Dear Kwasi
I see you wish to help the PM apply pressure to Russia as Putin prosecutes an illegal and murderous war against Ukraine.
There isĀ a major way in which you can make a difference. The PM’s wish to see stiffer sanctions has been impeded by Germany and Italy owing to their dependence on Russian gas. A single western country cannot bring much pressure to bear without all other countries undertaking the same measure so it is watertight.Ā The UK needs to help ease the energy squeeze in Europe.
You should invite inĀ the leading oil and gas investors and licence holders in the UK industry and work with them to increase the output of UK oil and gas. This should be a series of immediate short term measures to maximise output from existing fields in production, and work to move through exploration to production investment and licences for new fields and field expansions. Over the next couple of years the UK could achieve a substantial increase in output which can replace UK imports at the moment or could be exported to help displace Russian gas in the EU.
Burning our own North Sea gas rather than imported LNG more than halves the amount of CO 2 generated, gives us a big increase in domestic tax revenues from the existing higher corporation tax rate applied to oil and gas production and helps ease the squeeze on European energy markets. In due course nuclear and renewables will provide more of our energy, but only once these plants are built and once many more people have switched from gas to electricity to power factories and heat homes. You need a plan for this decade which remains the decade of gas in the UK and Europe. That plan must cut reliance on Russian gas and oil.
Yours
John
February 27, 2022
Good Morning,
Can it really be necessary to write such a letter? The fact that you have written it suggests the business secretary doesn’t know his business, or you do not know what the energy policy is today. A statement to the House by the Minister seems necessary to clarify how our energy policy is going to provide self-sufficiency, in short and long term.
February 27, 2022
None of this will happen because all the ministries are chanting is Net Zero
The fact that it is more beneficial to produce our own fuels doesn’t count.
Exporting jobs to give the warm glow of carbon reduction is the way with this government.
February 27, 2022
Indeed
Whilst it is a correct solution JR, it is far, far too simple to get any traction, politicians love complication.
It seems to me that many politicians (I exclude our host) wanting a boiled egg for breakfast, would go out and purchase a live chicken, purchase a hen house and food (on borrowed money) wait for it to lay an egg, rather than go to their own kitchen cupboard.
February 27, 2022
Oh it is far worse than that Alan,
Johnson and co squandered Ā£400 billion on pointless covid schemes enriching a few while economically and culturally destroying the many. Putin would have looked on with sheer amazement.
The West year after year trying to out woke each other showing how ridiculously weak and pathetic they are, self-harming its wealth by its energy policy, welcoming millions at severe cost, running away from Afghanistan then Truss sending the Taliban hundreds of millions in aid , who were our enemy months earlier!! What did Putin make of that? Utter weakness through self-harm.
Look at Cameron, May and Johnson showing how weak they are with the EU, they just gave up N.Ireland without a cross word let alone a shot. Still giving the EU billions without anything in return!
Democracy, our values and way of life can only be maintained by force if we have had to. Cameron was happy to destroy perfectly good planes and hide it behind screens! Give away perfectly good harrier jump jets! What was the Tory govt response to two poisonings on our soil? Nothing of substance. Still Wallace has introduced woke language, and gender quotas that should undoubtedly fill Putin with fear.
Perhaps importing 86% of our coal from Putin when we have 300 years of supply gave him a clue how stupid and pathetic our govt is. He is right.
Putin even gave the UK a clue how weak he thought our country was by saying how we are now engaged in crimes against humanity by allowing teachers to tell 4 year olds a girl can be a boy!
February 27, 2022
We can’t even claim the moral high ground over the use of Novichok.
The West’s preferred method of assassination is by Paveway missiles in ‘surgical’ strikes which take out the target’s whole family with him.
Had it not been for a couple of bin raders the Salisbury poisoning could have been classed as truly surgical by comparison to .
February 27, 2022
Then after waiting 3 months for it to lay, find our its a cockerel.
February 27, 2022
@IW
Yep.
We are ruled by Queen Greta and Princess Nut Nut.
We really, really need an alternative at the ballot box.
February 27, 2022
+1
February 27, 2022
Reform
February 27, 2022
+1
February 27, 2022
+1 to both Peter and Ian. It is absolutely obvious to most people of sound mind that the UK needs energy security, food security etc so that we are not dependent on our enemies who will hold ransom. China through its road and belt policy has been doing exactly this for years, ie strangling other countries economically to get their way. The EU has ratcheted interdependence so that nations cannot leave.
We are currently witness our spineless PM and cabinet to allow EU to not let our country go. We read yesterday that every proposal to free ourselves from the EU is being stopped at every turn by Johnson! Get rid of the N.Ireland protocol. It is trap to force UK in the EU orbit and to annex N.Ireland, far more important than Ukraine!
We had a half-wit female minister telling us today the British people are willing to pay more to help the Ukraine despite hardship through cost of living at home! She has lost the plot and is not speaking for me or anyone I know.
She might realise it is her and her PM that has caused this self-inflicted economic harm to the British people. She should be apologising for incompetence and neglect that has got us to this position. It was her policy choices to impoverish the British people through lack of independent energy security. Why buy 86% of coal from Russia when we have hundreds of years of supply in our country. Is she completely stupid? No one I know understands her govt policy on coal.
So Peter is right, either JR fails to understand his party and govt policy or the Oxbridge minister is enacting a rogue policy!
February 27, 2022
Kwasi is a Cambridge history graduate, despite perhaps being one of the brighter MPs he clearly knows almost nothing about energy engineering, physics, energy economics or similar and he frequently demonstrates this. But then this is true of nearly all MPs (and indeed several energy editors and writers on āqualityā national newspapers or TV). A favourite being to confuse Mega Watts for a measure of energy as in āthe battery system can store 15 MWattsā or āthis system can deliver up to 30 MWatts per second!ā or confusing āpositive feed backā in the climate/engineering sense with being a positive thing.
