Heat pumps are not great sellers. Many think they do not work well. Many cannot afford the high cost of adapting their homes to take them, even allowing for the taxpayer grant available to help with the costs.Some like me who would be willing to have one in my flat are told there is not one that could be fitted.
From next month gas boiler suppliers will face a tax or fine if they fail to meet certain arbitrary targets for selling heat pumps. This is a disgrace. It will mean higher prices for gas boilers for the many who still want them. It will not necessarily Ā sell more heat pumps.
Nor will it save the planet. On cold windless days it will take plenty of gas burned in a fossil fuel power station to work the heat pump. Plenty of the gas is wasted in generating the electricity and more energy is lost in routing the electricity to the home. Why not burn the gas in the home so more of the energy produces heat in the right place.
Governments need to let innovation and product development in the market develop products people want to buy. Electric cars are dear and not popular enough. Developing synthetic or sustainable petrol might Ā prove to be a cheaper and better choice. Ā Then they would Ā not need to scrap all petrol and diesel vehicles and the plants that make them.
Putting more green hydrogen or synthetics into natural gas so we can all keep Ā our gas boilers might be a better answer for heating. Just stop taxing and annoying us.
December 17, 2023
Hydrogen is tricky stuff to handle safely. Some materials are permeable to hydrogen; because it is lighter than air it rises and collects at the highest point; it is more explosive over a wider range of concentrations than town gas. In short there is no affordable way to make hydrogen safe in the domestic environment.
December 17, 2023
Nor any sensible reason to do so. Outside a very few specialist areas it is an idiotic way to go. Even if you really think CO2 is a devil gas it takes loads of CO2 to produce so called āgreen hydrogenā and we have no spare low carbon electricity anyway. Hugely expensive and very energy inefficient too. At least the two mad trial villages for H2 boilers have been abandoned which morons in government ever suggested them?
December 17, 2023
LL,
Your complaints about scientific competence in government and SC are supported by non other than Sir Patrick Vallance –
‘Mr Johnson, Sir Patrick pointed out, gave up science aged 15, and until recently just 10% of recruits to the civil service fast stream came from science or maths backgrounds.’
There is not sufficient interest nor capability to comprehend the scientific issues, and those that could do so will not be encouraged. Result, bad, expensive and potentially catastrophic decision making. It’s why we are making government energy policy based on complaints from a Swedish teenager….
December 17, 2023
I would treat anything Valance said with great caution. His dodgy charts with Witty before second lock fell apart within days.
December 17, 2023
“morons” is rather harsh, the civil servants and politicians making energy policy are (sometimes) intelligent people, The problem is that they are STEM illiterate (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths): in the modern world a PPE degree should be regarded as little better than one in Media Studies, but our entire political class seems to value these soft degrees above all else.
Methane (natural gas, fracked gas) is a wonderful fuel, readily available from our own resources and miserly in its CO2 production. When burnt it gets its heat from combusting two atoms of hydrogen for each carbon atom. Not just low carbon — compressed it makes a road fuel that exhausts very low NOX and particulate pollution which would make a welcome dent in the roll-out of the ruinous ULEZ schemes.
Any STEM-literate government with the interests of the UK at heart would be converting ships, road vehicles and every heating system to methane, using the resultant prosperity to build a fleet of small, carbon zero fission reactors. While finding the climate change hysteria unconvincing I would still recommend that as a way of keeping the lights on but, alas, a major blackout during a few days of zero wind and dark overcast, with the attendant damage and fatalities, seems to be the only way our purblind masters will be brought to take our energy crisis seriously.
JF
December 18, 2023
But CO2 doesnāt affect the climate significantly. Read it up.
December 17, 2023
Two major gas boiler manufacturers are increasing their prices by Ā£100 to compensate for the forthcoming fines as they know they can’t meet the target.
The same will happen for diesel and petrol cars as targets will not be met.
One thing is for sure, these fines will be paid for by the consumers.
December 17, 2023
I think it’s time all MPs and civil Serpents were made to declare what type of heating they have and the number and type of vehicles they drive.
December 17, 2023
No doubt they will find a way of sticking theirs on expenses and cost of running them alongside their other utility bills and council tax, at least for their taxpayer funded London pads. One rule for them and all that ā¦.
December 17, 2023
Ian
Yes was aware that the car manufacturers were going to be fined.
Have to say I was not aware until today that gas boilers manufacturers were also in the same situation.
John, what the hell is going on ?
We are supposed to be a free trading Nation are we not !
Companies design and sell what their customers want, otherwise they fail and go out of business, why is Government getting involved in manufacturing targets at all !
Good grief Politicians cannot even tun their own departments efficiently when they are a monopoly service, now it would appear they want to control private industry it’s madness utter madness.
December 17, 2023
A direct result of this tory government policy of net-zero ….other industries will now do the same
December 17, 2023
+++
During the Great Imprisonment unmasked and unconcernedly-chatting-at-close-quarters workmen replaced our nice gas pipes with yellow plastic ones ( a great deal of disruption and noise I might add). Was the plastic used with a view to being hydrogen friendly? The CEO when contacted said that the old pipes were worn out.
December 17, 2023
What would we do without ‘plastic’ ….to save the planet could I have my ‘steel’ bin back
December 17, 2023
‘Elf n’safety will say ‘yes you can have a steel bin instead, but waste staff must not lift it not empty into the vehicles’.
Down to you, mate!
December 17, 2023
Iāve just realised, we canāt even make steel dust bins any longer, due to net-zero weāve closed our coke furnace for electric arc furnace ….we can always import
December 17, 2023
Pipes made of plastic have been used since the 70s. The gas companies have a legal obligation to replace 1% annually
I designed a die for manufacturing up to 125mm pipe back in 73.
December 17, 2023
Dead right, James. There is already public resistance. Drive around in a car with hydrogen under great pressure in your tank? Ho ho. How is it to be stored at a gas station? The energy equation makes the whole idea ludicrous. Oh, and does CO2 really affect the weather? Modern science says not.
December 18, 2023
+1
December 17, 2023
James Morley:
Those who claim there is āno wayā merely reveal they are unaware of what creative inventors can achieve.
December 17, 2023
Town Gas, which everyone used before North Sea gas came on stream, was 50% hydrogen.
