It looks as if whatever agreements can be secured in the next few days over cars and cash, trees and coal, the world will definitely see more carbon dioxide produced at the end of this decade than this year. The G20 partners were unwilling to deliver the full $100 bn a year for the lower income countries, and some members were unwilling to curb their own emissions anytime soon.
In the agreements to be made about some of the areas where CO2 could be reduced the UK must not get itself into a position where it promises too much only to end up importing the goods, we need from countries that produce more CO2 making them and supplying them than we would for ourselves. Importing goods from China or energy from the EU does not cut the worldâs total carbon footprint but does weaken our economy and reduces our job availability. We will still be burning gas this decade so we should burn more of our own to cut the carbon cost and cash cost of all those LNG tankers coming in from miles round the world.
Attention needs to shift to China, producing 27% of the worlds CO2 and planning to go on increasing it this decade. It needs to turn to Germany, still using plenty of coal and arguing over whether to do so until 2038. It needs to ask Mr Biden how much of his green investment programme has survived his bruising encounters with his own Democrat Senators, who seem to have halved the total spending package the President thought necessary, which included the major change towards green investment. Is President Biden about to preside over the rapid run down of the US coal, oil and gas industries which grew strongly under his predecessor and alarmed green campaigners? Probably not. If he did the USA would have to import more.
Attention also needs to be given to helping the private sector launch an array of compelling products and services that consumers can afford. The green revolution needs to discover the Mini of the new vehicles, the iPad of the new heating systems and the smartphone of the new diets that will walk off the shelves because people like them more and can afford them.
The leading foreign visitors at COP 26 who fly in need to avoid looking cut off from the real world the rest of us live in. It is no good them lecturing each other, all using the same alarmist sound bites if they plan to stick with their cavalcades and private jets flitting from air conditioned hotel to meat rich banquets. It looks odd to be telling the worlds millions to sacrifice their current lifestyles and aspirations and to abandon their cars, holiday flights gas, boilers and diets when the COP elite think their demands do not apply to themselves or can be brushed aside by buying pardons.
November 2, 2021
But as most sensible scientists, on balance, think a little more CO2 is actually a net positive (in greening the planet) and not the cause of imminent, positive feedback, thermal runaway and world catastrophe this is not actually a problem is it.
Rather too late for most of the COP delegates not to look like the deluded super hypocrites they nearly all are.
November 2, 2021
So the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welbyâs at COP – tells us leaders will be âcursedâ if they donât reach agreement in next fortnight, and suggests failure to act would be possibly more grave than leaders who ignored warnings about the Nazis in the 30s,â.
The climate realists are right Justin, it is the CO2 alarmists and the deluded over reaction to it that doing all the damage.
The man studied history, law and religion so I suppose a grasp of science and reality is just beyond him. These people, as we know, profit from pushing irrational emotions and fears to the more gullible types.
November 2, 2021
As ever obsessed with qualifications, the usual arm chair whinges, doing nothing practical nor offering solutions to world temperature increases.
November 2, 2021
We do not need âa solutionâ just adapt as needed. A little warmer is better on balance anyway and it has been hotter in the last anyway. One thing for sure heat pumps, wind power and hydrogen in the UK will not save any significant CO2 – let alone change the climate.
November 3, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
@Lifelogic +1 In the same way that Boris high-jacking a Government to create his own religion, the man in Canterbury stole a religion to re-interpret it for his own ends.
November 2, 2021
LL and don’t forget he spent 11 years in the oil industry before he got his calling! So he most certainly will have a grasp of the oil business đ
November 2, 2021
Not undermined at all. Rather take a more measured approach hoping west will shoot itself in its foot so they can dominate the world economically because of net- stupid Johnson. Supported by Charles who apocalyptically said in 2007 there would not be any ice left in Antarctic. How many fear mongering statements can these looney tunes make before people realise they cry wolf too often.
If eager on the environment why has Johnson not stopped foul water waste entering the rivers yet? Daily occurrence killing fish and fauna. Water companies given 9% year on year rises under Tories when privatised. We were told infrastructure was required after years of neglect. How long and how many inflation busting rises does it take, or was it a dishonest deceit for shareholders to privatise the industry to maximise profit? We never used to have separate water bills it was all part of the rates!
November 2, 2021
I mainly agree with you. But please be careful about generalising about religious types.
– It was traditional Christianity that gave us Oxford and Cambridge.
– Sir Isaac Newton was a strong believer and bible scholar (which he didn’t have to be to have a place at Cambridge)
– So many famous scientists were strong believers besides Newton: Faraday, Maxwell, Planck (main founder of quantum physics), Heisenberg, Pascal, Kelvin, Mendel (main founder of modern genetics and he was a Roman Catholic priest! The main founder of the Big Bang theory also a Catholic priest …), Boyle, Dalton, Fleming, Lister, Joule …
– Consider all the great traditional Christian engineers / architects that built the great and beautiful buildings, towns and cities of the Middle Ages and Renaissance here in England and across Europe.
– Consider the importance of Maths in music and so many great composers who were strong believers: in particular, Bach but also to a degree Mozart and Handel.
November 2, 2021
And not forgetting all the great artists of the Renaissance who were from a traditional Christian background. Same for Shakespeare. Notice how family life was so much stronger back then. And patriotism (traditional Christian virtue).
Now look at the modern, Western, secular world. It’s collapsing all around us.
November 3, 2021
People have been prophesying the collapse of civilization for millennia. Do you really believe this? I’m no rosy-eyed optimist, but seems to me that over the past century, billions of people have been dragged out of poverty, diseases have been eradicated, technology has brought us untold benefits, people are living longer and happier lives, and we have made considerable steps towards cleaning up our planet (though there is still a long way to go).
November 3, 2021
@Ignoramus
I never said we’re reaching the end of Western Civilisation. I said Western Civilisation is collapsing all around us. That is quite different. In fact, it would be a HERESY for me to say that. All I am saying is that Western Civilisation is collapsing all around us. That’s objectively true. However, often when people reach their depths, they suddenly find impetus to start afresh again, and a new dawn begins. However, we can’t be complacent either and just expect that to happen. It only happens when people such as me point out the objective truth and encourage others that we have to do something about it.
So I am being both realistic but also optimistic. And certainly not gloomy as you suggest.
November 2, 2021
Maybe it’s because China,Russia India etc are thinking more of their people and have no truck with the virtue signalling Boris.
Countries in Europe are not going to commit to returning to the stone age just to appease Boris.
Local BBC yesterday interviewed many in the street and nor a positive comment to be seen
The public are seeing through the build back better scam of taxing them info oblivion whilst the great and good continues as normal.
Very pleased it’s turning into a fiasco.
November 2, 2021
50% more atmospheric CO2 than before industrial times is not just “a little” though, is it?
If concentrated in a layer that would be several whole metres thicker.
(For comparison, essential ozone would be just a few mm thick, so please don’t claim that low concentrations are insignificant.)
November 2, 2021
You’ve done all that a year or two ago Martin, you don’t need to repeat the nonsense.
November 2, 2021
All our public servants have gone power happy â politicians, universities, quangos and the public sector are leading the way, using taxpayers money and the law to implement the crazy ideas of the placard carrying loonies
I can still remember a time when a form of capitalism prevailed in the UK, when the people bought goods that they wanted and manufactures built them, when the voters instructed politicians, when universities provided an education and made students ready for work and our councils provided basic services like weekly bin collection
We only elected one Green Party MP for a reasonâŠ.the voting people donât want the green party, the green agenda or Boris green revolution
November 2, 2021
Yes, LL. And there’s always the possibility that the Russians and Chinese are actually right, and listen to their experts about CO2 and its positive effects.
November 2, 2021
Well said LL; this whole business of “net zero” and suchlike is total nonsense and will destroy the lives of many if allowed to go ahead. Let the globalists promoting it give up their extravagant lifestyles before telling the rest of us what to do.
November 2, 2021
Good morning.
Reading through yesterday’s comments one is struck by the similarities to what people here are saying what our kind host has written. There really does seem a bit of a chasm between those in power and the Great Unwashed. We, the Great Unwashed, look on in abject amazement at those at COP26 who seem oblivious, or at the very least unconcerned, to the their behaviour. Staggering hypocrisy !
And there you have it in a nutshell. I’ve got to be taxed to the eyeballs, be practically starved and left to freeze so some political clown can feel good about his false Eco-virtualism.
Thanks.
/sarc
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
Mark,
False because we have seen what he previously wrote and published. Remember when as mayor he wrote the public would fee rightly conned being forced to change their diesel cars after years of govt. telling them to buy them!!
He wanted more gas drilling and fracking. I think we can rightly confirm he has put the wishes of those in his private life before national interest.
What of the fishing in our waters? Another national environmental scandal. What has he done? Caved in to the French, again.
November 2, 2021
I see that some “Olympic” athletes are also jumping on the bandwagon…
I wonder how they got to Tokyo carbon neutral, I guess they mostly walked…NOT…
So many hypocrites…
November 2, 2021
+1. They also lack all sense of irony MarkB.
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
I read that – The Marshall Islands could vanish within 50 years if nothing is done to combat global warming, the nationâs climate envoy has warned. The we have Australiaâs forest fires and the floods in German.
