Woven into Labourās broad message of change in the election was the roll out of a superior industrial strategy.We were told Labour would not accept the loss of jobs in steel despite large state subsidies, and would want a manufacturing revival.
Instead Labour has signed off the death of steel making in blast furnaces at Port Talbot and looks likely to do the same at Scunthorpe. Instead of it dismantling the penal taxes and carbon charges the EU and the last government imposed they are intensifying those. Like the last government they will pay large sums to subsidise some more steel recycling in the U.K. after a hiatus when we import all the lost steel from the closures. We are told we need to wait until next spring for a steel plan, carefully delayed until our present Ā steel making industry has been closed down.
We also wait for the general Industrial Strategy. Any worthwhile one has to start by addressing the huge extra costs U.K. industry has to pay for electricity and gas compared to the Chinese and US competitors. Much of this extra cost is the direct result of extra taxes, carbon prices and regulations, and the high cost of trying to replace much of our generating capacity with renewables.
The government should work hard to try to avoid a closure of the Grangemouth refinery. The U.K. does need to be able to produce its own petrol, diesel and other fractions of oil instead of turning all that productive activity over to imports.
September 14, 2024
Ineos has a straightforward, rational management who recognise that UK policy makes doing business here uneconomic. Grangemouth will be closed or sold.
If you are made unwelcome, it should be no surprise when you leave…but apparently it is.
September 14, 2024
Indeed Ed Miliband is surely a mad deluded Zealot who seems to be determined to close down most of UK industry and to destroy the economy with his mad Chairman Mao type of policies which will kill. Not only that it will not even save any CO2 just export its production.
Then we have senile Biden, bonkers Lammy and two tier Kier Stasi, antiy free speech Starmer discussing world war three and the insane attacks on Landlords, private schools, employers, business people, the self employed, non doms, coal mines, steel works, plant and crop food.
The World has had ice ages with CO2 at over 10 times current atmospheric levels. We live in a period of a dearth of CO2.
September 14, 2024
Last week, there was a surprise visitor to the Treasury: Gordon Brown says the Spectator podcast.
Will he be advising on giving away the nations gold at an historic low, wrecking private pensions, freezing pensioners, PFI scams, a Scot who loathes England, destroying incentive to work with tax credits, trying to buy votes with baby bonds (my third child just got her Ā£500 doubles in 18 years what a scam. Tax me say an extra Ā£500 waste 50% in admin and give it back to my daughter some 18 years later for a birthday party!)
See the excellent book – Gordon is a Moron. Vernon Coleman.
September 14, 2024
Gordon will no doubt be arguing for Scottish jobs, you remember like 2 Aircraft Carriers? Perhaps he will insist that since the dismal record of their sailing the seas is very low, building a third defence delusion will sit well with the scarce Labour voters north ‘ the border.
September 14, 2024
Why should Grangemouth or Scunthorpe or Port Talbot be kept alive by taxpayer subsidy when their losses are due to government policies.
The new coal mine in Cumbria has been junked and Milipede is beside himself with joy
The commies in government are only continuing with the last government’s slash and burn policies for industry.
The sooner we start getting regular power cuts the better.
September 15, 2024
Indeed, total insanity, just like the fake Tories but even faster.
September 14, 2024
Obviously you did not hear the very confident and authoritative Climate Change Professor of out-in-the-sticks-university who celebrated the refusal of the deep mining license by stating that āthe science is settled and we know we canāt dig coal or get gas and oilā. We will set the example and hope other countries follow usā. This lady knows her stuff and has no doubts whatsoever.
The sooner the lights go out the better. These people donāt believe in reality. We must stop protecting them from it now. The day Millibandās electric corporation fails, we need to ensure that he understands that he has failed too. I say this because Iām certain that it will be our fault for using electricity. Poor Mr Cold of this blog – no car, no orchard house, a tetchy Mrs Cold.
September 14, 2024
Where/who was this Climate Change Prof? I think I heard a bit from a chap from Preston Poly now the University of Central Lancashire. The BBC delusion’s, lies or propaganda on climate change is evil, totally one sided and totally wrong.
September 14, 2024
There was quite a balanced reporting of the coal mine High Court decision last night on BBC News where they interviewed some locals who were unhappy about the possible 2000 new jobs that will not now be created.
September 14, 2024
So we import the coal instead so even more CO2 and jobs and taxes overseas a great plan.
Not that a bit more CO2 plant food is anything other than a net positive.
