The Regulator’s announcement that they are seeking more gas supplies for the winter seems late when it has been obvious for a long time that we could be short of energy . There was a similar delay in coming to the late conclusion we needed to keep some coal fired power stations instead of demolishing them all, given the need for back up power for cold days with no wind. As it has turned out they have been running coal stations on and off throughout the summer on low wind days as well.
The best answer is still to get more UK gas out of the ground. The government changed policy some time ago to urge more UK production. The Chancellor’s Financial Statement included some energy projects without time frames or details of how much extra production they could release. There were several potential prospects that we know about missing from the list. The Energy Ministers need to push hard to get the licencing authorities to expedite additional production on fields already producing, and speed the link in of fields discovered close to existing production capacity and pipelines to be tied into those facilities. None of this need take too long, and the sooner we have more domestic production the better.
This should not be contentious. Home production means the big tax revenues on such activities goes to the UK Treasury, not to a foreign government. It means more better paid jobs here in the the UK rather than abroad. It means less CO2 is generated than if we imported LNG, which creates more than twice as much CO2 as domestic pipelines gas. It takes a lot of energy to compress, cool, transport and convert the gas back which you do not need to do with gas flowing down a domestic pipe. It means more gas delivered to home customers with secure supply.
October 5, 2022
Good Morning,
Is it any wonder the Regulator is late, Government policy under Mr Johnson was to stop using ANY fossil fuel, so who’d say otherwise if he want’s to keep his job. Has that policy changed yet?
Don’t you love Germany’s respect and support for all the other, junior, members of the EU; ‘we’re borrowing Euro 200 Billion, mostly from the ECB, and that’s all going to save Germany, and to hell with the rest of you!’ Seems like the other countries’ EU ministers are quietly saying that they think that might be strong and give Germany an advantage. Who’d have guessed it!
October 5, 2022
The wets in the tory party and civil service will block any atrempt to frack.
HSO, ER and the likes will be indulged by the police.
Cuadrilla could be working near Blackpool but there is the permanent encampment of the Nanas.
Get the army in and show some bottle.
After 12 years you own this.
October 5, 2022
JSO
October 5, 2022
Sir John, even the founder of Cuadrilla did not say that fracking was the answer to the UK’s problems – quite the contrary.
Chris Cornelius says that its geology is too challenging and that the governmentās support is merely āsoundbitesā.
So let’s have some better ideas which will actually work – such as those that he proposed, eh?
October 5, 2022
Oh, and nice conference, Sir John eh?
Keep it coming, like.
October 5, 2022
You lefties always quote this guy.
Why not let those companies and investors who currently still want to frack have a go?
Some say there is enough gas under our feet to sustain us for many years.
Presumably you would want to import gas instead.
Hilarious
October 5, 2022
An excellent post John. The government needs to treat this issue as an emergency and by pass all the existing planning laws to enable fracking to begin. The eco loons have been applying pressure to local people in an effort to stop this. If the planning rules for onshore wind can be removed then they can do the same for fracking. Energy supply is vital especially in light of Putins antics. Everything you state in your post today is common sense.
October 5, 2022
22,000 medical appointments are being cancelled per day across the country I read. How many we cancelled for each extra royal bank holiday then? How many hundreds died as a direct result of this rationing and bank holidays?
Then a 90-year-old woman waited 40 hours for an ambulance after a serious fall. She fell on Sunday evening and an ambulance arrived on Tuesday afternoon. She was then in the ambulance for 20 hours at the Royal Cornwall Hospital. Lets all clap for out envy of the world NHS! Taxes at a 70 years high but public services still appalling and declining.
October 5, 2022
James Sutherland just now on talk radio. The NHS is there free at the point of use for anyone who needs it. Sure James tell that to this 90 year old in Cornwall and the circa 10 million currently awaiting procedures.
He also wants to increase benefits by inflation while wages fall further behind – but the problem in the UK is that for many there is little or no incentive to work as many are no better off at all after commuting costs, pension contributions, tax, NI, student loan repayments, loss of DIY time, childcare, work lunches… than you are on benefits.
I also read that the NHS is such a dire employer that 25% of new junior doctors quit within the first 12 months. So, they spend millions to train doctors over 5-6 years then treat and pay them so poorly that 25% leave within months. What a moronic policy and wasteful policy the NHS has. Plus, they undercut their wages by recruiting overseas. Their net pay is often not even enough to live on and pay the rent.
October 5, 2022
Hear hear LL
October 5, 2022
The energy problem was caused mainly by the net zero the mad religious war on CO2 plant, tree and crop food. Putin has not helped. Would we have even had Putin’s war without this net zero religious lunacy? I suspect not. The net zero lunes have one hell of a lot to answer for.
Yet still the foolish Truss sticks to this bogus anti-science religion. Starmer wants net zero in seven years so moronic is he.
October 6, 2022
Isn’t she just paying lip service to it while aiming for something different? There are only so many red rags that can held up to the antis at a time when the MSM is all on their side.
