The western economies that have prospered from vibrant free enterprise sectors with competition driving change, quality and value are being subjugated by large scale interventions from government. The US, the UK and the EU are moving towards more managed models, with the state introducing price controls, windfall taxes, subsidies and regulations to have more say over what is bought and sold, where and how things are made and over what people are allowed to buy. State spending and taxes rise as the state takes money from people and companies to give back to people and companies. The energy sector has been particularly prone to this during the energy crisis, with widescale adoption of income support, price controls and company subsidies alongside windfall taxes, redirection of energy purchases and a major drive to change the way energy is generated or provided.
Energy is not alone, however. The price of money was taken way down by state and Central Bank action, only to be priced up again when the predictable inflation broke out. Housing is more and more regulated with more controls over landlords and higher taxes, leading to a contraction in supply and more upwards pressure on rents. The state is deciding to ban products like diesel and petrol cars and certain types of heating. Governments are using sanctions, origin rules and other methods to change the patterns of trade.
Each of these individual actions is introduced to tackle a problem or to pursue a general policy goal, but taken together they can put people off going into business and can deter companies from making the large investments they need to make to provide sufficient capacity. UK gas and oil stays under the sea as policy prefers to import. The electrical revolution requires a massive expansion of grid capacity but so far this has not been forthcoming. This leads to windfarms with no ability to sell their power and companies looking for the power they need to expand their activities.
The subsidy/windfall tax balloon raises state spending and may also raise state borrowing. Governments are underwriting more risks that should reside in the private sector. Businesses ask governments now for grants and loan guarantees before committing to battery plants, EV plants and new energy provision. Governments need to rein in some of their excesses in these areas. They are likely to cut supply and make it more difficult to find the homes , the power and the transport they need.
March 2, 2023
Good morning.
To me that latest and next big calamity is food production.
The noise being made over food production and its supposed impact on the environment is alarming. Government is using taxpayers money to stop farmers producing food and thereby prevent them from selling into the market. We have already seen what a disaster this has been, idiots thinking that we can just import and it will be OK, only to find out that, when those countries have themselves a bad harvest, they will not export to us and so we go without.
There are just too many competing siren voices using all manner of nonsense to promote their loony ideas with no concept of how things work in the market place. And we are paying for it !
March 2, 2023
MB. No argument there. But I suggest you take a look at UN Environment Programme report “One Atmosphere (2023)”. ISBN 978-92-807-4005-9.
Its subject is SRM (Solar Radiation Modification). That is, blotting out the sun in order to cool the entire planet. Hardly a recipe for increasing agricultural output! Methods include injecting huge amounts of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere, much as volcanoes do.
It sounds laughable but they are serious. They want “a conversation” about introducing it, and suggest “a robust…scientific review process to reduce uncertainties associated with SRM and better inform decision making”.
What could possibly go wrong?
March 2, 2023
err….and the consequent failure of millions relying on their solar panel array to feed, heat and work.?
March 2, 2023
Sulphur dioxide will be absorbed by atmospheric water vapour and be returned to Earth as acid rain which is a defoliant.
March 2, 2023
SO2 is as likely to act as Cloud Condensation Nuclei. With an increase in CCNs (for the same amount of water vapour), there will be more and smaller liquid water droplets that make liquid water clouds more reflective and longer lasting by making precipitation only happening for somewhat higher cloud liquid water content.
Thatâs the Twomey effect first discussed in 1977 âThe influence of pollution on the shortwave albedo of cloudsâ, J.Atmos.Sci., 34, 1149-1152.
March 3, 2023
I am not clear how a phenomenon which can easily be measured by examining the ions and pH of rain in particular locations can have been falsified over a long period of time.
March 2, 2023
We need to resile from the UN. It has failed in its original purpose because of the persistent warmongering and obstruction of the US and its stooges such as the EU and the UK, and mission creep alone is not appropriate to maintain its existence as such activities under its auspices are endorsed with a counterfeit moral virtue.
March 2, 2023
Hear, hear!
March 2, 2023
Same with the WHO, to escape its medical dictatorship, so sorry the ‘Pandemic Treaty’ and the redrafted ‘International Health Regs’. It seemed to do fine for its first 40-50 years, then it started to go off the rails and the current management seems on a par with the mafia.
March 2, 2023
+1
March 2, 2023
Oh Dear Lord! The crackpots. Global cooling has already begun according to some scientists, the excess CO2 rising from the seas, is then absorbed into trees, which cools the atmosphere. It is reported that that is already happening in some parts of the world.
Chinese scientists, and others, believe the world will cool towards the middle of this century. What IS the matter with some people?
March 2, 2023
Yes and there is now good scientific evidence that highlights that we need MORE CO2, detailed in a publication by Bruges Group
March 2, 2023
Your brexit and the ensuing labour shortage is the main thing stopping UK food production.
March 2, 2023
No shortage of UK grown potatoes, carrots and parsnips. Tomato growers can’t compete with southern growers because of the deliberate increase in gas prices caused by disinvestment, ESG and EU policy of interconnections, renewables and the French nuclear EPR disaster.
March 2, 2023
That’s right, we can’t exploit eastern Europeans on low wages so easily as we used to, but the EU still can and does.
March 2, 2023
Like the former absorption of E.Germany, Frau Merkel encouraged millions of low-paid workers to come to Germany.
March 2, 2023
What labour shortage, we have 1.2 million unemployed
March 2, 2023
Oh at 66 million we are âshort of peopleâ? This number includes, of course millions of refugees from the EU who come over by any means including rubber boats, daily.
