I have long opposed the policies to stop us buying and making new petrol and diesel cars, and imposing high carbon taxes. It is wrong to rely on importing oil and gas instead of getting more of our own domestic gas and oil out of the ground and wrong to give grants to farmers to wild or to cover land with solar panels which would otherwise grow food. These are policies which succeed in boosting world CO 2 whilst closing down our factories and farms. They are self defeating in their own carbon counting terms, and self harming on a huge scale as we see the surge in closures and lost jobs they cause.
If Mr Burnham is serious about re industrialising he needs to rebuild our oil and gas industry, re open our refineries, scrap our carbon taxes and emissions charges. He is more likely to go the other way. He wants to give in to the EU more, so that means accepting their higher carbon taxes, their carbon tariffs and emissions trading scheme. These will all add to the closures and job losses Starmer has been racking up.
Kemi Badenoch rightly says to Conservatives we need to oppose these policies. Rumour has it that Burnham may do a bad deal with Miliband and his net zero disaster machine to allow the Jackdaw gas field to go ahead, but not Rosebank. We need Jackdaw, Rosebank, and all the rest. We need to start up exploration again. Importing LNG weakens our economy, exports tax revenues that we could have for ourselves, and loses us well paid paid jobs. It generates more than 3 times as much CO2 as getting our own gas out and sending it by pipe to UK customers. There is likely to be plenty more gas under our feet and under our seas that we could get out without environmental harm using modern techniques of deviated drilling and reservoir management.
Mr Burnham will soon find out the hard way that government entails making choices. You cannot have a policy of re industrialising without scrapping the crazy net zero attacks on UK plants and energy. You cannot have a policy of faster growth and a policy of closer alignment with the EU, as EU alignment means higher taxes, more EU charges and taxes, and more EU rules to lose us business. Being in the single market gave us slower growth. Cosying up to it will help them take more market share away from our farmers, energy producers and manufacturers.
July 11, 2026
Good morning.
And sorry, off-topic, if our kind host allows.
I was, like many, deeply shocked and saddened at the death of Ann Widdecombe. Like many I only knew and via various mediums but she always came over as a serious, highly intelligent, capable conviction politician and person. Someone of good character with deeply strongly held beliefs. Someone I immediately warmed to as she did not just seem genuine, but actually was. A rare quality today.
RIP Ann, for you were a true Angel on Earth who fought for what was right.
July 11, 2026
Amazing how quickly we were told the suspect is a White, British male…..
July 11, 2026
Since released so watch this space.
July 11, 2026
@Old Albion – I know the area well, very isolated/remote essentially one road in and out. She did have security cameras – it is said someone was stealing her gnomes. But yes, as you said, quickly revealing unnecessary information to be on message is despicable
July 11, 2026
Who has now been released.
At least the appalling, disingenuous, broken compass, Two Tier Kier managed to say his bit on Anne Widdecombe without saying “far right”.
I had not realised that In UK criminal courts, the official wording for juries and magistrates is that they must be “satisfied so that you are sure” of the defendant’s guilt and is no longer “beyond reasonable doubt”.
I am often “surel” that I left my car keys here or there only to find them elsewhere! Rather weak wording to put someone in jail for 20 years.
July 11, 2026
A lovely woman who didn’t deserve this.
As for Burnham, he’s like Sunak, a WEF placeman who will continue the ruinous policies of the two preceding governments.
I see Badenough is weeding out the pro net stupid candidates for MP selection. Will this be a case of answering the right questions until safely installed in Westminster. The deep state runs very deep.
July 11, 2026
Well said. She was one of the very few, and fearless too.
July 11, 2026
Last night over a beer watching Coronation Street i was telling my partner about the real threat of power cuts to which she laughed. At 21.18, the lights went out and the house was silent for a good 20 minutes. A precursor to the future. Luckily we’d had the aircin on in the bedroom for about an hour so the house remained reasonably cool.
July 11, 2026
@Mark B – yes agreed, and thank you. Murdered, makes the situation ‘beyond the pale’
using your words – RIP Ann, for you were a true Angel on Earth who fought for what was right.
July 11, 2026
Yes, indeed. Ann had a straight talking, no mealy mouthed approach. Speak as you find is the honest way, and people recognised that and respected her.
July 11, 2026
“Rumour has it that Burnham may do a bad deal” – he is and always was a bad deal. Like the rest of his ilk he festers ‘hate and bile’ towards those that want to get on and achieve – the people and the nation. He like the rest of the Cabal seeks a levelling down, the furthering of a divided society, the them and us. It is the Socialist/Marxist creed pretend there is an underclass to defend to bolster your own position, become the latest Norman Barron, the Sheriff of Manchester. Small minded with an inflated ‘ego’
We saw the trait with the outgoing monster of a human being, the hate he stirred up within himself and his supporters for those that disagreed or questioned his Marxist aspirations. The perpetual name calling and unfounded spiteful labelling to divide and demean society to consolidate the rule by ideology.
They want a world that doesn’t exist, a return to something that has never existed accept for in warped tiny minds.
They as with the bulk of the UK Parliament wouldn’t know what Government is. They don’t know how to communicate, to work with instead of fighting against the people. The UK Parliament through successive bad management has become the enemy within, the ones holding the country back.
July 11, 2026
Two of our primary advantages over (I might as well say) the remainder of the EU are that we have the sea. First as a natural border and second as a natural resource. Why are we throwing these away? It’s insane.
July 11, 2026
There are so many ways that society has become divisive and damaging. NetZero has been led by what most of us consider from the get go ‘nutters’ – the first thing they neglected was the cost, the the next thing was to ban things before someone had come up with viable, sustainable alternatives. As such these Zealots are not chasing a better tomorrow but a return to and impoverished past while the World moves forward. Not one sole in Parliament has looked at the ‘cost’ or have asked the question why is the whole World moving forward at our expense.
July 11, 2026
It was Conservative PM Johnson who took delight in announcing the initial ban on the purchase of the types of new cars most people want to buy. It was a Conservative government that regulated fracking to death, preventing British firm Cuadrilla from opening up a valuable new energy source. Miliband and co are following the Conservative example.
Voters will think very hard at the next general election about whether to believe that Badenoch, Coutinho and their party have magically performed a 180 degree turn on these issues.
Reply As one who always opposed these self harming policies I know Kemi and Claire are leading the charge against this folly now.