October 5, 2022
Agree – totalkly sensible post and uncontentious.
That’s not to say nimbies and net-zero loons won’t kick off across the country as each new gas field is developed.
October 5, 2022
But, like the government, Mr Redwood only wants onshore fracking subject to local community consent, which is the opposite of firms like Cuadrilla want to hear.
October 5, 2022
Most onshore wind was opposed by tthe councils and local people yet the Scottish government overuled those decisions. Can we please have some overusing by the locals over fracking. It will bring in so many jobs.
October 5, 2022
It is not the regulators JR.
Why do you think the police are now attending burglaries? Might it be that govt has demanded a change from the May/Sir Tom Watson priorities? Why do you think the woke police changed? Might it be that Sir Tom sought these changes through HMIC inspections forcing forces to the direction he and May wanted?
Your party and govt set policy and direction (through inspectorate bodies and quangos) accept the responsibility for failing the nation on energy security and industrial suicide to conform to global net stupidity and act in accord with EU energy dependency so countries cannot leave the EU.
This is not Putin it is Cameron, May, Johnson and now Truss. As a rudderless party and successive govt of U-Turns, why did your party not change energy policy direction?
October 5, 2022
Totally agree FupS
Also people living near to fracking sites should be offered generous payments.
October 5, 2022
Good morning.
It is early October and the leaves are falling. Winter will soon be upon us. All these plans for more gas and, hopefully electricity, will they come in time ? I do not think so and, if the National Grid cannot supply enough energy I think the dream of an all electric future will be dashed.
Remove our gas boilers and ICE cars at your peril.
October 5, 2022
Alas the gas boilers are useless without electricity for the pumps and control mechanisms. Do I need to buy a generator and/or a wood burner?
October 5, 2022
Just had a brand new energy efficient gas boiler with a 19 year warranty.
A Mazda3 gt sport tech on order for November.
Let the sheep fir heat pumps and drive EVs.
Have you seen what’s happening un California.
October 5, 2022
Mark,
Get log burners, Agas and back boilers more reliable than govt policy.
October 5, 2022
And yet this new government still hasn’t reversed its plans to ban the internal combustion engine cars and domestic gas boiler 2030 ….its still full steam ahead for ‘net-zero’
October 5, 2022
The government must get its gold star badge from the UN for achieving its targets, well done UK you’re now top of the class – forget that people are dying from the cold, cost of energy and chaos due to net-zero
October 5, 2022
I agree. Furthermore it makes one despair that the people in charge do not do the obvious to help us.
The blame lies squarely with the establishment elites. They don’t care about the rest of us, in large part because we are not yet a threat to them and their privileged lifestyles.
October 5, 2022
I’m past despair and am at the point of being terrified to think our lives are in the hands of such imbecilic, short sighted people with an agenda all of their own. That agenda seems to have little to do with us or their duty to us.
October 5, 2022
Absolutely. They think we have no alternative but Labour or being Conned. And either way, they win.
October 5, 2022
Yet still the fools and Kwasi/Truss stick with totally discredited net zero lunacy.
October 5, 2022
Is that the same ‘net-zero’ that nobody really voted for at the last general election, the same ‘net-zero’ that was a footnote on the single agenda manifesto, the same ‘net-zero’ that has been pushed and rushed forward ahead of planned schedule and the same ‘net-zero’ thats the mainstay policy of the Green Party and now the Labour Party
October 5, 2022
When the certainty of coal-power and gas is now being used as a backup fuel to the uncertainty of wind-power and solar then one is forced to ask if the authorities are deliberately invoking systemic tension to generate uncertainty and stoke fear
Energy supply is another issue in a now long line of issues that have become politicised and weaponised. The ideological capture of Tory MPs by Labour and the Left across all issues is a real concern for the nation
Labour’s ‘green growth’ tosh is Socialism writ large and will bankrupt the UK more than it already is. I have no doubt if Labour gain power they will weaponise and politicise all areas of life and the Tories will accept that state of affairs
October 5, 2022
+many
According to stuff I have read over a few years ( which I thought far fetched at the time) your first paragraph is wholly accurate.
I couldnāt work out WHY they would do thatā¦but it might be about transfer of wealth upwards, to cover up fiscal disasters, to impose commie/totalitarian govt. or just power? No idea.
But nothing in nature allows for this number of consecutive āemergenciesā and the responses are not logical.
October 5, 2022
Dom,
Do not forget govt. policy of STOR. Diesel generators to back up lack of electricity! Yes, it appears the Tory govt feel diesel generators are better for the planet than diesel cars!! Morons.
October 5, 2022
Indeed. Anything to avoid burning cheaper coal. They’ve told the market and the suppliers at the other ends of interconnectors that coal is absolutely a last resort. Guess what will happen? I see that the last 12 months of balancing mechanism costs has escalated to Ā£4bn. That will now balloon much further.
