is/was the first stage and they have now commenced destroying everything traditionally British and preparing us proles for poverty on a grand scale.

    1. Denis Cooper
      May 8, 2022

      It’s “Brexit dysfunction”, you see:

      https://www.bestforbritain.org/uk_s_future_uncertain_as_brexit_dysfunction_puts_s_nn_f_in_on_top

      “UKā€™S FUTURE UNCERTAIN AS BREXIT DYSFUNCTION PUTS SƍNN FƉIN ON TOP”

      I’d say it’s not “Brexit dysfunction” but “political dysfunction”, extending to all the main political parties, and what Brexit has done is to expose the severity of that generalised dysfunction. It is why we now have Boris Johnson as Prime Minister and Hilary Benn of the infamous “Benn Act” is still in Parliament.

      1. Mark B
        May 9, 2022

        Correct !

    2. Lifelogic
      May 8, 2022

      ā€œIf the masses of illegal immigrants coming to our shores were doctors, nurses and highly skilled workersā€ if you believe the BBC you would think they all were!

      CO2 is just one of millions of factors that affect the climate and far from the largest not even the largest so called ā€œgreenhouseā€ gas which is water vapour. Many are not even known nor predictable. Sun spot activity, volcanic activity, genetic changes in plants and crops, innovation in energy production & agriculture, populationsā€¦

    3. Pauline Baxter
      May 8, 2022

      Shirley M. Boris is deliberately destroying the UK – YES, he is certainly doing that.
      But it is not to take us back into the EU.
      It is to please his GLOBALIST masters. (or Carrie’s.)

  8. Disgusted voter
    May 8, 2022

    It wouldnā€™t surprise me if the civil service are deliberately awarding uk government contracts overseas using net zero as an excuse. Good grief, we do not even print our own passports anymore. And the government allow it.

    Disgraceful.

    1. Lifelogic
      May 8, 2022

      Indeed a policy of exporting jobs and whole high energy industries to fiddle the figures and a rigged energy market – total insanity. Importing wood on diesel ships and trucks to burn at Drax yet another con trick. Wood is far worse than coal not better per KWH delivered.

      1. graham1946
        May 8, 2022

        Importing wood – I agree. However, I don’t agree about wood being worse than coal for heat. When I burn dry logs in my multifuel burner they put out much more heat than the smokeless coal available these days. I use a mixture because the coal stays in longer (overnight) and needs less topping up, but the wood is certainly much hotter. I have no scientific knowledge, just 40 years of using wood in a log burner.

  9. BOF
    May 8, 2022

    2.7% of electors voted green. You need look no further Sir John, Joe Public is not convinced. Climate Change, Net Zero, Global Warming, all a gigantic scam and perhaps you should ask how virtually all parliamentarians have been taken in. But we are taxed beyond all reason to pay for a scam.

    CO2. .04% of the atmosphere, a minor trace gas. As they say in the US, go figure.

    1. Lifelogic
      May 8, 2022

      CO2 an essential fuel for plants, seaweed, trees, crops, food and life. The source of all the oxygen we and animals all breath.

      1. Lifelogic
        May 8, 2022

        Any Questions yesterday had Bim Afolami MP, Dame Margaret Beckett MP, Helen Morgan MP, Matthew Parris (who loved the Cameron/Clegg Coalition). All remainers all save Beckett (metalurgy) Art graduates, all left wing, all supporters of net zero so all typically BBC think.

        Asked about Labour policies Beckett highlighted a ā€œgreen industrial revolutionā€. Chris Mason (who is rather brighter that a typical BBC presenter) asked what is that? Beckett had no coherent reply. Bim was at least against an energy windfall tax but the only one. Parris can sometimes be slightly amusing but he has been wrong on almost everything all his life and still is. One caller in on Any Answers even wanted Theresa May back!

      2. BOF
        May 8, 2022

        +1. LL CO2 is essential.

      3. acorn
        May 8, 2022

        “Climate changeā€™s negative effects on plants will likely outweigh any gains from elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels”.
        https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ask-the-experts-does-rising-co2-benefit-plants1/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CA%20higher%20concentration%20of%20carbon,increased%20plant%20growth%2C%E2%80%9D%20Rep.

        You won’t find many climate change denialists in the global Insurance and Reinsurance business. The big worry for them is rising Ocean Heat Content (OHC) causing volume expansion and hence sea level rise (200 mm since 1900). OHC is responsible for bigger and more frequent Hurricanes. “The $5 trillion insurance industry faces a reckoning. Blame climate change.” https://www.vox.com/22686124/climate-change-insurance-flood-wildfire-hurricane-risk

        1. Original Richard
          May 8, 2022

          acorn :

          200mm in 122 years or 1.6mm/year is not a crisis and in fact in northern Europe where they were covered by an ice sheet during the last ice age – which ended just 10,000 years ago ā€“ the coastal sea levels are even falling as the land is still slowly rising as a result of the weight of the ice sheet having been removed.

          The accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) calculated by the US National and Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) since 1970 do not show any ā€œbigger and more frequent hurricanesā€ in either the southern or northern hemispheres.

        2. Lifelogic
          May 8, 2022

          “You wonā€™t find many climate change denialists in the global Insurance and Reinsurance business” well it is a good excuse to increase premiums for them.

          I do not deny “climate change” the climate changes always has always will. Remember millions of people already live below sea level. What I deny is any climate emergency. The climate alarmists, net zero priests are the real danger. They want us to spend Ā£trillions now on nonsense to perhaps (but probably not) save lives in 100 years time! Adapt as needed and save lives now I say. See perhaps “How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place (2013) by Bjorn Lomborg”

          1. Jim Whitehead
            May 8, 2022

            $75 billion, isnā€™t that less than twice the cost of Test and Trace?

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 8, 2022

      What did the Reform Party poll in the recent elections?

      1. Shirley M
        May 8, 2022

        There were no candidates to vote for, else I would have done. Have you checked the results in your own area? All candidates are listed, even if they didn’t get a single vote.

      2. Lester_Cynic
        May 8, 2022

        NLH

        Probably had something to do with the fact that they didnā€™t have any candidates?

        1. hefner
          May 8, 2022

          There must have been some candidates somewhere as the ā€˜overall cumulative results for Englandā€™ show that UKIP lost three councillors but Reform got two.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            May 9, 2022

            Yes, I wonder why they didn’t field more?

    3. acorn
      May 8, 2022

      There again, if you were breathing air with 0.04% Chlorine gas in it, you would be dead in 12 minutes. Just because it’s small doesn’t mean it can’t hurt you.

      1. Barbara
        May 8, 2022

        Where your argument falls down is that CO2 is not poisonous at those levels.

      2. Lifelogic
        May 8, 2022

        No but it is not Chlorine is is it is CO2 which is inert and harmless? The air we all exhale is nearly 4% CO2!