February 27, 2022
LL, the minister perfectly understands his party and govt policy and does not need to know the minutea of engineering to grasp the nettle. The story party and govt also knows it is deliberately impoverishing the British people by the policy choices it is enacting.
Margaret Thatcher made it clear in the eighties there would be diversification of energy supply – oil, gas, coal, nuclear- so miners would not have a strangle hold on the nation, we know because we suffered black outs. Having done so I do not want to suffer it again because Johnsonās latest squeeze has a nifty green idea and has not experienced black outs, loss of business, loss of homes through acts of self harm. If this party and govt has not learnt it lessons from the past it deserves not to be in government.
I blame those who voted Tory. 12 years of failed policy and lies on economy, taxation, immigration, Brexit, law and order, failed welfare reform, failed public services despite huge tax rises, failed parliamentary reform, etc. So when you repeatedly scare people to vote for the Tories I sometimes question your judgement despite engineering qualifications.
February 27, 2022
Commonsense would cover it LL.
February 27, 2022
Indeed it is a no brainer. The question is whether the Sec of State and the officials who advise him actually have a brain when it comes to energy policy. It is not so much energy policy as energy dogma.
February 27, 2022
Just came across this great quote: As the novelist Upton Sinclair wrote, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” This sums up those in charge of the UK’s perverse energy policy.
February 27, 2022
Wise Words
February 27, 2022
Indeed and this is the driver behind so much of the huge and largely unproductive/negatively productive state sector and the endless reams of new red tape, ever more complex taxation, health and safety… & abject failure to ever deregulate. These people are, after all mainly in the parasitic regulation, licensing, inconveniencing, taxing and control of the worker ants industries.
February 28, 2022
I agree with our host that building the UKās energy independence is an important objective in its own right, but also contributes to reducing Europeās overall dependency on Russian gas
February 27, 2022
Exactly but Doubtless Kwasi will reply with some drivel about being the UK becoming the āSaudi Arabia of Windā. Listen to the misguided drivel he comes out with on the Spectator Podcast on this topic a while back.
Any comment on the drivel contained in Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Mais Lecture 2022. The man is a deluded tax to death, borrow, regulate and piss down the drain socialist pretending to be an economic Thatcherite – no one is fooled Richi. In this he is copying Cameron who claimed to be āat heart a low tax Conservativeā but always the complete opposite in practice.
Sunak says he wants āto encourage greater levels of capital investment by our businessesā simple Rishi undo all your vast tax increases, deregulate, abandon net zero, go for cheap energy & stop all the vast government waste and crony capitalism. Just make the UK an attractive place to invest for sensible investors – it is quite simple Rishi. It would be more attractive if the threat of Labour/SNP in 2024 were eliminated or at least diminished but alas Sunak/Boris/Carrie policies are augmenting this by the day.
February 27, 2022
Sunakās first (of his many) tax grabs was to slash entrepreneurās CGT relief by 90% to just 10% of what it was when he took office, even before Covid. This measure must have done wonders to encourage āgreater levels of private investmentā Rishi. Now if they sell one business they have far less to reinvest in the next and know that even if it goes well the government will grab most of it in CGT/CT/NI and IHT – largely waste this.
It showed to all, very clearly at the outset just what an anti-business Chancellor Mr Sunak was. A tax relief put in place by Gordon Brown in 2008, one of very few sensible things he ever did. He too claimed to like Adam Smith but clearly both Sunak and Brown have not, even remotely, understand his message.
February 27, 2022
Yes the worst part is the pretence and lies from this government. We’ve actually been ahead of Germany and France on supplying weapons to Ukraine and cutting off Swift. Why not stop the lies and deception on green, taxes and economic policy?
February 27, 2022
Sir Jo,
Do we make the weapons here we are supplying to Ukraine? My guess is that we have no weapons that are ours and control over.
Another example of governments abandoning our security.
February 27, 2022
LL,
And yet you still encourage and scare people to vote for these foolsā¦ despite the Tories having a worse economic record on debt, deficit and taxation than Labour!! I thought you understand and professed your knowledge on mathematics and science!!
February 27, 2022
Judgemental drivel. Thatās rich(ie) coming from an expert. Whatās simple is spouting this guff from an armchair with zero responsibility.
February 27, 2022
Judgemental indeed, but clearly correct or do you disagree on anything specific.
What is wrong with good judgment or being sensibly discriminating between good and bad, truth and lies, what works and what does notā¦?
February 27, 2022
I agree with you LL, but reflect on your support for this party who has consistently failed to deliver on any of its key policy issues over 12 years and has repeatedly lied and promised the exact opposite when getting elected. How many times do you have to be fooled before you realise your vote is wasted on them?
February 27, 2022
The only realistic alternative is Labour/SNP.
February 27, 2022
Reply to Lifelogic – there are other realistic alternatives if your defeatist attitude is not adopted.
February 27, 2022
Correct ā we need more common sense and fewer woke experts in governmentā¦and thatās just my amateur armchair opinion
February 27, 2022
LL,
It is only realistic in your mind if you do not have the courage of your convictions. The EU referendum, EU elections proved you must act on your convictions otherwise the Tory party would have us firmly rooted in the EU. At present Johnson is preventing any change from EU vassalage as he called it!
Brown was sound on taxation, borrowing, debt and deficit as chancellor compared to Osborne, Hammond, Javid and Sunak ! Whoever would or could think that!
February 27, 2022
Kwarteng take note and get on with it
February 27, 2022
Kwarteng in a Spectator Podcast special: Can Britain really become āthe Saudi Arabia of wind powerā? Just 14 months back:- We have not seen an increase in energy wholesale pricesā¦ broadly the energy consumer is in a much better place today in Dec 2020 than 10 years agoā¦ How things change Kwasi! Get fracking now please rather late but better late than never!