December 17, 2023
Indeed more idiotic government market rigging on top of this in BBC broadcasting, energy, banking, housing, education, healthcare, transportā¦
But āgreen hydrogenā is an absurd idea, it is made from low carbon electricity but we have no spare low carbon electricity (nor hydrogen mines) it is vastly energy inefficient to produce and store and makes loads of CO2 to produce it anyway wind energy need load of fossil fuels to build and maintain them. We have plenty of methane and gas boilers work just fine so just get fracking and drilling until we sort fusion.
December 17, 2023
An excellent piece by Neil Oliver on the so called āsave and effective Covid Vaccinesā last night on GBNews.
December 17, 2023
Spot on, my only small disagreement is the ongoing fusion expectation. We have perfectly well developed nuclear fission that will carry us forward for thousands of years we should deploy that today. Fusion may eventually be technically possible at commercial scale but there are serious doubts it ever will be.
What we do know is this. Intermittent energy systems do not support a stable energy world. It is a mystery to most why governments across the Western world have decided to bet the house on technologies that have shown themselves to be a bad choice?
Suppliers of gas systems that work reliably 24/7 are about to be fined for supplying the actual market with what the market wants and will fully pay for. The state will give a consumer Ā£7500 to install a heat pump that does not work as effectively or as discretely as a gas boiler. Then to show the state is completely mad, the state will fine the profitable gas boiler maker Ā£125 for each boiler fitter post 2024?
Time for change.
December 17, 2023
Iām afraid the political class will only understand how annoyed the public is once they start campaigning. Then itās too late.
We are on the cusp of huge change because no party if offering to stop attacking the people – except the DUP.
Letās not have politicians express amazement and horror when the tables are turned.
The majority always gets its way, one way or another.
The last bank is closing in a town where I own retail shops. We will be forced to be our own bankers and will deal in cash. Precisely what the Government is trying to avoid.
December 17, 2023
+++
I wish you every success.
What .i keep wondering about is all the (I donāt know the correct words) computer driven booking and handling systems which they now have, causing chaos in hairdressers, beauty salons, vets and similar. No phones answered any more, no appointment cardsā¦and actually very few customers now. Could the govt. have imposed them on private businesses like they have on dentists and doctors?
December 18, 2023
The problem with computer systems is that they are so easy to push over. Hairdressers etc are not paid by the Government as Doctors are, so they have no locus.
Remember that you can lead a horse to water, but you canāt make it drink.
December 17, 2023
they will understand after the next GE, half the MPs will be new, and the two parallel sides will have changed places.
December 17, 2023
In Cambridge this weekend I notice that an add on the back of a bus claims that one bus = 79 cars of the road. Complete and utter divel of course. Bus occupancy on average (taken depot to depot at all hours) is often in single figures, then they need professional drivers, take longer & often very indirect routes, stop/start every few hundred yards, need far larger engines, ticketing, are slow, hold up other vehicesā¦ Lucky if they can replace 6 cars at best. Far less convenient two and rather useless during off-peak hours or for carrying or storing tools, a large shop, much luggageā¦ I though lies in adverts were banned?
Also visiting an elderly relative in hospital I see the NHS in Cambridge anyway are still pushing the Covid vaccines at their staff just turn up and be jabbed. Why? Most will surely have had Covid already, most are youngish and we know sadly that the āvaccinesā are neither very safe nor very effective. Are they not short of good staff already? Do they really want even more vaccine injured to have to treat?
December 17, 2023
Things they do not want and for very good reasons as heat pump use electricity which costs loads more than gas so even with the ācoefficient of performanceā factor make no economic sense, are less convenient, noisy, v. expensive, meed more space and tanks, large rads, slow to heat up from coldā¦ not even any environmental sense.
Same applies to rigged markets in state BBC broadcasting, healthcare, trains HS2, EV cars, state education, housingā¦ We tax you so you all in advance, so you have to use our government service as you have little or no money left to go elsewhere or to have any real freedom of choice,
.
December 17, 2023
I suspect that Scribe University is really a department of silly ideas to which they hope society will subscribe. They run courses on diversity based on their theory that people are disadvantaged by the colour of their skin when in reality it is only by their intellect and attitude to their fellow man that disadvantages them. A situation that has nothing to do with skin colour. The only diversity they fear is that of ideas and opinion, so they act like modern day luddites and cancel that which offends them.
They really overstep their intellectual envelope when they cancel and devalue technology, for which they have little or no understanding, and try to foist upon a more canny population things which at great expense, at best do not work or only half do so. They got away with snake oil until penycillin was developed.
Those manufacturers who satisfy the market are the ones who will prevail, which is why I advise you look to Japan and its ICE developement while leaving the scribes the bus, bike and a sense of grievence.
December 17, 2023
I agree with your thoughts SJR. Trying to rig the market to force people to do what you want them to do, is not going to achieve it. I’d say, people are more like to dig their heels in . I’ve seen a number of people who say they will buy a new boiler just before the cut off and keep it in their garage until it’s required. The same with the EVS, they’ll buy a new petrol or diesel car just before the cut off!
December 17, 2023
I understand that something along the lines of ..”recently installed new gas boiler/central heating” is a selling point for estate agents.
December 17, 2023
I hope so Peter, I just replaced mine! š
December 17, 2023
or even ‘new boiler in box with extra couplings stored in garage for future use’.
December 17, 2023
ooops just read the next comment.
December 17, 2023
The gas boiler ruse and keeping it in the garage may not work as they then have to find a plumber who will install it who may have to work illegally if the government make such a ruling. My question is why does this Tory government by their actions actively detest the very people who voted them in?
December 17, 2023
My oil boiler engineer recently serviced my boiler and told me exactly that. He said he expected this nonsense to be ditched, but if he heard differently he would let me know in time to get another boiler and keep it until needed. Only downside is that the warranty would likely run out before it was installed, but that’s no real problem. What’s going to happen to people like him anyway, just chucked out of work on a lunatic political decision? Wait till next year when its the politicians’ turn. Can’t wait to vote against this lot of Tories, scare tactics or not.
Reply I installed a new gas boiler at home last year ahead of this unwelcome intervention
December 18, 2023
Reply to reply
Yes I could do that, but my boiler is perfectly serviceable and the engineer says all the parts needed are available to keep it going, unless the water jacket goes, which would make it uneconomic to repair. Not very green just to change a perfectly good boiler (nor a rational economic choice), based on the stupidity of your government. I don’t need stupid politicians telling me how to lead my life and run my financial affairs. Leave us alone is all we ask and the country would fare much better without amateur tinkerers chopping and changing with every passing fad.