      3. John C.
        May 8, 2022

        Very true; but absolutely irrelevant.

      4. Peter2
        May 8, 2022

        Yet when CO2 is spoken about, its effect it is said to be phenomenon.
        acorn
        You are trying to argue both sides.

      5. Nottingham Lad Himself
        May 8, 2022

        There is of the order of a thousand times less ozone in the atmosphere than there is CO2.

        However, without its blocking UV, life would really struggle here.

        1. Peter2
          May 8, 2022

          That prediction of doom never came true NHL

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            May 9, 2022

            Precisely because the countries of the world followed the scientists and greatly reduced CFC emissions.

            And you want to abandon that approach for CO2.

          2. Peter2
            May 9, 2022

            Oh that’s what cured this ozone hole.
            Amazing.
            For centuries we were unable to even see nor measure this hole.

  10. Sea_Warrior
    May 8, 2022

    O/T, but I see that we are to ‘donate’ another Ā£1.3 bn to Ukraine, with the money coming out of our ’emergency reserves’ – so, presumably, adding to our deficit. Johnson is again spending like a drunken sailor to try and make good the damage done . Perhaps Ukraine should be told to start issuing war bonds – like we had to in WW2. ‘Donations’ should come out of the foreign aid budget.

    1. glen cullen
      May 8, 2022

      We’ve welcomed 37,000 Ukraine refugees into our country, it’ll be interesting after the settlement of war how many return to Ukraine

  11. agricola
    May 8, 2022

    So why is the conservative party in the Commons allowing Boris to push it down our throats at calamitous expense both financial and political. We are being herded into paying the highest level of taxation and levy in history to pay for the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere from 0.04% where it has been for ever to what, even in the knowledge that plant life is dependant on it. There are much more accessable targets to cleanup the planet and reduce the medical consequences of not doing it but for lobbying and vested interests.

    1. acorn
      May 8, 2022

      “… CO2 in the atmosphere from 0.04% where it has been for ever …” Don’t think so!
      https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

  12. Donna
    May 8, 2022

    I don’t believe a sizeable proportion of the Establishment believe the “Climate Crisis” scaremongering, any more than they believed the Covid propaganda they were instrumental in hyping up.

    But I DO believe that a sizeable proportion of the Establishment enjoy lecturing “the little people;” get considerable satisfaction from the ability to order them about and really don’t like them having personal autonomy. And I DO believe another sizeable proportion of the Establishment see an opportunity to acquire a great deal more money, with very little effort required, out of the Eco scam.

    In short …. I believe the Establishment’s obsession is about control; and self-interest. It has nothing to do with the climate. And I also believe the Establishment is enjoying watching the public being massively inconvenienced by the Eco Extremists’ “protests” ….. it’s part of their “nudge” strategy. Otherwise they’d take real action to prevent it.

    I will be replacing my very efficient gas boiler a year or so before the arrogant Eco Loons ban them. And the same with my small petrol car. And I won’t be voting for any Party that is advocating banning perfectly good products on the alter of Net Zero.

    We didn’t vote for socialism or green lunacy in 2019. We voted for conservatism, as did I. Since I didn’t get what I voted for, what on earth would be the point of voting for it next time? The LibDems are the main opposition in the west country. They will deliver the socialism and green lunacy Johnson has imposed on us through his electoral scam.

  13. James1
    May 8, 2022

    Really quite astonishing why otherwise sane people believe or profess to believe the climate emergency nonsense. You would have thought that all the dire warnings issued in the past by the zealot blob about how we have X number of ā€œmonths to save the planetā€ having come to nothing would have given some pause. Perhaps net zero intelligence plays a part.

  14. Peter
    May 8, 2022

    Globalists want Net Zero.

    The Green Party are irrelevant.

  15. BeebTax
    May 8, 2022

    Many people have been brainwashed into uncritically accepting and supporting green views, including net zero. Others hesitate to question things aloud for fear of social ostracism. But I do detect some changes now, as the cost of fuel and energy has risen. Itā€™s starting to dawn on many people, even the formerly convinced, that the cost of living increase is not just down to Covid, or Putin and that energy costs really matter.

    If we can open up public discourse on net zero and hammer home the costs of it, then there are a lot of people out there who would soon start saying publicly they do not want to go so far, so fast.

  16. Straight Talker
    May 8, 2022

    You 2 per cents have a lot to answer for.

  17. glen cullen
    May 8, 2022

    Green issues and climate change has been rammed down our throats every day by the media and politicians for decades and especially during cop26 under this governmentā€¦.as yet when given the chance to vote ā€˜greenā€™ only 2% of people voted for the green party
    There is no mandate for ā€˜net-zeroā€™ and its isnā€™t democratic to continue with policies that arenā€™t supported by the people

  18. Narrow Shoulders
    May 8, 2022

    Good to see this in writing in a political blog.

    Shame you are using constituents’ views to bring forth the agenda. There would be more weight if you had written that you agree with your constituents.

    This is the next big battle, worryingly we have not yet really won the last one as we are still in thrall to and influenced massively by EU rules

    reply I have made clear my view that the U.K. is cutting its CO2 only to import higher CO 2 content energy and products which is wrong. I have also said they need to produce green products that are better and affordable as the current ones do not meet with approval. I have championed the continuing need for gas and to extract more U.K. oil and gas!

    1. Narrow Shoulders
      May 8, 2022

      Reply to reply – you have indeed Sir John but to date no traction has been gained. The phrase “and I agree with my constituents” within the final paragraph would have given it more weight.

      The siren voices of net-zero drown out any attempt to discuss the practicalities (similar to the benefits of the EEC/EU always being said to outweigh the disadvantages, similar to the benefits of immigration always being extolled and the downsides being racist rantings). We need to start speaking out against the whole net zero doctrine not just the practicalities.

      Reply There is change. Look at the breakthrough on production of domestic gas and oil

      1. Shirley M
        May 8, 2022

        Well said, NS. We are bullied and silenced by the noisy minorities who go to extreme lengths to prevent counter arguments and intelligent debate.

      2. Narrow Shoulders
        May 8, 2022

        If there has indeed been a breakthrough Sir John, it will be a temporary stay until policy makers can reverse it.

        The doctrine of net zero (and our policy of outsourcing our carbon production) seems to take precedence over everything, including industry and the economy.

        It is the doctrine that needs slaying. Reduced pollution – yes, net zero – madness

  19. Shirley M
    May 8, 2022

    Another Ā£1.3bn of UK aid heading to Ukraine! Boris will be giving them the food off our plates next … if we have any food! Boris appears to be doing his best to discourage or prevent UK food production!

  20. Dave Andrews
    May 8, 2022

    I like to be kind to the planet too. The Greens however seem quite happy for concrete, cement and bricks to be made and houses built, the immigrants from hot countries piling into the UK where their winter warmth then depends on the burning of fossil fuels.
    Perhaps people don’t vote for the Greens for the same reason I don’t – because they are phoneys!