September 14, 2024
Cumbria does not need any well paid jobs of course! Remove Sellafield and there will be none at all!
Too many people just too comfortable on the dole.
September 15, 2024
Sheep, tourism, kendal mint cake, cream teas not much else and not well paid.
September 14, 2024
Could not be bothered to remember where she was from or her name. Caught her confident rebuttal of reality on the radio. Sooner there is no electricity for TV and radio the better.
September 14, 2024
Prof Rebecca Willis
September 14, 2024
Through friends of friends I heard that someone I once knew who lives the carbon free life in one of those remote build it yourself homesteadsā¦.is now in deep despair.
They didnāt realise it would mean this!
La,la,laā¦no cars, no light, no cylinder (fracked) gas, no meat and worst of allā¦.BUGS to eat!
(Ohā¦and insult to injuryā¦log burners now under scrutiny.āļø
September 14, 2024
REJOICE! Only reality can save us now, argument, reason, facts – worthless. Time the Starmer Givernment tried the fossel-fuel-free life – preferably this winter which is promising to be cold!
September 15, 2024
The phrase from Game of Thrones keeps popping into my head: “Winter is coming.” I for one hope it hits the Eco Nutters in the Establishment very, very hard.
September 14, 2024
I don’t think most of the eco zealots realise what net zero will mean….it is after all, an ideology working towards some rather unpleasant and primitive life style. But the last bits, are not mentioned!
September 14, 2024
Yes we do import poor quality coal from Poland to keep the Heritage Railways running steam engines.
September 14, 2024
They should have searched for a cave facing south, near a non-polluted stream, with endless supply of old trees falling down. Preferably near a farmer who insists on closing down public rights of way to keep interfering busybodies away..
September 14, 2024
Milliband is well used to failure – he has never achieved anything worthwhile yet. The big question is, why is he anywhere near government in the first place, useless that he is. Of course it is because of the biggest failing of our system of government – rewarding loyalty, promotion a la the Peter Principle, square pegs in round holes etc. It is why this country never gets anywhere, reliant as government is on patronage of the PM who himself is proving worse than useless.
September 14, 2024
True Granam…. I would also suggest that we never get anywhere now because, we give far too much sway to single issue groups.
September 14, 2024
Same for Lammy, two Tier Kier and that Tory Scum, scum, scum woman.
September 14, 2024
The lunatic idea is that we will lead the way on climate change and other countries will follow us. The are not going to follow us. Theyāre too busy laughing at us.
September 14, 2024
+1.now they are, apparently, going to tax anybody leaving the country. Anybody left in any doubt that this is the new USSR?
September 14, 2024
+1
September 14, 2024
“roll out of a superior industrial strategy.” Brought into action yesterday with the nationalisation of electricity and power supply at great cost and increased burden on users and the taxpayer. As we know government is best at running businesses.(Sarc)
The UK has the highest energy costs against all our competitors, yet unless the are punished they will survive and prosper (more Sarc)
We are indoctrinated to believe the Tax is income, the countries wealth creation. If you have no wealth creation it brings forward the great reset – the embedding of the WEF Socialist Dream
September 14, 2024
Ā£630m of taxpayer money will do untold damage, mainly through the NESO roles in planning the future energy system with no hope of proper representation of consumer interests. Of course, even when it has been in the hands of National Grid it has been acting in the interests of the Grid, not the public in its planning. There will be little change with the new arrangements, and perhaps even less scrutiny, with OFGEM now tasked with delivering net zero as its supreme objective thanks to last year’s Energy Act.
September 14, 2024
The MIS is not so strange, the government does not have one. If they did it would be anathema to all they believe in. In fairness neither did the previous government, their confusion was that they did not know what they believed in. This excludes a few lone voices such as your own.
An industrial strategy from the point where we find ourseves requires, exploitation of the low cost energy beneath our seas, our feet and around the Falklands. Additionally we need a totally rethought, shrunken and rewritten tax book that incentivises industrial activity and individual self reliance. As you infer, a scrapping of all EU law that chokes all entrepreneurial activity, I agree. Above all we need a dramatic shrinking of government involvement and activity in our lives. They have been the increasing sea anchor over many years on all such positive activity. Above all we need none elected power, such as the CS and judiciary to be contractually and legally controlled, returning power to Parliament and the people. Individuals like the millipede and mayor of London need to be run out of town for their heretical thinking and blatant greed.