December 17, 2023
Yes Sharon, that is my plan, i will also install the boiler myself if gas fitters are unavailable as its an easy job.
December 17, 2023
Daniel Hannan today – The Covid Inquiry has become a show trial ā and the true sinners arenāt even in the dock.
Indeed – not even asking indeed studiously avoiding the right questions a sick rip off joke.
and more sick jokes from Oliver Dowden:- Donāt believe the BBCās doomsters ā the Conservatives are delivering!
Sure Oliver not even delivering Sunakās pledges. Delivering over a million immigration PA, ever higher public debt, expensive, rip off, green crap, unreliable energy, ever higher taxes, ever more red tape, ever decreasing living standards, ever more state sector that delivers little of any value, a dire NHS, a lack of GPs, housing, decent schools, decent roads, net harm lock down and net harm vaccines, high interest rates,
True a Labour government would be even worse but how can it get much worse than Sunak..
December 17, 2023
A Labour govt would be much worse, and this is the reason to vote Conservative. The sort of green crap sir John mentions above will be far worse and far more prevalent under Labour. Eg they are committed to āinvestā Ā£28bn in various āgreenā schemes, to be financed by – as yet unknown – taxes. That money will obviously be wasted on useless schemes dreamt up by the green blob, benefitting enormously a select group thereof, will divert resource from more productive uses and will mean even more tax. It might indeed be bad at the moment, and Sir John gives yet another example today, but we must not let the bad become the enemy of the even worse.
December 17, 2023
Sorry other way round.
December 17, 2023
Oh the Tories are delivering – itās what they are delivering that is contentious.
December 17, 2023
Correct – Sunak is selling us the line that he’s stopping the boats ….well another 55 arrived yesterday
December 17, 2023
Alternatively John, we could all start to behave rationally and look at the data. If we did that we would all see there is no climate crisis man made or otherwise. With that being the ongoing truth we do not need to be adopting expensive pointless energy options to attempt to deal with an imaginary crisis.
The next period of our existence will be lived during a cold phase of climate variation. We will need all the energy options we can muster. The current governments period in office has been witness to the actual blowing up of our reliable electricity generating plants and the massive subsidising of intermittent unreliable wind turbines.
It has been a period of huge mistakes. It is time to start again and begin to do the right things for the right reasons.
We must stop listening to silly uneducated Scandinavian anarchists, or failed presidential candidates but a very successful grifter character, making Ā£billions out of a hoax inconvenient truth.
The next few years will be epic. The world will embrace climate reality and the Alarmists will get their just desserts.
December 17, 2023
as a friend stated a few years ago ‘this will be known in the future as the age of incompetence’.
Spot on!
December 17, 2023
Rod Evans: ” … as the age of incompetence ”
As the age of willful negligence.
December 17, 2023
I seriously hope you are right Rod,
It is so obviously wrong when one realises only the Western governments are complying and pushing the scam.
December 17, 2023
So more fines, taxes and threats.
This seems to be all this Government can do.
December 17, 2023
Michell
Same with Local Authorities, Council tax up every year, yet services cut for most things.
Fewer car Parks higher charges, more yellow lines, more cannot do signage, now also responsible minor moving traffic offence fines.
But cannot cut the grass, collect the rubbish every week, sweep the streets, clean out the drains and ditches, maintain the roads, to name just a few.
December 17, 2023
+1
December 17, 2023
+1 (don’t forget climate subsidies)
December 17, 2023
‘From next month gas boiler suppliers will face a tax or fine if they fail to meet certain arbitrary targets for selling heat pumps.’ I saw this yesterday, and was appalled at this latest example of the government acting like a zealotment. What use does it intend making of the vast reserves of natural gas that we have? Does it intend that we should leave it in the ground?
My boiler is 25-years old and obsolete. I am prepping my house for sale. I will put a new boiler in next month – cheering-on the engineer and cursing the truly dreadful givernment that I now hate.
P.S. And I’m confident that, in 2024, the government will be subsidising Drax’s forest-destruction scheme while seeking foreign-capital for the SMR programme so that every time I throw a light-switch some Arab sheikh will be further enriched.
December 17, 2023
I can’t believe both tory & labour instructing business on what and how to sell ……thats Communism – I never voted for that
December 17, 2023
That’s what the Climate Change Act and its Committee do. Zealots under a religious doctrine with NO evidence that CO2 is a bogeyman, but feeds all plants on the planet. Recent research from Norway by proper scientists suggest we should expect a cold spell next decade due to the Sun’s intensity cycles. PPE people in Westminster should educate themselves or…….. pray!
December 17, 2023
Welcome to a political reality nobody voted for, Glen. Call it Communism, call it control by a globalist cabal, ultimately the label doesn’t matter, only the fact of what’s going on. The real problem is that you ‘can’t believe’ it, nor alas can so many others.
December 17, 2023
Lifelogic.
Likeable though Neil Oliver may be he does seem to major on the wisdom of hindsight. I speculate on what his decisions might have been when confronted on day one with the complete mystery of Covid. It being impossible to make perfect decions until you begin to understand what you are dealing with.
Equally I would go with the science based endeavours of experienced biochemists who even if they got it half right, and they did much better than that, were a better bet than social commentators. Remember the bodies you are injecting are not a common product so effectiveness will vary and on occasion disasterously. Think of the science of allergies.
December 17, 2023
I don’t know whether Neil Oliver is “likeable” (or not) LL but he certainly can be pretty depressing to listen to.
We may well all be ‘Doomed’ but I don’t want to be told that when I’m trying to eat my dinner!
December 17, 2023
It seems to me that Neil Oliver majors on asking questions, consulting a range of experts and ignoring Governmental and Big Pharma propaganda.
It is undeniable that every country which jabbed a very large percentage of the population with the experimental gene therapies has been experiencing a significant level of excess deaths for best part of two years now. Yet the Government, the Public Health Scientists/Bureaucrats and the MSM don’t want to discuss or investigate.
I’m inclined to believe it’s because they know the answer but, as Andrew Bridgen MP said, they want to hush it up for at least 20 years.
