Allegra Stratton, the official Climate change spokeswoman, has been struggling to find things we could all do to advance their chosen cause of heading to net zero carbon dioxide emissions. She has suggested not rinsing crockery before putting Ā it in the dishwasher, and freezing surplus bread for use on another day. Some think these ideas will not go very far.
She has also presided over a welcome delay to introducing expensive heat pumps and ripping out perfectly good gas boilers . She has said she prefers to run an older diesel car to buying an electric vehicle which she should Ā be able to afford because of the dieselās range on longer trips.
Meanwhile the Leader of the Opposition has demanded a more taxing target for getting emissions Ā down, without pausing Ā to tell us exactly how this Ā could be done. Is he suggesting earlier elimination Ā of internal combustion engine cars? Will car travel be slanted to the better off who can afford electric vehicles? Is he thinking of making foreign travel dearer to stop mass jet travel? Does he think long haul planes should be reserved for the elite attending climate conferences? Does he want to accelerate heat pumps and get people to trash the boiler? Does he want to make us all vegetarians?
All these behaviour changes would require a wide range of laws, subsidies and taxes to direct and nudge or bludgeon us into the lifestyle he wants us to follow. Time to ask the Leader of the Opposition what he is doing about his personal heating, travel and diet if he wants the rest of us to change.
I do pass the Stratton test. I scrape dishes into the waste before the dishwasher, and do freeze part of a larger loaf until I need it. Job done?
August 5, 2021
The Leader (oxymoron?) of the Labour Party spouts this stuff without responsibility nor worked up policies thinking something might stick. It isnāt more the shame because this Government needs to be more accountable/held to account.
At a time when 26000 delegates are allegedly coming to the U.K, so no Covid risk then and hardly green with all, those air miles, so more double standards, chumocracy job getting Allegra Stratton tells us not to pre wash plates, freeze bread etc.
This at a time when both China and India are ploughing ahead with fossil fuel power generation ignoring the virtue signalling tosh from Boris and forest is being ripped up extensively.
Just like the nonsense with the traffic light system more evidence how out of touch this Government is.
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
@Nig l +1 it is ‘grandstanding’ in the most insulting way
August 5, 2021
Let them eat scrape!
August 5, 2021
Close…
JF
August 5, 2021
Not just ignoring, the 31st July was the UN deadline for nations to present their climate change action plans for the forthcoming COP26 shindig , 85 nations didn’t , China and India amongst them . Odd I didn’t hear the BBC report this, but never mind the hundreds of coal fired power stations they are building freezing our left over bread will save the planet.
August 5, 2021
Greece,apparently,has just been forced to bring two coal fired power stations back on line to deal with the spike in demand due to air-con usage in the heatwave.
August 9, 2021
We need seriously to get it across to the public that CO2 is not the climate driver and that it will go on harmlessly rising at about 2ppm a year whatever we do . Read it up. Thereās plenty out there that the BBC keeps from you.
August 5, 2021
+1
August 6, 2021
yes indeed
August 5, 2021
It’s not the delegates that are probably double vaccinated and tested regularly that post a risk, it is the hundreds arriving untested picked up by workers from Border Force and the RNLI that don’t have to isolate and go home to their families having been exposed daily to different covid variants.
August 5, 2021
I go along with all this hairshirt stuff, but I will not go with this business of electric cars and heat pumps until there is better chemistry for batteries and better electricity generation. In any case, whatever we do won’t make any difference until China starts playing the game seriously.
August 5, 2021
According to our own government BEIS report our carbon dioxide emissions are down to 1858 levelā¦ā¦do we need to go any further ?
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
Indeed. When did Allegra get her science degrees in climate, physics, chemistry, studies of the Sun, atmosphere, interactions of volcanoes and the oceans on weather, the rain forests etc etc.? About the same time as any of the politicos on this planet! Why on earth does our Government want to marginalise our whole Country, its industry, our ability to travel, and heating when the biggest emitter’s of CO2 aren’t bothering. When China, India, the US, Germany start to do something and we have proven evidence that CO 2 is anything other than a plant food then I’ll start to take this Government seriously. Carrie on Boris!
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
+1, but real science doesn’t produce the result they want, so it is ignored. The sad thing is that so many believe the lies.
August 5, 2021
So we voted for Brexit in rebellion against the likes of Allegra Stratton and so does she really think we need more lecturing after the two years we’ve just had ? Who the hell put her in this position to be able to patronise us ??? Tell her that you can freeze milk too. Next thing she’ll be telling us what savings can be made by shopping at Lidl !!! (Like many a 4×4 driver who thinks they’re cleverer than the plebs.)
We get Greenism the likes of which Corbyn could only dream of and that Starmer struggles to keep up with. Can we expect Alaistair Campbell to be Johnson’s next adviser ? It wouldn’t surprise me if he is already.