Will it happen under Labour, a resounding no, just as it was snubbed out under their consocialist predecessors. The only possibility is the emergence of Reform, true conservatism in all but name.
September 14, 2024
+1
September 14, 2024
Vote Reform at every election going forward. It is our only hope to save this country. I’ll be out delivering leaflets for our council by-election in October. We need to wake people up before it’s too late. However, I fear the damage under Labour over the next 4 years will be irreversible.
September 14, 2024
True conservatives donāt āownā the political party. They consider that it belongs to the members and that the Parliament represents the People – are the Reform MPs āemployedā by Reform PLC? How can they not be? They used its name to get elected. Farage – the owner, can unilaterally sack any of them. Are there members? Do they have any authority or power? Who chose the candidates?
September 14, 2024
Try asking those questions about Tory and Labour, or indeed any political party or grouping in today’s Britain. With the Party conference season upon us I think we will get an interesting perspective on how democratic they are.
September 14, 2024
Nobody āownsā a majority share of any other British political party in Parliament.
September 14, 2024
Oh yes they do! We just don’t get to know because it isn’t on any register.
In any event, it doesn’t matter who “owns” the Party, it’s who owns the Ministers that counts. No prizes for naming the likely candidates…
September 14, 2024
Did I miss something? Who or what has funded Labour since I lost my teenage spots!
September 14, 2024
Lobby groups ?
September 14, 2024
The Tory elected MPs can sack Sunak. While he is leader he can sack any of his MPs from government. Why do you say the Reform MPs could not sack Farage as their leader if they chose? Reform was how they were registered with the Electoral Commission to stand for parliament. Farage cannot alter that fact. According to Companies House, Reform is afloat because of a directors loan account of Ā£1M so its hardly a money making scam for Farage and Tice either.
September 14, 2024
Not even a majority of Tory MPs can sack the Tory PM from his seat! Similarly the PM should,Neave a very hard time sacking any MP – look at the trouble Corbyn has given Starmer, because he has the support of his electorate.
When you donāt have constituencies selecting candidates, you can sell those positions as UKIP sold places on their party list. The more money you gave the higher you were on the list, and the more likely to win what amounted to āfree moneyā because there was no job associated with being an MEP. You did not have to do anything – hold surgeries etc etc.
It is a horrible idea that British political parties can be wholly owned by anybody. Who can stop Soros buying, for instance, the Conservative Party if that is the case?
September 14, 2024
Whatever made you think constituencies select the candidates ?Even the Party members get overruled.
September 14, 2024
Micky – see my comment re Corbyn. Heās the MP because he has local support. The party lost out.
Lobby groups, Unions, they canāt outvote the electorate! The currency in democracy is VOTES not Sterling!
September 14, 2024
Arguably Lynn, he already has!
September 15, 2024
Lynn – ‘The currency in democracy is VOTES not Sterling!’..
I laughed. Tell that to Wokingham electors in the last GE.
The place was flooded with full colour pamphlets praising and inventing miracles for the fool of an MP we now have. He accused our ‘part-time’ MP, and now (fortunately?) never hear of the new champion of the idiots in power.
Reply Yes, an absurd lie about me as the only MP who provided a seven day a week update and who personally answered emails at weekends from constituents as well as weekdays. We rarely hear from the current MP who lets the fuel payment and the decision to increase the housebuilding rate in Wokingham go without an intervention.
September 15, 2024
I did not say Tory MPs could deprive the PM of his seat. Do not misrepresent my statements.
September 14, 2024
With Gloom (Starmer) and Doom (Reeves) in charge we may conclude that the strategy is to kill off UK industrial activity. High energy costs will continue to kill off industrial activity. The prospect of more taxes on wealth have already caused many to vote with their feet and wallets and leave the UK. Such voters, those with spare cash, are a source of the capital needed to finance the start ups and emerging businesses that will replace declining and dead industries. Their talk of growth is just that, talk, empty of substance and meaning. If you are a wealthy UK resident you will be taxed to death. But if you are a wealthy foreign investor Doom will soon be inviting you to invest your billions to fill the black holes in the UK economy and to sell out what is left to sell.
September 14, 2024
“If Socialists understood economics, they wouldn’t be Socialists.ā
– FRIEDRICH VON HAYEK
September 14, 2024
+1
September 14, 2024
Surely correct.
If you’re not a Socialist as a teenager you have no heart, but if you’re not a conservative by the time you’re forty you have no brain.