Kwasi even seems to think consumers will benefit from the āclimate benefitsā of the governments mad net zero policies – being a tiny bit colder in 100 years I assume perhaps 0.000001 Centigrade less.
Sure, so how will this work when UK manmade CO2 is so trivial in world terms anyway and with China, India, Putinā¦? – time to grow up a bit mate.
Michael Crick taking on Talk radio about his interesting book:- āOne Party After Another: The Disruptive Life of Nigel Farageā mentioned the push for a referendum on net zero, Crick thought the climate realists would lose such a referendum and the public would actually vote for huge intermittent energy bills, extra tax bills for subsidies and bills for very expensive heat pumps and EVs too – seems rather unlikely to me, voters are not quite as daft as MPs as we saw with Brexit. Think again Crick.
February 27, 2022
LL, you would have noticed the lying govt ministers are always eager to say what we think and need when they are so remote from reality. They think it will convince us to vote for them under group think. Sadly some fall their scare stories of other parties and advocate not voting for them.
The Conservative party of the past is gone. Fact. The current is only similar to the past in that it kept its name and blue rosette.
February 27, 2022
Sounds like a good plan to me, I’ll be interested to see his response.
February 27, 2022
Agreed. I wait with impatient interest.
February 27, 2022
Game, set and match to JR!!
How can the Business Sec say āNoā?
Masterly.
February 27, 2022
He does not have to, the Climate Change Act does it for him.
Before we can do anything, we need to get rid of the aforementioned millstone our political class have placed around our necks. Notice SJR never ever demands that this prohibitive piece of legislation is removed from the statute book.
Reply That piece of law is strongly supported by more than 500 MPs.
February 27, 2022
To reply:- showing just how moronic and scientifically illiterate most āvirtue signallingā MPs are. Then we have the deluded food Theresa May committing us to net zero UK carbon emissions by 2050 and this without even a formal vote in parliament just nodded through. It must have had Putin roaring with laughter. Well done MPs!
February 27, 2022
The British public also committed us to net zero by 2050 when they voted for it at the 2019 general election. It was there on the first page of the manifesto – in big letters so even stupid people could read it.
Reply By 2050. No sign in to damaging policies now which may not even cut world CO 2 . A referendum on net zero allowing the case to be made and plans set out would be a good idea
February 27, 2022
Andy.
Times have changed just incase you hadn’t noticed.
The EU needs to get off its addiction to Russian gas and sharpish. Do the green stuff at a more realistic pace.
We can help them to do it.
Few of us here are actually against the Green stuff and are full participants in it… it is simply the pace (and our unilateralism) that concerns us.
February 27, 2022
Reply to Reply.
Agreed +++
February 27, 2022
Rubbish they had no choice just labour/SNP or Conservative.
February 27, 2022
No sensible country would commit itself irrevocably to a policy goal 31 years in advance. There must always be room to allow for the unexpected, including wars and economic crises, as we are seeing now. Countries which prosper are those which are flexible in their response to unforeseen events. As are people, I would say.
February 27, 2022
Agree with you Andy, we need to abandon the 2035 target for phasing out gas boilers and petrol cars and re-set to 2050 to comply with the democratic mandate. I donāt often agree with you but I do on this.
February 27, 2022
You do not have to get rid of your existing petrol car in 2030. You just canāt buy a new one after this point.
Personally I think there should be a rolling scrappage scheme therefore. Pre-1980s cars banned in 2030. Pre-1990ās cars banned in 2035. Pre-2000 cars banned in 2040. Pre-2010 cars banned in 2045. All remaining petrol and diesel banned in 2050.
Announce it now everybody is quite clear where they stand. And it wonāt affect you septuagenarians anyway. Except you wonāt be able to find a petrol station after 2040 anyway.
February 27, 2022
Reply to Andy on us not having to scrap our ICE cars by 2030
No.
But we are going to be taxed and restricted so punitively that we will have to. That policy is already well underway.
The way the EU has behaved we’re probably not going to live that long.
February 27, 2022
Mark,
JRās reply is correct, moreover his reply totally negates the content and purpose of his letter to the business secretary!! He also knows by his reply to you that his party has marched left, isolating him and a few other oldies from the past to help the party keep its deceptive mask of being conservative.
A truly useless left wing party that has not achieved any key policy over 12 years. All the triumphs heralded about their blue/green agenda should be given to the Labour Party who are responsible for it. Cameron, May and Johnson only built on it!! Why not have a conservative energy policy to help business, manufacturing and the British people!
February 27, 2022
Reply to reply
Because none of those 500 MP’s will struggle to pay their energy bills. So it begs the questions, whose interests are being served, when they know millions of constituents will struggle?
February 27, 2022
Bush. Will struggle? ARE struggling now. It’s not just energy prices that are being affected but all consumer products and in particular food prices that are also rising. There was a time when if an item became more expensive it’s increase was a couple of pence. Now some items are increasing by 20p. I dread my food bill and my energy bill and don’t get me started on fuel prices . All MP’S that support this bill are total ignorant morons. I never thought I’d see the day when parliament would so obviously be against its own people
February 27, 2022
Ed Milibandās Climate Change Act (PPE Oxon. yet again).
All passed by MPs without this vastly expensive and hugely harmful bill even having ever being costed!
February 27, 2022
Lifelogic,
Nine replies, but only one with your signature reference to a personās degree subject and university attended.
Rather light on the term āgreencrapā too.
February 28, 2022
LL wrote
“(PPE Oxon. yet again)”
Professor Bogdanor’s PPE course has done more damage to the British economy that the board of British Leyland and Red Robbo combined.