Reply There is no proof a causal link to excess deaths. Some excess deaths probably stemmed from failure to treat non covid conditions quickly during lockdowns.
December 17, 2023
rely to reply,
Try doing some post-mortems then, but post-mortems do not take place.
December 17, 2023
Reply to reply: the CDC safety group has stated that there is a likely causal link between the second mRNA jab
and the clinical presentation of myocarditis. Furthermore the table they produced showed that the preponderance of cases was in those in the 16-19 age group with a complete fall off to match the data for older adults occurring at age 28; in other words, young people disproportionally harmed by the so-called vaccines with emergency authorisation and full indemnity for the pharmaceutical manufacturers. The long term consequences are unknown.
December 17, 2023
Reply to reply.
I believe Nelson had difficulty seeing things as well …. because he put the telescope to his blind eye. If you don’t look, you don’t see.
I expect some of the excess deaths are down to people who needed medical treatment being denied it; but I very much doubt that is the only reason. There is simply too much evidence now of the harm the jabs do.
December 18, 2023
Reply to reply: Your ‘there is no proof’ argument fails with harms induced by medical products, because in this area outright proof is never obtained. What matters is the strength of probability and – quite rightly – the precautionary principle. Unfortunately the medical establishment has been very reluctant to use this principle with the Covid injections.
You’re surely right to suspect that lack of timely hospital treatment in Britain can’t be the full story. Some countries currently with high excess mortality, such as the Netherlands and Switzerland, have low waiting times for elective surgery. You might also want to be aware that the two EU countries currently with the lowest excess mortality had the lowest Covid vaccination rates – Bulgaria and Romania. Not proof, but a serious problem for regulatory bodies claiming the Covid vaccines aren’t connected with excess deaths. The burden of care falls on them.
December 17, 2023
Not in my body mate, I am very careful what goes in my mouth andI certainly will not submit to injections!
I do not trust doctors any more so would rather suffer the situation than gamble on their offered cure.
December 17, 2023
I have had a very bad experience from medics recently. For 20 years have had to take pills to control my high BP. Turns out that one of them slowed my heart rate and in the last 2 years caused 2 conciousness losses. The drug was stopped on the advice of a private consultant heart specialist. My BP did not rise following and I’m now a lot fitter and active. So why did the GP docs not review my prescriptions at any time?
Answer – they couldn’t be bothered or didn’t have any knowledge on the subject.
December 17, 2023
I’m guessing at a beta blocker?
December 21, 2023
But there isn’t a cure , only an easing of symptoms as mentioned in John’s previous post’s , for example dexamethasone which relieves swelling and inflammation.I would like to try some of the more well known antivirals such as acyclovir ( which must have been tried without common knowledge) The problem with the later qualified Drs is that they work according to protocols,as set by research and so called evidence.This sort of academic evidence takes years to be approved and published ,by which time mutability has taken the lead .I myself was taken before the council for recognition and documentation of a symptom which is now being taught as a normal variation.Luckily I wasn’t stuck off, however , all the medics face the same threats.
December 17, 2023
At the higher levels, I assume the UK state would have known all about COVID, with that being a product of the US DoD, i.e. the US security state.
I’ve read assiduously since 2020 and it’s gratifying how effective ex-MSM journalists have been in trying to get out the truth, or something closer to the truth than BBC TV or R4. It’s a pity that several governments, incl the US and UK, are now trying to censor the internet.
(Sorry for being a bit off-topic. I commend JR for criticising the UK’s energy policy. I’m a scientist who worked in this field for 45 years and what we see now doesn’t make rational sense.)
December 17, 2023
“This is a disgrace.”
This is a policy put through by the administration you support!
December 17, 2023
The UK establishment has revealed itself as both stupid and vindictive.
December 17, 2023
David Andrews: “The UK establishment has revealed itself as both stupid and vindictive. ”
The UK administrative state doesn’t know how to govern, it’s so used to taking instructions from Brussels over the last thirty years, it has lost the ability to think. But, now that Brussels has been removed, its been desperately casting around for some other organ to do its thinking for it, it seems to have settled on the UN as it’s new thinking organ.
December 17, 2023
Your piece reads as if written by one of your readers, the final sentence being a forlorn plea for government mercy – which will be ignored. Net Zero is enshrined in law, so the heat pump and electric vehicle coercion is here to stay. So too is mass illegal immigration: following his statement that the Rwanda bill goes as far as is acceptable to the Rwandan government, Sunak now calls for international agreement to stem the flow of illegal migrants. It would be more honest if he were to cross the floor of the House and join Labour.
December 17, 2023
Giving companies an unachievable target and then penalising them, another stealth tax.
Yet again I see no sign of Ministers understanding the true cost of these things. They continue to parrot subsidy but it is nowhere near the cost to me and I suspect thousands of others. So much for Sunakās boleaux about pausing the rush to Net Zero.
And in other news I see the government has decided not to proceed with a national rail ticketing system. How stupid are that they thought, with their history of system development that they could or indeed need to match what has already been established.
And in doing so, showing they do not care about private individuals, completely shredded the existing companyās share price. Contempt. Beneath it.
December 17, 2023
Politics meets reality.
Climate change is real, CO2 is a major problem but heat pumps and hydrogen boilers are no solution. Snag is that no amount of engineering we actually have or can afford is likely to fix the problem. At the moment Green does not work.
Time for the politicians to say ‘you cannot go on nice warm holidays, you cannot have a nice warm house (or any house) and you cannot drive a usable motor car/bus/truck’. I look forward to your announcements.
Obviously you are not going to say this and you are not going to do anything useful. But some nice words may get you by for a while longer.
December 17, 2023
Jim, It is correct to say Climate change is real. The climate is a dynamic outcome of chaotic terrestrial and galactic (i.e. the sun) inputs. What we can say with certainty is the very real climate changes over the past million years has nothing to do with mankind. Your next point that CO2 is a problem, needs some explanation. In what way is CO2 a problem? It has given the world photosynthesis and life, With that being the reality and with the small but significant increase we have enjoyed this past fifty years leading to record plant growth, record harvests, record human health improvements and record reduction in poverty. What exactly is the down side of CO2.
December 17, 2023
I get Jim’s point.
The Government won’t be upfront about what this really means. Why not put it as bluntly, as Jim puts it, in their manifesto ?