    1. graham1946
      May 8, 2022

      That’s a good point. Why do we continue the excruciatingly slow old fashioned build brick upon brick when houses could be made much quicker and the product be more accurate in factories and erected in a couple of weeks instead of months? Big builders’ profits have anything to do with it? Seems there are now only a few builders doing the majority of housebuilding, with a strangle hold on it.

      1. Wanderer
        May 8, 2022

        Quite right Graham1964. I’ve admired the prefabricated German timber houses for years. Triple glazed and insulated better than a Polar Bear. Erected in two days, fitted out in 14. Yet we persist in “wet” building using mortar.
        Building Control is I am sure partly to blame, they didn’t like anything “non-traditionl” when I was building homes, can’t believe they have changed much since then.

    2. Dave Andrews
      May 8, 2022

      If I might go on – those houses having English meadow ripped up so they can be built. Our local Greens? – not bothered.
      They say we eat too much meat, and it consumes too much resources. Well, out of the EU we could ban the import of meat, so no Irish beef (goodbye ā‚¬1bn/year of industry), German pork and Danish bacon. Yet the Greens would have us tied to the EU with no control.
      Again, phoneys.

    3. Clough
      May 8, 2022

      That’s right, Dave. But we have to remember that we have deliberately been denied a democratic choice on climate for years now. Two weeks before the 2015 general election, the three major party leaders, including the then PM, published a joint statement agreeing climate objectives, specifically to support a climate ‘deal’ limiting temperature rises to below 2 degrees, to agree carbon budgets in accordance with the Climate Change Act, and to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. The agreement was brokered by NGOs such as the Green Alliance that have nothing to do with the electoral system of this country. In other words, the democratic process was sidestepped, and climate change is no longer an issue on which we the voters are allowed to have a say.

  21. Jim
    May 8, 2022

    Sir John, you are preaching to the choir. Some of us do believe CO2 will damage the planet but we also believe governments can and will do nothing to prevent this. At least not until water is lapping round our feet and we are on starvation rations. Except for government ministers who will get special treatment and will have commandeered all the high ground and use the army to keep the last of us out.

    A few years from now I shall install a new gas boiler and buy a petrol car because I am not made of money and because you don’t have any credible affordable alternatives. Oh, and forget another government campaign for loft insulation. That is a cheap and nasty easy to do non-solution. But avoids the real problems you have no answer to.

    Over a thousand year timescale CO2 warming is a self solving problem but many of us won’t enjoy the resolution.

    1. beresford
      May 8, 2022

      The single biggest thing this country can do to control its carbon footprint is end mass immigration. Instead of swathes of new housing estates to accommodate the Government’s newcomers we could have farmland to produce our own food and our own woodlands rather than lecturing Brazil and Indonesia about logging.

      1. Shirley M
        May 8, 2022

        ++100 beresford

      2. Dave Andrews
        May 8, 2022

        I second that as well. The government doesn’t give two hoots about the environment, all they care about is the environmentalist vote.

    2. graham1946
      May 8, 2022

      They will price you off the road and out of gas/oil heating. The price of these products is already off the scale and will get worse. I doubt any of the current prices will revert to previous levels whatever ‘world prices’ are and is driven by ideology and the making of a fast buck as a bonus. They want prices to be as high as electricity to foist their agenda onto us. Somehow we will just have to get used to it. We cannot change things as all the parties are the same, so voting will not be of any benefit. As the saying goes, ‘if voting changed anything they would not allow it’.

      1. Shirley M
        May 8, 2022

        Yes, I realised a long time ago that politicians sidelined/negated democracy by only allowing us to vote for their choices, ie. all candidates were pro-EU representing pro-EU parties, with the occasional manifesto promise to hold an EU referendum which was quickly forgotten. Replace EU with net zero and we are in exactly the same situation.

        1. Wanderer
          May 8, 2022

          The first past the post doesn’t help us, either.

          I’m currently visiting Austria where the “nationalist” FPƖ is picking up support from people I know who in normal times would run a mile from them. As they have PR voting here, it could really change things if this move is widespread.

          My contacts are fed up with energy price rises, food price rises, threats of forced vaccination and the acceptance of many thousands of immigrants, as well as being afraid that Austria will lose its neutrality through support for Ukraine. All things the FPƖ have latched on to.

          1. Shirley M
            May 8, 2022

            I was always an advocate of PR until the rogue Parliament of 2017-2019, where the minor parties combined to try and defeat Brexit (and democracy). Our political parties are adversarial and would never work together for the good of the country. The ‘losers’ would block a good idea, or in the case of Brexit, they blocked the democratic wishes of the electorate and severely damaged the UK’s negotiating power. Point scoring is much more important to most of our politicians, than working in the best interests of the country. None of the main parties seem to have the slightest interest in putting country before party!

    3. Christine
      May 8, 2022

      I was told in the 1980s that my house would be underwater in 10 years. The shoreline continues to recede. We have a pub here called The Water’s Edge as it used to be on the coast. It is now 3 miles inland. There are castles in Wales that used to defend the coast that are now miles inland. As soon as the climate change zealots are proved wrong they just change the narrative and continue with their money-making scam. The media never call them out which tells me they are in league with each other all working for a higher order. The so-called climate emergency is only about one thing which is to conserve fossil fuels for the elites so they can continue their lavish lifestyles.

      1. Shirley M
        May 8, 2022

        Likewise, all we hear is that arctic ice is disappearing, but there are more areas where it is growing, but these area never get mentioned. Oh, and we have more polar bears too. They told us polar bears were going to be extinct because of global warming, but their numbers increased dramatically when they stopped shooting them!

        1. glen cullen
          May 8, 2022

          The media are quick to tell us that the Arctic has less ice without telling us that the Antarctic has more ice, alternating and fluctuating for thousands of years

        2. hefner
          May 9, 2022

          earth.gsfc.nasa.gov ā€˜Current state of sea ice coverā€™

      2. glen cullen
        May 8, 2022

        But we’re only doing net-work because the UN IPCC report said that our oceans were rising ?

  22. Bloke
    May 8, 2022

    Why aim at a painful target that seeks no more outcome than a good-boy example to others?

    Targets are worthy only if results are effective. Collective action focused on China, India & Brazilian rainforest restoration would be.

    Greens are a pressure group of leaking gasbags.

  23. a-tracy
    May 8, 2022

    Youngsters are being persuaded to vote green because they donā€™t want Labour, they think they are green labour, they donā€™t even know what the green policies are when you ask them. They are told repeatedly every day that Tories are evil.