Do these deluded fools really think fitting heat pumps, driving EVs, hydrogen boilers and usung more wind and solar electricity will lower the seas, stop dry wood catching fire in forest when left lying around or prevent flooding near rivers in Germany? This more efficiently than suitable flood defences, better forest management, flood warning systems that work and seawalls or other suitable human adjustments. These solutions do not even save any significant net co2!
November 2, 2021
I understand that when Venice was completely flooded in the 1800âs they tried to blame the weather. Oops. Stated the obvious there. No cars or gas boilers to blame then. Perhaps St Greta of Thumberg should study a little history first.
November 2, 2021
Yes a strong NNW-esterly wind that pushes the water up the Adriatic Sea and flooding Venice, giving the Venezia Acqua Alta. Usually occurring between October and January almost every winter. A common meteorological feature in the area.
Why do you feel compelled to refer to Greta? Is it the touchy-feely need to be an integral part of the great family of Redwoodians?
November 2, 2021
BW
Latest surveys according to recent reports, and a recent TV programme suggests that Venice is actually sinking because they are taking so much water from the aquifers below it (for use in local industry), so the ground on which the city has been built is actually slowly collapsing as the sub soil fills the voids left by the original water which has been removed.
Similar to areas suffering from mining subsidence, when the coal has been removed.
November 4, 2021
Indeed, youâre right, but the fact that this happens almost every winter is likely more related to the meteorology than the ground below Venice going up and down. What do you think?
November 2, 2021
Indeed and the East Coast floods of 1953. With 1,836 deaths and widespread damage in the Netherlands.
In England, 307 people were killed in the counties of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.
Twenty-eight people were killed in the north of West Flanders, Belgium. Nineteen were killed in eastern Scotland.
Imagine the BBC propaganda unit in overdrive today if this tragedy were to recur this winter. Yet this was nothing to do with CO2 at all.
November 2, 2021
@LL +1, the UK at 1% contribution to the so called causes of the scenario can’t effect a single jot all the while the other 99% look after their people and economies first. The creators of 90% of ‘Global Warming’ have not taken part in this hypocrisy and have no intention to.
There would be more credibility if this Governments aim was to keep pace with the majority of the World. It is not a World leader/force at anything so should stop pretending
November 2, 2021
What the BBC failed to inform its listeners about when interviewing the Marshal Island rep, was that a NZ university had surveyed the Pacific islands and found their islands have been adding landmass, an increase of around 8% , as well as an article in the Spectator which shows that severe storms are reducing in intensity over the last few decades. It seems facts don’t matter we have entered into a world where we are subjected to the tyranny of feelings.
November 2, 2021
The Marshal Island government are probably sniffing the air and getting a scent of money. With 100bn wafting around who would not start playing the climate change card to get some of it. More fool those giving it away, though unfortunately in our case it’s coming from my taxes and yours.
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
No, they donât think that. They think that the disasters you mention will be much more frequently, much more deadly and much more widespread.
Why do you want more widespread and frequent death and destruction? Do you assume it will never be you or people you know? They are plenty of elderly Germans who probably felt just like you – and they were buried in this summers floods and mudslides.
November 2, 2021
And have there never been floods before? Wait a minute, there was that one mentioned in the Bible, which is backed up by Sumerian legend, then there are the floods which have devastated China once every 3-400 years for millennia.
Have you ever considered that because over the past 70 years, news of any disaster anywhere in the world travels across the globe in minutes, it is tremendously easy to believe that we live in the End of Days and therefore succumb to those who delight in being prophets of doom?
November 2, 2021
All the evidence on dangerous weather events suggest fewer deaths not more. The German problem was failure of the warning systems they had plenty of notice, and levels were lower than past events not higher. But easier to blame âclimate changeâ.
November 2, 2021
What a load of useless, counsel-of-despair whingeing as ever.
November 2, 2021
so stop doing it then.
November 2, 2021
The Marshall Islands are just pitching for a bigger slice of the ÂŁ100bn promised by the wealthy nationsâŠits only the start, theyâll all be pitching doom & gloom to get their hands on our money
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
Deluded fools indeed but extremely dangerous.
November 2, 2021
Thank you John for yet another post summing up the farcical situation find ourselves in. I fear that your leader is going to bankrupt the country while other nations step back and reap the benefits. Boris has definitely changed since he met Carrie and her friends and has succumbed to their influence. His speech yesterday was more comedy than factual. We have heard all this doom and gloom for 3 decades now and frankly we’ve all had enough. I don’t think I can stand another 2 horrendous weeks of listening to our PMs plans to obliterate our country’s economy.
November 2, 2021
Johnson ludicrously engaged in doom mongering rhetoric , then plans to hop on a plane to fly back to London. You couldn’t make it up.
November 2, 2021
FuS – stop watching, everyone I know has. Sick to the back teeth of it.
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
+1. It’s an utterly loathsome spectacle.
November 2, 2021
Boris hasnât lived up to my expectations âŠheâs not a Churchill, not even a Blair, heâs more Brown
November 2, 2021
Wilson. He’s taking us back to the ’70s.
November 2, 2021
Glen he has become what the rest of the world want – someone destroying US and this nation. – – Germany with weapons couldn’t – – our own leader definitely IS.
November 3, 2021
Yes, Brown told us we had 50 days to save the planet. Almost all predictions by politicians about anything scientific turn out to be wrong.
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
His speech to an empty hall.
Before he impoverishes the nation to third world status, transferring all jobs abroad we need a referendum on it.
November 2, 2021
The news is banned from our house for the duration of the jamboree.
Roger Haribon should take the cloth and preach from the pulpit, not at licence payers expense.
He talks absolute rubbish and had no relevant qualifications.
November 2, 2021
How can you sit at home all relaxed, without knowing the new predicted date for the annihilation of the world?
November 2, 2021
Indeed – Catz English
November 3, 2021
Well, I think that given our likely bills before long, the UK public will do its bit by reducing consumption to the absolute minimum.
On that point, I wonder if Sir John could ask one of his incisive questions in the House as to the self-evident racket being played by energy companies with customers as we write?
That is – if they are anything like mine – they have stopped issuing meter reading requests. That means that they will use estimates, and if previous experience of anticipated price rises is any guide, they will underestimate. Therefore, the energy actually used will be charged at the risen price once it has occurred, rather than at the lower price when the energy was actually used.
They appear to be delaying readings until price increases feed through, and presumably expect the cap to be raised further to allow these to be very considerable.
It’s pretty tacky, but that’s the only-for-profit private sector for you.
November 4, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
Lest anyone thinks Boris has not gone round the bend:-
âWe are in roughly the same position as James Bond today, except that the tragedy is that this is not a movie, and the doomsday device is real,â
âThe clock is ticking to the furious rhythm of hundreds of billions of pistons and turbines and furnaces and engines with which we are pumping carbon into the air faster and faster⊠quilting the Earth in an invisible and suffocating blanket of CO2 raising the temperature of the planet with a speed and an abruptness that is entirely man-made.â
âa 2C rise in global temperatures would see crops wither and locusts swarm, while at 3C there would be a fivefold increase in droughts with wildfires and cyclones more common.â
âAt 4C we say goodbye to whole cities â Miami, Alexandria, Shanghai â all lost beneath the wavesâ.
âThe longer we fail to act the worse it gets and the higher the price when we are eventually forced by catastrophe to act, because humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change.â
âItâs one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock and we need to act now.â
What a deluded, unscientific twerp he, Carrie and this deluded socialist government are.
November 2, 2021
+1 We ‘oldies’ have heard it all before. Let them go ahead and try to destroy the planet with their CO2 obsession. Hopefully, nature will put them right. Nobody, not even Boris can control the climate.
November 2, 2021
You havenât heard it all before. You have chosen not to listen for 30 years. If you are not a part of the solution you are a part of the problem. And you are a part of the problem.
November 2, 2021
Could you reiterate what the problem actually is
November 2, 2021
Rubbish as usual Andy.
November 2, 2021
No, that’s poor, Andy. When you’ re stern, you don’t have the gravitas to pull it off.
November 2, 2021
Perhaps Johnson should have paid more attention to what King Canute was actually demonstrating, not what he wants to believe he was provng…
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
You are right us “oldies” have heard it all before – together with the “it cannot be done”.
1. Acid rain
2. Hole in Ozone layer
3. Lead in petrol
4. DDT
5. Asbestos
6. Smokeless fuel
I could go on…
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
PfL, so what did YOU do on all these topics? I really think you should go on and tell us what your actions were that helped to fight this pessimistic âit cannot be doneâ. The new generations are waiting with bated breath for your advice.
November 2, 2021
this male generation will not be tortured and then killed by pneumoconiosis, like the previous one.
November 2, 2021
The new ice age!
November 2, 2021
I agree, but Iâm concerned with what theyâre teaching in primary and secondary school, as more school children are filled with doom and gloom
I can still remember being told in a geography lesson back in the late 70s that our coast line would disappear and our homes ten miles inland would be under waterâŠit terrified me and it didnât happenâŠ.in the past 44 years our coast line hasnât changed
November 2, 2021
Funny, The Express website (express.co.uk on 01/11/2021) had âFury as entire village faces being abandoned to the seaâ.