Sadly we’re going to be under a Labour government that nobody wants because of mass immigration. We will all go green by default in the ensuing economic collapse – which is going to happen if the Tories win too btw.
The immigration levels are simply unsustainable.
Productive people are quitting the country (obviously) and largely unproductive people are replacing them in bigger numbers.
A nation whereby welfare (in its totality, free stuff too) exceeds minimum wages will always be a magnet. And with loose borders…. well. Game’s up.
December 17, 2023
Not if everyone votes for what they believe in ie Reform. Have courage and boot both out.
December 17, 2023
How has ‘change’ become ‘crisis’ – only when the money likes it!
December 17, 2023
The scheme to make purchasers of gas boilers fund the fines the Eco Nutters in Government are levying against the suppliers is in the same class as Khan’s ULEZ scheme: it’s just a money raiser because you can carry on “polluting” as long as you pay up.
An increased cost of Ā£120 isn’t going to persuade anyone to switch from an efficient gas central heating system (which is probably already installed) to an inefficient heat pump system which could cost anything up to Ā£50,000 if significant renovation/redecoration of the house is needed for it to work at the best of its not-very-good capacity.
Still, it’s what we’ve come to expect from the Authoritarian Eco Nutters masquerading as Conservatives in power.
December 17, 2023
Donna
+1
Just out of interest I got a quote for a heat pump last year, total cost to install and modify my house heating system to suit was Ā£35,000 plus huge disruption and disturbance, madness when a new gas boiler is Ā£3,000 and no disturbance.
What does the government not understand !
December 17, 2023
Berkshire Alan: “Ā£35,000 ”
If you amortize that over twenty years, that might be manageable. But you know that heat pumps will be superseded by the next insane policy in three of four years. So your ‘investment’, will be a huge liability.
December 17, 2023
+1
December 17, 2023
Conversely this also makes heat pumps cheaper as boiler makers cross subsidise their production. A side effect of course is new builds/incomers are subsidised at the cost to indigenous folk. I’m certain there will be other areas open to such intervention.
There’s more behind this than just a “clean energy” programme.
December 17, 2023
We have seen a mad dash for zero carbon, without any serious questioning of the science behind climate change, the enormous costs nor the potential for alternative technologies. We are at the end of an ice age. I think that there is an alternative agenda. Is this the first time that the UN has lead such an initiative!
December 17, 2023
Sir John,
Your party are Conservatives are they?
December 17, 2023
Or of course Sir JR, we could forget the whole ‘net zero’ nonsense and get on with our lives. Even if you believe CO2 has all the magical powers attributed to it (I don’t) The UK produces 1% of global CO2 that’s 0.00045% In other words, an amount so small as to be irrelevant in global terms.
December 17, 2023
In September I attended the third SMMT Electrified Conference at the QE11 Centre in London as an observer.
With less than seven years to go before the UKās end-of-sale deadline for new petrol and diesel cars and vans, the race is now on to ensure the UK is an exemplar EV market. And a manufacturer with a world-class network of charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure, a competitive EV supply chain and suitable industrial base by 2030.
As the pre-eminent UK event on the electrification of road transport, SMMT Electrified 2023 provided a high-profile agenda-setting platform to discuss how the industry, stakeholders and government can accelerate the transition to zero emission mobility.
The event brought together over 400 senior representatives from the automotive industry, charging infrastructure, battery supply chain, energy, fleets, logistics, government and consumer groups.
So far this year the car industry has sold 492,171 BEV, PHEV and HEV electric vehicles – or 33.2% of the total. In 2024 this is expected to rise to 39% and 44% by 2025 – Source; SMMT
Clearly, the public is actually enamoured of EVs. So where are the 40,000 extra charging points that Kwarteng cancelled in 2021? Where is the low-loss electricity distribution network upgrade that was identified by National Grid as needed back in 2018? Where areour new larger windfarms and solar parks?
Sadly, the pro-fossil fuel anti-EV far right of the party are still blocking them.
Reply What nonsense again. The right is not blocking charging points or solar farms or grid. Your own figures show a majority want a non EV car.You confuse fleet purchases with individual purchases. Very few individuals buy a battery car as their sole vehicle.
December 17, 2023
Whatever you are on SK, I should like some please.
Oh! you still have not told us how your all electric future will be powered when the wind does not blow, nor the Sun shine.
December 17, 2023
We beg europe to keep the ‘interconnectors’ switched on (don’t tell anyone but they still have coal fired power stations in europe)
December 17, 2023
@ Reply – and EV selection by those with a company-owned car is heavily induced by the generous Benefit-in-Kind tax arrangements. Meanwhile, per Reuters yesterday Germany’s electrical vehicle subsidy programme will end prematurely on Monday after paying out some 10 billion euros since 2016, a part of budget tightening measures.
December 17, 2023
Ah! – Fleet EV Purchases Sir John! Yes – Bang On.
My youngest son is still driving around in his Company ‘Hybrid’ vehicle that the Fleet Manager insisted he had (Company Tax Breaks apparently) and he still has no where at home to charge it – so he never does. He is therefore routinely dragging an extra 500 kilos around (compared to my similar sized ICE vehicle) for no apparent reason. High fuel consumpion isn’t a problem for him, as he doesn’t pay for it (his company does).
Stupid targets = Stupid Incentives = Stupid Behaviour
PS I see that you re-cycled some words from the Marketing Department of the Renewable Energy Compant I now realise you must work for SG. To be honset up till now I had assumed that you lived off the earnings from your Physical Gold Investments š
December 17, 2023
In the small, old west country town I now live in, I estimate 70% of the properties do not have private parking. They park in the street and not necessarily outside their house. There are a handful of charging points in a couple of town car parks and none in the nearby villages. Not surprisingly, EV’s here are as rare as hen’s teeth.
My son has a hybrid company car, which is tax efficient. He has no charging point at his flat so he runs it on petrol. I’m planning to buy a new small petrol car in 2026 and I’ll keep it on the road as long as possible.
Your claims about the popularity of EV’s is either propaganda or wishful thinking.
December 17, 2023
Oh, SG, where are these people “enamoured of EVs”? A friend has recently bought a pre-owned one and has found that it is ok for short local trips but has decided to stay with his ICE vehicle for the longer ones as re-charging is such a pain. To provide sufficient charging for every motorist to drive an EV is a monumental task dwarfing HS2. Your report of the conference reads like an advertising brochure. Were there no contributions discussing the obvious major problems the technology faces?