October 5, 2022
+1
October 5, 2022
What, like cycle lanes, National Trust plaques, and Poppy Day, you mean?
Gotta laugh…
October 5, 2022
COP26 President Tory Alok Sharma MP now saying today (BBC News) that our King should attend COP27 over the suggestions of our PM – Energy, Net-Zero and Climate Change fully weaponised
October 5, 2022
Perhaps Mr Sharma will move on from blowing up power stations to blowing up gas pipelines. He seems determined to starve us of energy.
October 5, 2022
Exactly but the energy department has not been run by sensible engineers but by mad, deluded, net zero religious zealots. Ones with no understanding of energy amd who like blowing up coal fired power stations and wittering on about the Saudi Arabia of wind, EVs and hydrogen. This under Cameron, May and Boris latterly with deluded Kwasi as energy minister. Even now Truss is still pushing net zero which clearly makes no sense in climate, energy, economic, environmental or any other terms.
Number of EV cars on the road in the UK is about 500k or 1 in 66. Also EV cars produce more CO2 than keeping your old car. This despite all the tax advantages and huge market rigging. What is driving this crazy agemda?
October 5, 2022
EVs are a second or third vehicle, conversation for the rich, famous and climate crusader ā¦.the numbers will plateau soon enough with purchase costs Ā£40+ ā¦you only have to look in your average supermarket carpark to ascertain the average car value is between Ā£5-Ā£20k
October 5, 2022
We arrive where we are due to years of incompetence due to ignorance from the people charged to keep our energy structure safe, sound, reliable and operational.
The vast majority of politicians all over the world allowed themselves to be groomed by a group of scientists with computer programmes to throw all common sense out of the window and throw themselves into saving the world (STW) with not a clue on how to manage the change and the realisation that you can produce all the power you want but unless the infrastructure is in place you will always play catch up.
Too many critical decisions made with no thought of consequences.
Until all thoughts on Net Zero is put fully on the back burner as in other major countries all who say one thing and do another. Common sense and basic understanding of what is needed to keep the country supplied under all conditions is what is required. Leave it to the engineers and not the High Priests of the STW sect who control too much of our lives.
October 5, 2022
+thousands
October 5, 2022
Suella Braverman said all the right things but we have heard all these things so many times before and nothing worthwhile is ever delivered. āWe stand for the law abiding majority of Britainsā she claims well that is not remotely true, not what we have suffered for the past 12+ years of Tory or Labour government. Police who only prosecute under 2% of crime and fail to even investigate much more that that.
Good luck Suella but just more hot air is worthless.
October 5, 2022
Good morning
If ever there was an issue and a time to call out the fifth column within the Parliamentary Conservative Party this is it.
Approve the Cumbria coal mine
Expedite fracking by emergency powers
Apply existing law to the anarchists blocking refineries and fracking sites
Deselect MPs opposing domestic energy security. Let the consttuents give their verdict.
October 5, 2022
+1 fully agree
October 5, 2022
When it comes to energy supplies and energy security, the idiots in Government and the Regulator have failed to prepare so they have prepared to fail.
The pitch is already being quietly rolled to prepare for blackouts this winter. Apparently, if we have insufficient electricity because the windmills are failing to deliver due to a prolonged cold period with little or no wind, the plan is to limit gas-generated electricity in order to eke our our gas supplies, and instead have pre-planned blackouts for an hour or two. (The solar panels are virtually useless in winter).
Spending 3 months on a Leadership campaign, when the losing side refuses to accept the result so immediately undermines the winner, is looking more irresponsible by the day.
After 12 years of so-called Conservative Government and nothing works in the UK. And that’s because Parliament and the lefty, privately-educated, Oxbridge cohort who make up the Establishment are completely incompetent.
October 6, 2022
I am convinced Oxbridge have selected intelligent people who are mainly left wing malleable and easily influenced to be conditioned. None appear to able to make a decision or act contrary to groupthink or from the herd.
October 5, 2022
Blaming the regulator again when all they are doing is carrying out your governments wishes and like so much virtue signalling from your conference, purely aspirational with zero time scales trying to convince voters your are taking action when if it does happen it will be years downstream.
You will be out of office by the time we see the benefits. You would be better advised to accelerate the defeat of Putin or negotiate and get Russiaās gas taps turned back on.
October 5, 2022
Home production means big tax revenues goes into our coffers and not that of foreign governments.
Could you please, please make this clear to the general public. The BBC must not be allowed to peddle their bias of climate change and the ‘profits for big energy companies’ class war that’s seemingly going on.
I had the pleasure of leafing through a recent copy of the Mirror, ye Gods, what a lot of ‘class war’ drivel.
The better paid jobs it will bring will be for who though?
More imported talent?
Labour and its media buddies won’t of course attack any element of government policy surrounding more immigration, it’s music to their ears.