All of us understand the need to be environmentally clean – but the dates brought forward 20 years ???
We were doing the right thing by reducing our family sizes but the Tories brought in mass immigration that has never looked worse than it does today.
I don’t care what Starmer thinks. This is not what we gave Boris his landslide majority for. He is out-Corbyning Corbyn.
August 5, 2021
I’m a 4×4 driver which is necessary for my lifestyle but I don’t think of anyone else as a pleb. What an ignorant remark. Are you sure it’s not what you think of others Ginty?
August 5, 2021
Ginty, Well said.
August 6, 2021
Is there any demand in this universe, that you do not claim that the single issue referendum on the European Union entitles you to make?
This just gets ever sillier.
August 6, 2021
That’s being a trifle over-sensitive, Martin. You, after all, have been in the forefront claiming that voting Tory must mean accepting the entire Tory manifesto (it doesn’t, by the way). But one (supposed) advantage of the Tory “brand” is a live-and-let-live approach. So why complain when a voter explains that finger wagging was one of the numerous obnoxious characteristics which we voted against both at the Referendum and in the 2019 general election?
August 5, 2021
I missed her election, Sir John. Can you shed some light on when that was?
P.S. Yes, my loaves go in the freezer too. So I’ll be keeping my Jaguar, with its high fuel-efficiency and AdBlued emissions.
August 5, 2021
This ‘Net Zero’ project is likely to be the most expensive project ever undertaken by mankind, and our PM is treating it like a media event; employing people who have no relevent science background trying to advise the public why cutting back on, well everything, is a jolly good idea.
Ms. Stratton’s reported interview in Guido tells us how much effort No. 10 has put into this COP circus. It is truly disturbing how much we are expected to pay for this effort, when the people making the decisions appear to be among the least well informed.
August 5, 2021
The vast majority of people have no scientific or engineering background let alone relevant experience or knowledge. And given how STEM people are undervalued in this country it is no surprise that politicians and activists believe they can and do mislead people so easily.
The web is rife with unsubstantiated, misinformed and misleading opinions and this blog is no different. People only want opinions that suit them and cannot bear anything that may disrupt their tidy lives, threaten their comforts and may actually cost more than they are willing to pay no matter the consequences.
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
Starmer wants to create jobs in the green sector as if private enterprise isnāt working as hard as it can. He needs to read a few more business columns. Each job will cost Ā£75000 to create. Guess who will pay for it?
Corbyn is alive and well and still running the Labour Party.
August 5, 2021
I spotted your typo – you meant ‘ruining’ not ‘ running’ didn’t you?
August 5, 2021
@Nig l – it was suggested yesterday that the Government had money! Hopefully that means we no longer need to furnish them with our taxes.
August 5, 2021
There won’t be any shortage of labour as 10,000 have arrived by Border Farce and RNLI taxi service.
This government won’t be around long unless we get net zero boat people.
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
ian – don’t be silly. The ones coming are NOT coming here to work. Why would they? They get – for doing NOTHING – housed – maybe in one of the brand new large 5 bed houses on the new estates going up everywhere, free cash, free heathcare, free infrastructure that OUR taxes have paid for, their many offsprings free education, free translators, fresh water from taps, and much more. PLUS they are told they can do whatever their culture/religion says so – and that WE are wrong if we object. WHY WORK??
August 5, 2021
+100
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
Ian
480 arrived yesterday, a new record.
Apparently the French stopped another 250, who will probably have another go today.
JR are the French destroying the Boats they stop and turn back, or are the boat people allowed to keep them ?
Would be nice to know, as we seem to store those that get here (boats) in Dover, any idea why ?
August 5, 2021
……….Guess who will pay for it? Rishi has his eyes on all of us with assets and is planning hikes in wealth taxes. Capital Gains and Inheritance tax robbery (Items that have already been taxed) allowances have already been frozen. Be warned this is not a conservative Government.
August 5, 2021
Once again yet another good post highlighting the underlying problem with the whole of the government’s net zero plans.
To many people all qualified in various professional areas, totally unqualified in the subject matter being discussed, relying on the zealots who keep pushing this stuff to give them the foundation of their next sermon from the pulpit.
Until the government calls time out and get together the best scientific experts and engineers from both sides of the arguement to thrash out a paper that can be believed as credible which can then be properly costed, this country is going nowhere but down the tubes as our competitors are not abiding by the same rules. Just get rid of this we have got to be a world leader and setting a good example mentality. Get rid of all this green nonsense that is going to eventually bankrupt us. Half the politicians don’t believe it , but push it to keep their seat. The BBC to achieve all this has got to be reigned in big time.