March 2, 2023
Our system of keeping them in comparative luxury compared to France and other tented situations for months and years on end is pathetic. They should earn their basic keep costs at the national minimum wage eight hours per day at ÂŁ9.50 per hour. A free breakfast, lunch, dinner and board is too much and encouraging this sitting out waiting for lawyers to argue cases stacking up the big bucks. Their cost should be covered by working on farms, picking up litter, cutting back grass from pavements, and working on community projects for the local communities that are homing them.
March 2, 2023
They’ve increased the number of seasonal work permits NLH? We are paying too much in benefits to those under 25’s that they don’t have to do any work.
March 2, 2023
I can not see how growing and raising food can possibly be worse for the environment than increasing the number of houses to accommodate a growing population but house building seems to be OK.
However the biggest threat to homegrown food is supermarket pricing and consumer attitudes to paying for food – not subsidies.
March 2, 2023
We should never have given a limited number of supermarkets so much power over us. Years ago, competing market stalls and small green grocers put out their fresh produce and competed with each other. The supermarkets have been allowed to kill of small town centres and councillors scratch their heads wondering why they can’t attract the small shop owners. Well take a look at what the supermarket stocks now, they clear out all their competition then withdraw lines.
March 2, 2023
Indeed get back to many competing market stalls with parking in towns and villages. But the councils have killed parking and often closed down real markets (with over regulation and selling them off) so people end up parking and using the local large supermarket with often very little real & local competition. Also very little seasonality.
March 2, 2023
Very good point.
One of the problems with food production has been energy. And guess who is responsible for that mess ? Government, that’s who !
March 2, 2023
try growing anything on concreted and tarmacked land.
March 2, 2023
+many
Oh yes!
And what if the present governmental mea culpa regarding the plague response is in fact a sneaky attempt to reaffirm our view that they are incompetent?
Then of course ( according to the govtâs ideas of how we think) we will happily accept WHOâs offer to direct further plague responses.
WellâŠif that is the case the dear govt. is wrongâŠ.AGAIN.
March 2, 2023
We have gone to enormous lengths to reduce sulphur emissions by around 95% from what they were in 1970 precisely to eliminate acid rain. If we wanted to increase them, just use high sulphur coal in power stations with no stack scrubbers, and relax the standards on fuels, particularly marine fuels, which have been tightened from 4%S to as little as 0.1%S in European waters.
March 3, 2023
Good idea but there is no need as the Chinese are already doing this đ
March 3, 2023
Actually the new Chinese coal power stations are modern efficient versions complete with stack scrubbers.
March 2, 2023
A snivelling, appeasing Tory govt laying the foundations for a true Socialist government in the next 18 months when Labour really will UNLEASH the full force of their poisonous leftist ideology on all of us
Thanks John and please pass on our regards to your fellow colleagues for colluding with the globalists to politicise even the air we breathe and indeed everything else that is normal human life
March 2, 2023
Would anyone invest in new CCGT plants when the environment is so hostile
Why aren’t you investing in the RR SMR. Is it because you don’t want the manufacturing in the UK because of net zero.
Charlatans the lot of you.
March 2, 2023
Over the next 7 years most nuclear will close down, SMRs will not be ready or sufficient to replace, older gas stations will close. We will be left with an increased CO2 content on the grid and insufficient backup during long wind lulls. Batteries and hydrogen won’t work for long periods. The government hasn’t a clue.
March 2, 2023
That’s because they listen to ‘experts’, that is scientists who are paid to produce the result the UN requires. Funny they are all doing the same thing, no novel thinking. Of course nothing to do with WEF or our new PM Klaus Schwab.
March 2, 2023
graham 1946
If you want to get a real insight into the WEF? Try reading the WEF ‘ AI Enslavement’
is coming to you. Written by J B Shurk. Printed yesterday by the Gatestone Institute a real eye-opener for those who have concerns or should have;…… its mission objective is remarkably simple: the smartest, best people in the world should rule everyone else…..cont
March 2, 2023
I recently came across a warning in an Eirgrid evaluation of what was needed to meet Irish government aspirations for an 80% non fossil fuel grid. They wrote:
Currently, through our Shaping Our Electricity Future Roadmap, we have a plan to deliver at least 70% renewable electricity for the all-island power system. For this GCS 2022-2031, our forecast of renewable generation is aligned to 70% renewable electricity by 2030 for the median demand. Achieving 80% renewable electricity will require a seismic shift in thinking, as the scale of the task is unprecedented and there are significant challenges in terms of deliverability, technical scarcities and economic considerations.
I imagine the thought of net zero terrifies them, as it should our own regulators and policy makers. For a country without a major hydro resource 70% is already well into the territory where costs escalate alarmingly, and risks of supply interruptions increase.
We now hear that the wind industry is bleating that it cannot afford to fulfill its CFDs bid in AR4 at ÂŁ37.35/MWh in 2012 money, likely to be worth about ÂŁ50/MWh when current indexation is calculated in April. There is a huge disconnect between the reality of the cost of wind and the rhetoric, and the fact that fossil fuels were operating at prices in the ÂŁ50/MWh region before the present energy crisis and sharp increase in carbon taxation. This chart shows the history of prices actually achieved by wind including subsidies from CFDs and ROCs in comparison with market prices:
https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Production-weighted-wind-princes-inc-floating-1676292462.2479.png
The recent capacity market auctions imply we will soon be paying over ÂŁ3bn a year for backup capacity to be available, on top of ÂŁ4bn balancing costs and additional grid costs that are rapidly escalating to ÂŁ3bn and soon beyond – ÂŁ10bn+ of extra cost due to wind and solar on top of the subsidies.
March 2, 2023
IW, 08/11/2021 Rolls Royce SMR, a subsidiary of RR, receives a ÂŁ210 m grant from the UK state and ÂŁ195 m from private firms.
Are you investing in RR. shares? Would you accept higher taxes for providing a higher grant to RR SMR?