Truss has made this progression form her LibDem days – see her recent podcast ( Unherd). A good one from Mogg (Spiked) too though he still quite wrongly thinks pissing half a Ā£billion away on Covid lockdowns, duff vaccines etcā¦ doing net harm was āthe right thing to doā. He is however almost sound on the net zero lunacy.
I alas perhaps have no heart though I prefer to think that my brain just overrides my heart even when under ten. Though my did was a bit of a socialist in some ways. You so often have to be cruel to be kind. Teach the man to fish rather than give him a fish and encourage lifelong parasitic behaviour.
September 14, 2024
My Dad not my did! He took me to see a Tony Benn speech once at about age ten. A rather superior man to his son Hillary but still deluded, he wasted a huge fortune on the economic insanity of Concord. Still that was as nothing to Milibandās Net Zero and renewables insanities now.
September 14, 2024
Or the Ā£400 billion wasted on Covid measures which made things rather worse not better.
September 14, 2024
Tony certainly wasn’t all bad as Minister of Technology, and Concorde was a world beater and still is. If the French had inspected the runway prior to it taking off the fuel tank wouldn’t have been pierced and the French would have had to look for some other excuse to close it down, which is what they wanted.
September 14, 2024
Indeed so.
They could also read Ricardo on the perils of letting Politicians/Bankers print money…
September 14, 2024
Very influential on thinking in the United States too-until the late 19th century when certain refugees from Europe began to exert their influence.
September 14, 2024
Itās beyond sad that socialists have a fundamental ignorance of basic economic principles.
September 14, 2024
As did Con-Socialists like Major, Cameron, Osborne, May, Boris, Sunakā¦
September 14, 2024
Unfortunately Carbon Arc furnaces need huge amounts of electricity to operate, please tell me what energy cost are in China and the USA, and how most of the electricity is generated in these countries. Next question bases on that will our ‘Green steel’ be competitive bases on energy costs in the UK? Unfortunately Carbon Arc furnaces need huge amounts of electricity to operate, please tell me what energy cost are in China and the USA, and how most of the electricity is generated in these countries. Next question bases on that will our ‘Green steel’ be competitive bases on energy costs in the UK?
Green steel is not actually real steel, the type needed in aircraft production, ship building, submarines etc. Recycled steel is as cheap as pennies on the open market.
The companies we the taxpayer are funding to close their UK production facilities, will be the same one’s that we will be buying and importing the real thing from – in other words we are exporting our industry our jobs once more only to import the same by what is recognised as the dirtyest way known on the planet. The Steel Workers Unions are complicit in killing their own industry – why?
The stupidity of those in the UK parliament knows no bounds
September 14, 2024
Indeed & almost all MPs (not JR) voted for the total insanity of Miliband’s Climate Change Act and Mayās moronic Net Zero was just nodded through proving their stupidity. Almost non have much science beyond age 16 though Miliband and Starma do actually have Physics A levels – though only Bs and then dropped science so not interested I assume. Still they should be able to grasp reality if they tried too.
Prof. William Happer many videos and perhaps the best easily accessible voice of Sanity on this topic.
September 14, 2024
Morning Sir John,
Totally agree. With the west on the brink of a major military conflict, it is, in my opinion, vital that we are self sufficient in as much vital materials and goods as we possibly can be. That also includes food.
I think the court’s decision yesterday to rule illegal the opening of a vital coal mine is crazy and sets a worrying precedent.
September 14, 2024
Does anyone remember David Lammy’s pathetic attempt to ingratiate himself with the EU by posting on social media in (sort of) French? Perhaps he could now try and learn a little Russian and understand what he’s being very firmly told by Moscow. If British long-distance missiles – which must be operated by British/NATO personnel – hit Russia, we will be at war. I expected Starmer to foul up pretty badly once in office, but I didn’t think he’d drag us within three months into a war with a nuclear-armed opponent.
September 14, 2024
You have the UK desperately,desperately,desperately trying to drag the USA into a conflict with Russia to save the UK from oblivion-there is absolutely no place for the UK in the rapidly emerging BRICS-led order-and the smarter Americans know this.The UK is doing this-
a)having de-industrialised
b)having given away much of its limited war materiel-with much of what remains appearing not to be in working order
c)having no food or energy security
d)having no air defences to speak of
e)having a population that so loathes its ruling class,it will not willingly fight for their preservation
The Russians are laughing so heartily that you can hear the rattling of their samovars from London!