    Londoners have fabulous public transport and a new transport line opening soon to wiz them across London at 90mph in some sections. Every one of them that votes green should spend a month without a car in the suburbs away from London with a job 15 miles away. One bus an hour that doesnā€™t connect to the other bus you need or train service. Our bus that goes to the train station leaves before people disembark the train 5-10 minutes later instead of taking a tea-break there for 15 mins after dropping off outbound customers. Yes customers – they forget the people here are the customers because they only survive on subsidy so it doesnā€™t matter if they ride around empty they get paid anyway.

    The buses are old, knackered double decker buses from Cities that have got too old and unreliable for City routing, belching out derv and sounding likes tractors. The only full ones are shipping kids to school miles away. This canā€™t pay economically in maintenance and excess fuel through the age of the engines and the size of the vehicle.

    Things are starting to seize up, motorways are so quiet at weekends now, people either arenā€™t shopping or visiting or attending festivals and events. I hope that makes all the greens happy, people getting more and more isolated in their homes.

  24. X-Tory
    May 8, 2022

    That CO2 is a greenhouse gas is a scientific fact and is not up for debate. But so is the fact that it only makes up less than 0.04% of the atmosphere, that the amount created by humans is less than 5% of this, and that the UK is responsible for less than 1% of that!!

    There is NO logical justification for us to make ANY sacrifices until the big emitters eliminate their CO2 production. The government are traitors who are harming their own country and their own people. Tory MPs should say this loud and clear if they want our support.

    1. Pauline Baxter
      May 8, 2022

      X-Tory. You are right to be Ex Conn Party but only partly right about CO2.
      It is sometimes deliberately increased in greenhouses.
      But that is NOT to raise the temperature. It is to encourage plant growth.

    2. MFD
      May 8, 2022

      Sorry Pal, but all science is open for debate.
      Thats how we progress knowledge.

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 8, 2022

      Rubbish.

      Man’s activities have increased atmospheric CO2 by almost a half of its pre-industrial level.

      1. Philip P.
        May 9, 2022

        Correlation is not causation.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          May 9, 2022

          It can easily be just that.

  25. hefner
    May 8, 2022

    OK, Taking the latest elections held over the whole territory of the UK with candidates in all relevant constituencies and with a ā€˜properā€™ electoral system, ie, the ā€˜2019 European Parliament elections in the United Kingdomā€™ (wikipedia.org):

    Brexit Partyā€¦ā€¦30.5%ā€¦ā€¦29 seats
    LibDemsā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦19.6%ā€¦ā€¦.16 seats
    Labourā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦.13.6%ā€¦ā€¦.10 seats
    Greensā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦.11.8%ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦.7 seats
    Conservativesā€¦..8.8%ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦4 seats
    SNPā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦3.6%ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦3 seats

    As distinguished a psephologist as a brilliant MP?

    1. formula57
      May 8, 2022

      @ hefner – do you not overlook to your peril Sir John’s point that if someone believes the most pressing issue facing the planet is excess carbon dioxide, and if they believe each one of us and every country has to do more to prevent ā€œclimate disasterā€ you would expect them to vote Green”.?

      In the election you cite, many voters abandoned T. May’s Conservative Party as they thought the most pressing issue of the day was getting Brexit done (as B. Johnson must have realized to his own later good fortune). Those now seeing climate change as the key issue do not follow that earlier example it seems.

  26. DOM
    May 8, 2022

    Can you that cheering and clapping? It’s the delight of Obama-EU and Sinn Fein-IRA celebrating the destruction of Northern Ireland and thus the end of the UK.

    Well, I suppose if it removes another problem for the discredited Tories then it’s all super dooper

    Do you ever get the feeling you’re being deceived and lied to?

    All is politics today, everything is politicised and weaponised even humanity and all the main parties are on board with this cancer even exposing young children to the poison and bigotry of CRT which the Tories still haven’t criminalised

    Why can’t the Tories just admit they’ve adopted Neo-Marxist ideology under duress from the US and British left?

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 9, 2022

      Your silly Leave vote is what caused many unionists to switch their votes to the pro-European Alliance.

      Enjoy!

  27. BOF
    May 8, 2022

    With your permission Sir John, I would like to point your readers in the direction of TCW today. ‘Clogthorpe be dammed’ by Weaver Sheridan. Very much on Topic for today!

  28. Lisa
    May 8, 2022

    All the evidence from actual scientists and not paid schills indicates that Co2 lags behind temeprature rise. It also indicates that Co2 levels need to be far higher to promote better plant growth. The “greens” and their agenda is nothing to do with concern about climate change but much more about control and profit- as always with the fake narratives we are fed on a daily basis.

    1. Magelec
      May 8, 2022

      Lisa. I was about to write the same thing myself. If only the MSM would publish that information. Perhaps our dear MPs should be aquatinted with a few facts.

    2. hefner
      May 8, 2022

      Do you have a proof of your statement over the last 170 years? It should be relatively easy as there have been measurements of both CO2 concentration and temperature, at least at a few stations in the 19th c., more of them in the first part of the 20th c. then a wealth of them after WWII, with even satellite measurements from the 1980-90s.
      From the meteorological observations of temperatures it is rather difficult to deduce the steady increase in the CO2 concentration as for example shown in the time series of the CO2 measurements carried out at the Mauna Loa Observatory since 1958.

  29. Denis Cooper
    May 8, 2022

    Global warming will be the least of our worries if Boris Johnson provokes the EU into a “horrific” trade war:

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/northern-ireland-brexit-trade-war-b2072857.html

    Because, you see:

    “… the EU could decide to impose tariffs on UK food exports, leading to tariffs on imports from Europe.”

    There was a time when the UK government might react to such hostile action by foreigners by launching a “Buy British” campaign, appealing to our patriotism, but now apparently the reaction would be to punish us by slapping reciprocal tariffs on food imports. Perhaps you could ask Jacob Rees-Mogg about that.

    But in any case it won’t happen because Boris Johnson already chickened out last November:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/05/05/russia-and-china-make-bad-mistakes/?unapproved=1317013&moderation-hash=1f15d18525c5b313f48ebe27c53bbc3e#comment-1317013

    However as I said there:

    “But the UK legislation envisaged in last Julyā€™s Command Paper would not need the agreement of the EU, and as its purpose would be to protect the EUā€™s Single Market it is hard to see why they should even object.

    https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/it-is-beyond-time-for-london-to-take-the-action-that-it-said-it-would-take-on-the-northern-ireland-protocol-3673938

    ā€œIt is now nine months since July 21 2021 when the UK government issued its Command Paper on the way forward with the Northern Ireland Protocol, and that is a long time for them to ā€˜stand readyā€™ to pass UK legislation to protect the EU single market from non-compliant goods.ā€”

    That is why when the Queen gives her speech on Tuesday she should say:

    “My Government will explore an alternative to the Northern Ireland protocol to protect the integrity of the European Union Single Market without undermining the economic and territorial integrity of the United Kingdom.”

    with that hopefully uncontentious legislation as the first step.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 8, 2022

      Not going to be popular with NI’s devolved government, that, is it?