March 3, 2023
I’d be happier if they would place an order for SMR’s rather than subsidise.
March 2, 2023
Its call âmarxismâ and a move to collective command economy, with a single world government âŠ.and its happening before our very eyes âŠ.democracyâs in the bin
March 2, 2023
exactly the slow drip of State control over everything. Who would have thought it taking place in England, well okay – in UK?
March 2, 2023
DOM, +++++, and time will tell, as it already has done.
All the crazed ‘conspiracy’ theories are already fully in play and more, and time will show what an understatement your comment is.
The Sunak Irish ‘success’ is unravelling faster than a treasury prediction (except in the eyes of the ‘faithful’).
Even the BBC is now looking for a scapegoat for all that befell the country when it was pursuing foolish measures to control a virus. Utter Madness.
March 2, 2023
+1
March 2, 2023
Grid capacity? It is the incompetence of politicians insisting that putting the cart before the horse was the only way forward to meet all these self-imposed what is now accepted as Net zero madcap ideas.
The industry does not really care as they get a double bubble in subsidies and constraint payments to satisfy their investors and accountants, This will not stop until the Grid has the capacity to take all the power generated and be able to meet the demands of the new all-electric world being inflicted upon us.
Britainâs Wind Industry Set to Receive Even More Taxpayerâs Money For Producing Nothing At All
Up to December 2019, British wind power outfits had collected over ÂŁ650,000,000 for doing nothing at all; the cost to power consumers was almost ÂŁ1bn over the last five years and that figure is expected to soar to over ÂŁ500m a year, or even more. The government has had plenty of time and warnings to address this.
https://stopthesethings.com/2023/02/26/britains-wind-industry-set-to-receive-even-more-taxpayers-money-for-producing-nothing-at-all/
March 2, 2023
It is very hard to discover the true scale of curtailment costs. The REF website manages to trace the prices bid into the balancing mechanism for curtailment, but I recently discovered that is not the end of the matter, since some wind farms on generous CFDs are getting compensation topped up to the value of their strike price. Previously, curtailment payments had been limited to the amounts bid by wind farms on ROCs in almost all circumstances. I am planning to ask the Low Carbon Contracts Company to provide information, since it appears they are responsible for the additional compensation.
As capacity increases, the volumes of curtailment are likely to rise quadratically, since there will be more hours where supply exceeds demand, and the size of surpluses in low demand hours will grow. Last year, curtailment totalled 3.9TWh – about 1.5% of demand.
March 2, 2023
Sir John. Sadly a lot of the situations we find ourselves in are because the vast majority of politicians for years have been in control of things they know absolutely nothing about and have relied on special committees and experts and scientists with computer predictions to sort out these problems instead of the government taking a harder line when considering new projects and capital investment. It invariably all falls back into the lap of the taxpayer. Energy, Transport, Illegal Immigrants, NHS, and Housing are just a few where the roundabout and swings mentality has seemed to be applied. For the taxpayer, they jump off of the roundabout only to be hit in the teeth by the swings. It all ends up as mountains of waste as successive governments apply solution after solution and refuse to address the real problems.
March 2, 2023
Turbo
Indeed the problem is most politicians do not have any real commercial/financial experience, people management experience. but most importantly they have no skin in the game, they are not penalised in any way for getting decisions wrong, other than a vote every five years.
I despair at the way we are going, being taxed and controlled.
It used to be said they would tax the air that we breathe if they could, well they now have with the introduction of complicated ULEZ areas, and by taxing any fuel that has some sort of emissions.
Local Authorities are now just collection and financial re-distribution centres, Central Government going the same way.
What is the point of an individual trying to make a real effort to get ahead, when much of it is being taken away, and given to others who cannot be bothered ?
March 2, 2023
Turbo and Alan. Very nicely put both of you.
March 2, 2023
Spot on Alan
March 2, 2023
Markets tend to sort themselves out naturally. Some intervention occasionally helps to smooth the way. However, Govt attempts to control the entire process in minute detail. Instead of stabilising values, it exerts jerks of high turbulence, each in a desperate succession attempting to re-correct its own errors. Govt would be sensible not to interfere in the first place than pay benefits to people they have overtaxed in every other.
March 2, 2023
@turboterrier +1
Exactly
March 2, 2023
Almost sounds like a Communist dictatorial state!!
Managed decline whose end it seems is to level up, by levelling down.
We see it everywhere, schools especially where everything is reduced to the lowest common denominator forcing everyone’s standards down. Then we can all marvel at ‘equality’.
March 2, 2023
Yes Michelle. I was tempted to comment that our ‘wonderful’ governing party seem determined to make us a successful communist state like present day China.
We do not have a choice between political Parties either. Conservative and Labour are joined into one Uniparty.
March 2, 2023
There are parties other than Labour and Tory, Pauline.
March 2, 2023
John Hatfield
But FPTP ensures that they get nowhere come voting day. Farage for all the total number of votes counted did not produce one seat.
March 2, 2023
Hope, not pessimism today.
I hope that the government will back off a bit and let people make up their own minds on home heating, what car they use and where they use it.
I hope that the government, local and central, will learn to trust us British to use our sense. We do not need bribing with subsidies. We need freedom to develop, knowing that if we get it wrong, we pick ourselves up and start all over again. We are the finest people in the world and we need to be given our head. (Pace Liz Truss.)
I hope that the government will allow fracking, more coal mining for clean coal and prices to rival the Americans for our oil.
Hope, not pessimism today.
March 2, 2023
Yes Zelensky deploys the âHope Strategyâ too. However his is short of an army and has lost, so is demanding the USA send their sons âbecause itâs NATOâ at risk now.
Iâm not keen on the Hope Strategy.