August 5, 2021
Excellent post Turbo. Many people today are already frugal in the kitchen and around the home due to the high costs of living and in particular the cost of energy. If energy bills are to rise by Ā£500 a year then we are all going to have to cut back – apart from ‘I’m alright Jack, Andy’.
I already batch cook which I find is cheaper and saves me time and I add more vegetable to dishes to make them go further. I freeze my bread. I buy a large loaf and halve it and freeze the other. I grow some of my own vegetables ( not very succesfully) and I turn off all lights the minute I leave the room. I only have a standard lamp on while watching television. We have changed all our heating system so that we now have a water cylinder with an energy rating of B and have a mains pressure shower and total mains pressure hot water system so we don’t have to have a shower pump. We have installed very efficient radiators and our oil bill has reduced considerably and tried our best to insulate our 1950’s home. We can’t really afford to do anything else. The house we bought has solar panels and that also helps with the bills. I’m sure alot of people would love to reduce their bills but on low incomes and with no extra funds it’s very difficult and expensive. VAT on these products is a nonsense.
August 5, 2021
Autocorrect is always a pain. I’m sure you meant that someone needs to rain on the BBC parade and rein them in. (I had to override the Autocorrect to post this message, so you have my sympathies)
August 5, 2021
Thanks Mark it is a real PITA just like all this climate religion
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
@Turboterrier
“…the government’s net zero plans.” ļ
What plans ?
August 5, 2021
x 10
August 5, 2021
Exactly. Politicos always have an opinion on ………..everything they know nothing about. I used to have to listen to them spouting about my occupation knowing full well they were …………clueless. After a soundbite that will bankrupt the Country and no contrary view allowed and no investigative journalism is happening or being reported. Bit like the boat people crisis that Priti Useless is doing nothing about. The solution is obvious except to politicos who are actually supporting the invasion of unknown people or their intentions.
August 5, 2021
The government simply follows the news cycle, but actually does nothing about the problems most people are concerned about. Illegal immigrants? – another “crackdown”. Crime getting worse? – waste time on non-crime hate incidents, watch statue demolishers, but do nothing about stabbings and burglary. Northern Ireland? – another “ultimatum” to the EU when the only practical solution is to abrogate the NIP. “Net zero” – lie about the costs, whilst pretending Wind is free and reliable, and don’t bother building real power stations. We didn’t elect a climate doomster, woke, magic-money-tree government, but we’ve got one.
August 5, 2021
It is time that this shibboleth of global warming being man. made was abandoned.
August 5, 2021
I gather that NASA have acknowledged that the alarmist tweaks to climate models have now been overcooked, and much like a Ferguson pandemic forecast risk being ridiculed for proving wrong in short order.
August 5, 2021
@Mark do you have a link to that NASA statement. I need it in my armoury to battle climate change fanatics.
August 5, 2021
The most recent is a 12/01/2021 Nature Communications āBiomass burning aerosols in most climate models are too absorbingā, but this decreases the predicted warming, not replaces it by a cooling or even a steady state.
Last NASA thing I found is on climate.nasa.gov 09/01/2020 āStudy confirms climate models are getting future warming projections rightā, by A. Buis.
August 5, 2021
“The Hockey Stick Illusion” by A.W. Montford. Lots of detail.
August 6, 2021
You can find it reported at thegwpf.com under science news for 30th July. Also discussed widely elsewhere. There will doubtless be even more discussion after the IPCC scenarios are formally released on 9th August.
August 5, 2021
The majority of independent scientists that arenāt funded by governments or political think-tanks are advocates of āsun flaresā and āplanet life cycleāā¦we never hear this argument in the media or by the climate change committee
August 5, 2021
Indeed, the Governments around the world will not fund the other side of the climate argument. I’ve watched several documentaries on You Tube and elsewhere but the msm won’t put it into the public domain.
August 5, 2021
Could it be because the sun flare theory has been debunked time and again by scientists: climate.nasa.gov āIs the Sun causing global warming?ā.
On the same subject, āSolar variability: Striking a balance with climate changeā (a text in 2008 about the SORCE program (SOlar Radiation and Climate Experiment). earthobservatory.nasa.gov
Contrary to what some people might be thinking the radiation from the Sun – originally only the total incident solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere (1978, Nimbus 7) to now measurements from gamma rays to UV, visible, Near IR, and IR – has been monitored by various satellites for more than 40 years with the Nimbus 7, TIM, SORCE, SOHO mission (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory).
SOHO has been around for 25 years (sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov).
As for the āplanet life cycleā, Iāll wait till you provide me with a proper reference and website.
August 5, 2021
Clearly mankind has some effect on climate as do millions of things, but there is no climate emergency.