JF
February 27, 2022
To reply. If 500 MPs support it that is surely virtual proof it is profoundly wrong – rather like the ERM/Euro/Minimum Wage/most OTT regulations, Blairās appalling & idiotic wars, the Millennium Dome, tax increasesā¦
February 27, 2022
LL, But you keep advocating to vote for them, scaring people Labour would be worse when you know, from your reply above, they are enacting Labour policies!! Have some courage and vote for an alternative. You never know you might persuade others to follow you.
February 27, 2022
Labour/SNP would be even worse than this current socialist government and they would steal landlords assets off them with rent controls thus destroying the private rental sector for landlord and tenants – as Ed Miliband promised on his absurd tomb stone. They would probably lose Scotland too.
February 27, 2022
Reply to reply
So 500 MPs can with their principles ensure that this country will slowly implode because without reliable secure energy supplies this country will experience a slow demise with death by a thousand cuts? It just about sums up the state of our political classes.
February 27, 2022
+many
I take your point.
But JR is calling out their wokery.
Their rabid anti-Russian stance comes up against their potty desire to cut carbon.
The NORMAL thing would be to become self sufficient and screw your enemyās trade.
But what is their true agenda? Do they understand that they are pursuing population reduction? (War and impoverishment) or are they merely useful idiots?
I donāt think that Ukrainians are very wokeā¦quite the reverse!!!
And thereās another conundrum for the woke MPs!!
February 27, 2022
Well indeed, we’re all Ukranian now? Or are we all peaceniks who don’t offend people by shouting at them never mind picking up a weapon?
February 27, 2022
+1
February 27, 2022
All Ukrainian now? But we weren’t for the last eight years, were we, Joe? When civilians in East Ukraine from 2014 onwards were being regularly shelled by their own government’s troops, hundreds killed, power and water supplies cut off. Those people’s lives were made hell by their country’s politicians, but I don’t recall the outcry in ‘our’ media. Double standards as usual.
February 27, 2022
Rreply to reply: What do the public think? Have they ever asked before the 500 decided or do they just follow the official line like sheep? I think we know the answer to that. We need to boot them out if ever the public are asked about this and are shown the costs and non benefit of this absurdity.
February 27, 2022
The public were asked at the 2019 general election. And most of you now moaning about net zero by 2050 voted for it. Seeing it was in the Conservative manifesto.
February 27, 2022
And it’s now 2030.
February 27, 2022
Net zero brought forward to 2030 is what we’re moaning about, Andy !
February 27, 2022
The disquiet is not particularly with nett zero, it is all the bizaare and ill conceived solutions for achieving it.
February 27, 2022
It hasnāt been brought forward to 2030. Your existing petrol cars and gas boilers are not being banned. You just canāt buy new ones.
You lot really are a bunch of drama queens arenāt you?
February 27, 2022
Andy
Cars and gas is being taxed punitively already. Restrictions on movement by ICE cars are becoming greater and greater. One dreads to think what it will be like in 2030.
February 28, 2022
They are being banned in 2030 young Andy.
In 2030 we are being banned from being able to buy any new petrol or diesel vehicles and gas boilers.
Banned.
February 27, 2022
āReply That piece of law is strongly supported by more than 500 MPs.ā
That is the real problem.
Ukraine should not need to be invoked as a way of skirting this law or mitigating its effect.
February 27, 2022
Reply to reply
But there are 60 million of us who will pay the price for this, and we were never consulted about it, voted on it or anything. Ergo, you have no mandate whether it be 500 or 500,000.
February 27, 2022
No mandate was ever given to expand the EU into former USSR territory. It was not mentioned at all in the 1975 vote – the only meaningful public vote to precede the 2016 one.
February 27, 2022
Reply to reply
Further evidence that this is the worst government and House of Commons in my lifetime.
February 27, 2022
Nearly the whole political class were in favour of the EU but the public saw differently and had to drag them into changing that destructive policy. Just like their beloved EU it will take the public to to drag them into seeing sense on their Net Zero zealotry, and well as their unstainable mass immigration and asylum policies
It does beg questions about our political class , what makes them latch onto highly destructive international treatise and would rather watch our country’s democracy be destroyed, EU. Impoverish our country, net Zero. Or see our our culture and people be swept aside, mass immigration, than do what is right by us? There is something very wrong with them where when they get to Westminster they become the representatives of globalism , not our representatives.
February 27, 2022
Reply to reply.
Those 500 MP’s should ask themselves if they are acting in the interests of their constituents or the country. I certainly do not think they are! And that includes my own MP.
February 27, 2022
right to reply – ”strongly supported by more than 500 MPs” but not by the people
February 27, 2022
Indeed rather like the EU.
February 27, 2022
Is it still the case that MPs support it to that extent? It is remarkable to observe the volte face by the German government when faced with reality.
February 27, 2022
Good morning.
If you want to hurt Russia tell all the Gulf States, plus Nigeria and the USA to dump oil and gas on the world market. Russia is highly dependent on this revenue. Plus. Stop buying Russian coal and dig our own.
Simple.
February 27, 2022
And get fracking!
February 27, 2022
Yes ! And get fracking !!
February 27, 2022
+1
February 27, 2022
L/L. Yes, and get fracking.
February 27, 2022
Please get fracking
February 27, 2022
+many
Exactly. Yes!!
That is what the letter implies.
Except I donāt think JR ever mentions coalā¦a bridge too far? Whereas gas has now been pronounced āgreenā by the soon to freeze EU š
But yes!! Open every coal mine ever closed ( and from what I have āresearchedā there was some jiggery pokery around the closures).
Give men back their and eventually we may again have a real army
February 27, 2022
Do you really want to hurt Russia ? Do you want chaotic regime change in a nuclear power which already has missiles aimed at us ? A civil war perhaps, like all the other countries we have messed with ?
You do realise that we would be carpet bombed with nukes in the UK. We are a main Russian target.
Nato might win but the gallantry medals for us will be posthumous.
February 27, 2022
Who’s actually going to dig, Mark?