The US should accept its rapidly diminishing power,dump the UK and come to terms with Russia before the Russia-China behemoth overwhelms them in a tsunami of de-dollarisation.
September 14, 2024
It’s rather like the UK during the first year or two of WWII trying every trick and deceit to involve the USSR in the war with Germany.As Stalin said:”we will not pull their chestnuts out of the fire”.
September 14, 2024
Yes we had to pull Stalins chestnuts out of the fire when his āallyā Hitler attacked him. It was British seamen sneaking past Germany with critical supplies for Stalingrad – St Petersburg – thank God we did, we managed to save the Putin family. One Vladimir Putin is alive to this. He is busting a gut to enable the population of Europe to survive that madness of their āleadersā.
Indeed he has offered sanctuary, setting aside the usual language tests, for Europeans who want to live under traditional (normality) laws and ditch the Godless Empire of Sodom.
September 15, 2024
Saint Petersburg was Petrograd then Leningrad.
Stalingrad is now Volgograd.
September 16, 2024
They were never allies-a non-aggression pact is not an alliance.The USSR had similar agreements with other neighbours like Turkey and Japan.
September 16, 2024
When are you leaving for this paradise on earth?
September 14, 2024
The U.K. is nowhere near oblivion so long as we donāt start shooting deadly weapons into Russia, a country with which we are assured repeatedly, we ARE NOT AT WAR. Shooting those weapons would be an act of war and it would be one we would b]very quickly lose – to the astonishment of all the armchair generals and Hannon.
Itās possible that a Kinzhal or two on Salisbury plain would jolt these halfwits into the real world and away from the computer games.
The British people see no reason for us to be at war with Russia because there is a conflict in Ukraine. It is not even a NATO issue.
Just as well the weapons are no longer available for the said armchair generals, the equal of the BOE executives, to fire at random and get us into trouble. And they will not help on the streets of our towns and cities where the low level war is being fought.
September 14, 2024
Some may opine the UK role has been trading with Ukraine. We sell them goods and services, including information and things that shoot.
If a foreign leader swallowed poison, the country that sold a glass that he happened to drink from is probably innocent; just as the glass designers, factory workers, packers and freight personnel are. He who placed poison in the glass with intent to kill is the guilty party.
Ukraine is defending its people from missiles launched from outside its territory.
Is destroying those missile sites using goods they purchased an act of war, or merely an act of defence in stopping them?
September 15, 2024
For Ukraine, it is an act of defence. For Britain, it would be an act of war.
You don’t seem to understand that British personnel would be involved in operating and targeting Storm Shadow long-range missiles fired into pre-2014 Russia. That is why there is a problem now. As long as they were just targeting Crimea, their operators weren’t firing at pre-2014 Russia. This point is systematically obscured by the establishment media here, so it’s perhaps unsurprising you don’t seem to be aware of it.
September 15, 2024
Hat Man:
UK personnel proven to be operating the missiles with intent to cause harm would be evidence of guilt. Until then, nobody knows, whatever the media state or obscure. Russia can form its own assessment of what is likely, and respond with instant hostility to the UK, whatever anyone else is aware of. Both sides attack to defend.
September 14, 2024
If they leave it at laughter, Mitchel, I don’t mind. What would worry me would be if any British ship became a target for say, a mystery submarine attack or a missile strike from Russian-supported militants, like the Houthis in Yemen. I wonder if our esteemed Foreign Minister has a plan for what to do in that case.
September 14, 2024
They are following a WEF strategy.
September 14, 2024
Correct.
September 14, 2024
How long before the first power cuts due to a shortage of supply 12 – 24 months ?
September 14, 2024
Agree, and then the recent riots will seem as nothing – don’t these people think ahead?
September 14, 2024
We are already seeing paid-for powercuts. The plans include trying to extend the system significantly. So far, only very small amounts have been procured – up to about 300MW for an hour – so the high cost is just a rounding error in your bill. Further plans legislated in last year’s Energy Act include remote control switch off of appliances and heating systems. You will probably still be able to watch Big Brother on your telescreen calling for a two minute hate.
September 14, 2024
Cold hungry people with nothing to lose are the most dangerous of all. Amazing that they political class are not aware of that.
September 14, 2024
might be avoided by buying even more electricity over interconnectors.
September 15, 2024
MT
Agree that would probably be the first choice, but if those other countries are also struggling who do you think will be cut off first, their population or the Countries they export power to ?