Allegra could rightly have pointed out that keeping her old car for several more years actually saves CO2 relative to causing a new electric car to be made and saves about Ā£50k to. As an Arc. and Anth. grad she probably had not worked this out. Like Grant Shapps and whole of the scientifically ignorant Cabinet.
August 5, 2021
No one in government seems to realise that EVās are not zero emission and that we have no sources of zero carbon electricity to charge them with anyway. Nor is walking and cycling efficient in CO2 terms as human food (given the average diet, growing, butchering, packaging, cooking ā¦ ) is a very inefficient fuel indeed compared to diesel or petrol.
August 5, 2021
yes indeed, and off peak trains with hardly any passengers are not environmentally efficient either, transporting all that fresh air the length and breadth of the country is not “green”
August 5, 2021
ALL transport runs empty for much of its time. Even your car when you think about it.
You go out to do a shop ? It’s not carrying any load until you’ve put your purchases in the car. Lorries are empty half of the time. Planes are empty much of the time… you just can’t see it from the outside as they are not close enough or there are no windows.
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
So do I. But I was gobsmacked to learn that the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on coronavirus vice-chair Caroline Lucas, has issued a statement yesterday concerning the current tremendous chaos at our borders. āThe governmentās border policy is leading to chaotic scenes at UK airports and leaving the country dangerously exposed to new variants. The surge in the Delta variant was a direct result of the failure to secure our borders, yet ministers are still repeating the same mistakes”
Now Sunak has stuck his oar in and demanded that even more countries are added to the “green” list in order to “save the travel industry”
A recent inquiry by the APPG heard that airports were becoming a ābreeding groundā for the Chinese plague virus because travellers from different countries are now mingling in queues!
The APPG, backed by around 60 MPs, also warned last month that as travel reopened, there has been a āstaggeringā reduction in the proportion of positive tests being sequenced to check for new variants.
The warning came after a union representing border staff pointed out that the authorities were losing track of who is entering Britain with the virus, in the wake of the decision on 19th July to order Border Force officers not to check the coronavirus status of incoming passengers. This means there is also no official check on whether travellers who need to have booked virus tests – or indeed have filled in passenger locator forms to say where in the UK they will isolate if necessary.
It is time that Grant Shwraps gets a grip on his ministry and quickly sorts this potentially disastrous situation out – before another, possibly more deadly variant, arrives here. If he cannot, then he needs to be rapidly replaced, as clearly he is completely out of his depth.
August 5, 2021
Sakara.
Can only speak as you find.
A double jabbed Family member returned from the USA a few weeks ago, had to have all of the tests before they went and returned, paperwork was inspected both ends, had to isolate at home on return, and was contacted every single day at random times by telephone, (landline) to make sure they were in compliance of their isolation.
August 5, 2021
Oh no!
The government is doing a very good job.
Achieving exactly what is wanted!
No borders (= end of democracy). Terrified population.No travel.
Tick, tick, tick off the wish list!
Nextā¦No money.No meat.No school or office. No freedom.
Remember..what they have done was never needed ā¦not even if thereād been an outbreak of Black Death.
We wonder why āfailureā is rewarded with promotion and huge pay rises!
August 5, 2021
I see that Italy – remember them? – now has about 1,100 covid19 cases per month as against the UK’s over 5,000 and with similar populations.
August 5, 2021
Thay also have a health service that does not rely on imported labour.
August 5, 2021
still gloating Martin? How sad…
August 5, 2021
Not gloating at all, but have you by any chance stopped mocking Italy yet, as so many on the Right were doing in early 2020?
August 5, 2021
Gloating…mocking…
The comments I recall were not doing either of those things MiC
Just being aware of how terrible their early figures were
You see the world through lefty politics
Everything is a edge to be gained.
August 5, 2021
The only time I’ve ever mocked Italy, well, italians actually is for almost ignoring the fantastic heritage of art and achitecture they have.
August 6, 2021
Sorry, MT, since “you” is often meant in the plural here, to mean most on a given side, I thought that I’d return the compliment, since things claimed by others on the Left or by pro-European Union people are generally attributed to me.
August 5, 2021
I certainly doā¦.I remember the media telling us that all our doctors where going to Italy to help out, likewise we where sending all our Intensive Care units to India ā the media outcry certainly helped the governments propaganda
August 5, 2021
The only stats that count these days are the hospitalisation and death rates within 28 days of a positive test(and even that I question.)
Your weaponisation of ‘infection’ rates justifies the Tory oppression of the British people and their continued destruction of our way of life.
Boris stands for MiC and Andy and NOT Tory voters.
August 5, 2021
Sakara Gold
Everything you have highlighted is down to people. Too many are out of their depth as they are heading up ministries that they are not perhaps qualified or experienced for. They therefore have to rely totally on their advisors, very much a Yes Minister scenario. The most dangerous person on any project is the enthusiastic amateur, who means well, but attention to in depth detail is beyond them as they are not wired that way. I do wonder how many senior civil servants are really qualified for the departments they head up? This concerns also applies to everybody within the department. When applied, the power of group think on team briefs comes into its own.