Then there is this table from Masselink et al. (2018) giving the length of coast, the percentage of eroding coast for the nations of the UK:
England, 4,273 km, 29.8 %
Wales, 1,498 km, 23.1 %
Scotland, 11,154 km, 11.6 %
N.Ireland, 456 km, 19.5 %
G. Masselink, U. Plymouth, Prof. of Coastal Geomorphology. (But obviously, what does he know that gc does not).
November 2, 2021
Natural erosion happens by tide and wave hitting the coast and I don’t dispute thatâŠ.I thought I made it clear that I was discussing the claims by climate crusaders of rising oceans by the 10s of metres
November 2, 2021
Well the East Coast has rather but it has been doing so since England detached from Europe many moons ago.
November 2, 2021
The oceans are 1000 times the mass of the atmosphere.
Air temperature follows ocean temperature.
Mankind is less than a flea on a dog.
November 4, 2021
Density not mass?
November 2, 2021
+1, Ll, And the doltâs own words easily outdo any sarcasm, satire, or lampooning. Johnson is thoroughly deranged. Armbands for us or straight jackets for our âleadersâ?
November 2, 2021
‘They’ are having a laugh at any of us who believe it. Not at the young people, who’ll always fall for the latest political fashion, but at the middle-aged and older who ought to know better than to swallow this 30-year old con trick.
November 2, 2021
For Bright Blue conservatives, read Thick Blue.
November 2, 2021
Johnson alluded to banning cash in yesterday’s speech. Yes, they intend to enslave us. I wonder if it could be even worse than that – those who are not killed or starved are genetically modified, the present vaccine being a forerunner.
November 2, 2021
The vaccine is often successful in giving a pain in the arm for a day or two, but Johnson is able to give us all a pain in the arse for what is becoming years.,
November 2, 2021
Yes, Iago, that was a dead give-away in Johnson’s COP26 spiel : ‘Coal, Cars, Cash, and Trees’. Cash has nothing to do with with climate change, so the real agenda is something else. Perhaps introducing Central Bank Digital Currency? Then it will be game over for consumer freedom.
November 2, 2021
The banning cash idea is quite sinister, now that we have seen how authoritarian our country has become (e.g. Covid restrictions waved through a supine HoC). I assume the wealthy would still be able to avoid taxes, though.
November 2, 2021
Iago
If cash is banned thereâs no going backâŠ. Weâll all be doomed! Thatâs when everything we do can be controlled. Do anything wrong, like refuse a vaccine, you wonât be able to enterâ-. Parking fine unpaid, permission denied to pay in the carpark, so canât park!
Itâs happening in a lot of countries! As someone described on the radio this morning, some countries limit what you can have in the bank⊠but where does the rest go?
This seems conspiracy theorist but did we ever imagine it could be made illegal to leave your home as last year?
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
He is so damnably patronising that, even if I agreed with him (which I don’t), I’d have trouble listening to him pontificating.
November 2, 2021
Earlier this year I had 3 trips down to ICU from my hospital ward. Covid and covid related, during which I hallucinated wildly and then had to understand that it was all complete nonsense, even though the stories and people were crystal clear, even the voices recognisable.
Boris must be in a similar state. He even thinks that Stevenson invented the steam engine, that in a speech of complete nonsense.
November 2, 2021
+999 @Lifelogic
The worst part is that he didn’t even make this garbage up himself or investigate the situation — He is simply repeating some words that a less than intelligent flunky provided him with, and they got it from somewhere very questionable.
Blind leading the stupid!
November 2, 2021
Any political leader that exposes the hypocrisy and authoritarian political intent behind climate change ideology should be congratulated and carried shoulder-high down Wokingham high street, if indeed there is such a thing
Boris Johnson, Biden, Trudeau, Macron, Charles and all the other nauseous hypocrites care not one jot for environmental issues, concerns over habitat, CO2 emissions etc etc. These careerists are malicious and utterly psychopathic and I mean psychopathic in the sense that they have no human soul or concern for humanity. They are immune to the consequences of their actions. Ignore the speeches and focus on the way they themselves conduct their own lives
I have no doubt there is an issue vis a vis the living environment but what we are seeing is nothing less than the politicisation of another human issue for the political State to expand its powers of control and monitoring over our lives
There’s a Berlin Wall moment coming down the line when these bullshitters are swept from power. I don’t know how it will happen or when but it will. You cannot abuse the good nature, natural decency and our divine freedoms without political consequence
November 2, 2021
+1
That dear little Swedish bunny is telling everyone that the world leaders ( doing whatever in their UN Blue Zone!!!) are lying to everyone.
So does that represent a split in the ranks?
If Green = save the planet what does Blue indicate?
My imagination runs wild.
And how can a chunk of a democratic country be handed over in such a way?
November 2, 2021
I think you are right. The self regarding elite have hooked themselves on unlikely propositions:
1 CO2 is evil; actually it is essential to life.
2 its rise is all man made and will cause global temperatures to rise; actually the natural world is the decisive driver of global temperature.
3 the rise can be precisely predicted regardless of changes in the natural world (such as the behaviour of the sun, tectonic plates, volcanoes); actually the global climate is a chaotic system precluding such prediction.
4 the temperature rise can be controlled by the actions of man; actually, given that even their models fail when tested against known historical data, the notion that global temperatures can be controlled is an extreme case of hubris.
I am not prepared to pay for changes to my way of life based on such dubious propositions.
November 2, 2021
@DOM +1 Wokingham has a row of Charity Shops intermingled with Coffee Shops. The High Street will be closed this Saturday for a parade but will anyone notice?
November 2, 2021
How do you sweep George Monbiot from power, and all the others like him?
November 2, 2021
Well said, and I hope you are right for all our sakes.
November 2, 2021
DOM, +1,
I fully share your outrage and your hopes
November 2, 2021
Me too!!!
November 2, 2021
Correct Dom â and if any of our politicians called out and exposed the climate change charade for what it is, theyâd be guaranteed a general election win
November 2, 2021
rose, thank you very much for drawing peopleâs attention to Monbiotâs âCapitalism is killing the planet – itâs time we stop buying into our own destructionâ (30/10/2021).
I would have missed it without you. Well done.
November 2, 2021
It seems now that it’s unlikely to happen through an election process – these people seem to think they’re fireproof as they’re not exactly trying to court their electorate. Perhaps the intention is to do away with the democratic process, along with CO2, personal freedoms, bodily autonomy, etc.
November 2, 2021
+1. I hope for a Brexit moment, due to them being so out of touch with the electorate. I fear they learnt some lessons from that, though, and will use their control of education, scientific research, the media etc along with the first past the post electoral system to make sure that doesn’t happen.
November 2, 2021
+1
Well, I’m now anti Royal for a start.
November 2, 2021
NLA, +1
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
Being concerned about the environment is a wonderful way for politicians to avoid politics . They get t0 waffle now whilst leaving cost for later. They are in favour of good and against evil- so for all I would like to see sensible global measures taken, the hot air is suffocating.
Less often noticed is how Brexit ultras like John Redwood like to use anti environmentalism, albeit thinly disguised , as a distraction form the abject failure of Brexit. Pig farmers, fruit growers, healthcare managers, transport sector recruiters, builders, hoteliers, musicians and Ulster unionists suffer, the City has no deal, taxes are raised to makeup an NHS short fall they said would be paid for with our “extra money”.
No single gain has accrued to leaving the EU and the county by a margin of 10% is turning its back on the whole thing . That this National feeling has no political expression is an outrage..so what do we talk about
The environment of course.
November 2, 2021
Started well there @new, I was warming to your post, but in a similar vein to Great you return to your worn out drum which plays a monotone dirge.
November 2, 2021
Greta
November 2, 2021
Narrow, he’s rather dull and repetitive. Andy at least is ludicrous that you can chuckle at him.
November 2, 2021
Narrow Shoulders, +1, Wasnât that first paragraph by Newmania a beauty, . . . then . . .
November 2, 2021
Indeed and a wonderful excuse for evermore taxation and something to blame when governments and other fail to do there jobs. As with the flood warning system in Germany, forest fire management, sea defences, landslips and flooding in the UK. Not our fault Gov its climate change!
November 2, 2021
The problems you cite are mostly the ones that have been brewing in the UK while it was a member of the EU. They are down to the people of the UK. We are trying to recruit an engineer, the response to our adverts is more than 90% foreign. People with no right to residency are applying, whereas UK born aren’t interested or educated.
November 2, 2021
I think that some voters were expecting to see the return of everything from Green Shield stamps to Bernie Inns to half-timbered Morris Travellers with trumpeting exhaust pipes, Newmania.
They can still get their thermos flasks of milky instant coffee, folding chairs, and tartan knee blankets out in lay-bys, by a pile of gravel, if they fancy a run out though.
November 2, 2021
You seem very familiar with those relics of the era Martin. Fond memories?
November 2, 2021
Yes, we can, and very nice it is too.
November 3, 2021
Go for it, John.
Maybe regional TV news will feature items on people who have cut holes in their ceilings, to allow their potted rubber plants to grown still taller again too.