      What a marvellous result they have finally had in their elections – congratulations to all the anti-reactionary parties there.

      1. Denis Cooper
        May 9, 2022

        Why, you think they will be against something primarily designed to protect the EU Single Market?

    2. acorn
      May 8, 2022

      Oh Denis, have you not realised that Westminster; Whitehall; the EU Commission; the EU parliament; the US Congress, want a united Ireland. Which bit of that do you not understand?

      1. Denis Cooper
        May 9, 2022

        One bit I don’t understand is that a “Conservative and Unionist” Prime Minister should say:

        https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-05-11/debates/A73F9E62-E76C-4188-9742-E84C55ACC435/DebateOnTheAddress#

        “Everything we do will be done as one United Kingdom, combining the genius of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – joined together by blood and family tradition and history in the most successful political, economic and social union the world has ever known.”

        while brazenly putting the economic and territorial integrity of that “one United Kingdom” at risk.

        Another bit is that he should be prepared to do that so he can go on television and boast about a trade deal “worth Ā£660 billion a year”, that is about 30% of UK GDP, when in reality the gross benefit to the UK from that deal will be more like 0.75% of GDP, forty times lower.

        And a third bit is that almost all of his parliamentary colleagues were prepared to go along with that deceit and were content to see him pull the “best of both worlds” wool over the eyes of people in Northern Ireland.

  30. ChrisS
    May 8, 2022

    If there was a questionaire issured to voters on Net Zero, rather than a simple yes/no referendum, I strongly suspect the results would show that most voters would go along with a move towards Net Zero but only as long as we pace our transition to match the progress made by the biggest polluters.
    IE China, India and the USA. That probably means a slow transition taking until about 2075-2080.

    That to me makes sense and will not be over-expensive or require a rapid change in our lifestyle. It will also allow plenty of time to adapt to new technology such as SMRs and carbon capture. We also won’t have to put up with any more wind farms on or offshore.

    On the other hand, we will have to put up with a huge amount of ranting and raving from the climate change extremists whose real agenda is to destroy the Western, capitalist way of life but it will actually make not the slightest difference to overall global warming as our emissions are less than 1% of the total and we have already done a great deal to reduce them.

    If the real cost of Net Zero 2050 were to be widely publicised, any government that adopted the policy of no more than matching the transition of the big polluters would guarantee to be elected in 2024.

  31. roger w carradice
    May 8, 2022

    Sir John
    Who should I vote for to get rid of the net zero scam?
    Roger

    1. glen cullen
      May 8, 2022

      I’d like to know the answer to your question

  32. Original Richard
    May 8, 2022

    The fifth column at BEIS have designed the Net Zero Strategy to destroy the economy through the ruinously expensive, unilateral and technologically impossible task of cutting to zero our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions.

    The global warming crisis is a Marxist scam that simply does not exist and I would recommend everyone to go on the internet and check the data for themselves, such as the history of global temperature, the current rate of global temperature rise, the frequency and strength of current extreme weather events, the temperatures and ice cover at the poles etc., rather than accepting the BBCā€™s propaganda.

    In fact, the BBCā€™s own Executive Complaints Unit in the last few months has upheld 3 complaints against misleading climate change information in their programmes.

  33. Original Richard
    May 8, 2022

    The Marxists are taking advantage of the fact that decadence in the West has now reached a point where ā€œsafetyā€ trumps everything else and the population will accept any authoritarian restrictions in order to feel ā€œsafeā€.

    Thus we have the economy destroying Net Zero Strategy of the West to save the planet, the ending of freedom of speech through the Online Safety Bill and will continue to have lockdowns and restrictions of movement all in the name of ā€œsafetyā€.

    1. glen cullen
      May 8, 2022

      Your government will provide for all your needs and safetyā€¦.its science fiction in our timeā€¦it isnā€™t going to stop at co2 net-zero, next temperatures will be capped, authorisation to travel introduced, meat ration cards introduce and barcodes

  34. Sharon
    May 8, 2022

    As Iā€™ve posted here beforeā€¦ a photo taken by NASA from space, showed the greenest regions of earth – China and India. Make of that what you will.

  35. Mark Thomas
    May 8, 2022

    Sir John,
    In my ward (which includes Kensington Palace and the mansions of Kensington Palace Gardens) the Green candidate ended up competing with a Lib Dem for last place. It seems even the very wealthy remain unimpressed.

    1. glen cullen
      May 8, 2022

      If nobody is voting for them, why is this government implementing their policies

  36. Mike Wilson
    May 8, 2022

    Itā€™s very unfair and inaccurate to make a point based on the number of people that vote Green. Under a voting system that meant each vote counted, I would suggest 20% or more would vote Green.

    1. Mike Wilson
      May 8, 2022

      Your voting system deliberately and systematically disenfranchises people. I vote Green. Ironically, I wouldnā€™t if I thought there was a chance of them forming a government.

    2. glen cullen
      May 8, 2022

      But its only reasonable to question why the main political party pushing climate change didnā€™t and hasnā€™t made an impact with the voting public, especially when climate change and net-zero is so prominent in the media and news

      1. Mike Wilson
        May 9, 2022

        They have made an impact with the public! And, in response, the three main political parties are now green nutters! The Greensā€™ work is done.

  37. Peter2
    May 8, 2022

    There is a website called The Extinction Clock (extinctionclock.org)
    It simply lists all the predictions and warnings made over decades regarding the climate and whether they came true.
    I would also recommend Wood For Trees (woodfortrees.org) where data from the main graphs of historical temperature data can be seen.

    1. Shirley M
      May 8, 2022

      Thanks for the extinction clock website link. Being an oldie, I can remember many of those ‘threats’ to our existence. Maybe the ‘boys’ have cried wolf too many times to retain any credibility. I wonder if the youngsters of today will look back and say the same? Will Greta’s name be mud?

      1. Peter2
        May 8, 2022

        I agree Shirley
        They keep pushing the same dire predictions on into the future.

  38. David L
    May 8, 2022

    If you genuinely feel that ICE cars are terrible things surely, when acquiring your oh-so-green EV you would ensure your old vehicle goes for recycling rather than have someone else driving around destroying the planet. Too much BS everywhere.

    1. Mike Wilson
      May 9, 2022

      Nah. The greenest thing to do with your ICE car is to run it as long as possible before changing to EV. So, if you want to change to EV (to save money on running costs), you should sell it so it gets used for as long as possible.

  39. turboterrier
    May 8, 2022

    Until we get leaders who have the courage to call time out on all of this fear driven scam and will wipe the slate completely clean, starts again only this time all the total perceived costs for the changeover are on view for open debate also linked to what other nations are doing in comparison.
    No more outrageous, fear driven , emotionally charged wish wash just the bare facts as unpleasant as they are if that is what it means. Treat the people with a bit of respect because they might like the ideas but they sure as hell are not going to pay for it. If government had started this process with the onset of wind turbines and highlighted all the faults, pitfalls and true cost for installation and infrastructure we wouldn’t be in the mess we are today and a lot better off. The people would have thrown it out and demanded another option.