September 14, 2024
Maybe somebody, somewhere ( or a very powerful institution) has convinced the Uniparty that there is a global pension crisis that needs immediate and radical treatment?
Maybe the same somebody has decided that rail is super important as the future green travel option? So drivers must be top earners?
And again perhaps that same fount of wisdom has decreed that vehicles must be made from scrap steelā¦meltable apparently in an electric arc āfurnaceā. āDeep decarbonisationā.
Such an asset is scrap metal that it is now highly regulated to the point where I canāt find anyone to collect my odds and ends anymore.
Carbon free vehicle production.
But how many times can you melt and reform?
September 14, 2024
Instead Labour has signed off the death of steel making in blast furnaces at Port Talbot and looks likely to do the same at Scunthorpe.
Yes but it all started here in Scunthorpe years ago , we use to have 4 steel companies but they slowly got whittled down to 1.5 with Anchor & Frodingham steelworks, we make the best steel in the world especially the train rail section but thatās all going to change when they get rid of the remaining blast furnaces and replace them with the green crap electric arc rubbish no longer being able to use virgin iron ore but scrap metal to make steel all at the cost of thousand of jobs involved with the steel industry, Scunthorpe use to be a great place to live while I was growing up in the 50s 60s but slowly itās turning into a pit of a place to live all being egged on by all this climate green crap
September 14, 2024
Marxists filter all policy through a political and ideological prism. Economic growth is not a priority. I’m not sure this site doesn’t understand this simple fact. Indeed I would accuse the previous Tory admin of mirroring this exact same strategy. Pissing more cash down the NHS sink is a classic example. It’s an act moral cowardice and PR convenience that do the opposite would invite damaging press headlines.
The state (which the scummy Tory party is an intimate part of) has become a cancer in our lives. God knows what it has in store for us next. It has become a vested interests in its own right and it will seek to destroy all threats to its existence. We’ve been here before, SO MANY TIMES BEFORE
Labour, Tory and Lib Dem do not give a flying rat’s ass about anything anymore….
September 14, 2024
I find it astonishing that after 14 years in opposition and 5 years of having Starmer, who likes to portray himself as a sensible, managerial chap, they have no plan or idea of what it is that they want to do. Nothing. Itās all weāll get back to you and itās the fault of the Tories whatever happens. Thankfully, I donāt think the public is buying it and hope that this will be a one term government. The challenge for the Tories now is to reflect on the harm that policies they have enacted are doing, to reverse them and to formulate and articulate clearly policies that will indeed turn the ship of state around. Expect much squealing from the self-righteous if they have the courage to do so.
September 14, 2024
Here it is, Sir John. You were looking in the wrong place š
https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-new-era-of-industrial-strategies-tackling-grand-challenges-through-public-private-collaboration/
September 15, 2024
Thanks.
September 14, 2024
The last (Conservative) Gov. followed a policy of destroying the UK’s remaining industry in pursuit of ‘net zero’ otherwise known as idiotic madness.
The new Gov. (Labour) is following exactly the same path. What would you expect from the Uniparty?
September 14, 2024
Labour is backward. It wanders around gormlessly, enacting errors of judgement, then forms a strategy after effects have occurred as if to justify their claimed accuracy of foresight.
September 14, 2024
Iām sorry Mr. Redwood but all this Labour blaming makes my blood boil. Your party was in power for the last 14 years and if we had cheap energy and a competitive steel industry this utter INSANITY would, indeed could, not be on anyoneās agenda.
We all know Labour are nuts – but your lot opened the door for them. And now, here they are, elected by one person in five, and ready, willing and able to destroy this country for good.
Reply If you donāt like my site then donāt read it. I was critical of the last government over the same issues so donāt moan about me.
September 14, 2024
I think the evidence is becoming overwhelming, as the weeks go by, that Labour are intent on destroying Britain and its culture… under the guise of saving the planet, keeping us safe and being kind to one another (and especially to those poor nasty people in our society!)
To be sure this happens, we’re not allowed to criticise anything they say or do, it’s either a hate crime or disinformation!!
September 14, 2024
You do get the feeling the government has come to power without having any idea of what to do when it get there. Suddenly they discover they need to have plans. Wes Streeting seems to have some direction, but we have yet to see whether it’s all bluster.
Cheaper power would be welcome, but in our company tax costs outweigh energy costs six to one. The missing industrial strategy is to slash the bloated state.