November 2, 2021
Look on the bright side, there is now a precedent … you only have 40 years to wait before having another referendum.
You can be patient and wait that long can’t you?
November 2, 2021
No need to wait that long to rejoin the EU. The vast majority of the people who voted for Brexit are over 65. 15 years should see us rid of most of them. No referendum needed.
November 3, 2021
That is not true.
The poll data the analysis is based actually shows only 28% of leave voters were over 65 but then 20% of remain voters were over 65 as well.
So the vast majority of leave voters, 72%, were under 65 and leavers made up the majorities in age bands from 35 upwards- your supposed generation sunshine.
So it seems the country actually needs to be rid of you and your age group …
November 2, 2021
Or we could do what ukip originally offered, when they thought that they might form a government – that is, to decide the matter by the simple supremacy of Parliament and not bother with any referendums – but to rejoin, rather than to leave this time
I mean, if it was good enough for Farage, then surely it’s good enough for you?
(Not that the European Union would accept the UK back in the foreseeable future)
November 2, 2021
Apart from the very few Lib Dems and the one Green where is your fantasy re join majority Parliament going to come from?
November 3, 2021
But you already tried that with turncoat MPs and trumped up legal challenges which all went swimmingly. Too bad the electorate saw through you.
Perhaps what you should have done was worked hard over the last 40 years for the EU to have been of real, tangible benefit to us commoners rather than just you lordly types. After all we should have been more appreciative of the shorter queues at airports, all the french food and wine displacing our local produce, our companies and jobs being taken over by continental concerns …
But you couldn’t be bothered, too much like hard work and of course you would have to have respected other people’s needs and opinions which clearly would never do for the cultured elite.
November 2, 2021
And while Cop26 continues weâre importing cement to pour into the building of HS2
Smoke & Mirrors
November 2, 2021
Newmania, “no single gain”
Perhaps, John, you could put a blog post together to detail the gains.
EU supporters want us trapped back into the EEA customs union by 2024 when the current money we have to pay in runs out.
Let’s not forget that covid has caused lots of problems for all the Countries of the World, a total lockdown for months on end, a pause is bound to cause significant problems but Boris did say he got the UK a good deal and remember no deal is better than a bad deal so what did he achieve?
Pig farmers have gone quiet, who owns the abattoirs that wouldn’t process their meat? Were they foreign-owned and were choosing to deal with meat from Europe in preference to British farmed meat? We have a right to know what % of imported meat they dealt with in September/October compared to British farm meat. Boris didn’t put any restrictions on imported meat from Europe even when they put restrictions on UK exports.
French Manuf output declined for the 5th consecutive month in October 2021 (source tradingeconomics) and if they keep targeting the Brits who like to import lots of French products and cause a lot of bitterness their exports to the UK will be further affected. October 2021 marked 17 consecutive months of British factory output growth. PMI reading 57.8 well above the 50 mark that denotes growth UK mfg see Factory Now.
November 2, 2021
Um. No.
It’s definitely the BBC obsessing about the environment.
So much that they’re taking the focus off their other obsession.
November 2, 2021
“No single gain”! We have almost freed ourselves from the rule of the EU tyrants. Now we must free ourselves from the rule of the tyrants / traitors within. No need to mention names.
November 3, 2021
Who are “we”?
November 2, 2021
Yes, I think we should revisit the EU question in about 50 years from now. Just like we did before.
November 3, 2021
Except you have never left the question – most contributors here, like Sir John himself – fixate upon it day after day, don’t you?
You keep endlessly claiming that it is not “done”, or not done “properly”.
It is.
Rubbish, isn’t it?
November 2, 2021
Newmania, the failure is your friend Boris Johnson who has not taken advantage of Brexit and remains attached to the EU despite Brexit. We’re not doing too badly I understand but with a real conservative government the country would be doing a lot better.
November 3, 2021
Please state clearly what feasible material advantage there is in brexit and explain why it would be beneficial?
That is, that doesn’t break any other international agreements, the law of the sea, etc.
November 2, 2021
I’d be really upset about the lack of cooperation from China, and the others, but sorry to say, they are the sensible ones. While the UK spends a fortune cutting it’s CO2 and another fortune supposedly helping other countries cut their CO2, China and co will continue as normal, therefore making their countries wealthier and more able to adapt to whatever nature throws at us. Our destruction will help nobody, least of all ourselves. It certainly won’t help climate change in any shape or form.
Since when was destroying your country a good idea for any government? Maybe, St Greta is the wisdom of the earth and has to be worshipped and obeyed, and isn’t really a manipulated not very bright child being used by evil people to scare the worlds children into helping destroy their own futures. The farce of politicians worshipping, and being instructed by, a troubled child is really alarming.
November 2, 2021
Please add you climate change qualifications to your next post to authenticate your views, similarly others.
Havenât got any? Donât think I will entrust the future of the planet to you then.
November 2, 2021
I suspect she has as many climate change qualifications as a lot of the campaigners Nig
November 2, 2021
No-one should have the future of the planet ‘entrusted to them’, Nig L, least of all the corrupt politicians and their carpetbagger hangers-on scrambling for government (taxpayer) money. As if mega-billions spent on boondoggle schemes like heat pumps etc. will make the slightest difference to an eco-system where most greenhouse gas comes from water evaporation, and two-thirds of the planet is water. The sun’s heat will not depend on what we do on earth. Rational scientists are saying that mankind must adapt to changing climate as it has always done over the millennia. They’re the ones not getting the government grants, though, nor the media attention, unfortunately.
November 3, 2021
Please add you qualifications for commenting on net zero policy. A number of us have had careers in the energy industry and a good understanding of the infeasibility and unaffordability of present policies.
You don’t have to be a climate expert to comment on net zero policy. It helps if you know something about energy.
November 2, 2021
Carbon trading shows that this is fantasy. For countries to be able to outsource their liabilities means there is no emergency except for the countries like us making ourselves poorer by cutting industrialisation.
If these delegates truly believe there is a problem then the solution is for each country to cut its output, not trade it. That is the only communique I want to hear from this shower.
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
She’s like the leader of the Childrens’ Crusade. A young zealot, who is motivated by belief and must not be challenged or treated like the extremist she is.
November 2, 2021
Extremists are people who do not obey the law, and who are usually willing to kill to achieve their ends.
She is not by any reasonable definition an extremist, then.
Not that it will stop people like you from making such silly claims, however.
November 2, 2021
Extremists are not those “usually willing to kill”
Ridiculous comment NHL
November 2, 2021
I believe the Oxford Reference dictionary provides reasonable definitions, lad.
“Extremist: a person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action.”
Nothing about killing there.
November 3, 2021
Dressing up in clown outfits with party squeakers, and taking your kids along to brighten up Farage’s lunch is hardly extremism, but some here claim that those people were “terrorists”.
I think that any fool can see what these commenters are trying to do.
November 2, 2021
If I was a Scottish voter Iâd be asking how come Covid passports are demanded for all large events except for one where 25,000 people have flown in from 200 different countries around the world. Is Covid a threat or not ? Are any resulting excess deaths in Glasgow justified in order to have heard Prince Charles pontificate ?
November 2, 2021
Good job the Queen has kept away from this infectionfest. Hope she makes Charles isolate before she sees him again. Scotland is about to get a major Covid infection boom.
November 2, 2021
Wee Nicola sounded incoherent when the Today Programme interviewed her – and they will have edited it in her favour, too.
November 2, 2021
COP is taking place on UN soil. I notice most of the delegates are wearing masks. Johnson and his ministers the exceptions.
November 2, 2021
UN soil??
What a very odd comment young andy.
November 2, 2021
R G What a good point. Is Scotland now breaking their own law? It is a very large gathering indeed!
Many arrests should be made.
November 2, 2021
+1. Love the comment.
November 2, 2021
L/L. Just reading what Boris said is making me laugh. He did look a complete buffoon up there. I’m sure Carries hands must be sore from all the excited clapping. And to think this man is PM of the UK.
November 2, 2021
+1 and he seemed fairly sound until quite recently.
November 2, 2021
no he didn’t, he’s sounded like a buffoon doing a turn on a pantomime for so many months, even before Covid and Carrie got him under control. Sanity really questioned.
November 2, 2021
relatively sound until recently then perhaps!
November 2, 2021
Fus, compare to what he wrote previously and you find a confused idiot putting his love life above national interest.
Where are these alleged Tory MPs making him get in line over socialist budget, socialist build back better, authoritarian dictatorship Covid rules etc? Have they all left the building? No commentator thinks the budget was anything but a socialist one.
November 2, 2021
@Fedupsoutherner +1 ‘did look a complete buffoon’… ? Its a religion
November 2, 2021
Yes, well most posting here voted for him via their MPs, didn’t they?
November 2, 2021
Did they actually for him NHL?
How do you know?
November 2, 2021
So billions borrowed by the UK to give to India to help them with their climate goal. Oh yes silly me. The waspi women have paid for it, no need to worry.
November 2, 2021
Do 1.3 billion people not exhale CO2? And with their mainly vegetarian diet I would not wish to comment on the methane production.