  40. XY
    May 8, 2022

    “When I ask constituents for their views the overwhelming majority accept that CO 2 is a greenhouse gas.”

    This is perhaps so, but people are not being given the full facts.

    There’s the usual media bandwagon going whereby all of the mainstream outlets, staffed by increasingly ignorant jouornalists who can’t even write their own language, all follow the same doctrine.

    There’s actually a large body of scientists who believe that there is no climate emergency. The key question is not “Is Co2 a greenhouse gas” but “Is man-made CO2 causing a climate emergency (to the extent that we are led to believe)?”.

    Those measuring the effects show that there is no emergency, warming is a fraction of what was predicted and may be due to many factors, some of which are long-term cyclical changes such as to the Earth’s orbit.

    The warming alarm is based on MODELS and as we know, GIGO applies (Garbage In, Garbage Out). The models developed by scientists are poor, because scientists are not statisticians (they should employ a qualified statistician but they insist on doing their own stats – and they get them wrong, not only in climate models but there’s an increasing trend for this problem to occur in other disciplines).

    Scientific publications are guilty here too. The normal peer review processes are being skimped in favour of an interim review of alarmist climate-related articles which is often performed by a pro climate change persona.

    And lastly, of course, there’s the issue of funding, with grants being handed out for researching any tiny aspect of climate change… there’s major temptation to keep on taking the money and to keep alive the goose that lays the golden eggs.

    All of this taken together is what’s meant by “scam” and “conspiracy”.

  41. XY
    May 8, 2022

    P.S. Regarding the point that people don’t vote green so they can’t be too concerned about climate change…

    True to a degree (excuse the pun) but the underlying reason is that the so-called greens are more like watermelons – green on the outside, deep red on the inside.

    If their concern is environmental issues, why do they need to be such rabid socialaists? In fact, why do they even need an position on left/right, capitalism/socialism at all?

    If anything, they should be in favour of whatever system of government pulls in the most money to deal with the problems that concern the greens (and that’s clearly capitalism), so people see them as simply another scam party who use environmental issues as a cover for something not far short of communism.

  42. Roy Grainger
    May 8, 2022

    Supporters of Net Zero should also welcome the current high gas and petroleum prices – penal carbon pricing to reduce use is exactly what theyā€™ve been advocating.

    Not quite true that Net Zero enthusiasts should vote Green though – that policy is common to all the main parties including your own.

  43. Barbara
    May 8, 2022

    Sadly, on this matter all the parties have been captured by the Green blob, so our votes have been rendered null and void.

  44. Stred
    May 8, 2022

    The USA, EU and UK have coordinated the Green policy of zero CO2 without any democratic mandate and all except Sweden followed WHO advice on lockdown and using only vaccination to end the pandemic. Now that the figures for excess death for all causes are out, it can be seen that Sweden had much lower excess than the countries that followed WHO advice. Currently, all of the governments are about to agree that the WHO will be the sole arbiter of any future pandemic and direct health policy, which with Gates and his friends in charge, will mean more rushed vaccines and patented drugs. Biden is about to sign, without any debate and we can expect Johnson to follow, just as May slipped through the zero CO2 law without debate.

    The MSM media is all owned or financed by the major finance investment corporations and governments, so don’t expect any disruption or misinformation, as they call it.

    1. A Pleb
      May 8, 2022

      The UK online media know everything that’s going on.
      They know ALL the dirt.
      It’s very interesting reading the press and ” comments.”
      They let out as much as they can.

  45. Julian Flood
    May 8, 2022

    Sir John, sorry about this. I’m thinking of going the full Icke and getting a turquoise shell suit, but the effect us real and unexamined.

    DISREGARDED CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING: THE ELEVATOR PITCH.

    The sunlit zone of the oceans extend over more than 70% of the our planet, a complex of ecosystems which is under attack from above and below. From above the interface between air and water is being polluted by oil and surfactant spills which suppress wave formation: this lowers albedo causing surface warming, and suppresses wave formation: both of these effects reduce nutrient mixing from deep waters and alter the ecological niche down to a depth of 200 metres. Plankton blooms fed by human waste products and farming run-off such as dissolved silica, nitrate and phosphate fertilisers change albedo with enhanced chlorophyll detectable throughout the worldā€™s oceans. Oleaginous plankton exhaust their food supply and, dying, release lipids which smooth vast areas of the ocean, suppressing salt aerosol production and reducing cloud cover. (Personal observation: in 2013 I observed a smooth extending from abeam Portugal to two hundred miles north of Madeira, with a total extent of over ten thousand square miles. As land generated oil/surfactant pollution would have oxidised before reaching this part of the ocean, my guess is that it was lipids released from a dying plankton bloom ā€“ nutrient pollution could easily be carried great distances to cause this).

    Land-generated pollution flows down our rivers and drains from inadequate sewage systems, from soil exposed by farming and from every city where each spilled drop of sump oil, diesel or vegetable oil from restaurant kitchens washes into the drains. Every oil/surfactant discharge ends up as a molecule-thin modifier of the water/air boundary layer: a large conurbation sends the equivalent of a minor tanker oil spill incident down its drains every year. The ability of small amount of light oil to smooth a water surfaces was demonstrated by Benjamin Franklin on Mount Pond in the 1770s: ā€œThe Oil thoā€™ not more than a Tea Spoonful produced an instant Calm, over a Space several yards square, which spread amazingly, and extended itself gradually till it reached the Lee Side, making all that Quarter of the Pond, perhaps half an Acre, as smooth as a Looking Glass.ā€

    Around the world there are water bodies such as Lakes Michigan, Baikal, Tanganyika etc that are warming two at three times faster than the CO2 warming hypothesis predicts. Even enclosed seas exhibit this, the worst example being the Sea of Marmara which is warming at a rate three times greater than can be explained without accepting that additional warming mechanisms are being ignored.

    Oil/surfactant/lipid smooths can now be detected from space as they are associated with microplastic pollution, see:

    http://cygnss.engin.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/534/2021/06/Evans-Ruf_Detection-of-Ocean-Microplastics_TGRS-2021.pdf

    How much does ocean pollution contribute to AGW? We donā€™t know, we havenā€™t looked.

    JF

    1. miami.mode
      May 8, 2022

      JF, Donald Rumsfeld summed it up with his known unknowns but also unknown unknowns.

  46. anon
    May 8, 2022

    It would seem we are now exporting power to the EU rather than importing it. Electricity and gas that’s most likely due to the price and demand changes.