December 17, 2023
The very few couples we know who are afluent (and foolish enough) to buy an EV, have all bought small ones, usually a mini.
They all have a far bigger diesel car for longer trips and the expensive EV is used only for short shopping trips.
Their EV will never do enough miles to overcome the emissions incurred in building it, as most of the household’s miles will be done in the IC-engined car.
They are actually making the transition to net zero more difficult !
December 17, 2023
My wife, on the other hand still drives her Diesel Mercedes A Klasse we bought new in 2003.
She won’t be parted from it as it has only covered 62,000 miles, has been entirely trouble free, and now does just 2,500 miles a year.
Compared with our friends with their EVs, it is very sustainable. We have used the savings from not replacing it several times over to buy a couple of equally sustainable classic cars which do not depreciate or need road tax or MOTs. They are also ULEZ exempt….
December 17, 2023
Rishi Canute
Boris Canute
Theresa Canute
Keir Canute
December 17, 2023
King Canute, Sheriff of Nottingham & Joseph Stalin all rapped into one party ….they all want your money & freedom
December 17, 2023
and will all get wet feet when the tide turns back…
December 17, 2023
This post, with which I entirely agree, makes me wonder how and why you continue to accept the Government whip? We will only get the common sense approach that you are advocating from a new party, or Conservatives under very different leadership, and very different Parliamentary membership.
December 17, 2023
excellent
December 17, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
This is just more evidence that the way for the government to win back lost support is to be more Conservative. Yet it persists in forcing us to adopt technology that performs worse than what we have at present and does so by rigging the market with taxes, fines and subsidies.
The Conservative party has truly lost its way.
December 17, 2023
@Alan Paul Joyce – and pay foreign Governments with UK taxpayer money even if we do comply
December 17, 2023
Doesn’t this just illustrate how looney the netzero policies are?
But this is in line with every other subject, from covid to energy – we are being regulated into submission for no good reason.
Nothing will change if Labour get in – in fact they are more likely to increase penalties, because for some strange reason they worship the WEF ideology – The world has not just gone mad, it has become corrupted beyond reason.
December 17, 2023
@Bryan Harris – ‘Labour get in’ but at least we would have got rid of these weak numpties and maybe, just maybe we can find a proper UK Conservative Party. The electorate is between a rock and a hard place, vote WEF Socialists or vote WEF Socialists
December 17, 2023
Live old horse- Ian B
December 17, 2023
Concur
December 17, 2023
Something that is attractive succeeds naturally when left alone to thrive.
This governmentās attitude about freedom of choice forces crazy dilemmas:
Tantamount to putting lipstick on a pig and fining people for not fancying it, or selling buckets of paint to gild a lily at 20% off.
December 17, 2023
Agree everything to do with COP, climate mitigation and NET ZERO is a painful, freedom denying and costly imposition, undemocratically imposed on the people, requiring the adoption of technologies that donāt scale to the grid to solve a problem that most believe doesnāt exist!
December 17, 2023
Looking after our environment is a noble cause but it has been hijacked by those who use it as a Trojan Horse to inflict socialism on us and, of course, the socialistās favourite game of top-down dictatorship.
As a result, we are left with environmental policies that annoy people, damage the economy and damage the environment.
December 17, 2023
Hi sir John
You are wasting your time no one is listening, do what you are told sir john and buy a useless heat pump.
Thanks
December 17, 2023
rename them ‘noisy tepid pump’ for God’s sake!
December 17, 2023
Or “electric air distributor”.
December 17, 2023
Thanks Sir John, my wife and I echo your thoughts. Why is government imposing these new rules on gas boilers? This is like living in a dictatorship. Thereās nothing democratic here, heat pumps are impractical and hugely expensive and we will never buy one. Itās the same mantra with EVās and more broadly importing LNG when we could extract it here? These and related policies such as rampant immigration is why people like us will not vote conservative and will likely turn to Reform.
December 17, 2023
Perfectly said Sir J, thank you!
December 17, 2023
Sir John
Also, what is deliberately forgotten is the high price of running a āheat pumpā itās is an electric pump. Also shoved out of site is the need for electricity, in the UK we are not just short of electricity it is twice the price of the same electricity from the same supplier, the French Government.
A UK Government is blocking our own electricity supplies in preference to supplies from and subject to the whims of Foreign Governments. That is not energy security or resilience. Even the latest big speech announcements of new licenses for wind power has handed 100% of its control to Foreign Governments. The UK Taxpayer is paying to cancel its own resilience and then fill the coffers of foreign Governments. That is not a Government working for the UK.
December 17, 2023
Telling and forcing consumers to buy from a state authorised list
Instructing private businesses on what to manufacture and what to sell
Subsiding the market-place and social engineering the people
It all seems a bit communist to me, its not just a step to the left; itās a great leap to the left
There should now be a test on every law introduced to measure if that law infringes, erodes, curtails or restricts the peoples freedoms of choice & democracy
Both of the main parties have a history of ignoring the people; a history of prioritising immigrants, international bodies and treaties, prioritising the remnants of the EU etc
Introducing city/regional mayors, 20mph, ULEZ, diversity, quangos, supreme court, OBR, the NI/EU bill, online safety bill, climate related taxation, not fracking, closing down coal/gas fired power stations ā¦.bit by bit its chipping away at our freedoms
December 17, 2023
“But it’s to fight climate change!”, they will argue, even though the UK’s CO2 output is a tiny fraction of gross global CO2 output where 96% is from natural sources in any event.
Crackpot ideas like arbitrary fines for gas boiler suppliers are nothing to do with “fighting climate change”. They are everything to do with making us ordinary plebs cold, poor, hungry, dirty, immobile, bored and controlled while the globalist elite and their fellow travellers remain warm, wealthy, well fed, clean, mobile, stimulated and controlling.
December 17, 2023
AND they will continue to use their private jets to get to future climate summits !
I read today that Sunak has over ruled the Treasury and instructed Shapps to continue to lease two helicopters to ferry him about at an estimated cost of Ā£40m over five years!
He recently used one to visit Southampton, and that’s just an hour from Waterloo by train !
The fuel for the trip was Ā£1200. Train fare, Ā£50…..