November 2, 2021
@BW +1, the bank of the UK taxpayer doesn’t need the money to develop its own economy (it doesn’t have one) India has to keep up its Space Program after it third visit to the Moon, their arsenal said to be some 156 Nuclear Bombs has to be maintained – it looks like the UK taxpayer is just that patsy
November 2, 2021
Whilst they launch their second aircraft carrier and develop hypersonic weapons.
They certainly need our money to pay for it.
November 2, 2021
BBC reporting the new idea is to pay Brazilian illegal loggers not to cut down trees to save the worldâŠisnât that the same as paying a thief not to steal your car ?
November 2, 2021
For years the UN has been trying to have full control of the world with all its different fad ideas they have tried to sell to the political elite. When Agenda 21 was rejected in its full form they had to find something else.
World wars were once a good answer to controlling people and subsequently population but the proliferation of nuclear weapons makes that nigh impossible.
The great climate scam has been going on for over 60 years and the elite have made trillions out of it. Who stands to make the most out of all of this fear and possible annihilation of mother earth?
No one wants to accept that all this data ultimately started with one man or woman’s thought and a computer programme. All that followed is just variation of a theme which has grown out of control. The biggest threat for the world’s survival is not climate change but pollution and over population.
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
Donât see the rich & famous selling their beach properties in Dubai, Miami, St. Lucia, Monaco or the Maldives anytime soon
November 2, 2021
đđ»Right! Glen
November 2, 2021
you should have inserted ‘one of ‘ between selling …and their.
November 2, 2021
Nor are they buying up tracts of high altitude land in zones the climate modellers say will be pleasant to live in, when doomsday is upon us.
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
Unfortunately Sir John. I will never vote Tory again. Hopefully, as your government ignore everything you say you will stand as an independent at the next election.
November 2, 2021
#NoneOfTheAbove
If we all turn up and spoil our papers a new party that represents the people might just emerge. Or at the following election the electorate will decide it is worth voting independent or single issue parties as they will now stand a chance.
Spoiling the paper is the only way to change the system. Voting for the least worst option will never change things.
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
@BW Usually it takes just 6% of the population to sway an election. So if just that many don’t vote, the Boris evangelical religions cult will have lost. We may have a non-existent opposition and that is what CCHQ is banking on, missing the whole point elections are never won, they are simply lost.
Like most I just want our country back and preferably with a Conservative Government
November 2, 2021
The problem with that is that the alternatives available are even greener wokes than Boris, and less interested in supporting Britain.
November 2, 2021
That is the problem
November 2, 2021
Thereâs Reform UK, Reclaim Party, Neil Hamilton has just taken over UKIP, The Heritage Party – all seem more right wingâŠIt just needs enough people to vote for them.
November 3, 2021
Go for it, Sharon.
November 2, 2021
+1
November 2, 2021
Nor I.
Sadly my constituent MP can be likened to a clapping seal regarding everything that comes out of Johnson’s mouth.
November 2, 2021
I agree, this government, this tory party are indeed the enemy of democracy and the voting people
November 2, 2021
To all those posting here who express the same sentiment as BW about never voting Conservative again :
Who exactly are you going to vote for, then ?
Every other political party in the UK is highly critical of Boris for not going fast enough, or as far as they want to go, down the Green Crap agenda.
Whoever else you vote for will have a larger effect on your lifestyle, make you poorer and colder.
We have little choice until a new party emerges taking a much more realistic line on the issue.
Come on Nigel !
November 2, 2021
Lawrence Fox (Reclaim) has just made an excellent video showing how expensive and undemocratic the COP agenda is. Reform are getting support in the Bexley by election. They have years to keep plugging and merge or cooperate.
November 2, 2021
Reform Party or the Monster Raving Loony Party
November 2, 2021
Reform UK says it’s putting up 600 candidates at the next election. If we had a free press, ChrisS, you would have heard about this.
You might say, the problem is that if the anti-Tory vote is split, which party is that going to let in instead? Two or three years ago that would have been a real worry to conservative-minded voters. Now, with Johnson pursuing Lib-Lab policies anyway, I doubt it would make much difference to them who sits in no. 10. But for the Conservative party it will be a big problem if it loses power. That’s where Reform UK knows the Tories are vulnerable.
November 2, 2021
Excellent. With 600 candidates Reform is all but guaranteed to lose at least 599 of them.
November 2, 2021
Bit like the Greens and Lib Dems then young andy.
November 2, 2021
“Who exactly are you going to vote for, then ?”
Reform UK.
They will be standing in every seat (unlike in the last election when they stood down in Tory-held seats to help the Conservatives beat Labour). Given that there is now NO DIFFERENCE between the Tories and Labour it doesn’t matter one jot if voting reform UK ‘lets Labour in’. I am disgusting by Boris. He has betrayed me on Brexit, on freedom (during covid), on taxes, on immigration and now on ‘net zero’. If he loses the next election he will be gone (he was only chosen as leader because he was seen as a winner) and there is at least a chance that the Tories will select a conservertive to lead the party.
November 2, 2021
Covid and Cop 26 is all about the rich and elite putting the little people back into their boxes. Weâve all had too much for too longâŠ
Sadly, there are thousands of useful idiots who believe it all, and wonât âseeâ whatâs happening until itâs too late!
The worst thing apart from the hypocrisy is that actually, theyâre quite open about their endgame, and STILL people believe all their guff.
Yesterdayâs first few minutes opening music and speeches was like something from a religious cult meeting! Itâs all quite sick and sickening.
November 2, 2021
Come on Carrie carry me a little further,
Come on Carrie, carry me one more mile,
I don’t know where its leading to,
But I know I can make it when I lean on you ,
So come on Carrie, carry me a little, I carried you, so carry me a little while.
Dr Hooks classic number from the Pleasure and Pain Album. Very appropriate to what seems to be the inspiration to our leader.
November 2, 2021
Now set up!..
“Petition Hold a referendum on whether to keep the 2050 net zero target”
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/599602
At 10,000 signatures, government will respond to this petition
At 100,000 signatures, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament
Under the BJ religious cult, I would guess all petitions will be ignored..
November 2, 2021
Petitions don’t get seen and more often become confirmation that the petitioner has no support.
November 2, 2021
Whenever you have written in recent years that âthe UK (government) must notâ it is followed by the UK government going ahead and doing exactly what you counsel against: Theresa May caving to the EU, and now Boris Johnson continuing to destroy our prosperity and freedom of choice via net zero, whatever is agreed or fudged in Glasgow. Who would have thought that the nominal leader of Vote Leave would act so explicitly against the economic interests of those who voted for him.
November 2, 2021
In 2020, UK gross gas production was 439 TWh, stable on 2019. UK gas production has been
broadly stable for close to a decade following several years of decline since the peak in 2000. Despite this the UK remains a major producer of natural gas, sitting within the top 20 gas producing countries globally and the third largest in Europe.
Pipeline imports from Norway accounted for a third of total supply, the second largest source of
natural gas following indigenous production. LNG tanker imports are way down the list in third place. LNG import sources have diversified, so improving UK security of supply – 48% Quatar, 27% USA, and Russia at 12% (reduced from 15% in 2019). 6% of our LNG imports come from Trinidad and Tobago. During winter at any one time 10-12 LNG tankers are on the high seas, destination UK.
Following the conversion of the Bacton import pipeline to an interconnector we now export domestic gas production to Belgium. What we really need is more gas storage capacity, as a buffer against a bad winter. May’s government should not have allowed Centrica to close the Rough storage facility.
November 2, 2021
Before these World “leaders” lecture us, they should look at how they are depleting the World’s resources by their “gas guzzlers” and other extravagances.
The people are beginning to notice how it is one rule for them and another for us.
November 2, 2021
“It looks odd to be telling the worlds millions to sacrifice their current lifestyles and aspirations and to abandon their cars, holiday flights gas, boilers and diets when the COP elite think their demands do not apply to themselves or can be brushed aside by buying pardons.”
We have regressed all the way back to Ancient Rome, where the plebeians – the ordinary free citizens – were in conflict with the patricians, the ruling class of that period. Figuratively speaking, “one rule for us, another for them” and “do as I say, don’t do as I do” were the abiding principles. Here and now, we have the elite telling the plebs that they have reached peak quality of life and that they must give it up, while not having the slightest intention of giving any of it up themselves. This is not going to end well.
November 2, 2021
+10
November 2, 2021
Indeed. The entitled world elites and junketing self important politicians demonstrating their double standards, preaching to us at the same time as pissing on us.
Your wise council is needed to suggest to Boris, his message, however important is being lost in a fog of hubris.
The impetus created in the private sector is unstoppable. Politically he/we need an offset plan (carbon capture/zillions more trees etc) to bridge the gaps between 2035/2050/2070 to enable slower countries to catch up and, as you rightly put it, for us to slow down as to not suffer economically.
November 2, 2021
Russia, China and India are doing exactly the right thing and ignoring the fact that weather patterns change naturally over time. They could and should do more about pollution. But are correct to ignore this wholesale imposition of crippling policies on Western citizens at the behest of the same scientific establishments who so poorly modelled the covid deaths. This is a scam. This is an undemocratic revolution by leaders of the free world to crush capitalism under the guise of virtue.