October 5, 2022
There are many green issues so it would be helpful not to lump them all together. We see on the news this am the issues of emptying raw sewage into the seas, the gross careless dumping of plastic and fishing nets into the seas causing sea life stress, we see years of drought in Somalia , we know about our inefficiency with stopping flooding and its opposite of drought creating infertile wilderness and much more. We need heating , we need energy so we need to go forward with temporary ways of serving our own nation but then if the issues are remedied the self satisfied complacency musn’t set in. I remember when I was 14 at school (I am now 71) the geology teacher telling us that fossil fuel usage , in particular oil was limited. If there was sufficient knowledge then ,why has there not been a future plan?
October 5, 2022
Too little too late. YEARS too late! UK politicians were too eager to please the EU (even after we left), the WEF, and anyone else but the Brits. Virtue signalling and adopting the CO2 religion takes priority over the country and its citizens, and still does!
October 5, 2022
This government(s) have made virtue signalling an art form
October 5, 2022
It was already clear last autumn that an energy crisis was on the cards, when gas prices were rising but under US pressure Germany would not let Nordstream 2 go ahead. Our government has had a good 12 months to prepare, yet only now do there seem to be some belated signs that it takes energy security seriously. It needs to commit fully to energy sources that will provide for our future. This means taking steps now that will get clean fossil fuels onstream asap in quantities that will make a difference, in ways mentioned in SJR’s post. It also means ending subsidies on eco-fantasy projects that may or may not be achievable depending on whether the technology works or not (carbon storage especially). This country doesn’t have the luxury any more to waste money on speculative projects for 2050 or beyond. Our energy needs for the foreseeable future have to be the priority.
October 5, 2022
I was interested to see that Germany is on the cusp of completing a new LNG terminal – within 12 months of the need being perceived. Well done them!
October 5, 2022
But in future the German industries that relied on Russian gas may not be around to pay the far higher price for LNG, as many of them are looking at relocating to the US, from what I’ve read. So yes, well done you Green Deutschland loonies!
October 5, 2022
The regulator has been infiltrated by woke green zealots.
October 5, 2022
Certainly “The Energy Ministers need to push hard to get the licencing authorities to expedite additional production…”. If only they had the appropriate powers and the gumption to use them! In an ideal world perhaps…..
October 5, 2022
oh for the want of an 80 seat majority
October 5, 2022
Nannyās advice for this coming winter.
Dear cold and hungry nation,
1. Wear plenty of vests.
2 LAYER your clothes for extra warmth.
3. Use hot water bottles and save the water for baths.
4. Do all your cooking on the bbq. You know how much you love them and they are only a teeny bit more polluting than coal.
4. Eat lots of porridge but not too muchā¦mustnāt overburden our NHS with obesity!
5.Keep a good sense of humour. Try to see the jolly side of all this.
6. Donāt loiter near 5 star hotels. It will only make you feel envious and anyway, youāll get arrested.
Lots of love and hugs.
The Nanny State xxxxxx
P.S. 7.The same goes for luxurious country houses!
October 5, 2022
or scrap ‘net-zero’
October 5, 2022
Is the Govt making any attempt to guide and encourage the collective brainpower of our millions of citizens to invent a new source of energy?
Generating raw concepts and filtering the better ideas via levels of assessors can be an entertaining contest costing near-zero. Even a project or game confined to schools could shed new light to achieve unexpected valuable results.
Need bends iron, yet in the absence of seeking better energy solutions perhaps the Govt feels there is no need to think afresh.
Bring it on. Untie the Gordian knot!
October 5, 2022
This isn’t the fault of “the Regulator”. It is the fault of “the Government”. And there simply won’t be significantly more fracking because NIMBY locals will oppose it and Conservative MP rebels will work with the opposition to stop it. If it was in Wokingham you’d oppose it too.
October 5, 2022
I just despair. We’re looking at energy shortages this Winter, and the prospect of people getting cold, and all the MSM can do is lament more handouts aren’t going out. The cry will be for more renewable energy and wind turbines that don’t contribute anything in calm weather.
You close down coal fired power stations and replace them with wind turbines rather than nuclear, and you have an energy shortage. Go figure.
October 5, 2022
āBusiness Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg is in talks which would commit Britain to buy agreed annual quantities of gas over the next decade or longer, a report has claimed.ā
āThere are concerns that potential deals could put the UK’s net zero plans at risk as the Government could be tied into buying large volumes of gas into the 2030s.ā
And there we have it. Itās more important to meet their net zero targets, which the British people never voted for than to keep people warm and save jobs. For every person who dies from hypothermia, the conservative party has blood on its hands.
October 5, 2022
Christine – am afraid J R-M is a fool – he comes across on TV as being so knowdegable and very upper class and yet he knows nothing more about anything than anyone else – must be one of those “so-called experts” that M Gove was on about in the past – in fact the ability of the whole front bench hand picked by Truss is now in question. These people should have had to sit in front of a cross section of a peoples committee with say 100 odd members, political dispassionate types, as a last resort in order to get these ministerial jobs – pantomime aside and right now the whole thing is a joke – and politicians by themselves cannot be trusted.