March 2, 2023
So, back in December 1941 you would rather USA resisted the call to join in the Allies fight against Nazis and Japanese? The ‘Hope’ strategy worked then, but what if it hadn’t?
March 2, 2023
Don’t forget Pearl Harbour, Mickey.
March 2, 2023
What âhopeâ strategy? The USA made a huge contribution but were paid for the weapons of war. They were attacked before they decided to fight.
I believe the U.K. with her Dominions and Russia would have beaten Hitler.
Only the hopeless invoke the Hope Strategy. The rest of us plan for the worst case scenario and make sure we will win even in that case.
March 2, 2023
Nice thought, Anselm, but what reason do you see for being hopeful? There was a Conservative leader who decided in January last year to ‘trust the British people’ and relax the Covid restrictions – what happened to him?
March 2, 2023
Hope is like praying and waiting for something helplessly. Wait long enough and something happening eventually. It is more effective to intend and act to cause the outcome one seeks. Big tasks can be broken into tiny easy stages. Everyone can take their shortest path to better every day. Why wait? Help yourself!
March 2, 2023
“How’s that hopey-changey stuff working out for you?” Sarah Palin, commenting on Obama’s policies to destroy the economic opportunities of the American working class.
It’s looking like it’s having a similar effect here with manufacturing jobs destroyed and/or outsourced abroad by the Eco Nutters in the Establishment.
March 2, 2023
The triumph of hope over experience. No sign of anything sensible. Don’t ever become a bookie or you’ll be the first one of that breed to go broke.
March 2, 2023
Angela
Hope we have a plenty but unless our political masters have passion, conviction, belief and sheer guts to make things happen, then all that hope turns to dust as the reality is nothing happens. Their puppeteers make sure what the direction of travel will be.
March 2, 2023
Governments almost invariably distort markets, push and subsidise totally the wrong things, often killing the right things. We see this in energy, net zero war on plant, tree & crop food, the road blocking & constrictions, the vast subsidies for public transport & HS2, the net harm vaccines even for the young, the pointless lockdowns, electric cars (that produce more CO2 than keeping an older ICU car anyway).
March 2, 2023
Net zero is the root of all evil. Some will be laughing all the way to the bank while the little people struggle. What’s the point in subsidising things that make us poor and then having the government pay us with our money to exist and be able to heat our homes and put food on the table? They are killing off industry here but importing all our needs from overseas. Its mental.
March 2, 2023
a vicious circle where Government create a circle that diminishes the population’s rights, freedoms, ability to choose while at the same time imposing rules and taxes on what they can do, make, earn and spend. Even media is edging towards approved ‘news’ which resembles that they wish to create rather than happened.
March 2, 2023
Yes, FuS, it depends if you can afford the offsets for your and your families’ bad, dirty, anti-net-zero behaviour; if you can, you can just carry on as always.
March 2, 2023
Ashley:
Maybe âICUâ should be âICEâ for Internal Combustion Engine.
An ICU car seems more like an Intensive Care Unit.
We should take more care to keep our old cars.
Heavy batteries may be better on boats that float.
At least ballast is needed.
Wasting immense power to drive heavy batteries on land is like pushing water uphill.
March 2, 2023
Indeed though one would need on hell of a heavy and expensive battery to take a container ship round the world.
Batteries about ÂŁ4KG per KWH cost ÂŁ150 per KWH. A Panamax container ship might consume 63,000 gallons of marine fuel per day so for 30 days, 35KWH per gallon you get ÂŁ6300X35x30x150
A battery is essentially the plastic tax that that just contains the fuel/ELECTRICITY perhaps costing just ÂŁ50,000 for a large container. Using a battery it might be circa 264 million KGs and ÂŁ8 BILLION cost just for the battery. Would take rather a while to charge it too. Then we have the huge battery fire risk.
March 2, 2023
Agree
March 2, 2023
Well put Sir John. It sounds much like a repeat of all the failures of the old Soviet Union which will inevitably lead to failure. Countries determined to succeed are going for cheap reliable and abundant energy from coal, oil and gas. Such as Poland, China, India and Russia.
Tax, subsidies and government intervention in the name of non existent CC/GW to ‘protect’ us will impoverish us all.
March 2, 2023
BOF – yes, that is how it seems to me.
March 2, 2023
That is about right BOF.
March 2, 2023
Every market that government gets into with its subsidies gets distorted.
Oh for a small government with a much smaller, balanced budget
March 2, 2023
Agreed Narrow Shoulders.
March 2, 2023
Sir John as usual your overall assessment of the UK economy is spot on.
But this is the old problem of balancing Capitalism with Socialism, but more recently Globalism v Nationalism ( put the interests of ones own citizens first). The Elephant in the room of course is the population explosion in the UK for various reason. Wars are the current main driver and to a lesser extent climate change. Dare I mention the benefits system. If you can get across the channel in a small boat a 5 star hotel awaits you.
Some people are making a lot of money from the above situations and the tax payer is funding it .
The Government does not want a small business economy because it can’t control it . The private rental market is a very good example. It wants this in the hands of large corporations and not private individuals.
Mrs T sold off the council houses and now the Government is taking back control of the rental market, effectively Nationalising it. Sorry putting it in the hands of approved government subcontractors.
March 2, 2023
True. These policies are those decided by the UN Marxists and the WEF Socialist/Corporatism agendas, all in writing and followed by politicians of all parties, who are ex young leaders. Stamer even says he prefers working with Schwab’s Dovos crackpots than in Westminster. Many civil servants also think they are ‘beyond authority’.
We need a clear out.
March 2, 2023
Correction, we badly need a huge clear out.
March 2, 2023
Totally agree, James.