Thanks to Thatcher we haven’t got many miners left.
Not so simple, I’m afraid.
February 27, 2022
It is not a chicken and egg question. We had to create miners before and can do so again. In fact, I believe we have just opened a new one up.
As for Mrs.T and the coal mines, she was not the first, or the last, to see coal mines closed. I think the biggest closures came under the tenure of Harold Wilson in the 1960’s.
If our kind host allows as I am keen to dispel the myth (nay lie) that Mrs. Thatcher destroyed the coal industry when it was really Labour.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/employment-in-the-coal-industry-in-the-united-kingdom
February 27, 2022
Ps. Why the hell havenāt you acted already
February 27, 2022
And in other news Andy and his mates who shamefully tried to blame Brexit for Putins attack should read a well informed (unlikeAndy) piece in the DT how Schulz gave the green light to Putin supported by an all pervasive pro Russian view amongst the German elites including Merkel and Schroeder.
Only a month ago the Inspector General of the German navy said Putin would never attack. He has since resigned.
Time for you Andy to do the same. You have zero credibility on the topic.
February 27, 2022
Nig 1
It is up to you which Trolls you read but that particular nasty I avoid. I just wish others would too but . . . .
February 27, 2022
Andy will also see how we were ahead of the EU on sanctions, supply of weapons and SWIFT. He’ll see how the EU followed us, not vice versa.
February 27, 2022
You seem to be mistaken, Nig 1. According to Deutsche Welle the German Admiral said “the Crimea Peninsula is gone: It will never come back” and Putin “probably” deserved respect. The Youtube video of his statement at the meeting in India he attended confirms this. He did not say Russia would never invade.
February 27, 2022
What has brought us to the brink of WW3 is the EU and Nato creeping up to the Russian border – that was what also brought Andy his Brexit. Either end of the EU map in tatters.
Britain is inconsequential (so he says) we can’t possibly have caused Russia to invade Ukraine. We can’t possibly *lead* by example on Net Zero either. We are irrelevant according to him.
I now know what a diagnosis with a terminal illness feels like. I just cannot see how the present situation is going to end without everything being blown up. It feels like it’s only a matter of time now.
February 27, 2022
Youāve heard of abusive partners, we have an abusive Parliamentā¦ā we will make you poor, cold and you will be under our control, but itās for your own good, for the good of saving the world!ā
February 27, 2022
No. We have an abusive government. Parliament itself is a nonsense when a government has a big majority and can do what it likes. Like the majority of voters in this country I do not vote for this government. You do vote for it. This is odd because you hate what it does.
February 27, 2022
Our reactions to government decisions are selective and based on the Conservative views most of us have retained. We are questioning of the curious approach to mathmatical fact and your interpretation of public opinion. While I admire your welcoming of Ukrainian refugees I am fearfull for your oft expressed attitude to anyone of retirement age.
February 27, 2022
You weren’t moaning when the Labour govt you voted for sold the gold crashed the economy put through 3 eu treaties without referenda, stoked up Scottish separatism etc. On a lower vote than this govt has. So stop moaning now.
February 27, 2022
+10
February 28, 2022
We have a government you didn’t vote for young andy.
How do you think I felt in the dreadful Blair years?
February 27, 2022
You expect this government to put the UK and it’s citizens first? Can a leopard change it’s spots? Boris gives priority to every country and every non-UK citizen. We are just the cash cows to fund his largesse to illegal immigrants, his EU appeasement and his net zero idiocy. Everything Boris does seem to damage the UK even further but I am sure his ‘international’ halo is shining brightly.
It is very disheartening that more than 500 MP’s also support this destruction of the UK by forcing us into ineffective but expensive renewables and paying other countries through the nose for the very necessary fossil fuels we need due to the unreliability of renewables.
February 27, 2022
It is the Tory Govt. plan to move industry and manufacturing east! Wealth and job transfer from the west.
Did our govt. not notice China, Russia and India ignoring virtual signalling on energy? This did not happen overnight, Tories have been in power 12 long years. They were in govt during miner strike black outs and it was their policy to diversify to stop this ever happening!! Why is ofgem allowing energy companies to double standing charge rates in addition to price increase for energy? Is it not National Gridās role to distribute power? What is their role and purpose, same for ofgem.
February 27, 2022
**
Give men back their JOBS and eventually we may again have a real army.
February 27, 2022
I think Russia and China might have noticed minister Wallace imposing woke into armed services. Having female targets, wow that is going to scare them in hand to hand combat.
February 27, 2022
To whom is your request addressed?
Government?
Do you want men to be employed by the public sector then?
February 27, 2022
Well I hope that you get somewhere with this. But Johnson shows an unnatural attachment to lunatic policies, whether related to ‘Climate Change’, Defence, Northern Ireland, bridges, etc. The Daily Mail suggests that his non-performance is going to result in a Labour Commons majority, most the Red Wall going back to Labout and half of the Cabinet losing their seats. You might kid yourselves that you have time to sort out the mess, but the Conservative Party will find the next election coming at it with a ‘ground-rush’. Please, use your majority to deliver Conservatism.
February 27, 2022
Crippling climate change levies are causing the British steel industry to cut production. Ministers are refusing to act.
And in the meantime producers from other countries that value their industry and citizens jobs are benefitting.
Yet again we are being hammered whilst having little effect in global terms. Wealthy Ministers protected from the effects their policies are having on the vast majority of people. Let them eat cake. And we know what happened next.
I wish.
February 27, 2022
Nig1. Time for the guillotine?
February 27, 2022
I received a letter from my gas supplier (british gas) yesterday informing me that from the 1st April my bills will increase by an average of 54%, standing charge is also increasing, VAT and government levies is included in this estimateā¦..bring on a real Conservative government
February 27, 2022
Interesting isnāt about standing charge hike. National Gridās role is what exactly? Why hasnāt ofgem intervened. It is almost as if the govt want to force energy poverty onto us no matter what. Same for petrol and diesel. Govt could reduce its share of fuel duty to keep rices low if it wanted.