August 5, 2021
@ Sakara Gold – fair points yet if the policy was a drive towards herd immunity as fast as can be, that might mean letting take hold as many new Covid variants (amongst the vaccinated) as we can find, hence no need then to control the borders (which would suit P. Patel of course).
The danger is that amongst the millions of vaccinated, one becomes infected and develops and spreads a mutated variant of Covid that eludes the current vaccines. Too late to worry about that though.
August 5, 2021
Why do we have shopfitters from Cornwall travelling to Scotland, and shopfitters from Scotland travelling to Corn wall … passing each other midway ???? Government must control this madness…learn from history and keep services and produce local. It may be cheaper today …but in the long run the whole planet will pay.
August 5, 2021
Corky says it’s so important to save the paperclips.
August 5, 2021
Corky is a very wise cat!
He knows which way the wind blows?
August 5, 2021
I hear wildfires around the world are raging, producing co2 emissions many times more than the population of the UK with their consumption. We should be doing our bit by not importing people and planting trees not houses.
August 5, 2021
I think that, as with floods, a lot of this is caused by āNew Thinkā refusing to carry out traditional measures known to stop or at least, limit bush fires.
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
Yet the fires are modest compared with typical levels 100 years ago.
August 5, 2021
Yes. Not a fact that is very popular with climate change enthusiasts. In fact they advise ignoring any figures prior to 1960! However, ( as far as I understand it), it is claimed worldwide that traditional methods can limit spread or even preempt a fire, but in California (and probably other places, Australia?) these practices were actually outlawed about 100 years ago. In recent years prescribed burning has returned in some areas but it gets complicated when there are a lot of houses and a completely correct notion of reclaiming ancient land stewardship. But small fire or large, if there is a method which worksā¦why not use it?
And wildfires ā¦what a convenient hook to hang oneās climate change hat on!
August 6, 2021
Mark, how do you know that? What type of monitoring system was there in the 1920s to detect the the extent of burning areas, the volume of equivalent wood (trees, bushes, grass) burnt, and the possible release of CO2 of these fires?
August 6, 2021
So how do you “know” the opposite, Hefner?
August 6, 2021
The figures were compiled by the forestry services of the time, and are about 5 times higher than recent levels. I’m sure that if anything these figures are under-recorded, depending on watchtowers rather than aircraft for the most part.
August 7, 2021
Thanks a lot, Mark.
August 5, 2021
Wildfires, volcanoes, Eruptions, Sun-flares and Earthquakes donāt factor into the modellingā¦..its all down to the dirty naughty smelly internal combustion engine motorcar
Even the new and proposed coal fired power stations being built in China or maintained in Germany and Poland arenāt in the modellingā¦its all down to the car
And nobody ever talks about the coal fired power stations in the developing continents of Africa and South Americaā¦.the UK has 3 and theyāre to be phased out by 2024
August 5, 2021
GC: Wrong: wildfires, volcano eruptions, changes in the wavelength distribution of the incoming solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere are represented (albeit in a simplified way) in most current weather forecast models. Thatās why various meteorological models were able to (crudely) predict the impact of the Icelandic Eyjafjallajokull in April 2010 (soon after it had erupted), why the smoke plumes from the recent wildfires were predicted moving across the the USA and reaching Scandinavia, and the dust plumes from the Sahara figure in the MetOffice (and other countriesā) forecasts.
August 5, 2021
Indeed. Similar studies have shown lots of times when there were wild fires but husbandry of the land has changed to accommodate the eco loons. Same as temperature’s, particularly in the US in the thirties ignored by our scholars in Westminster.
August 5, 2021
Since we have been pumping out various greenhouse gases since foreverā¦increasingly since about 1750ā¦(but then there were always cows and horses etc etc) we should all really be dead. Orā¦.umā¦not here! ( Same as smoking really).
Imagine burying Hindenburgā¦oh sorry hydrogen pipes.. in the roads. āCan you smell gas?ā Erā¦.BANG! No warning with hydrogen. ( Oh theyād have to capture all the oxygen!!).
New āstudyā proves hydrogen to cause 4x as many explosions as gas. Would they have paid me to tell them that? Noā¦theyād just call me a climate denier I dare say.
Johnsonās Jobsā¦.a very short-lived army looking for hydrogen leaks. Fast turn over of labour!
August 5, 2021
Hydrogen-air mix is actually significantly less violently explosive than methane-air.
August 5, 2021
And even less so than Guinness and corned beef fermented in the human gut on St Patrick’s Day.