March 2, 2023
James 1
+ 1000s
March 2, 2023
We need a government with the bottle to leave the UN ….or a least the choice of a party that proclaims that they’ll leave the UN at the next election – maybe the reform party could help
March 2, 2023
It deserves a top flight debate over days in the H of C, in the media, and possibly votes in the hustings.
It would be good to examine the UN, membership, funding, activities good, bad and inactivities.
March 2, 2023
Totally agree but our politicians would rather debate equal opportunities of employment in Outer Mongolia and the London Dog Show before a debate on the role and function of the UN
March 2, 2023
Where is this war or climate change in Britain which is causing the population to explode? For that matter there are no wars or climate change in most of the countries supplying immigrants. It’s not poverty either, those who are coming can afford ÂŁ7000 per head to give to smugglers. The big population explosion is in Africa, and that isn’t caused by wars or climate change either.
March 2, 2023
African Countries by population (2023) ; 1, Nigeria, 206 million ; 2, Ethiopia, 115 million ; 3, Egypt, 102 million âŠ1.43 billion total
https://www.worldometers.info/population/countries-in-africa-by-population/
March 2, 2023
Yes, well said John McD and what is the qualification to be an approved contractor â friends and cashâ eh!
March 2, 2023
It is always so good to be amongst friends…as children, schooling, university, internship…the favours will want to be returned some day.
March 2, 2023
even constituency committees to choose future representation?
March 2, 2023
A very good summary John of our business and economic decadence. It is corporatist socialism brought about by the ideology of the left and the lazy incompetence of Conservatives. In my 1990 Bow a Group paper “Conservatism in Danger” I warned the party was becoming dangerously corporatist. It has got gradually worse since then.
March 2, 2023
The subsidy / tax merry go round has encouraged people and business to be less resourceful than in the past and to rely (indeed campaign for) the next handout
March 2, 2023
Subsidy over profit is the new business model introduced by Musk and now followed by the green business revolution, nay marxist revolution….say its green and collect a subsidy
March 2, 2023
@Narrow Shoulders +1
Then again isn’t this Government leading by example. They will tax then spend, without accountability or results attached
March 2, 2023
It’s always good to look back in time and try to learn from history. So let me think, are there any examples of countries where the Government controlled the means of production, including farming and food production; distributed approved goods according to the perceived need of the people and created a massive surveillance state to control the population and to identify and “deal with” dissenters?
Because that’s where we’re headed …… there must be somewhere that’s previously tried this form of governance.
Oh yes ….. the Soviet Union. The former Eastern Bloc. Mao’s China and North Korea.
Communist States.
March 2, 2023
+1 Donna.
March 2, 2023
Agree 100% Donna
March 2, 2023
@Donna +1
I dont think there is much difference between how the Conservative Government operates than those of Putin or Xi
Shame on the Conservative Party they deny their own purpose and reason to exsist…
March 2, 2023
Ian, I think there’s all the difference in the world between the way our government operates, and Putin or Xi. Those leaders put their country’s interests first.
March 2, 2023
a good and valid point better expressed as. ‘similar interests of themselves first, country second’. Here own country of little consequence?
March 2, 2023
@Bill B. Yes you are so very correct, it hurts
March 2, 2023
+1
March 2, 2023
Yes Donna. So they did.
March 2, 2023
Donna :
Agreed
March 2, 2023
True, there are far too many governmental interventions but government should still be an intervener of last resort – most especially as government and its civil servants lack both general competence and real financial discipline.
March 2, 2023
Micro managing life by government does not work, it fails to take care of those who really need help, it creates a dependency culture, kills enterprise, it is very expensive to manage, and absolutely fails to produce the best economic outcomes for country, company, or individual citizen. The result of it in the UK is a complete shambles, nothing works because government and it’s scribes could not organise a pissup in a brewery.
The answer is to reorganise the whole system of taxation, pensions, banking, health, energy, et al. I suspect that the electorate will get so sick of the abject failure of the Westminster bubble that they will do it for you in 2024.
March 2, 2023
There’s no one with the wit to do that reorganisation. All we have is clueless career politicians.
A Labour government is forecast by the end of next year. You might as well hand over the governance of the country to the pupils of a pre-school.
March 2, 2023
@agricola +1 A morally corupt Government creating a sticking plaster job rather than look at their own management ability
March 2, 2023
Renewable electricity this winter has displaced more than a third of the UKâs entire annual gas demand for power generation. Without it, the UK would have had to increase net gas imports by more than 22 per cent (including gas imported via pipeline)
Generating the same amount of electricity using CCGT would have required around 95TWh of gas â equal to 110 tankers of LNG – or the amount more than 10 million UK homes would burn over the winter.
In 2022, UK renewables provided 38 per cent of the countryâs electricity generation, nearly as much as gas (at 40 per cent) and we became a NET ELECTRICITY EXPORTER for the first time since 2010
March 2, 2023
Sakara. Did renewables provide 38% on a constant basis? No. End of.
March 2, 2023
Your right FuSâïž
March 2, 2023
The Government has chosen not to exploit our own gas reserves and instead import from the USA and the Middle East.
There is no need to import gas at vast expense. They refuse to produce our own.
March 2, 2023
And we must all realise too that Sunak and climate grovellers intend to deindustrialise the UK, England in particular.
He and his party as a whole, along with Labour are not interested in critical debate. The time has come for protest acton to protect our interests, whatever that may be.
March 2, 2023
Sakara
If wind power is so good, cheap, and we use so much of it, why have energy prices increased from this source, the cost of wind has not gone up, it has always been free ?
March 2, 2023
Or we could have allowed the energy markets to exploit the gas fields in and around the UK and started shale gas fracking to produce massive amounts of energy ….we don’t need to import energy
March 2, 2023
Absolute rubbish
March 2, 2023
We sit on an island of coal & shale gas surrounded by a sea of oil & gas, and at one time we were the world leaders in nuclear energy âŠ.why do we need to import anything
March 2, 2023
Have you worked out the cost of this miracle – we certainly don’t see any reduction in our bills.