October 5, 2022
I’m concerned we will pay far too much for it. Much better to be an investor in projects that give an equity supply entitlement that we can use ourselves, or use to trade into more convenient supply rather than commit the economy to high cost supply that might end up being sold at a loss if it doesn’tsimply make us uncompetitive.
October 5, 2022
Off topic, I have this letter in the Belfast News Letter today, under the heading:
“Protocol bill isn’t best way to help Ireland”
“NIO minister Steve Baker is correct in stating that the UK should recognise the legitimate interests of the Irish Republic and the EU, but in turn they should recognise that their legitimate interests do not extend to controlling what goods may be permitted in any part of the UK, any more than they can expect to exercise such control in the territory of any other “third country”.
Moreover he is wrong if he believes that the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill is the correct way to recognise their legitimate interests.
Firstly in its Clause 15 āsafeguarding the integrity of the EU single marketā is only the seventh of nine āpermitted purposesā for which a minister may make regulations to disapply the protocol.
And secondly while this parliamentary approval is needed to allow the government to disapply unacceptable provisions of the protocol it is not needed for the protection of the EU single market.
Given that something like half of the goods crossing the land border from Northern Ireland into the Irish Republic have actually been produced in Northern Ireland checks and controls on imports into the province are not just an inefficient means to prevent non-compliant goods entering EU territory but an ineffective means; for that purpose the checks and controls should be applied to exports, not imports.
There is nothing in the protocol to prevent the UK introducing a rational system of export controls to supplement and then replace the irrational system of import controls, as foreshadowed in the Command Paper of July 2021; it is hard to see how anybody could reasonably object to that, and the necessary law could have been passed long ago if the Tory government had sincerely wished to ‘fix’ the problem.”
October 5, 2022
Jeez Denis- how do you sleep at night with all of that stuff going round and round in your head?
October 6, 2022
Not a problem, unlike some I have a clear conscience and can sleep easy.
October 5, 2022
So the police will from now attend all at home burglaries (they claim). Will this include at workplace burglaries too? How long will they investigate them for? 5 mins perhaps? The whole point of policing is surely to deter crime before it happens by making it clear you have a very good chance of being caught and punished. Not a ~ 1% chance per crime committed which deters almost no one.
October 5, 2022
Don’t blame the regulator. It’s your party’s fault and the eco elites in it, including Boris whom you supported all the way.
And there has been plenty of time to get something done sice. But your party doesn’t want to, it’s hoping they can get through the winter, hoping prices will then fall and next year it can get back to eco lunacy. And you keep mentioning reducing CO2 to make sure you are safe in the argument.
October 5, 2022
The planet would not suffer if we ceded all climate Greenery forthwith.
Our greenhouse gases output is negligible.There are grave doubts as to whether CO2is responsible for adverse climate changes indeed it may well be a total nonsense. YB
October 5, 2022
Spot On
October 5, 2022
“This should not be contentious”
But it will be Sir John, even inside the Conservative Party. I’ve given up worrying about your party and so it seems, have many of your Ministers and MPs. The alternative is of course dreadful but why should we keep voting for a party that has such obvious divides and where half of it’s MPs have more in common with New Labour than anything I might believe in.
Maybe it is time for Starmer to take over and remind people why they should never vote ‘Labour’ (what a misomer) but like Blair, he will change/damage so much whilst in power, that the UK may no longer effectively exist when they are finally kicked out again. Get a Grip (of Gove and his acolytes)
October 5, 2022
Good morning Sir John
There is much to agree with in your view this morning, its all good Conservative thinking. However, you find yourself swallowed up by a left wing reactionary Party.
All the thinking coming via the MsM about the conference is how to enhance Socialist entitlement without a single thought of creating an economy to support these anti-Conservative desires.
The largest tax take in 70 years so far all squandered on reactionary Socialist thinking. While at the same time doubling down in holding back enterprise and economic growth. It is about an individuals personal āSound Biteā for the sake of their personal ego. Not a single utterance from these self serving egotists about the āCountryā and the people they serve.
This is not a Democracy
October 5, 2022
Why are we, in the UK, paying world market prices for our own North Sea gas prices? It makes much more sense for the government to ensure we only pay a small profit over actual production costs.
October 5, 2022
Agree – Its no good increasing our UK supply if it ends up on the international market and we have to pay the same as Peru
October 5, 2022
if you want a competitive domestic gas market priced off supply cost you have to be self-sufficient. When we were we had some of the cheapest gas anywhere. In fact, because we were self-sufficient in pipeline gas (I.e. including dedicated pipelines from Norway) over the summer we were getting our gas much more cheaply than the Continent – about half their price in July. Of course we still had to buy some gas from Norway, so not quite self-sufficient.
If you try to impose prices then supply will dwindle and imports rise, defeating the object.