August 5, 2021
Hydrogen is explosive over a wide range of air mixtures, much more so than natural gas. I don’t know where the entity posting as MiC was educated, but he should demand a refund.
JF
(Maybe he’s a politician or civil servant — they don’t seem to understand STEM either.)
August 6, 2021
Yes, it is.
But at its maximum explosivity the peak pressure is less than for methane-air at its peak.
It may well be that on balance hydrogen is more dangerous than methane.
We’ll just have to have appropriate standards.
Oh, and like pure methane it is also odourless, so no doubt methyl mercaptan would be added too.
August 6, 2021
@MiC – You should ask for a partial refund. One problem with Hydrogen is that odourizers, such as Methyl Mercaptan, are not effective indicators with Hydrogen since the mix does not remain homogenous.
Compared to natural gas, hydrogen has a much wider flammability range (4-75% vs 5-15%), meaning it can ignite over a much wider range of concentrations as JF says, and it requires 1/10th the ignition energy of Natural Gas. When it burns hydrogen is invisible and emits little IR so there is little sensation of heat but there is substantial UV so you’d get “sun” burns – if you you survived the lack of oxygen as hydrogen burns much faster.
So Hydrogen is much more dangerous than methane/natural gas and much trickier to handle.
Clearly you don’t know what you are talking about and probably skimmed a couple of google results to parrot – wikipedia was it?
If you you really want to understand issues around handling and safety then educate yourself – The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory provides a lot of useful information on the topic – don’t let the “tory” in the name put you off.
August 6, 2021
I am fully aware that hydrogen places exacting demands on some aspects of the system.
These will be met by appropriate technology and engineering.
Moreover, a large part of that hydrogen – if produced by methane pyrolysis – will not be used domestically but in power stations to generate electricity.
You seem to prefer Counsels Of Despair on the other hand.
August 5, 2021
Hydrogen is the Houdini of elements, it escapes through the least gap in the infrastructure. Once escaped it becomes Basil Brush – it goes Boom Boom!
JF
August 5, 2021
Yes, the ease with which it finds leaks or diffuses is the main consideration in preventing explosions -though it is not as violently explosive as methane is when mixed with air.
August 6, 2021
+1 for humour
August 5, 2021
All to reduce our carbon emissions from c 1% of Global emissions to less than 1% – whilst China and India are doing it for us!
August 5, 2021
The more I read about net zero and the words that come out of the mouths of a majority of MPs (including Ministers), the more I think we are not living in a democracy but in an idiocy. Thay have been brainwashed. More over the brainwashing has been reinforced by legislation (Climate Change Act and numerous other measures) and, I learned the other day, that Ofcom (since the days of the Blair government) does not require broadcasters to put up an alternative view to the the man made global warming argument. The public is slowly becoming aware of the implications of net zero and the immense damage it will cause to them, not to mention the absurdities. With luck those brainwashed politicians wiill escape their Orwellian nightmare before they are ejected from office by an unbelieving public.
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
4th Industrial Revolution will be oiled by the labour needed to unblock dishwashers then?
By the time theyāve finished with us itāll be a pump and slop stone, a washhouse, boiler, dolly and mangle. Soapwort and horse chestnut soap.
But actually, they have taken away all the natural resources we needed for that sort of life so all they can do is impose expensive total nonsense on us. Itās only about control anyway. What do globalists care for the planet? They have already ruined it.
However, maybe we can find a nice cave and a couple of flints for the opposition ( no Louis Vuitton allowed). Theyād enjoy that!
August 5, 2021
Do as I do, not as I say, and state the bloody obvious, hardly seems like a plan from Allegra Stratton to save the planet.
Looks like she has read the instructions written on every dishwasher.
Indeed before dishwashers were in common use most people with any common sense scraped any uneaten scraps of food and bones off the plate into the bin, before attempting to wash them up in a sink.
Amazing !
My 21 year old V6 petrol gas guzzler failed its MOT this year, but a Ā£395 fix (including the testing fee, new battery, minor service and Vat) sorted it out, so it’s on the road for another year, we do not do that many miles a year in it, so its efficiency is not really a problem, and since it lost all of its devaluation years ago, it is very cheap motoring for the flexibility and benefit of having another vehicle for use by the family.
August 5, 2021
Most of a car’s carbon foot print is in its construction , so keeping an old car on the road is the height of climate change sense. So give yourself an ecological pat on the back and look down you nose at all these new electric cars. The worst carbon foot print to be found in car construction are electric cars , their construction is so pollution intensive it takes 9 years of driving before they better the environmental impact of a diesel car , and by then they probably into a another battery, so never actually improve on fossil fuelled cars.