March 2, 2023
but but but you will tomorrow, jam tomorrow, jam for everyone tomorrow ….that new technology is just around the corner …utopia with plenty of jam
March 2, 2023
What a stupid, crass comment from you. Kwarteng imposed a huge windfall tax on renewable producers “excessive” profits and put 20% VAT on pubic EV chargers. The quadrupling of the wholesale gas price by the fossil fuel cartel BEFORE the Ukraine war started accounts for your stonking energy bill
March 2, 2023
and a tax like that tends to kill development stone dead.
March 3, 2023
We were talking wind, but just change the subject when you can’t answer and add an insult as well. All par for the course. But we are told wind is cheap or free. Crass comments maybe, but then we are not all as clever as you and I live in the real world not some net zero fantasy that will never come true. We had the same in the fifties with nuclear which was going to be too cheap to meter. What happened to bills since then? Glad we have ‘pubic’ chargers – might help me out at my age.
March 2, 2023
Wonderful, SG. That must be why energy is becoming so cheap in this country, not.
Gas imported via pipeline? There’s only one to GB, the Langeled pipeline from Norway. The Norwegian company Neptune Energy announced last October that it was extending higher gas supplies to Britain for the winter. Which it did. ‘Norwegian pipeline gas exports to continental Europe and the UK rose to an 11 month high in December.’
https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/natural-gas/011023-norwegian-gas-supplies-to-europe-uk-hit-11-month-high-in-december
Quite right too: gas is reliable, wind and solar are not, especially in winter.
March 2, 2023
Another idiotic comment from another paid up member of the fossil fuel lobby
There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that renewables have saved the day for us this winter. British-based renewables generated more electricity than gas this winter and produced enough juice to power every UK home.
Between 1 October and 28 February, power generated by wind, hydro and solar reached 47TWh. This is an insane amount of electricity and renewables have saved the nation billions in subsidy costs for fossil fuels this winter. It is time that the pro fossil fuel lobby dinosaurs such as yourself that post here recognise this tremendous contribution to our economy and start supporting the transition to clean energy
March 2, 2023
I am also of the opinion that slowly slowly catch a monkey, fossil fuel until a totally viable alternative is found. Certainly not renewables, they have gone as far as possible at this state of the science
March 2, 2023
Insulting your adversary is a sign you have no decent arguments, SG. It’s also noticeable that you never cite sources in support what you say. So let me remind you that according to The Guardian (6/1/23), solar energy made a negligible contribution in 2022, under 5%, and hydro even less. Wind energy (26.7%) was well below gas (38.5%), which unlike wind remains a regular, reliable source every day. Nor does it require massive subsidies imposed on the consumer. Market prices for gas have been falling in recent months, but the subsidy paid to wind energy per Megawatt Hours has taken the cost of wind to well over the average gas price per MWh this winter. The economics of the energy crisis mean we must continue to support natural gas-fired power generation. Wind energy is an unaffordable luxury that just allows climate ideologues to feel good about themselves, at the expense of cruelly condemning many in this country to fuel poverty..
March 2, 2023
SG. I ask again. Did renewables produce 38% for 24/7? If not then it cant provide the country with a reliable source of energy.
March 3, 2023
Actually we have a number of import pipelines. The lines from Bacton to Belgium and the Netherlands were very busy in export mode for most of the year, but they did have short periods of import flow in winter months. There are several pipelines from Norway in addition to Langeled: FLAGS, Frigg and SAGE all feed St Fergus, and CATS still produces occasional small volumes into Teeside.
March 2, 2023
None of which would be necessary if we were allowed to extract our own gas.
March 2, 2023
Start fracking today …..or give drax million upon million of subsidy to ship wood chips from america
March 2, 2023
Duh, there isn’t enough of it left and the new licences that have been issued will take at least 25 years to produce anything. There are no economical shale gas reserves onshore in the UK. Why don’t you check the facts before you spout crap that you have read in the Telegraph or the Mail?
March 2, 2023
Sakara Gold :
Unfortunately renewable energy is expensive, unreliable and insecure. This winterâs CfD electricity prices from onshore and offshore wind are 2 to 3 times the price we paid for many years using gas until our supply of electricity was destroyed by the Governmentâs tax/subsidy merry go round to transition to renewables. Without gas for backup when the wind doesnât blow and the sun doesnât shine (every night) renewables could not even exist at all. Not only is there no security of supply from renewables because of intermittency but there is certainly no security when it is a hostile state, coal-fired China, supplying the wind turbines and solar panels.
The correct solution for us is to build reliable nuclear power, the SMRs, which can provide electricity at half to a third of either the French designed/Chinese funded Hinkley Point C or wind turbines and use green methane for transport and heating.
We wouldnât need to import tankers of LNG if the Government didnât interfere by curbing North Sea fossil fuel licences and banning fracking.
March 2, 2023
Sakara Gold :
PS : As I write the 27 GW of installed wind capacity is providing just 3.63 GW of power, 8.9% of the 40.7 GW demand.
March 2, 2023
35.1% renewables according to Grid stats. 3.3 % exported to France when their nukes were down. Mainly from our gas stations.
March 2, 2023
Oh, and by the way: we exported it for peanuts when everyone had a surplus, and then had to import it back later – at up to 100 times the normal going rate – when the govt was panicking because the wind wasn’t blowing and we had blown up all our coal-fired stations.