November 2, 2021
Spot On – and doing whats best for their own people in the bargain
November 2, 2021
Best comment on all this that I’ve seen so far:
“If hypocrisy were a type of fuel, the 20,000 attendees at Cop26 in Glasgow would have solved the climate crisis at a stroke.”
November 2, 2021
I am no fan of Bungling Boris, particularly over his disastrous handling of the Chinese plague virus crisis. But whoever wrote his opening speech at the COP26 conference yesterday (and assuredly, he did not) deserves a gong. Most impressed!
He’s a scruffy bugger tho. President Biden rocked up looking very dapper and every inch the leader of the free world.
November 2, 2021
You should have gone to Specsavers. Biden fell asleep listening.
November 2, 2021
Sakara. Are you having a laugh? His speech was pathetic. I think an 11 year old wrote it. It was like something you’d read in a Marvel comic. Did you have a few too many drinks last night?
November 2, 2021
Even when he(Biden) nodded off?
November 2, 2021
SK
Leader of free world?
Did you miss the clip of him having his afternoon nap?
November 2, 2021
Biden looking the leader of the free world? Oh sure, Sakara, especially when he went to sleep!
November 2, 2021
âQuâils mangent de la briocheâ Marie Antoinette.
November 2, 2021
Like the Canute legend, this is another anecdote that is regularly misunderstood. The Queen was asking why the law which mandated giving stale bread for free to the poor was not being activated.
November 2, 2021
Boris will over promise and we will be left in the same situation as Foreign Aid, whereby the UK ends up paying more than other countries and making itself less competitive. The chancellor breaks his manifesto promise on pensions stating it’s unaffordable then immediately tells us he’s returning Foreign Aid to its previous high level. Climate change is nothing more than a wealth transfer from the poor to the rich aided and abetted by faux charitable organisations. Anyone critical of this agenda is immediately vilified and labelled fake news on social media. Let’s see a proper debate on this Net Zero plan with proper costings and consequences for the life styles of British people.
November 2, 2021
Is that the same Boris ‘the EU aren’t getting a penny’ and ‘no PM would ever split the Union’
November 2, 2021
India says it will not be carbon neutral for another 50 years. As they are a nuclear and space project country, I would assume they have access to the best science there is on climate change and they see no need to rush. Meanwhile Greta and Prince Charles reckon the planet will be untenable within a few years, just like he has been predicting since 1989 and she for the last 5 years (he seems proud of the fact that he started then and has been wrong ever since). So who has it, India, the USA, China all with superior scientific knowledge or the likes of Greta, Charles and Attenborough?
Its gone so far now that they cannot retreat and admit their stupidity and will bankrupt us trying to prove they are right and will never have to face the consequences.
November 2, 2021
Canât we have parity with China and India, you know start building coal power stations and plan for net zero by 2070
Itâs a global level playing field
November 2, 2021
Graham1946 : âIts gone so far now that they cannot retreat and admit their stupidity and will bankrupt us trying to prove they are right and will never have to face the consequencesâ
Correct.
The activistsâ shrieks will get ever louder not because the situation is critical but because they donât want to be proved wrong when their dire predictions do not materialise.
PM Johnson has dug us into such a massive hole the only way out will be through a referendum.
November 2, 2021
from BBC WEBPAGE.
Isabel Medina points at her electricity bill, showing how it has jumped since the summer.
“My energy bill has increased by about 20% in the last two or three months – that’s a lot,” she says. “Now, with the winter coming, it’s going to increase even more.”
Spain is one of many European countries hit hard by a sudden spike in electricity prices in recent months. A surge in demand as countries emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic has not been matched by supply, sending prices soaring.
Andy and co tell us that we are saved by use of solar in Spain for example, and we can benefit from their power via Interconnectors. Didn’t help poor Isabel, did it?
November 2, 2021
Some heavy industry firms have started taking drastic measures in the face of the extra costs they are facing. Basque metal producer Sidenor announced in mid-October that it was halting production in its main factory for at least three weeks, stating that the most recent rises in energy costs “cause losses and make it impossible to maintain the current rate of production”. Chemical producer Fertiberia has taken similar action.
The government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro SĂĄnchez has presented a series of measures aimed at mitigating energy costs for families and businesses. They include tax cuts and reclaiming some profits from electricity companies. Also, poorer families are protected from having their energy supply cut off.
November 2, 2021
But if Isabel bought a âTesla carâ that might help
November 2, 2021
MT – – WE ( English taxpayers ) have to be careful of our power usage – – hotels full of dinghy arrivals – – DO NOT. . . . THEY keep coming – – and NOTHING is done.
November 2, 2021
âDonât let them eat cake. â
How a *revolution* by the Western elites and oligarchs is reversing the political, social and economic gains of Western society.
November 2, 2021
Hats off to President Joe for doing actually what most of us have done metaphorically with regard to COP26.
What a pity Blue Boris did not strike down that overly emotional BBC operative (its climate editor!) aghast that we might open a coal mine by employing the point made in your second paragraph about risk that the U.K. “… promises too much only to end up importing the goods we need from countries that produce more CO2 making them and supplying them than we would for ourselves”.
November 2, 2021
China and Russia see the West as ganging up against them and know only a war would force them to cooperate with pollution reduction. How they must rub hands together as the real benefits are bestowed on them of our sacrifices and beating ourselves up instead. Useful idiots…
November 2, 2021
A war the west wouldn’t win,so not even a war would force them….
November 2, 2021
SoâŠgoing back to âclimate changeâ.
In a time of very little rubbish who began foisting plastic packaging and logo-emblazoned plastic bags on us? Why⊠our now oh so woke, customer blaming,MP lobbying, virtue signalling manufacturers/retailers.
Utterly disgusting the way they have helped or maybe forced the odious one to create this dystopia of masks, jabs and imprisonment.
If they are all so bothered about plastic let them do away with it on ALL their goods. Every single one of them.
See how they like the logistics of that!!
November 2, 2021
The 80 seat Tories have presided over Stalinism.
November 3, 2021
I’ve just realised that the tories haven’t an 80 seat majority….labour have an 380 seat majority
November 2, 2021
You read events in history and wonder at the zealotry and extremism that drove them on, Joan of Arc, the Spanish inquisition, the Maoist cultural revolution, Pol Pot , the Fascists and wonder how people can take leave of their senses and justify the madness that had gripped them.
Frighteningly in looking at the reports of the COP26 thing I got a horrible sense that this zealotry was kicking off all over again, and just like in times gone by when anything can be justified for the cause. A cause that has all the hallmarks of a religion, a totalitarian political creed , and environmental extremism all wrapped up in one. Prince Charles spoke of marshalling the forces, Welby was there cursing the heretics , Attenborough was there pushing world equality for all, and Johnson and others throwing verbal kindling on the zealous conflagration. With all the forces of the state, institutions, corporations, celebrities, tech oligarchs , and the likes of the UN co-opted into the cause, you feel somewhat exposed by saying excuse me is this sensible?
November 2, 2021
The Star says “The Great, the Good, and Emmanuel Macron…” and Sir John adds “buying pardons”. It is good to have a laugh during this extraordinary spectacle.
November 2, 2021
I’ve had more than enough of the rank hypocrisy of the thousands of delegates/activists to the COP26 Boondoggle. All it is is a concerted attempt by the Global Elite to extort even more money from western taxpayers to throw at the 2nd and third world. In what circumstance does India, with a nuclear arsenal, space programme and large military, “need” $1 trillion of western taxpayers’ money in order to move towards Net Zero?
Yesterday, Johnson (who in 2013 correctly wrote that the useless windmills being installed with massive subsidies wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding) announced that the steam engine, which led to the industrial revolution and was directly responsible for pulling hundreds of millions of people out of abject poverty, was a “doom machine.”
I’m afraid, when you get that kind of hyperbolic idiocy from a Prime Minister, it’s time to stop listening.
So I have. I won’t be voting for it, and I won’t be voluntarily participating in the lunatic proposals, and will do everything in my power to avoid paying towards the planned extortion.
November 2, 2021
The British State and all those who serve it have become a vested interest in their own right and they will fight in a most brutal manner to protect their taxpayer funded privileges
Welcome to Marxism fascism style. Collectivism is a play on emotions to encourage you betray your natural instincts of self-protection in favour of promoting a politics that feeds off you, your assets and your very being
The west is now under the control of evil and I don’t state that lightly
November 2, 2021
The Hypocrisy of the COP delegations is truly breathtaking.
Only the most extreme Environmentalists are going to give up their diet and lifestyles when it’s plain for all to see that those that seek to dictate how we should live, believe they are so important that they are entitled to ignore their own dictats.
There can be no better examples than Allegra Stratton still driving around in her old diesel car, VDL using a private jet to fly 31 miles between two EU capitals. Now we have the ludicrous situation of Sleepy Joe’s 85-car motorcade of gargantuan SUVs and two of the Presidential Beasts flown over to Rome and on to Glasgow ! Not to mention the three white house presidential helicopters also transported over the Atlantic!
They are treating their own voters with utter contempt.
November 2, 2021
CHRIS S – – treating their own voters with utter contempt???.- – – – because that is all they have for us.
They have more respect for rancid dog poo.
November 2, 2021
If there was any rationality attached to this operatic farce, creating real alternative power supplies while improving the way we grow food and house ourselves, would be at the top of the agenda – But this isn’t about making things better.