September 14, 2024
It’s cold again this morning and our (gas) central heating has been coming on all week. Wind and solar are contributing 44% of the 28GW electrical power we seem to be consuming nationally at the moment but of course that isn’t helping to heat my home or run my car. We are also having to import 20% of that 28GW at the btw. So we make ourselves more reliant for our electricity on renewables and imports, whilst trying to increase the ammount of electricity we consume via EV and Heat Pumps. If we had any sort of large storage capacity, this might make sense but otherwise it is completely bonkers.
I’m going to wrap up well now and go out and cut up an old car-trailer frame and try not to think about it. Since no ‘Steptoe’ is going to come past here with his horse and cart, ringing a bell and shouting “Any Old Iron” these days, I’ll have to take the scrap to the tip myself. Should take my mind off all this nonsense for a while though….
September 14, 2024
leave it outside on a road with a piece of cardboard written ‘ FREE’ – – will be gone in no time.
September 14, 2024
Clearly our socialist government was extremely limited with the truth when it came to publishing their election manifesto.
As for industrial strategy, they are simply following the accepted plan known as; Absolute Zero
https://ukfires.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Absolute-Zero-online.pdf
So, we should be expecting that our steel industry is closed down, and our industry put in decline – The big lie of course was that labour would increase productivity.
Everyone should really read the above report to see what is coming our way, to avoid big surprises, but
fundamental changes scheduled will be:
While central government is closing down our country, local authorities are working hard to remove us from our cars and make our streets pedestrian or cyclist only – See the report published by the London mayor.
THIS IS ALL HAPPENING NOW – NOT IN THE NEXT CENTURY!
September 14, 2024
The report states that to obey the law of the Climate Change Act the public will be required to stop doing anything that causes emissions regardless of its energy source. According to the report, this will require the public to never eat beef or lamb ever again.
https://expose-news.com/2024/09/13/all-uk-airports-to-close-by-2029/
Vision ZERO requires that roads are made safe for cyclists and walkers, with 80% of journeys taken by foot, cycle or public transport. This is why they aren’t bothered about providing adequate energy or recharging points for EVs because we won’t be allowed to drive very far, if that!
https://content.tfl.gov.uk/vision-zero-action-plan.pdf
September 14, 2024
āanything that causes CO2 emissionsā so that is breathing and virtually all life on Earth. But even if all life on Earth dies out we will still get volcanoes, forest fires, natural CO2 and methaneā¦ and climate change will continue as it always has done.
September 14, 2024
Exactly right
September 14, 2024
What I donāt understand is why Miliband said he was ādeeply disappointedā by the closure of Grangemouth. Why ? Isnāt that exactly in line with what he wants ? Why isnāt he delighted ?
Experience in California shows that a reliance on high levels of renewables will on occasion lead to unstable and inconsistent electricity supply and brownouts and blackouts. When this happens maybe Starmer will call Miliband to heel, but Iām beginning to suspect he couldnāt care less about imposing unnecessary hardship on the public.
September 14, 2024
Exactly at hight and with no wind you have virtually no renewable energy perhaps a tiny bit of hydro or tidal at best.
September 14, 2024
Most journalists and politicians, lacking any scientific education, assume once weāve switched to EVs we can ājust stop oilā because we wonāt need petrol and diesel. They are oblivious to the fact that oil and oil refineries also make a range of products that there is no substitute for: aviation fuel, bunker fuel for ships, lubricating oil, asphalt, and LPG components which in turn are used to make all plastics, polymers, solvents, detergents etc. etc. Refineries can control the relative amounts of these products they make but not if they have been shut down or if crude oil production licenses have not been granted. So weāll have to import all those from Asia and the Middle East. If we can.
September 14, 2024
+1 they are clearly all ignorant and mad.
September 14, 2024
Of course we do have an Industrial Strategy. It is known as the āNet Zero Strategy ā Build Back Greenerā (lead author PM Johnson (Classics)) and āMission Zeroā (lead author Chris Skidmore (Modern History)).
PM May made Net Zero law (without a vote or costing) and so our industrial strategy is now in the hands of Greenpeace and high court judges and consequently no longer in the hands of our elected representatives in Parliament.
The purpose of Net Zero, based upon the entirely false concoction that anthropogenic emissions of CO2 from Western nations have caused a climate emergency/crisis/breakdown, is to de-industrialise and impoverish the nation by transitioning our energy to expensive and chaotically intermittent renewables and by electrification leaving us economically and militarily exposed to hostile attack.