March 2, 2023
But at a cost of importing – solar panels, the labour, biomass, woodburners, insulation materials, batteries requiring mining foreign rare earth elements…
March 2, 2023
‘Think of our grand children they say’ âŠ.but what of the poor children working the battery mines today and the slave labour making the solar panels, exploited by the net-zero green revolution
March 2, 2023
Sakara Gold : âIn 2022, UK renewables provided 38 per cent of the countryâs electricity generation, nearly as much as gas (at 40 per cent) and we became a NET ELECTRICITY EXPORTER for the first time since 2010.â
Some of our electricity exports are at negative prices. This is because it is cheaper for the grid to export at negative prices than pay wind estates curtailment payments for the energy which the Government forces them to buy – even if not required â to avoid a breakdown of the Grid.
March 2, 2023
SG,
The only reason that windpower produces anything bettween 40% and 3% of UK demand is that the majority of fossil fuel power stations have been wantonly destroyed. Windmills are dependant on wind which is erratically available. Worse, windmills are heavily subsidised in the bills of any electricity user. Conclusion, windmills can only be looked upon as providers of bonus power. They could be useful in the mass production of Hydrogen, a clean form of gaseous power for homes, industry and propulsion. They do not justify being subsidised.
Mid term our energy needs will have to be nuclear, with a personal preference for SMRs, but this government is dithering over giving Rolls Royce the go ahead. Long term we can live in hope of Fusion Energy. Short term we should be maximising the use of our own fossil fuels. Coal for steel production. Oil for our own refineries. Gas, offshore and fracked for domestic and industrial power. All I would add at cost plus a modest profit. Not at World market prices. Before the critics of fracking mouth off they should understand the technology of drilling and the geology of earthquakes within the UK. You might be surprised at their frequency within the UK.
The above might end the virtue signalling of exporting our industry for lack of affordable energy. Put another way the hypocracy of transfering our pollution to places that wave two fingers at nett zero, and the creating of more pollution by importing, over vast distances, our fossil fuel needs.
March 3, 2023
Our electricity exports essentially depended on running extra gas generation to provide a surplus above demand. The exports were driven by shortages on the Continent, particularly in France where large amounts of nuclear generation were out of action, and because Continental countries were trying to avoid using gas themselves that they were short of.
https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/GB-Gen-Price-HQ-1676233783.8236.png
Gas generation was an addition to the record levels of gas exports over the summer, which were enabled by very high levels of LNG imports – again because of limitations on Continental LNG import capacity.
March 2, 2023
The terrifying slide towards socialism and all of its usual failures.
March 2, 2023
If only Eric Blair (George Orwell) was here now to write his visionary books.
March 2, 2023
MT,
George Orwell warned us of the current political scenario some seventy years ago with 1984 and Animal Farm. Today in politics it is all there to read. We are at the cusp.In 2024 we can endorse the ongoing socialist farce or vote our way to a totally different direction. Sheep or Lions, choose.
March 2, 2023
‘The subsidy/tax merry go round’ More correctly the WEF Socialist World for those that âthinkâ they are the elite. Everything that is the opposite of human advancement, the management of the many for the enhanced security and assured safety of the few that in all honesty do not at any stage liked to be challenged.
March 2, 2023
We have a WEF puppet Government that believes it knows best and it should be their ego that manages each minutiae of detail on a one size fits all basis.
They call themselves a Conservative Government, but the are anything but, no freedom of choice, speech or liberty. No competition but manipulation. Dumping one mistake on top of another just to cover the previous mistake. Everything going no where because those best suited to get are excluded, on the back of Socialist ego.
Is our Conservative Government at the end much different the Putin regime in management style
March 3, 2023
The Russian government’s management style with energy resources, starting years ago, was to make sure they were not in the hands of oligarchs with leanings towards foreign powers. Putin ensured they were in the hands of people he could rely on to serve Russia’s national interests. I see that as very different from the way successive British governments have allowed essential UK assets to be bought by foreign companies.
March 2, 2023
From the MsM – “Former Northern Ireland Attorney General John Larkin has contributed to a damning report on Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal saying it is “incompatible” with the Acts of Union.”
Something every one knows but this Conservative Government, they have failed in their duty and to the rights of the UK Citizens
March 2, 2023
The windfall tax is a retrograde measure, which is also unjust and unfair.
The green cult’s policy is enlarging the UK’s dependency on energy imports, which will ensure that our energy prices will be higher than our competitors.
All this is completely pointless, the Nut-zero policy is futile as 90% of the world are increasing their use of fossil fuel, notably Germany, China and India.
March 2, 2023
and those who explore upper atmosphere and planets – blasting things upwards by means of fossil fuels.
March 2, 2023
Can it be a coincidence that the USA, UK and the EU are all doing the same things? More state control over pretty much everything? I thought it was China that was meant to be mimicking the western democracies, not the other way round?
March 2, 2023
Where there’s a subsidy …there’s a way
March 2, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
‘The US, the UK and the EU are moving towards more managed models’ or state control! One might be tempted to think that there is some sort of unified action going on. Who or what is driving this I wonder?
My guess is that populations are getting too large, unruly and difficult to control for the liking of the influential and the powerful as they plan for the future. We are increasingly going to be told what we must buy, where we can go and how we get there, what we can do and even what we can think (aloud that is).
March 2, 2023
+1
There is a vid of a new âmind readingâ plan the world rulers have cooked up.
It is some sort of AI that gauges your mood (by blood pressure/ heartbeat?) and then translates the results into â what you are thinkingâ.
It is shown as being used in an office situation and the unlucky victim is found wanting. AI translates her bodily reactions as thinking about blokes rather than work!
What a totally dangerous future we face.
I bet even the MPs who have jettisoned us into this would worry!
March 2, 2023
From what I read, I’d suggest that the ‘financial sector’ might be driving this. See, e.g. Shaxson’s 2018 book ‘The Finance Curse’, also the roughly mid-2019 meeting at which various giant companies and banks decided to ‘go direct’ because the aftermath of the 2008 crash was so intractable.