The fact that innovative methods to improve technology are totally invisible show the real aim of those pushing the dark ages on us — They want us to live without technology, except for mass media manipulating devices like the TV.
November 2, 2021
Off Topic……..Fishing Licences
If the media reports are true that more French boats are to receive licences then it is just further confirmation that kipper and his fillets are totally two faced and gutless. Talk the talk and capitulate. When is this man and his cabinet going to start digging in and fighting for this country. COP 26 will we get anything out of it? No chance, never in a lifetime. The taxpayers will be the ones picking up the tab for all the billions promised to the developing world so he can posture and waffle on the world stage.
November 2, 2021
Iâm surprise that the Home Secretary hasnât offered the French more money as a solution
November 2, 2021
History of the IPCC 1.5 degree target and why the world has gone mad
Tuvalu a very small island in the pacific ocean that commissioned the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) research with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact to report a 2 degree finding at the IPCC Copenhagen conference 2009 â concluding that their island would disappear
Peer-reviewed study used satellite imagery to measure Tuvalu’s changing land area over four decades. In the four decades to 2014, Tuvalu’s total land area grew by 73 hectares, or 2.9 per cent.
We building all our assumptions on sand, forecasts, statistics, modelling, predictions, wishful thinking, funded scientists and on United Nations reportsâŠthe mother of all assumptions
Maybe China, Russia and India are right and they can see through the con
November 5, 2021
abc.net.au âIs the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu growing, and not sinking, as Craig Kelly says?â, 18/12/2018.
November 2, 2021
COP26 is not being âunderminedâ by China and Russia.
It is being DRIVEN by China and Russia who are using the same Marxists who demanded unilateral nuclear disarmament in the last century to drive the UK to unilateral net zero in this century in order to destroy our industry and democracy and control the population through food and energy rationing.
Evidenced by the fact that the climate activists never have nothing to say about China and Russia.
Or in fact anything about Germany still building and using coal-fired power stations as well as spending 10 billion Euros on a new gas pipeline from Russia.
Or that in the US the big coal mining companies are experiencing a massive surge in demand as power companies restart coal-fired power plants due to high natural gas prices to prevent electricity shortages ahead of the winter season.
I can see another UKIP type movement coming down the line with calls for a referendum.
November 2, 2021
Original Richard above : Correction :
Evidenced by the fact that the climate activists never have ANYTHING to say about China and Russia.
November 2, 2021
don’t forget India or the Middle East Gulf states getting away scott free
November 2, 2021
+1
Along with viruses. This is similar to Thatcher/Reagans destruction of the USSR.
November 2, 2021
So we are to believe that a bunch of politicians can get together and control the worldâs climate. Indeed control it to within half a degree. Well, well well. The whole notion is laughably ludicrous. Not long ago such people would have been in danger of being sanctioned under the Mental Health Acts.
November 2, 2021
and how do they want to control the temp….by taxing the people and banning everything
November 2, 2021
BBC reporting yet another UK energy firm âBlueGreenâ going bust todayâŠwe canât have security and sustainability of supply using renewables and imported energy â I support the return to UK coal, UK gas and UK nuclear
November 2, 2021
Boris Johnson once said he wanted to be ‘king of the world’, but the only king he resembles is Canute. This man is so stupid he cannot see that cutting the UK’s microscopic CO2 emissions will have ZERO effect on changing the world’s climate. Look at the facts (and these can easily be checked online): man’s CO2 emissions account for LESS THAN 4% of global CO2 – 29 gigatons compared to 750 gigatons in the carbon cycle as a whole. So the UK accounts for less than 0.04% of global CO2. Put in terms that are easily understood, that’s just 4p in every ÂŁ100. That’s such a ridiculously small amount that it is literally insignificant. Why can’t Boris Canute Johnson see this? Because he has been tricked by the climate extremists and has become a convert, and we all know that ‘the zeal of the convert’ is the most fanatical of all.
Given the figure of 4%, it is doubful is *any* country’s emissions really matter, but if they do then China, the US, India, Russia, Japan and Germany, being the six main CO2 emitters (by far), are the countries that matter here, NOT the UK. So there are only three rational options for the UK:
1. We can conclude that man’s CO2 emissions are irrelevant and stop trying to effect the climate, but instead focus on adapting to the natural changes that are always taking place;
2. We can say that man’s activities *do* matter, but accept that until the ‘big six’ emitters cut their CO2 output there is absolutely no point whatsoever in us doing so (increasing our costs and damaging our quality of life in the procees); or
3. We can say that given that the ‘big six’ emitters are destroying the planet we will cease all diplomatic and trade relations with them until they desist from doing so.
Instead, Boris Canute Johnson will impose ever more scarifices on the British people. Other countries will take our money, take our jobs and laugh at our stupidity. No sane or rational person can support the present Conservative government which has declared war on its own population.
November 2, 2021
Some think our idiotic politicians pose the greatest threat. Difficult to disagree given the stupid decisions made since Jan 2020…
November 2, 2021
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/finland.aspx
It would be wonderful if the UK government copied the Finnish. They have expanded nuclear to 36% already and despite delays with their Hinkley type French reactor, have another Russian reactor with Siemens ancillaries which will be ready in 8 years and with electricity at 50 Euros/MWh- less than half than we will be paying.
We could have heated our buildings using resistance storage heaters like the French instead of heat pumps, expensive insulation powered off unreliable windmills in the sea paying rent to the Crown Estate.
November 2, 2021
The COP has agreed to âstop deforestationâ by âpaying farmersâ
What this actually means is that the logging companies who own some of the forest (not the farmers) normally strip the forest of logs and then sell that land to farmers. The Government own the forest and sell bits of forest, near to the farmers, to the loggers.
What will happen now is that the logging companies will be paid FOREVER not to cut down the forest. In return the logging companies will pay back handers to the south American government ministers. The cost of forest land will be a function of the price western governments will pay. Effectively the west is leasing the land off the loggers. The Government will then sell more land to the loggers to get bigger back handers.
In otherwords the UK is paying for corruption.
November 2, 2021
CO2 makes up 0.04% of the atmosphere.
Of that 0.04%, 97% is naturally-occurring. So we are talking about a man-made amount which is 3% of 0.04%, maximum.
3% of 0.04% is 0.0012%.
Anyone who thinks 0.0012% of a harmless trace gas is going to cause catastrophes is deluded.
November 2, 2021
“Of that 0.04%, 97% is naturally-occurring”. The highest naturally occurring rate over the last seven glacial cycles is 280 ppm (0.028%). The current glacial cycle started circa 12,000 years back. It was expected to top-out in the next 10,000 years at circa 280 ppm. It is currently 414 ppm. The NASA Ice Core CO2 data chart, must surely look abnormal, even to the omni-denialists that dominate this diary. https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
November 2, 2021
Its never been about the acceptance or denial of factual dataâŠ.its always been the interpretation, use and management of the data
November 2, 2021
The overall balance is between very large exchange flows between the atmosphere and the oceans, the biosphere, the land and volcanoes with relatively small contribution from anthropogenic sources. The oceanic balance is largely controlled by Henry’s Law, which means that the oceans absorb less CO2 when there is less in the atmosphere, and release more from warmer seas, absorbing in cooler ones. The greening of the planet is also an increasing absorber. We still lack adequate data to understand whether those processes in fact are the dominant determinant of atmospheric concentrations – that is, that changes in anthropogenic emissions may simply be offset to a significant degree by other processes. It was of note that lower emissions during lockdowns for the pandemic do not seem to have had any impact on the trends in atmospheric CO2 content, which lends support to the idea that reducing emissions may actually prove futile, just as atmospheric CO2 content has varied in the past, often with a demonstrable lag to changes in temperature.
November 2, 2021
Agree – it all needs more study
November 2, 2021
and anyone who thinks putting UK economy and lifestyle back over 100 years, while not even reducing our 1% contribution to the World problem is deranged.
November 2, 2021
Barbara – deluded is the least description that can be applied. Insane, springs to mind.
One of best summations of what is going on and being said was, I think, by Neil Oliver who the other day said ‘Until further notice and until persuaded otherwise, I shall continue to believe itâs NOT about what they say itâs about, and never has been.’
November 2, 2021
Spot On Barbara
November 2, 2021
The facts don’t matter to them Barbara. It is all about exercising absolute control over us.
November 2, 2021
@Barbara – Agreeing but being pedantic – The ‘man made’ but isn’t actually ‘man made, man has just found a way to release it from the places that it has been locked into. It can also be locked up again if needed.
I was reminded recently of the ‘Space Station’ environment, basically they get to breath the same air over and over. No one is shipping in fresh air. That then reminded me of my former life, in my job there was a need to be underwater, but there was also a need to ensure no air bubbles reached the surface to indicate my position. We recirculated the air through basically a CO2 scrubber – completely self contained. That’s exactly how the ‘Space Station’ and also Submarines create the right atmosphere for there occupants.