Although CO2 is only 0.04% of the atmosphere, it has already caused 99% of all the greenhouse gas warming that it can. So additional emissions of CO2 can only produce a further 1% of warming. The amount of greenhouse gas warming effect is not unbounded but limited by CO2ās IR absorption bands and the Earthās IR Plank distribution curve and 99% of this effect has already taken place. Even the Royal Society admit to the existence of this phenomenon, known as IR saturation (really CO2 saturation as it is the IR which is saturated with CO2 not the CO2 saturated with IR).
September 15, 2024
RoyalSociety.org , 03/2020.
āIs there a point at which adding more CO2 will not cause further warming?ā
āNo. Adding more CO2 to the atmosphere will cause surface temperatures to continue to increase.ā
āFreedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hearā, Eric Arthur Blair, The Freedom of the Press, ~1945.
September 14, 2024
the only way to be cost competetive with countries that produce most or all of their own energy is to do likewise. that is just the laws of nature/phsics. Of course the sophists of both Labour and Conservative parties have constructed all kinds of complex sophisticated and entirely fallacious arguments to in order to conclude otherwise. They expect the international agreements eventually to increase the costs of UK’s energy sufficient competitors to the level of UK’s. They won’t. Instead, UK will go down the tubes. And UK’s competitors will still have energy sufficiency. And they will have it cheaply. Instead of introsucing a lwa against Islamophobia and misogyny we should have a law aagainst climate alarmism and fosil fuel phobia.
September 14, 2024
The home of the industrial revolution has to be sacrificed on the altar of the Net-Zero God. We need to be taught a lesson for the sins of our ancestors for being successful and better than every other country. Until this government has levelled down the middle classes and given all our wealth to foreign entities they wonāt be happy.
September 14, 2024
In 2020 Lord Deben wrote to the Scottish government telling them that Grangemouth should be “decarbonised” i.e. closed and scrapped
https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/letter-lord-deben-climate-change-committee-to-roseanna-cunningham-msp/
I read that over the past decade or so Grangemouth has spent $1.2bn on investments designed mainly to appease green demands and has accumulated losses of $770m. A $2bn cash sink, even split 50/50 between PetroChina and INEOS and the threat of further measures designed to ensure closure to appease the CCC is bound to produce a reaction.
All fuels for Scotland will have to be imported, and the impact will also be felt in Northern England and Ireland where short coaster movements from the Clyde fed by pipeline from Grangemouth will no longer be possible except as break bulk with double handling. Pump prices will rise, which is of course another green aspiration.
The industry that fed off the Grangemouth petrochemicals output will also become uncompetitive and close. More Scots with nothing to do except drugs.
September 14, 2024
Thereās an interesting article in this weekās Economist describing how Texan start-up Fervo Energy is applying fracking techniques to extract large volumes of super-hot groundwater for power generation. Apparently the potential output of āenhanced geothermalā energy resources is 5.5TW across the fifty US States. Like oil fracking, water is injected to build-up pressure that drives the desired output: in this case groundwater above 200 degrees centigrade.
Most interesting is a ābattery modeā of operation. When grid power is cheap (from solar or wind) Fervo buys it to pump in water and build-up pressure, but the taps donāt opened unless the renewables are offline and the utility will buy power at a high price.
Anyone care to express an opinion as to whether fracking-for-green-energy-storage might be more acceptable in this country than fracking-for-oil was?
September 14, 2024
Hi sir john
There were no factory’s there were no cars or coal burning there wasn’t electricity it hadn’t been developed when the ice age ended it a natural process of the earth natural evolution earth Quakes, volcanoes
Go to Iceland and see the natural gases coming from the earth it was a meteorite that made dinosaurs extinct not cars or oil
I’m not a scientist but there probably lots more natural causes for global warming
Reply I have often pointed out there was plenty of climate change before mankind arrived, so all should agree things other than man made CO 2 do change the climate.
September 15, 2024
I read much of Britain’s Ā£2.7 trillion debt pile is held by overseas governments. Foreign investors own 28 per cent of UK national debt ā nearly twice the percentage of two decades ago, while foreign governments own more than half of it ā about Ā£430 billion.
That of course just relates to gilts. These numbers used to be published regularly by the DMO, but seem to have been hidden from the public for some years. Foreign indebtedness of the private sector or via “off balance sheet” deals by arms of government such as PFI will add substantially to that.
Give me control of a nation’s money, and I care not who makes its laws…
Amstel Rothschild.