February 27, 2022
It needs the money to pay for its costly mistakes during the SCAMdemic and the FREE (sic) holiday / lunch many received.
Yes I remember my nextdoor neighbours standing on their doorsteps clapping their hands like the good performing seals they were why I stayed in and ignored the silly spectacle they were making of themselves. Now they are worrying about fuel prices and the like and where the money is going to come from.
Should have thought of that BEFORE !!
February 27, 2022
I stayed in as well. As for those poor health care workers for elderly little did they know Johnson and Javid were going to sack them! But the minister Handcock allowed/ordered elderly infected people from hospital to care homes resulting in large numbers of deaths! Nothing happened to him or partying Johnson!
Where are our press?
February 27, 2022
Bills go up and government gets bigger tax revenue
February 27, 2022
It can only be assumed, glen, that the suppliers are expecting lower usage of energy and are protecting their profits by increasing the standing charge
February 28, 2022
Nope – its all due to greed and poor government planning
February 27, 2022
You imply that politicians should be executed for the burden that taxation places on business.
What should be the penalty, for a policy which collapses them completely, by robbing them of unhindered, rapid access to what was in many cases their main market, such as brexit, then?
February 27, 2022
This really should be a no brainer but Eco fanatics aren’t known for using their grey matter and unfortunately, we appear to be governed by Eco fanatics whose priority is to make us poorer, colder, with a lower standard of living so they can virtue-signal to the world.
Still, if Putin invading Ukraine gives this Government the massive kick up the arris it so badly needs so it stands up to the Eco Extremists, it would at least give the very dark clouds a silver lining.
February 27, 2022
When Eco Fanatics occupied a Russian oil rig some time ago, President Putin sent in the Special Forces to retake it and arrest them. After a few weeks in a Russian jail they were released and there have been no further reported incidences. Whereas here, when Eco Fanatics lay in from=nt of a road and stop people going about their business, our police offer them cups of tea and tell them to just ask if they need anything.
No wonder President Putin thinks we are pathetic and can do what he likes.
February 27, 2022
Germany, Italy and Austria are conveniently silent. Their dependency is the EU’s weakness
February 27, 2022
No, they are not silent.
However, Hungary’s PM is, very much so.
February 27, 2022
I like what you did there š
February 27, 2022
Why not write to Boris?
That would seem disloyal and you dare not do anything like that.
Kwasi daren’t oppose Boris so it’s all rather weak. You know Boris refused to answer three questions about this in the HoC the other day.
We need more action than this.
February 27, 2022
Well played – an interesting strategy.
I fear though that this very good suggestion will be ignored for the great God of net-zero will demand we retain the sacrifice of keeping our potential energy ‘in the ground’.
It seems Russia doesn’t tremble any more at the suggestion of sanctions, having lived with them for so long — we could always roll over and play dead, pretend none of this ‘war’ is happening – it wouldn’t be the first time.
February 27, 2022
Yes! Business Secretary Kwarteng has not acted to help us but he just might now to help Ukraine. We can but hope.
February 27, 2022
The Plagueās Lament
Abandoned like a cast-off toy,
Yet I did nothing to annoy.
I served loyally and well,
My great success you all can tell.
But now you play another game,
You call it warā¦yet itās the sameā¦
A replica of what I brought,
More death and mayhem to be wrought.
And I sit here aloneā¦.
February 27, 2022
Dear Kwasi,
While I agree with the thoughts expressed by SJR I would emphasise that whatever plan evolves for the future energy plans for the UK, they must be acceptable to the market ie the people. What has emerged in the recent past is totally impractical, giving the impression it was produced on the back of an envelope or pillow. Added to which it has no mandate. Talk to industry and science, and encourage them to produce marketable solutions. Cleaning up the environment could produce marketable and exportable industrial product. This makes more sense to me than forcing very expensive and totally impractical solutions like heat pumps on the population. There is much I admire about your boss Boris, but in some areas he comes over as a looky looky man on the beach flogging ten euro Rolexes.
February 27, 2022
Too much common sense for government, especially Boris with his clear submission to the globalist’s plans for us.
February 27, 2022
The Ukraine crisis is going to help the net zero agenda enormously. It will be spun to encourage yet more subsidy to be paid to renewables, beyond the Ā£11 billion we’re paying this year alone. All under the guise of reducing our dependence on fossils fuels, in a world where we can be sure oil and gas will never be as affordable as before. Ukraine is a useful war from the eco-loons’ point of view.
February 27, 2022
I am already hearing such things on other ‘Channels’. Apparently we are all going to have to accept that we are going to be poorer etc.
I keep telling people that in order to ‘Level Up !’ they will need to bring everyone (Middle and Working Classes) down to the lowest common denominator – Poverty !
February 27, 2022
That’s right, Mark. And it obviously won’t be down to the economic damage of lockdowns, oh no, and certainly not, of course, due to the save-the-climate restrictions that are on their way.
February 27, 2022
It will be all President Putin’s fault. Nor our government which negotiated a deal with the EU which means we cannot cut our taxes like VAT on fuel. Or frack for gas because they have made it illegal due to the absurd Climate Change Act, oh no !
February 27, 2022
A await the outcome with interest. Thank you.
February 27, 2022
john
You don’t need to, I can tell you now. It will be a fob-off letter telling him that the government is committed to xxxx and being a leader yyyy, whilst not giving the full facts and costs.
February 27, 2022
Will you also be writing a letter to the Home Secretary too Mr Redwood? Asking her to open the borders to Ukrainian refugees – as countries like Poland have so generously done?
At the moment this Tory Brexit pensioner government makes it easier for a Putin backing Russian oligarch to come here than someone fleeing with their family from Putinās war machine.