December 17, 2023
I refuse to be influenced by anything that does not suit the practicalities of my life . Economics and the cost of everyday life are my main interests and the communicated pressures that occur I put into perspective . The outcome is not one that would meet the headlines of the press but it is my life and I have no intention for outside influences to change it .
One of the reasons I enjoy Sir Johns’ blog is his direct analysis and ability to ride through the mass of trivia and emerge with a simplicity ; the one today highlights this . I wish all those with – so called influence on others , would have the same skill and approach .
December 17, 2023
I agree. Even if they taxed gas boilers to be more expensive than heat pumps and petrol cars to be more expensive than electric vehicles, I would still buy gas boilers and petrol cars. The reason is that they are cheaper in the long run, easier to use, more effective and more reliable.
There is also the concern about noise. Electric cars are too quiet, so more likely to collide with pedestrians. Heat pumps are too noisy and will deprive people of sleep.
If petrol cars and gas boilers werenāt available, I would manage without. Which is probably what the Globalists want but I would find other ways to frustrate them!
December 17, 2023
A Dorothy Parker quote comes to mind .
āWhat fresh hell is this? ā
December 17, 2023
People will still buy gas boilers even if they have to pay Ā£150 more for them. Boilers are a once-in-a-decade purchase so you are talking about Ā£15 per year or 4p a day in extra cost compared with an initial outlay of 20k plus for a heat pump plus massive disruption to your home to run it. So bearing this in mind this government initiative is just another stealth tax. The same applies to petrol and diesel vehicles.
The only way to stop people using gas and petrol is to ban the supply. No doubt this option will be next on the list of the pain this government continually inflicts on the British people.
Until voters vote out of office the main political parties nothing will change. I do fear for any emerging new party as the globalists will strike back and the British people need to keep their nerve. Just look what they did to Liz Truss.
December 17, 2023
āJust look what they did to Liz Trussā: who are THEY, if not a majority of the Conservative Parliamentary Party?
PM Truss had dumped her Chancellor on 14/10, gone for yet another U-turn on 15/10, the HoC was told on 17/10 by the Leader of the House that āthe PM is not hiding under a deskā, the PM sacked her HomeSec on 19/10.
The first to call for the PMās resignation was Crispin Blunt on 16/10, followed quickly by Jamie Wallis, Andrew Bridgen, Angela Richardson and Sir Charles Walker. Then before Wednesday 19/10 fracking vote there were about 40 Conservative MPs unhappy with the PM. The PM at PMQ told that she was āa fighter not a quitterā, then came the evening and the whipping (and the ridiculous scenes in the HoC: was it or not a vote of confidence on the PM). The Government won the vote, Labourās motion was rejected.
But the week-long battle between the PM and the Daily Star lettuce had been won by the member of the Asteraceae family.
The leader of the 1922 Committee did not have to count the letters (independent.co.uk, 04/11/2022 āItās pretty bad, isnāt it – Sir Graham Brady reveals moment Liz Truss realised she had to quit as PMā).
Liz Trussās last PMQ, 19/10/2022 youtube
bbc.co.uk, 20/10/2022, āMPs allege bullying during chaotic fracking voteā.
December 17, 2023
I should have said ālost her HomeSec on 19/10ā.
December 17, 2023
This is coercion by the State and flies in the face of free market economics.
The fact that it is being done by a ‘Conservative’ government is even worse.
December 17, 2023
Sir John. This won’t be any of your problem after the next general election. Mass immigration is – and always was – going to bring the death of the Conservative party.
December 17, 2023
Sir John, for all your valid posts that highlight the situations as the vast majority of the Country sees things. The answer to every situation is the same and it is your one stumbling block, your Government canāt hear and isnāt listening, they are to concerned with the next personal soundbite, the next personal ālook-at-meā moment to do anything about managing.
It is summed up today in the Media āsenior Tory minister warns party is being outflanked ‘on the right’ by Labourā ā āStarmer has already outflanked the Conservatives on the rightā
A Conservative Government that has placed its self āLeftā of Labour. Did Starmer and Labour move or did The Conservative Government and CCHQ turn into pure 100% WEF Socialists. The one thing that is clear they are anti UK in every sense.
December 17, 2023
So even Conservatives are saying that a vote for Labour will get us a right of centre Right Party and remove the extreme Left from power
December 17, 2023
In the dark shadows of western world politics thereās currently a battle between capitalism and communism ā¦.and communism is winning
December 17, 2023
The problem is that if even the Conservatives are led by a leader who won’t take any notice of what voters want, we have no chance of reversing these policies.
No other political party with any hope of winning seats in Westminster is going to change these crazy policies,
In fact, Labour, the SNP, and the lib Dims, especially if they are in coalition, as seems likely, will make them tougher.
The car industry will be adding thousands to the cost of buying an IC-engined car when they are faced with the ludicrous fines that Sunak has just signed off on, even though he is allowing the cars to be produced until 2035 !
All that will do will be to cut the sale of all cars and the industry will really suffer. The government, of any complexion, will then up the road tax and fuel duty on petrol and diesel cars to try and force us into EVs.
It won’t work.
December 17, 2023
The Government are forcing us into a Soviet style command economy to achieve their communist goal of Net Zero. Hence the need for rules, restrictions, regulations, subsidies, taxes, charges and eventually rationing on energy, heating, travel and transport to force the transition away from cheap, reliable and secure hydrocarbon fuels to expensive, unreliable, chaotically intermittent renewables and impractical, expensive and insecure electrification.
Food will be next. This Net Zero Lysenkoism will result in the same outcome for us as the poor, unfortunate people of the USSR experienced in the last century.
December 17, 2023
There is no CAGW, just small a benign warming of 0.13 degrees C as we come out of the Little Ice Age which coincided with the start of the Industrial Revolution. Over the last 500m years since the start of the Cambrian Explosion there has been no correlation between CO2 and temperature when both have been much higher with temperatures up to double today and CO2 up to 10 times today. The Antarctic Vostok ice core data over the last 400,000 years when both CO2 and temperature have been exceptionally low shows CO2 following temperature. There is no anthropogenic explanation for the planet warming after the last ice age which ended just 11,000 years ago. Speleothem, glacier, permafrost and tree line data plus other evidence for warm periods such as when vines were grown up by Hadrianās Wall in Roman times, or barley grown in Greenland around 1000 AD, show that we have experienced naturally warmer periods than today without anthropogenic CO2 emissions and without ārunaway climate changeā occurring. The Happer & Wijngaarden calculations on the real atmosphere, including water vapour (unlike the IPCC models) show doubling CO2 causes negligible additional warming (see CO2 Coalition website for their paper). The IPCC WG1 table 12 in Chapter 12 shows that the IPCC has concluded that a signal of climate change has not yet emerged beyond natural variability for the following phenomena: river floods, heavy precipitation and pluvial floods, landslides drought (all types), severe wind storms, tropical cyclones (includes hurricanes), sand and dust storms, heavy snowfall and, ice storms, hail, snow avalanche and coastal flooding. The BBC are gaslighting us.