It seems not to matter that the House of Lords Economics Committee thinks (Jan 2022 report) that a central bank digital currency is ‘a solution looking for a problem’, or that it could cause financial instability. CBDC (and financial slavery) it is.
March 2, 2023
All subsidies and grants are a perversion and corruption of the market. There is a however, were uncompetitive lets call it dumping is in play, a subsidy on the grounds of national security and safety has to be acceptable. Although that doesnât tackle the root of the problem. If a Country is supplying grants or subsidies to one area of business or another that is one thing, if that Country then goes on to export that subsidised product, they have declare economic war on the recipient nation.
Prime example here the EU Common Agricultural Policy, all good when applied to just its home market. But, when the same production is then exported, the recipient market is undermined and placed under threat. Think UK Farmers, why should they produce when the UK Government permits foreign taxpayer subsidised produce to flood our market. This how you get the never ending forced taxpayer funded merry-go-round.
It is an area were I am in disagreement with Sir John, the very point of a FreePort is to create an economic attack on another Countries commercial activity. That is why some Countries ban the import of goods produced that way. Far better that a whole Country receives the same tax treatment. Then it is Government good management that is competing â they cut their own cloth to suit.
Subsidies, grants and benefits in the UK tax system is a Government saying it doesnât know what it is doing, it is in refusal to manage and it papering over the cracks of a perverted morally bankrupt system
March 2, 2023
Autocracy vs Democracy . Too much direction and control from Government can – and does have an influencing effect on the economy . There is always a delicate step to take when decisions are made and those in charge must be aware of consequences – the public will inevitably respond . Sunak must link in to his plans and policies a wider approach rather than those immediately around him .
March 2, 2023
Wasnât the 1922 committee constituted to be the voice of the backbenches and to put a cheque & balance to an over reaching government âŠ.where are they now in our hour of need ….I hear the voice of SirJ but none other
March 2, 2023
The stupidity of the Conservative Government
âBritain to challenge China with ÂŁ1bn subsidies for computer chip makersâ
Making computer chips without ARM canât happen. ARM is at the heart of the majority of the Worlds Chips. It is sitting there in Cambridge and the UK Government wishes its IP to be elsewhere. Not exactly shutting the door after the horse has bolted, but kicking it out of the door to they can close it once its has gone. Then the Government will need billions and billions more of taxpayer money to replace ARM so they can then make computer chips that can be a challenge in the World.
Its about as bright as chasing the need for battery EVâs but deny the creation electricity to charge the batteries.
Seemingly being academically capable is not the same as being âbrightâ or âastuteâ
March 2, 2023
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the biggest player in the foundry market.
Design is all very well, but you have to be able to make the chips.
March 3, 2023
@Mickey Taking – how do you make something where you dont have a design? The Government has kicked ARM along with their IP out of the door. Build a foundry in the UK, straight forward and possible, then pay ARM a second time for the design the UK taxpayer previously funded.
The point is the UK Governments don’t think especially in areas of national security. Nuclear the UK is buying in the technology and capability because the Labour Government sold the UKâs lead and capability in their for desperation money, stating Nuclear has no place in the UK! The taxpayer paid once for that resource and is now paying again for the same.
March 2, 2023
This all sounds like a plan coming together if you ask me. You will own nothing and be happy kind of plan.
March 2, 2023
Sakara Gold,
No idea where you got your data from, but you need to visit;
https://grid.iamkate.com/
March 2, 2023
All this Government meddling is made possible by fiat money; funny money.
It removes the major constraint on a Government’s size. Who here believes the Government could ever willingly reduce its size by 1%, let alone 5% or 10%.
History shows funny money fails and with it the government and even the empire.âThat’s another thing the Romans did for us; show by example.âLionel Shriver’s 2016 novel ‘The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047’ is an entertaining read looking at the outcome in New York.âShe thinks it’s a lot more likely to happen than any global-warming harm.âPerhaps our governments distract us with ‘climate emergency’ for fear we might see the emperor has no clothes.
March 2, 2023
The biggest tax/subsidy/wasteful spend scandal will eventually be shown to be the unilateral CAGW/Net Zero scam which was initiated by fifth column communists to destroy the economies of the West and then taken up by WEF as they saw how wealthy their members could become by causing shortages of energy and food.
As evidenced by there being no requirement for China to partake in this scam and if CO2 emissions were an issue then we would be building nuclear power plants instead of expensive, intermittent wind turbines (supplied by coal fired China) and using green methane for transport and heating instead of hydrogen and batteries (supplied by coal fired China).
There is no CAGW. We have benign warming at 0.13 degrees C per decade, empirical evidence does not show more frequent or worsening weather and increasing atmospheric CO2 adds very little GHG effect due to IR saturation (Happer & Wijngaarden) whilst greening the planet and increasing food production.
March 2, 2023
Correct
March 2, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
And in other news, the government has decided that the controversial extra lane on smart motorways will not now be scrapped. Instead, they will be reserved exclusively for the use of senior government officials and called Net ZILch Lanes. Anybody caught using these lanes will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. On a three-lane motorway, the inside lane will be for manufacturing and supply vehicles only. The second lane will be for those who can afford an EV and the electricity to power it. This lane is not expected to be used widely. The third or outside lane will be for the MI5 homeland security agency, other government bodies and employees of the state-controlled BBC TV. Everybody else must catch the bus until the authorities get round to allocating you your 15 minute town or city quadrant where you will cycle or walk if you have need to go anywhere. Country-dwellers will work hard in the fields growing turnips.
March 2, 2023
Put it in self production, you might make a lot of money – dystopia here we come, eh?