I guess the family canāt afford Ā£160k to play tennis with the PM. And without the oligarchs who funds the Tory party?
February 27, 2022
Fund the Konservatovs, yes.
February 27, 2022
Better we support the refugee camps in Poland. By the time they came here, the Ukrainian armed forces will have overcome the demoralised Russian army and they would be on the way back.
And can NATO impose a no fly zone in western Ukraine as Tobias Ellwood suggests? At Ukraine’s invitation of course. There is no WW3 unless NATO invades Russia itself. We don’t want to do that and give the Russians something to fight for.
February 27, 2022
That really depends on Putin still being sane and him being left in place. If a chaotic regime change occurs then we have an unstable nuclear country with a vast number of its weapons pointed at us.
February 27, 2022
There can also be WW3 if Nato aircraft enter combat with Russian ones.
February 27, 2022
Left to their own devices in neighbouring fellow Slav countries, most of the refugees will want to return to their own country once the fighting stops, even under a Putin puppet regime. If they arrive in the land of free benefits and housing, paid for by the bottomless pockets of the British taxpayer, they are likely not to return. We should provide financial and material support to our Slavic friends to help with their temporary burden.
February 27, 2022
I read the Ukraine refugees are mainly women, children and older men, the younger men having stayed behind to defend their country.
In complete contrast to those ārefugeesā who come from the ME who are mainly young men who have left their daughters, wives, sisters, mothers and grandmothers behind.
February 28, 2022
You make an important contrast.
However, there is a difference between a refugee and an asylum seeker.
The first is generally seeking refuge from active fighting and destruction, and will usually be the classes of person that you describe.
The second often from persecution, perhaps stemming from having fought on the wrong side in a conflict which was lost to tyranny, and the savage reprisals which follow. Those will be, exactly as you say, mainly men of fighting age.
All the same, the claims require careful examination, and I think that you are right to note the difference.
February 27, 2022
80 seat majority to do it with – a majority which would be cut in half if there were an election today.
You got the Red Wall because they wanted Brexit Done (properly) and they were petrified of the Woke lunacy that Labour stood for – now Woke is worse than it’s ever been. Just what freedom does Ukraine think it’s fighting to join ?
The Red Wall did not vote to be punished for driving to work or keeping themselves warm.
February 27, 2022
Brilliant letter SirJ with the added strap-line āāsave europe ā get frackingāā
February 27, 2022
More sense from JR.
Alas most politicians don’t do sense. I fear the letter while necessary and should be actioned, may be wasted.
February 27, 2022
There will be no change of course until the lights go out, followed by ‘lessons have been learned’ etc etc.
February 27, 2022
Tremendous Sir J, I too wrote to Kwasi about exactly this a couple of weeks ago as my (tory) MP wasn’t convinced (he may be now….). I think it will also spur the commercial development of the renewables, which should be equally encouraged.
I am ok with netzero as an altruistic target, it’s the transformation plan that needs thorough detailed specification and does need UK gas/oil until … it consumption says it doesn’t. If we need to suspend COP26 commitments through this decade whilst we isolate Russia, financially/commercially, all key exports/imports, people too, until there is regime change, then so be it.
Separately I propose all Russian assets which can be reached be seized and these monies repurposed to support the Ukrainian refugees, their housing/heating/food, healthcare, all the usual things. Call it an early start on reparations, for there will be a reckoning…
God bless the Ukrainians for their bravery and heroic resistance against such tyranny, they deserve our full support!!
February 27, 2022
Pol Pot believed in Year Zero, an agrarian utopia were all are equal, without possessions and toiling the fields for their subsistence .
All utopian political ideologies are by their very nature demand imposition, compliance and destruction of those who refuse to embrace this deceitful poison
Net Zero is an act of politics not an act of environmental concern and it will eventually drag us all down, as intended by those who bottom feed at the top
February 27, 2022
Russia will be fine with the support of China.
Regime change. Ah. That speciality of Nato. And how well the last ones have gone. This time in a nuclear nation with hundreds of nuclear weapons pointed directly at our small island.
February 27, 2022
We await a reply from the Business Secretary but those in charge at BEIS/Ofgem will not be changing course and will be saying to him that Putinās war against Ukraine shows the need to increase our efforts to rely on āthe breezes that blow around these islandsā for our energy.
Note that Putin has no need for direct action against us as he already succeeding through the use of useful idiots to destroy our economy through the Net Zero Strategy, our homogeneity through wokeism and our young generation through universities charging high prices for useless degrees and thus leaving them with unaffordable debts before they have even started their working life.
February 27, 2022
And I forgot to mention high levels of immigration to destroy our culture, laws and democracy plus the re-wilding of our farmland to destroy our self-sufficiency in food.
The useful idiots have even ensured that we are now so weak that we cannot stop the invasion of thousands of young men of fighting age and with no ID and in fact invite them into the country by collecting them at sea, providing them with 4 star hotel accommodation, free healthcare, Ā£40/week pocket money and then give them the freedom to roam our streets as they so wish until they disappear.
February 28, 2022
Note that Putin has no need for direct action against us as he already succeeding through the use of useful idiots to destroy our economy through their having campaigned relentlessly for brexit.
February 27, 2022
Net Zero and the Climate Change Act. As others have pointed out, there was no mandate for these abomimations. They were not in election manifestos and neither was there proper debate on them in Parliament and how many of the gallant 650, having ASSUMED the benefits of going green, examined the costs, and explained them to their electorate? How many examined alternative views from scientists with opposing views? Sadly, only a small handfull.
Just as millions of people in this country and many other countries have been given ‘vaccinations’ without being given any explanation of side effects. And none told that if they have recovered from Covid, they have no need of a vaccination.
We have a parliamentary dictatorship, not democracy.