October 5, 2022
Why, Rick? Because markets don’t care about national boundaries. If you let the free market decide all economic decisions, that’s what you get. It’s part of globalism, and our rulers are all in favour of it. With Starmer, the Trilateral Commission apparatchik, it wouldn’t be any different. He snuffed out any inclination the Labour Party had to act a party putting the national interest first. All he offered was a profits tax on energy companies as in the EU.
What I and probably you would like to see is a national strategy of directing our energy resources towards our own needs, and maybe price controls imposed on all home energy producers, as a condition on licensing their operations in UK territory and waters. We could then as an incentive give them big tax breaks, financed by removing the insane Green subsidies. In other words, a strategy that puts the needs of British domestic and business consumers first.
October 5, 2022
It seems to me that you see the problems that are manufactured by the eco- loons! Why are there not more enlightened in parliament. Are they all bought over traitors just like the Blair , Brown left wing trash?
Great Britain needs a turn around it ā silly thinkā and a push back!
October 5, 2022
At least we now have a government that is prepared to increase domestic fossil fuel production.
If Boris was still in power would this be happening ?
Sir John, looking at the situation from Dorset, I am in despair : it looks like discipline in your party has completely broken down. If your colleagues are not happy, it should be obvious that they should keep quiet when talking to the media. They are doing exactly the opposite, causing immense damage to the PM.
It is now clear that the turmoil in the markets was a gross over-reaction, as in recent days, the pound has been back up to where it was before Liz Truss took over. Yet nobody is publicising that.
Your colleagues have to cut her some slack, otherwise the slide in the polls will become irreversible.
The government needs to come out and drive home positive points and publicise every success, however small.
Why, for example, are they not asking the Bank of England and the OBR to tell voters how much they expect inflation to reduce following the energy plan ? That should take the pressure off on benefit rises and influence pay negotiations. AND cause a positive rise in the opinion polls !
October 5, 2022
Surely Global Warming has now been exposed for the Big Lie it is.
Ask people if they will be willing to freeze and have cold showers in January and what would the answer be? I’m sure some loons would say it’s worth it, but they’d be the same ones who drive their Range Rovers to pick up everyone to glue themselves to the road.
October 5, 2022
It tells you all you need to know about Conservative policy on energy supply when one of their MPs, Alok Sharma, said it was a “symbolic moment” and he tweeted “the whole world needs to plan to consign coal power to history” when he got the opportunity to hit the detonation button on the partial destruction of coal fired Eggborough Power Station and our host is saying we need to keep them.
October 5, 2022
The energy shortage is a deliberate political decision.
There is no catastrophic GW or climate crisis. For instance, the Arctic is not ice-free in summer despite the prediction by Al Gore in 2009 that it would be by 2014.
CAGW and the CCA is an excuse to bring about the āNet Zero Strategy ā Build Back Greenerā plan.
The Strategy does not intend to replace fossil fuels with affordable and reliable low carbon energy as nuclear has been ignored and there is no plan at all for grid stability and long-term back-up for low energy density, unreliable, expensive and weather dependent energy from wind and solar.
Rather, the āBuild Backā part is informing us of the plan to first destroy our affordable and reliable fossil fuel energy, which will then be replaced with expensive and intermittent green renewables.
See the President of COP26, Alok Sharma, MP, triggering the explosive demolition of a UK coal-fired asset in this official SSE video :
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1429456184902393858/pu/vid/720×720/JwPnpycxEiyBmqVJ.mp4?tag=12
BEIS are still saying (28/09/2022) that they intend to demolish all coal-fired plants by October 2024.
October 5, 2022
With the long range weather forecast being for a cold windless November and December, it looks like Europe is in a precarious position for gas ans electricity. The remaining main pipeline is in dispure with Russia sueing Ukraine for unpaid bills and the new Norwegian supply to Poland is insufficient. Presumably the UK has a contract for this supply. However, Gazprom is now saying that one Baltic pipeline survived the sabotage and they could supply more if required. Denmark and Sweden have sensors and submarines in the shallow part of the sea where they have always been on the lookout for Russian subs- so they must know who dunnit. It will be interesting to see whether the culprit will finish the job and the remaining chance of settling the war and resuming less expensive and environmentally damaging supplies. Ms Truss seems to be as violently against negotiations as Johnson and Biden. It is difficult to believe that MI6 doesn’t know who dunnit too.
if it comes to blackouts and industry shutting down it will be interesting to see whether the EU members will come round to favouring a settlement. Countries such as India would have to supply troops to police a neutral zone in which the various types of Ukranians would have to stop the carnage.
October 6, 2022
EU leaders know who dunnit, but they don’t dare to say. Of course they favour a settlement of the war, but they don’t get to decide.
October 5, 2022
As with most government policies, too little too late, but I suppose they must be given some credit for at least identifying the need.
No doubt the the Green and Eco loon’s will protest, but do they want power or not, should be the counter argument.