August 5, 2021
Correct
August 5, 2021
And it passed the EU sorry UK emissions testā¦.therefore deemed environmental okay
August 5, 2021
“Don’t rinse the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher” – my first reaction, based on personal experience, was that if you have a couple of dogs you would never need to do that anyway (we have five to help, and we don’t even have to pay them to do it).
My second reaction was that Ms Stratton will regret saying something so stupid for the rest of her days.
And my third was: “why does the Government employ such airheads?”.
August 5, 2021
Thatās because a lot of the government are airheads so itās join the club time.
August 5, 2021
Allegra Stratton, the official Climate change spokeswoman – sort of an amusing ditty from you this morning Sir John.
I have no idea the Lady’s credentials other than she appears to be a friend with friends, you could say another self promoting Quango. There was no job no need for someone to take up a this sort of position and there you are a Government playing fast and loose with taxpayer money without first defining the value and prosperity that should ensue specifically for the UK taxpayer.
August 5, 2021
Nota
I wonder is she a friend of Carrie ?
I have no idea Yes or No, but would be interesting if there is a connection.
August 5, 2021
There is a connection.
The two of them are friends and Carrie had a tantrum insisting her friend must have this role. Caused a bit of a stink at the time.
August 5, 2021
Well that would be a surprise, I wonder how many applied for the job and who interviewed them.
I often wonder about the old saying, it is who you know, not what you know, which is important, but I am sure it would not have been applied in this instance.!
August 5, 2021
And in other news the Head of Earth Sciences at the National History Museum said that to meet its electric car targets the government needs the entire earths supply of Neodymium, 75% Lithium. 12% worlds copper and increase its electricity generation by 20%. Of course not forgetting the child Labour/appalling conditions the government is encouraging.
Maybe the Tesla driving Grant Shapps should āget his head out of his backsideā. We know know his whole strategy is based on a tissue of lies. What he has been saying is patently untrue.
August 5, 2021
Don’t forget Tesla driving Andy.
August 5, 2021
Would anybody actually purchase a EV if its manufacture build (government subsidy to EV manufacturers), energy usage (subsidy to build, install and maintain charging stations) and purchase cost (subsidy to buy) and running costs (road tax) wasn’t subsidied by the taxpayer
Lets please have a level playing field to ascertain the real demand
August 6, 2021
Nig1,
I’m sure you will be aware of him, but other readers may like to know that ex-Professor of Geology at the University of Oslo – Tom Segalstad – used to be a SpAd to the IPCC. He resigned in frustration with the parting shot that “The IPCC’s view of Earth Processes is, at best fanciful, and at worst deluded”.
His CO2 model draws on the fact that the equilibrium partition coefficient for CO2 between the oceans and the atmosphere is 50 : 1. In order to achieve the level of atmospheric CO2 increase that the Climate Change ‘enthusiasts’ envisage, then there would have to be 51 x that amount of CO2 produced. iirc, that equates to more Carbon than currently exists in all the world’s reserves of Coal, Oil and Gas. We’d have to burn the flippin’ lot!
………. i.e. it ain’t gonna happen !
August 5, 2021
Allegra Strattonās advice on plate rinsing must rank as among the most fatuous pronouncements ever to come from a British govt. she is correct on electric cars – good piece yesterday in the Telegraph by Bjƶrn Lomberg on this. He has actually done the numbers and points out firstly that subsidies for them go to rich people who can afford them and secondly that even if the whole world moved to electric cars the effect on emissions and consequent global warming is minuscule.
But still no discussion from any of the climate-virtuous luminaries like Ms Stratton and sir Kier Starmer as to where all the extra electricity is going to come from. In 2020 wind accounted for 6.1% of global electricity generation. Electricity as we know supplies about 20% of total energy needs. So wind power, with all its subsidies, generates about 1% of global energy requirements. An interesting new piece of research shows that wind farms lose efficiency the larger they get due to the wind wakes caused by turbines. If this is correct it seems we will need lots of small wind farms not enormous offshore ones as currently planned. At least Rolls Royce are pressing ahead with small nuclear reactors. A massive increase in Nuclear power – no thanks to the green blob – offers the only conceivable way to generate electricity with zero emissions (excluding the emissions from building the plants in the first place).
More rigour and scrutiny needed please.
August 5, 2021
Richard1
Anyone who has ridden a bike knows it’s harder and less efficient to ride in turbulent air.
Great example: Cycle races where they all follow each other millimetres apart to conserve energy.
Indeed if you listen to Formula 1 commentary you will often hear that it’s difficult to follow too close to the car in front, because of air turbulence (dirty air), you only get a tow (the benefit of slip streaming) when you have passed through the turbulent air and are very, very close to the car in front.
Like wise commercial aircraft have to be a minimum set time apart when taking off due to the air being disturbed by the previous take off.
Why are so many Politicians (I exclude our kind host) not aware of such basic facts and knowledge.