    Windfarms seem to be profitable without the contract subsidy at current market prices. Perhaps the subsidy contracts should be revoked if they are not adhered or once production has commenced. Storage solutions for excess windpower should now be mandatory. Meaning curtailment should lead to penalties.

    What storage (eg Rough) is being envisaged to manage the forecast gaps in demand/supply.

    In view of the now high fossil fuel prices and the fact LCOE favors renweables. The subsidy regime should be directed to storage technology and protecting UK customers from strategic policy errors. Perhaps only excess production should be exported once the UK market has been serviced.

    1. Mark
      May 8, 2022

      The reason why we are now an exporter more often is that the Continent has limited gas import capability, and the ever-present threat that Russian supply will cease. In Europe they are trying to minimize the use of gas in power stations to make as much as possible available for direct use by households and industry, and using other fuels (mainly coal and lignite) to back up failed wind and solar generation and reduced nuclear output. However, they are very happy to use the UK as an offshore LNG terminal, and our export pipelines via Bacton have been operating at full capacity. With the pipeline full and no significant storage option, and only UK LNG ports able to offer additional discharge capacity, gas supply in the UK is ample at the moment, and a large price difference has opened up with continental gas prices (which get more expensive the further East you go). That means we can produce electricity from CCGT stations far more cheaply than would be possible on the continent. While our own demand is low enough to allow exports the CCGT stations can be run to provide them, effectively exporting gas-turned-into-electricity. The benefit is that at the moment we have cheaper gas and cheaper electricity – a benefit that would disappear if we had greater export capacity that could utilise the LNG imports fully.

      As soon as demand rises to the point where we can no longer generate an export surplus we will of course have to enter into competitive bidding for supply via the interconnectors. Then the prices will soar again. These different market circumstances explain the volatility of the markets.

      1. anon
        May 10, 2022

        We have always exported a small element of gas to the EU. Higher now of course.
        https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1006636/DUKES_4.5.xls
        Norway is non EU.

        https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1006380/Energy_flow_chart_2020.pdf

        My point is we can detach from the EU energy markets to service the UK first. Norway pipelines feed the UK. Nothing wrong with exporting any surplus to our normal needs.

        Indeed i remember certain comments were made from France about supply to the UK. Its the lack of political will to achieve Brexit. I prefer cooperation via WTO .These figures show we can be awkward also, if sense does not prevail.

        Approx 50% of French reactors were out of service recently.
        The continent has import capacity it chooses not to use or is unable to use. Germany has nuclear plant it could use.

        At current prices all i see is demand destruction going forwards. Winter will test us. So we need a reserve of coal and gas to burn. Do you trust the EU or the establishment not to use this as an excuse to ram us back in the EU?

        Solar and renewables will mitigate some of the fossil demand. But we may need to bring back the coal burners to ensure we have supply.

  47. Pauline Baxter
    May 8, 2022

    Sir John.
    Your government’s Net Zero policy is sheer lunacy at all levels.
    However, that is not the only reason for the swing against your party at the local elections.
    Most of it is probably the extreme rise in the cost of living. That is partly due to net zero it’s true, but lets face it Boris Johnson has made a complete hash of just about everything.
    It has destroyed our industries more effectively even, than the the EU did.
    It left behind our fish and Northern Ireland when getting brexit done.
    Illegal immigration has risen exponentially. Far outweighing any good in the legal immigration policy.
    It is more of a Big State, High Tax, Control Everyone and Everything Government than Labour ever was.
    And now we are fighting a proxy war in Ukraine on behalf of NATO.
    There is no conservative party for anyone to vote for.

    1. glen cullen
      May 8, 2022

      All very true

  48. Original Richard
    May 8, 2022

    ā€œIf someone believes the most pressing issue facing the planet is excess carbon dioxide……you would expect them to vote Green, the one party who put this issue above others.ā€

    Well, all the main parties are ā€œgreenā€ at present, which means that any voter who does not believe in the climate crisis religion has no party for whom they can vote. We had the same situation over our EU membership and it was only through the creation of UKIP and their pressing for a referendum that the majority view was finally respected and implemented.

    Perhaps the Greensā€™ poor electoral results are because they are communists and the voters realise the Greens want to use CO2 emissions as a reason to close down the Westā€™s economy in order to become dependent upon Russia and China?

    The saving grace for the Conservative Party is that they are capable of u-turning on this issue in order to remain in power, whilst Labour, Lib Dem and Greens are of the ideological Left which means they believe the ends justifies the means and would continue to pray to the Green God and, as history of the Left shows us, would not change even as the country starved through lack of power, goods and food.

  49. John Hatfield
    May 8, 2022

    “the overwhelming majority accept that CO 2 is a greenhouse gas.”
    Because the BBC says so.

  50. JoolsB
    May 8, 2022

    I donā€™t comment on this site as often as some even though it is the first thing I look at every morning after my emails. When I do comment, it is because I feel very strongly about something and am interested to see if others feel the same. I know I usually heavily criticise what I see as a phoney Con party when I do comment and for that, my comments often seem to be in moderation until no one is likely to read them. I may as well write them to myself. I respect you as a politician John even though you seem to have given up speaking for England and you obviously put the party first even though itā€™s a party most of us here donā€™t feel you or we belong to. You obviously censor what you consider to be over criticism of this fake Con party but it takes time and thought to put oneā€™s feelings down so it is disappointing when comments are held in moderation for ever and a day and for that reason sadly I do not see any point in commenting any further on this site.

    1. Mark B
      May 9, 2022

      JoolsB

      For what little it is worth, I do track back to find comments that our kind host has held in moderation. They are usually the really good ones and I am not saying that because I get made to stand in the Internet equivalent of the naughty corner.

      I post for myself (I find it cathartic) and for our kind host to read. If other are kind enough to read it and comment then that is even better, even if comments are not always nice. But it is too our kind host that these comments are addressed and, once read by him cannot go unread.

      As I said to him before – I speak truth to power. And if that power does not want to listen then so be it. I guess he will have to find out the hard way.

      I have given up hope of an English Parliament and instead look North of the Border to deliver equivalence. Then leaving would, in some small way, create and English Parliament as would NI leaving.

      Chin up and as Fletcher (Ronnie Barker in Porridge) would say; “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”

      Reply It is the long comments and ones with links that stick as I do not have time to read them in a busy day. It is nothing to do with their content as I have not read them.

      1. Mark B
        May 10, 2022

        Sir John

        You know that I know that is not true.

  51. Keithjagger@blueyonder.co.uk
    May 8, 2022

    Well put as always Sir John. I despair about so many of our current politicians and the disgraceful Civil Service.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 9, 2022

      “Your email will never be published”

      Unless you’re daft enough to make it your display name…

    2. Mickey Taking
      May 9, 2022

      I didn’t know blueyonder still operated. Now millions do!