The conclusion is that this hype is just that hype, hype to create control by people that should never been anointed with power to control. If it was such a ‘real’ problem we have ways of locking it up – but then then vegetation disapears
November 2, 2021
Incredible that some people are still at this level of ignorance. Youâre obviously right in terms of concentration. But the atmosphere is essentially made of N2 (78.1%) and O2 (2o.9%) and these two gases have practically a zero effect on surface temperature. The rest, H2O, CO2, O3, CH4, CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs all have concentrations much smaller than N2 and O2, sometimes a billion times smaller than N2. And despite that, ozone hole, low-level pollution, greenhouse effect.
And H2O is the biggest greenhouse gas, and responsible for all evaporation/ condensation/ precipitation, all that with a concentration going from 0.2-0.3% over Antarctica to 3-4% in the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone).
If you want to look knowledgeable, you might want to study a bitty more. Try start looking at radiative impact of these trace gases.
Not that it matters much on this blog of atmospheric science âexpertsâ (like you) and @#ÂŁ&ÂŁ# trolls.
November 2, 2021
Another lecture from Professor Heffy.
Cut and pasted off the Internet.
November 3, 2021
Was this the start of a decent debate?
November 3, 2021
Yes it is.
Did I hit a little nerve?
Far better than your sarcastic personal pompous comments heffy.
November 5, 2021
Peter 2
Please stop advertising your ignorance.
November 3, 2021
Ozone in the ozone layer is only the order of a thousandth again of the CO2.
Without it all life on this planet would be in severe trouble.
Trace gases are crucial in their effects.
C02 has increased by about a half since pre-industrial times.
Your post is pseudo-technical tripe.
November 3, 2021
Still just 1.3 degrees rise since 1880
And since 2000 no real rise in line with the predictions of the UN climate models.
No wonder they cancelled global warming…remember that?
And moved onto the vague definition of climate change/crisis/emergency.
November 5, 2021
Already the first report in 1990 of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change was about CC not global warming?
And from observations, not models, global temperature has increased by 0.5C between 2000 and 2020 (climate.nasa.gov)
Do you not follow the news?
Only GWPF has been keeping GW in its title, for whatever reason, since its creation in 2009. It guess it must be to keep some âslow thinkersâ on board. What do you think, P2?
November 2, 2021
Transcript of part of Johnson’s COP26 speech
Boris Johnson: (03:37)
“And we can. We can get real on coal, cars, cash, and trees. We have the technology to deactivate that ticking doomsday device. Not all at once. Iâm afraid itâs too late for that. But one by one, and with ever greater speed and efficiency”
I think he needs to come clean to the electorate, just exactly what he means about deactivating cash.
November 2, 2021
Boris Johnson: (05:56)
“But we cannot and will not succeed by government spending alone. We in this room can deploy hundreds of billions. No question. But the market has hundreds of trillions. And the task now is to work together to help our friends to decarbonize, using our funds, the funds we have in development assistance, and working with all the multilateral development banks so that, in the key countries that need to make progress, we can jointly identify the projects that we can help to de-risk, so that the private sector money can come in, in just the same way that it was the private sector that enabled the UK to end our dependence on coal, become the Saudi Arabia of wind.”
Our funds? What funds are they? Does he mean the funds he will steal from others by creating the highest ever tax demand. Why, so he can feel good about himself when he gives other peoples money away to other countries, without so much as a by-your-leave? Perhaps he ought to put that to a referendum to see if the populace agree with this.
And his assumption the private sector would want to fund his “Saudi Arabia of wind”, when all it will mean for them is intermittent energy at an extortionate cost, possibly resulting in having to close their business they have built up.
The man needs certifying
November 2, 2021
Presumably deactivating trees entails burning them at Drax.
November 2, 2021
If Britain can be effective in leading by example then I want to see individuals leading by example too.
Not fake example but those who lecture others suffering as least (at least !) as hard as this is going to affect the poorest in our society.
November 2, 2021
The government has control over many things John that can make a difference. Why are we not hearing what has been achieved by the UK? Why do we not get positive improvement messages, it is getting so tiresome and draining to be constantly criticised for not doing enough when individually many of us do very little, the majority of us have insulation, the majority of us recycle and have cut down significantly on waste, the majority of us are energy efficient to cut down our own personal bills as much as possible.
For example, just a couple of thoughts relating to the preaching: how many government buildings, new hospitals, new or refurbished schools, are run by heat pumps or solar heating, have fields of trees and hedgerows planted now and have their water harvested and all plastic recycled? How many fully-funded governmental cars that were replaced in the last year are electric? How many mobility funded cars purchased in the last year are electric? Has there been a reduction in the models available to just the most economical? How many schools have uniform recycling points?
If people in the UK have got their bills down, recycling up, are fully insulated, just changed to electric cars just what does Boris want from them now? Less waffle more telling us the implications of what he has agreed to on our behalf now would be welcome.
November 2, 2021
sorry,
the majority of us do very little in relation to flying, travelling, wasting energy,
November 2, 2021
I really have had enough of the arrogant pomposity and hypocrisy of these political leaders.
They really are wasting taxpayers money on a futile endeavour that will do nothing to ‘save the planet’ or reduce the temperature increase to 1.5°C.
I will not be complying with any edicts or rules that these people give us until ALL of them walk the walk as well as talk the talk. They are leaders so should be leading from the front, instead they are hypocrites. Until they all drive electric cars or cycle or use public transport, all have solar panels on the rooves of their own houses, all have heat pumps installed, no longer fly everywhere and actually show they are serious by their own behaviours and live the same way they expect rest of us to do, only then will I listen. Until then I will do nothing to further their futile agenda.
November 2, 2021
According to BP World Energy Statistics 2021, China in 2020 accounts for 30.7% of global CO2 emissions, with a further 0.2% attributable to Hong Kong, which it has effectively annexed entirely – almost 31% overall. Its per capita emissions amount to 6.9tonnes, way ahead of the UK on 4.7tonnes/head, and the global average of 4.1 tonnes/head.
November 2, 2021
Thanks for âadvertisingâ this rather comprehensive report.
bp.com âStatistical Review of World Energy, 2021, 70th editionâ, 72 pp.
The carbon emissions appear page 15. Also interesting are all the following pages related to reserves, production, consumption, exports for coal, gas, oil, nuclear, hydro, wind and solar energy (plus lithium, cobalt, graphite and ârare earth metalsâ from p.68).
Tmalss, a âbibleâ for debunking claims made by some âdreamersâ about, for example, the potentialities of UK-produced coal in the energy mix.
November 2, 2021
It seems the parasitic BBC think that criticising the EU is now a ‘hate crime’. Who the hell does this vile organisation think it is? Who the hell are they tell us what is hate and what isn’t? I’m sick of these taxpayer funded leeches taking our cash and then using it to expand their powers to target our freedoms
Hate Crime is now the political enemy of open and free civil debate though of course that is its sole purpose.
We are slowly tipping into very dangerous territory and this journey appears to be one way without deviation. I for one worry why libertarian MPs are not standing up and speaking out against this vileness
November 2, 2021
DOM, +1,
They are neutered and spineless, therefore useless and valueless.
November 3, 2021
Please state exactly where we can find this alleged assertion by the BBC, thanks.
November 2, 2021
Ah John by this time you must know that there are large numbers think differently
November 3, 2021
Hi John,
Reading the above comments on this piece.
See the mess the Conservatives are in when the party keeps supporting the ” tax payers money ” myth ?
The myth is long past its sell by date John. This is not going to end well.
Surely you can see that ?
If you don’t tell them The truth. They will leave the Conservatives on masse. Brexit will be reversed by the liberal, sorry Labour party.
It’s a damaging as the “national debt ” myth. That you’ve tried to explain many times.
November 3, 2021
It is high time that we stopped this grandstanding and “one minute to midnight” rhetoric. I have found the whole COP26 conference, its massive carbon footprint and the hypocrites that have contributed to it totally nauseating. The exports from countries that burn raw coal, which produces double the CO2 per unit of energy that gas does, and which use CFCs in their production processes, should have additional tariffs imposed on them. Application would in principle be simple: compute the annual cost of converting coal fired power stations to clean coal and replacing CFCs with something that doesn’t destroy the ozone layer, divide that cost by the annual value of the country’s exports and there is your additional tariff.
This would involve a change in WTO rules and it might get vetoed but the vetoing nations would have to put their hypocritical heads above the parapet. I think that we could put a lot of pressure on Biden to do the right thing.
And let us propose a deal with India: give up your nukes and we will provide technical and financial assistance for more solar power and for wind power along the whole east coast of India and right into the bay of Bengal. I’ve worked in both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and their monsoon type climate implies a lot of wind for 4 months in every year.
Since the UK left the EU, it has theoretically regained much sovereignty but we appear to be afraid to use it. Perhaps the exercise of sovereignty would cost a lot of money and we would have to cut back a lot on welfare. The OBR estimate of our 2021/22 borrowing requirement is ÂŁ173 BILLION, some 8.5% of GDP. If GDP growth is the usual 2%, that places 6.5% of GDP in the inflationary pipeline. The choices before the UK are so difficult that we cannot afford a spendthrift PM and cabinet.
November 3, 2021
The Aid policy is politically a lead balloon territory , so what do our political geniuses come up with ? A climate change policy along the same lines. Brilliant !
November 3, 2021
Let THEM eat crickets