February 27, 2022
I continue to be grateful for your efforts in updating and refining your knowledge in this area in order to put pressure on the government. Although you will no doubt receive a vague response from Mr Kwarteng, you are spearheading a drive to challenge the key fear of the elites, whether governmental or environmental extremists – namely, hard evidence to justify their assault on our prosperity and way of life. Debate on their part cannot forever be denied. The tide can be turned, albeit slowly, back towards hard evidence based policy.
February 27, 2022
So we will ‘bring Russia to its knees’ with sanctions. But what will we do when Putin and Lukashenko double down on their assault on Western borders via their proxy army of young men of military age from the Third World? Will we have the stomach to do what needs to be done even if the migrants are handed rifles and told to fight their way in?
February 27, 2022
None of this needs to happen, Beresford. According to Radio Free Europe, in February 2019 the then Ukrainian President Poroshenko signed a constitutional amendment committing the country to becoming a member of NATO (and the European Union). If that amendment is removed from the Ukrainian constitution, Russia obtains a token victory, their troops can return, and the present conflict can be de-escalated before many more people die. I see the two sides have now agreed to start negotiations, which is a hopeful sign.
February 27, 2022
I hope so and I bloody hope that the EU has learned its lesson at last.
February 28, 2022
What lesson would that be, then?
March 1, 2022
The world is no longer dealing with a rational Russian leader, it appears.
February 27, 2022
Dear Sir John if the West dose not come to some agreement with Mr Putin there will be no climate or net zero to worry about. Just ground zero were the world use to be.
February 27, 2022
O/T, but I’m thinking that the risks of strategic misunderstanding between the West and Russia are at an all-time high. Our ministers should now reduce the number of Media interviews they give and Commons statements they make – particularly when they can’t resist trying to appear tough. And Tobias ‘Boots on the ground and No-fly zones’ Ellwood also needs to take a break from stoking Putin’s fears. With the Swift option having been taken, we are probably at peak-sanctioning. If we are to pass further weapons to Ukraine, then let’s do it quietly, without fanfare. And Truss needs to ask herself why the oligarchs she is trying to frighten today have been allowed to use this country as a base for so long.
February 27, 2022
+1
February 28, 2022
Liam Fox, just now, has given a master-class in how to do a media interview in a tense time.
March 1, 2022
There’s a first time for everything.
March 1, 2022
I agree completely, SW.
February 27, 2022
It is not clear Sir John if this is a copy of a letter you genuinely sent to Kwasi or an open letter purely on this website. I completely agree with your comments – though I regret you did not urge support for fracking – but you will get no satisfaction from the minister, as he and the rest of the fools and failures in government are committed to the exact OPPOSITE of what you are suggesting. Just yesterday the Telegraph reported a government spokesman as saying: “To boost energy security, we need to move away from expensive fossil fuels and generate more cheap, clean power in the UK.”
It’s no wonder that the latest poll shows the Conservatives losing a staggering 164 seats at the next election (and possibly more if there is tactical voting against them, which is virtually guaranteed!). Tory MPs are like hypnotised lemmings following the PM and the rest of the cabinet over the electoral cliff. You backbenchers now need to start asserting yourselves and FORCING the government to change policy, in so many areas. On net zero, for instance, we are told that the Net Zero Scrutiny Group has around 50 members – they need to find their balls and declare that they have NO CONFIDENCE in the minister and support any vote against him in the house of commons.
reply Yes I sent it to Kwasi before publishing it here.
February 27, 2022
Far too sensible for this ‘government’, John.
February 27, 2022
Let us also support the development of oil and gas in friendly countries. Not only does it increase supply, but it increases diversity of supply, which helps produce a competitive market.
It seemed loony for Mr Kwarteng to tell Bernard Looney to divest BP’s stake in Rosneft when it is likely that Putin will simply confiscate it anyway. Not sure who he thinks should buy it. The Chinese? It would have made much more sense to have aimed to support BP’s global exploration and production effort. Use some confiscated oligarch funds to help.
February 28, 2022
How about not just money for Russian gas, but Russian money in the UK (London) housing market and Russian donations to Conservative party funds as well?
March 1, 2022
Most of all, which is something often missed, stupendous money to the legal and judicial sector in their London-based Lawfare, and which has inflated costs, putting court action beyond the reach of ordinary people completely.
A court case in the UK costs scores or even hundreds of times more now than it does a like one in France, say. Ā£1.5 million is typical for anything in the High Court now. A comparable one in Paris cost around 9,000 euros recently.
March 1, 2022
Donations are listed and made public Peter.
If you have evidence of any illegalities then it is your duty to tell the relevant authorities or an interested newspaper.
You have evidence I assume?
Or is it just yet another smear made by a political opponent?
March 1, 2022
Who mentioned illegalities other than you?
The money used to pay for Russian gas isn’t illegal, yet this article argues that it would be better not to buy Russian gas. If it is better not to buy Russian gas, why shouldn’t political parties (of all persuasions) also not accept Russian money?
March 1, 2022
Well first you smear a particular political party with your rumours then when challenged you backtrack and say what illegality.
Hilarious
There is no connection between paying for gas delivered from Russia and any donations made legally to any political party.
If you have any evidence of anything illegal then tell us.
Otherwise stop your unfounded smears Peter
February 28, 2022
Unfortunately you can’t get emotional intelligence at university. It occurred to me that only those and particularly women threatened with unreasonable and despotic behaviour could handle Putin. He is on a knives edge , his power is in the balance, he is angry: One cannot put intelligent reasonable responses into the mind of a man who is undergoing some sort of pressure that perhaps we are not aware of. My instinct tells me that there is more to this .
March 1, 2022
I think that you may well be onto something.
For one, he is possibly intensely personally jealous of Zelensky, who is young, has a happy family life, is popular, and a true democrat, but most of all with an otherwise very promising future.
That last word must trouble Putin.