For too long we have had policies which are just based on a fantasy dream and not simple physics and reality..
October 5, 2022
Could it be all the mismessages from government that has confused the quangos
Climate change committee saying that renewables are good fossil fuels bad
Government procuring global energy supply over UK supply
COP26 President Tory Alok Sharma MP crying on stage over climate change
Government complying with EU and UN energy plans
Government complying with UN net-zero targets
Government stopping any further oil & gas exploration in North Sea
Government stopping any exploration for fracking shale gas
Government bringing forward the ban on ICE cars and gas boiler heating 2030
Now the rush to reverse some of these barmy ideas to increase energy supply
This government has prioritised achieving international targets over the cost and availability of energy security to the people ā¦.and continues to do so
October 5, 2022
We don’t need extra energy – We need less imported energy & less net-zero
”IATA Director General, Willie Walsh has warned that the prices will have to rise to meet Net Zero goals and said that āwithout questionā flying will become more expensive. Net Zero will make everything more expensive” net-zero-watch
October 5, 2022
As many as 16,755 UK construction companies are now at āsignificantā risk of closure as high energy prices push the industry to the brink. Our essential industries rely on cheap and reliable energy. https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/High-Energy-Prices-Push-UK-Construction-Industry-To-The-Brink.html?fbclid=IwAR1zYkhitzX-3eZ5cvfprdnHHBtDe5LjmCLwL3nl_bp9MXAbk44x4EtzpJM
October 5, 2022
Liz today at conference mentioned further oil & gas exploration in the North Sea ā¦but didnāt mention, at all, fracking for shale gas !
October 5, 2022
Or reform of the energy markets and energy subsidy
October 5, 2022
Will anyone who arrived here illegally in a boat be cold this winter? How much energy will be needed to keep these extra people warm – at our expense?
Meanwhile, millions of people who have worked and paid taxes all their lives wonāt be able to afford to turn the heating on.
Well done, Mr. Redwood. You should be proud of your party and government.
October 5, 2022
You are absolutely right Sir John and you have given the same message several times before but then the weeks slide by and nothing material seems to happen, and other problems come into focus and hit the headlines.
As the PM stated this morning in her speech to the party conference it is the ”anti-growth-coalition” and many of the so called ‘think-tanks and quangos’ that have been holding us back and I hope she will sweep them aside so that we can implement her plan for growth. If we don’t grow, we will slide into obscurity.
Two of the significant problems the PM has to overcome were brought into focus on GBNews last night and on Sky during this morning’s speech. Donald Trump was being interviewed by Laurence Fox on the Farage programme and on commenting on Boris he said ” I liked the guy and then he went liberal” He did indeed, and so have a significant number of MPs mainly ardent Remainers and Rishi supporters.
Sky News is supposed to be a NEWS channel and should not broadcast propaganda, least of all while our Prime Minister’s speech is being broadcast. They displayed a side panel adjacent to the PM blaming the recent fall in the value of the pound totally on the mini budget and contradicting her speech. They have a right to express an alternative view and equally a duty to state ALL the facts but not in the middle of a live broadcast thereby devaluing the news.
October 5, 2022
The BBC did that to Boris when he was introducing the Internal Market Bill.
October 5, 2022
We have a very strange government. It seems that the Chinese government are operating a police station In London. I know that we must not offend them, but is that not a bit steep? But, on reflection, as we are in the nightmare situation of the government having abandoned our borders, does it make much difference?
October 5, 2022
Liz Truss, in her conference speech:
“And we are seizing the new-found freedoms outside the European Union. We are the party who got Brexit done and we will realise on the promise of Brexit. We are building an economy which makes the most of the huge opportunities Brexit offers. By the end of the year, all EU-inspired red tape will be history. Instead, we will ensure regulation is pro-business and pro-growth.”
Not applicable in the Northern Ireland part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern ireland.
October 5, 2022
JR: “Bring on the extra energy”
Back in 2019, the Guardian[1] had an article stating that the EIB ( European Investment Bank ) would discourage investments in fossil fuel projects. The UK was still in the EU at that time.
– To what extent did the British government at that time oppose the policy of reducing investment in fossil fuel exploration?
– To what extent did the EU policy then, influence the UK, City of London, and commercial banks to restrict investment in fossil exploration and exploitation in and around the UK ?
JR: “There was a similar delay in coming to the late conclusion we needed to keep some coal fired power stations instead of demolishing them all, given the need for back up power for cold days with no wind.
‘coming to the late conclusion‘
Do you know how a ‘coal fired’ power station works? You don’t just bring it on line. You run it all the time, because that is most efficient. Gas powered generating plant is preferable for supplementing demand peaks, just because it can be brought up to speed and start generating electrical energy quickly.
This was all know, thirty years ago. Except for ideological[2] reasons, the Tory government has utterly ****** up our generating capacity.