  52. Dave Ward
    May 8, 2022

    “The overwhelming majority accept that CO 2 is a greenhouse gas”

    And how many (or rather, few) of them know that it while it may be A greenhouse gas, it’s not the major one – that being water vapour. I haven’t seen any calls for this evil substance to be banned…

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 9, 2022

      The amount of water vapour in the air has not been increased by about 50% owing to human activity over the last couple of centuries, that’s why, Dave.

      It’s easy not to look quite so daft if you think just for a moment before writing.

    2. Mickey Taking
      May 9, 2022

      we wouldn’t want to rain on their parade, would we?

    3. hefner
      May 9, 2022

      DW, No need for it, as water vapour recycles itself from evaporation of the oceans and other water surfaces, to condensation into clouds, to precipitation as rain or snow then back to oceans and lakes.
      Do you know similar processes for CO2, CH4, N2O, ā€¦.

      1. Narrow Shoulders
        May 10, 2022

        Isn’t that the fossil fuel cycle Hef?

  53. KB
    May 8, 2022

    The CO2 greenhouse effect is a real thing. It is based on firm science dating back to Arrhenius and the planet would be a frozen iceball without it. It doesn’t do our case any good by denying it.
    But it is truly ridiculous that people in our inconsequential little country think we can do anything about global emissions. There is no reason that we need to impoverish ourselves by being the world leader in decarbonisation. Instead of leading we should follow; we should track the average progress of (say) the G20 or OECD.

    1. Mickey Taking
      May 9, 2022

      perhaps the media would provide us with a weekly summary of China, Russia, India, USA use of :-
      a) how many coal fired power stations
      b) how many other fossil fuel fired power stations
      c) estimated population
      d) how many days average per year are temperatures below 50C needing heating in homes.
      e) how any nuclear power plants operating, how many new planned, how may planned to close within 5 years
      f) how many petrol and diesel cars/lorries do they have

      1. glen cullen
        May 9, 2022

        Not a chance in hell….those countries don’t pollute; only the UK does and we have to save the world

  54. KB
    May 8, 2022

    The quoted prices of renewables wants tackling. The quoted price currently is the price when the wind is blowing. This they have the cheek to call the “Levelised Price”.

    It’s no such thing. The levelised price should be the price of supplying us on demand 24/365. This would mean the price would include the cost of massive energy storage. It wouldn’t look so cheap if this were done.

  55. mancunius
    May 9, 2022

    Having recently installed one of the latest generation of gas boilers, I’m astonished at how much cheaper and more efficient it is. I can’t believe that these are to be replaced by lumbering, inefficient heat pumps, relying on electricity of an industrial magnitude that cannot be produced in Britain more efficiently and cheaply for at least the next 70 years, and possibly never (given our exponentially increasing population).
    There is no such thing as renewable energy. All energy sources need material, manufacture, building, installation, maintenance, replacement, machine-tooling, and above all occupy massive tracts of land and would be vetoed for ugliness if they were useful dwellings. (Which is what makes heavily subsidised wind farms so popular with the large landowners enjoying their unearned largesse at the expense of the taxpayer.)
    If the oceans are used for masses of wind turbines, that will affect sea-life and offshore fishing grounds.
    This is really about small, vociferous, disproportionately influential minorities privately capturing the centre of government, demonising sensible, no-brainer economic choices on ideological grounds.

  56. Nudge Unit
    May 9, 2022

    Good to see top bod Scottish Power speaking out in Mail today (Monday).

  57. corky
    May 9, 2022

    Certainly no politician believes it – climate change comes a poor second to getting re-elected.

  58. Atlas
    May 9, 2022

    We could do with a 19th Century type Gentleman Scientist who, having no ‘skin in the game’, might give a more realistic study of the underlying science – unlike those professional scientists who only keep getting their income from alarmist GW claims.

  59. John
    May 11, 2022

    I didn’t vote this time, because there was no candidate, that rejected the “Climate Emergency” rubbish.

    When the propagandist say anything “Climate”, what they are doing is trying to push their made up “Man made CO2” theory.

    That is there first problem, as they have never supply any evidence !!!

    They invent trends by modifying past temperature data to fit their theory.

    I still waiting to see any convincing evidence for this.

    The biggest problem is, there are too many politicians who don’t look at any facts or the evidence. They would rather just follow what there party tell them to say !!!
    People voted for Boris because he was the only option to get us out of the EU.
    The conservatives have a chance to do a lot of good, with brexit etc, but haven’t done nothing yet.
    The conservatives will lose at the next election if they keep pushing this “net zero” fantasy,
    Some people are now being so brainwashed to accept the whole co2 lie, they seem reject any evidence to the contrary of their belief.
    I think this situation has come about by the population being fed lies from the BBC, that everybody is being forced to pay for.
    Also anybody calling themselves a climate scientist is being paid to lie, as they don’t seem to understand what science is !!

    I just hope you can sort out the current nightmare.

  60. Ian Miller
    May 12, 2022

    Energy (and the cost of energy) underlies EVERYTHING we do in life. The Climate Change Act, and Boris’s clinging to Net Zero is forcing us to be so ham-strung as to pursue everything and everything which disadvantages us.
    From our unreliable renewables powering electric cars and heat-pumps, to insulating the entire housing stock and stupidly distilling natural gas to extract hydrogen (at a huge cost), only prepares for a future of bankrupted, starving, freezing citizens.
    To avoid the economic catastrophe of stagflation and get our lives back, – we urgently need to repeal the Climate Change Act, abandon Net Zero and instead of fundingĀ Ā generous Treasury/Taxpayer & Bill-payers’ renewables subsidies we need to cancel them or tax them out of existence and simply allow N/Sea oil & Gas extraction.
    Competition alone will quickly reduce our energy costs and enable the market to free the country to get back on its feet.Ā Energy (and the cost of energy) underlies EVERYTHING we do in life. The Climate Change Act, and Boris’s clinging to Net Zero is forcing us to be so ham-strung as to pursue everything and everything which disadvantages us.
    From our unreliable renewables powering electric cars and heat-pumps, to insulating the entire housing stock and stupidly distilling natural gas to extract hydrogen (at huge cost), only prepares for a future of bankrupted, starving, freezing citizens.
    To avoid the economic catastrophe of stagflation and get our lives back, – we urgently need the guts to repeal the Climate Change Act, abandon Net Zero and instead of fundingĀ Ā generous Treasury/Taxpayer & Bill-payers’ renewables subsidies (probably instituted at the behest of China & Russia,) we need to forget talk of Windfall Taxes and immediately support N/Sea oil & Gas extraction. Without Subsidies.Ā 
    Competition alone will quickly reduce our energy costs and let the market free the country to get back on its feet.Ā 
    Finally, we need to ask why we have a green Prime Minister fraudulently masquerading as a Conservative and whose government, judging by present commentators, is still as out of touch with the British people as when the Brexit vote took place !Ā Ā 
    Ā 

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