December 17, 2023
Sir John – It is the Tory government party MPs that have pushed through these idiotic measures that will beggar all except those who are supported by the taxpayer, and the opposition parties also support the same ruinous policies.
You may be relieved to know that there is one party that is determined to take the route you advocate. I quote from their policy document:
“The Westminster Net Zero plan is making us all net poorer whilst creating more emissions overall as it outsources them overseas. It is adding huge extra costs to us all as consumers and to our businesses. It is therefore net stupid…Our energy plan will use our own energy treasure under our feet, and create thousands of British jobs, by making our industries competitive again. . It will save consumers considerable amounts of money on their bills every year”
That is the energy policy of Reform UK. You should join them – you would not need to leave the Conservative Party, as – except in name – the Conservative Party left you three decades ago.
December 17, 2023
This is a very worrying development. Forcing citizens against their will to adopt Government pet vanity projects is the MO of a Stalinist or Nazi State. This is not democracy at work, this is jackboot ‘diplomacy’ reminiscent of yesteryear in Europe and today further East.
December 17, 2023
+1
December 17, 2023
‘ve haf vays ov making you’
December 17, 2023
I worry that if my gas boiler fails I will not be able to replace it quickly. I am certainly not going to instal a heat pump.
What am I to do? Do I need to purchase a new boiler just in case?
Absolute nonsense for the Government to interfere like this.
Sir John – please enlist support for the mandates to be removed ASAP to be followed by reversal of Climate Acts.
December 17, 2023
Two weeks ago our government veto the Israel-Gaza ceasefire vote at the UN, now our new foreign secretary is requesting a ceasefire ā¦has our governments policy changed or is it just Cameron intervening whenever he can
December 18, 2023
Gaza is a War Zone – a War that Hamas deliberately started on October 7th. They must have known that it would cause tremendous casulties within their own people but presumably decided they were willing to pay that price to stop further rapprochement between Israel and the other Arab nations.
I feel great sympathy for both the Palestinians and Israelis caught up in this disaster but frankly the Hamas attack must be seen as an act of terrorism on both the peoples of Israel AND Gaza. This never need have happened.
Two more thoughts. When watching the TV footage coming out of Gaza, why do you never see Hamas fighters in them, just civilians? Also, given the extensive tunnel network Hamas appears to have built, where are the Civilian Air Raid Shleters?
With regards David Cameron, if Rishi Sunak wanted to remove any remaining doubts I had about his political instincts then bringing Cameron back removed them. Just his involvement with Greensill should have permanently disqualified him from any future public appointments, quite apart from the travesty of honouring him with a Peerage. Nail after Nail in the Conservative coffin. Sorry Sir John, they don’t deserve your loyalty.
December 17, 2023
What is a disgrace is the imposition of tax on gas boiler suppliers by your Conservative Party Ministers, all for ludicrous ideological unachievable NZ objectives.
December 17, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
I was moved to write a second time today after reading Oliver Dowden’s article in today’s Daily Telegraph (apparently he is the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom).
On the subject of trying to make people buy things they donāt want, Mr. Dowden is trying to sell us his party. His article is entitled “Donāt believe the doomsters – the Conservatives are delivering.”
Mr. Dowden is obviously of the ‘my glass is half-full persuasion’.
December 17, 2023
Hydrogen would be viable now for millions of people but the hydride (small scale practical way) method of hydrogen storage requiring only heat to release the gas, uses a substance the government has made illegal (to sell). Lithium 6. This is an element used in nuclear power production, and it requires a particle accelerator to manufacture. If you’re a nuclear scientist you would know how to make Lithium 6, as some have, and you can find them on youtube. But for most people hydride storage is beyond reach, thanks to the Lithium 6 effective ban.
If people electrolysed hydrogen from solar and/or wind, stored hydrogen in hydride cylinders, these could be used to run their cars, and the same cylinders could be used to power their homes. Not everywhere has enough sun but much of the world does. England can run on hydrogen in the summer and partly in the shoulder months, but not over winter. Heat exchangers can use solar to cool homes/offices in the summer heat, and they also ventilate and filter air saving many from respiratory issues. The newer models claim they use only 1 kwh to give 4 kwh of heating effect. They are certainly worth a try in case people get to like them, but forcing sellers to sell them will be counterproductive.
December 17, 2023
I’m not against electric cars, But what annoys me is the fact that we are being forced into buying something that at the moment isn’t as convenient or affordable …nor a solution to a climate problem that just doesn’t exist
December 18, 2023
Agreed Sir John.
December 18, 2023
https://order-order.com/2023/12/18/coutinho-accuses-boiler-manufacturers-of-price-gouging-after-government-imposes-new-boiler-tax/
Coutinho raging about “price gouging” by boiler manufacturers who are raising their prices for a gas boiler by Ā£3,000 due to expecting to be unable to meet the govt demand re proportion of heat pumps they must sell from next year.
That’s what I predicted would happen with cars, since they won’t meet the 22% EV sales from next year. They won’t discount EVs, they will raise the price of an ICE car by the amount of the fine (Ā£15,000).
Basically, we’ll all carry on buying the same stuff, while the greedy darned govt pockets a pile of money in fines. I cannot wait to vote these people out.
December 20, 2023
Let’s assume the Government is successful in coercing enough of us to ditch gas against our better judgement.āAt what point can branches of the gas network be labelled as ‘uneconomic’ in order to allow a shutdown date to be given, forcing the remaining users away from gas?āAs that happens, the economies of scale worsen for the rest of the gas network making it easier to declare the next section for the chop.
The population needs as much cheap energy as it can get for progress.āRishi banning fracking and backing the subsidy farmers with their unreliable energy production gives high energy prices which is a gift for Tice and Reform.