Honestly, I hardly think we’d be worse off, if we’d had a Labour administration for the last decade. Actually, I actually think I can barely discern a difference between the pair of you.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/26/eib-plans-to-cut-all-funding-for-fossil-fuel-projects-by-2020
[2] Truss, Coffey ( who prima facie, appears the wrong choice for Health secretary ), Sunak – all of ’em, seem to be associated with the WEF.
October 5, 2022
Bearing in mind how you have previously pointed out that travelling by train off peak to conferences can be reasonably priced, how are you getting home? Any net zero zealots using electric cars?
October 5, 2022
One thing for sure, should the Tory Conference return to Birmingham they won’t be able to use HS2.
October 5, 2022
Kwasi is in a bubble of Old Etonianism who still fill The City of London from one degree to another and trying to kowtow to his buddies.
He needs to be thinking more of the grammar school boys running the small to medium businesses, above all high tech – leaders and entrepreneurs – not the bankers in The City who had to be bailed out because of their gambling and incompetence from one degree to another.
October 5, 2022
Nothing against Eton – Huxley, Boyle and the Duke of Wellington all went to Eton (although the Duke of Wellington hated it ..).
October 6, 2022
oo r they chuk , whers eton ?
October 5, 2022
John, you appear to accept that atmospheric carbon dioxode is to blame for global warming, (climate change when the temperature falls). As there is no scientific evidence to support this theory, Please don’t.
Reply I need to influence many people who think that
October 6, 2022
ah! influence , now you are talking elective democracy,
October 5, 2022
I read in Die Welt that Germans are being warned that they should prepare for the possibility of power cuts that could last for over 72 hours.
The complacency adopted by National Grid (both power and gas) and BEIS towards our energy supply over recent years has been astounding. Following the attacks on Nordstream the idea of depending on subsea links now comes with a large defence cost. Establishing a vulnerable offshore wind infrastructure makes for a large target compared with limited oil and gas pipelines. Better still is development onshore.
October 5, 2022
Yes let’s get more gas out of the ground and coal as well as everything else. Today’s report from the WTO in Geneva warns that the ‘darkened trade outlook could worsen’ – it makes for grim reading it goes on to saya lot of the blame is on the Ukraine war. and it talks about higher energy prices, high food prices, high interest rates and that alltogether they is going to make for a massive impact worldwide. So better batten down the hatches and get fracking
October 5, 2022
Get fracking, especially with OPEC signalling that theyāre going to curtain supply ā¦get fracking today
October 5, 2022
Ah, the regulator as awoken, and speaketh unto us, saying: ‘For behold: there is a problem.’
Words of wisdom beyond price, truly we are not worthy.
October 5, 2022
*has* awoken
October 6, 2022
Meanwhile The Times reports the government are to buy gas from Norway and the gulf at prices which could tie us into overpriced gas for years.
In the third world such deals are regarded as corrupt, brown envelope jobs.
October 6, 2022
Have you never gone out, looked around, and wondered if we are not in the third world, AM?
October 6, 2022
“As it has turned out they have been running coal stations on and off throughout the summer on low wind days as well.” – JR
And charging coal powerstations in areas outside the metropolis up to Ā£40M annually to connect to the grid, a folly that has already cost us Longannet (which also burned biomass). Surely, if you want both clean air and steady electricity, plants built in low habitation areas should be encouraged. But then, there are offshore wind farms up and running and not connected to the grid. Wouldn’t Truss’ billions be better spent on increasing supply and infrastructure via actually plugging things in?
(The cost to connect to the grid per MWh: Ā£7.36 in the north of Scotland, Ā£4.70 southern Scotland, Ā£0.49 in Wales and Northern England. Apparantly in the south of England there’s no fee or they are actually paid to connect. This doesn’t encourage building powerstations where land is cheap, resources available, and unemployment high)
October 6, 2022
If you add generating capacity in the North of Scotland you either pay for it to curtail or you invest billions despoiling the countryside with new power lines to ship its output all the way to the interconnectors to France.
October 6, 2022
ah! influence , now you are talking elective democracy,
October 6, 2022
The latest (7 October to 20 Oct October) edition of Private Eye has just landed through my letter box. In their page 8 news under the heading ‘Drill seekers’ is to be found the following:
“The biggest single global cause of reduced CO2 emissions post-Kyoto has been the substitution of US coal-burning by shale gas – a fact that many dyed-in-the-wool opponents of fracking churlishly prefer to forget.”
When that sentiment is expressed in that publication, we are making progress. Private Eye goes on to suggest that big players like Shell and BP might make a better job of it than Cuadrilla. Big players might offer to build new schools and hospitals in exchange for (local?) government permission to frack. The Eye cites such practices being carried out by the French when they build nuclear power stations. Why not?
I would like to put in a plea to convert our remaining coal fired power stations to ‘clean’ (decarbonised) coal. It would set a good example and give us a stick with which to beat the big coal burners – USA, China, India, Germany, Poland etc – in WTO sessions, by proposing tariffs on goods exported from countries running a dirty economy.