August 6, 2021
…because most have Law degrees, some have Arts degrees, and very few have Science degrees?
I wonder what Maggie T would say about current ‘events’?
August 5, 2021
I hope Allegra will be proud of me as I get the dog to lick our plates before they go in the dishwasher. However, I hope I am not guilty of exploiting the animal kingdom and that you wonāt report me to the woke pet police.
August 5, 2021
MPC: And of course you don’t need hot water bottles or electric blankets, because large and/or furry dogs warm up your beds without wasting fossil fuels!
Get climate-friendly, get a dog (or at least a big cat…)!
Where do we apply to become Government Spokespersons?
August 5, 2021
The Government could start by not talking down to us, itās not as though weāve done nothing, and spent nothing, on this for years:
– full double-glazing
– loft insulation
– cavity wall insulation
– switched to diesel from petrol
– bought a modern diesel car (with ad blue) when available
– bought bikes, cycled and walked more
– used public transport when practical (eg commuting, leisure trips)
– installed an A-rated gas boiler
– recycled paper, card and plastic
– recycled cans and glass
– recycled garden waste (at extra cost)
– recycled clothes and shoes
– changed all our light bulbs
– turned down the thermostat to reduce gas consumption
– replaced ageing fridges and freezers
– switched energy suppliers
– got a smart meter (paid for in higher bills)
– reduced foreign travel
– reduced red meat consumption (for health reasons not to become vegan)
– buying products with lower delivery miles
– voted for a party (ie you) that doesnāt take an unrealistic extreme position on CC.
Unsurprisingly these and other efforts as a nation have reduced the UKās carbon footprint dramatically. Weāve exported countless heavy industries and replaced the colder climate that came from our smoky, cloudy, smog-ridden skies with more frequent blue sky days and 30-odd degree summers, coincidence or not?
So please have dear Allegra and COP26 adopt a more praise-worthy tone than censorious.
August 5, 2021
Great post MIKEP
Your list is what many of us have done
August 5, 2021
I missed out recycling food waste and freezing bread (one of Allegra’s pet themes – been doing that for 20 years or more, never thought it had a “green” impact, just kept bread for longer).
August 5, 2021
Brilliant list that many if us are doing. Good post.
August 5, 2021
I hope you have left instructions to be buried in a wicker coffin, preferably in a dark forest rather than in a flower bed in your garden? That completes your recycling.
August 5, 2021
Agree with your list, however it will never satisfy the eco greens until weāre back to mud huts
August 5, 2021
After I have sliced it, I also freeze the remains of a loaf, but Stratton should be aware (seeing she is so clever) that defrosted gluten free bread disintegrates. I have a 67 year old dishwasher, me š and I use hot water from my very efficient 3 month old gas combi boiler.
If I recall correctly, wasn’t Stratton taken on, instead of far more suitable candidates, because the also unelected Mrs J threw a tantrum?
August 5, 2021
I note and accept the edit, however, at the time of the tantrum she was not Mrs J.
Reply Calling people silly names does not strengthen your argument
August 5, 2021
I agree, however I understand the silly name emanated from those in Parliament. š
August 5, 2021
“Reply Calling people silly names does not strengthen your argument ”
Well it worked for Mr Churchill when he publicly called Mr H lots of ‘silly names’
It also works for us, if we call Boris ‘silly names’ then you as an MP will better understand our contempt for Boris Johnson, and hopefully convey our sentiment to your backbench colleagues who will then realise that if we have to kick johnson out, we’ll think nothing of kicking them out with him.
August 5, 2021
As we all know 50% of the World, primarily the 50% that has a large industrial base and as a consequence the most polluting half, has not bought into this manipulation and grand reset agenda. You cant blame them for this they are wanting to play catch up and create wealth and security for their own people.
The error in all this is we have a UK Government that feels the need to ‘grandstand’ make the big gestures at the expense of the wealth, health and security of the UK. While at the same time pandering to paying friends with money the Country does not have.
Common sense says, yes there may be Global Warming – the exact cause has yet to be confirmed and verified. Its just guesses. But here in the UK what ever little bit we can do is meaningless tokenism as just about 8% of the World resides here, the other 92% are going there own way.
Yesterday ‘Facts 4EU.org’ showed us that our neighbors( as Boris calls them friends) in Germany pollute for their industrial needs between 9 times and 27 times more than the UK. But we encourage that by buying their cars.
There are endless contradictions on this subject. However, I would rather the UK Government charged with aiding our prosperity, improving the wealth health and security of all the peoples of the UK, had in place the structures and mechanisms that allowed the UK to continue to advance in the new World some 2degrees warmer.
This incredible left wing socialist government is not the one any of us voted for, their over hyping, over playing things and attempts to manipulate has now gone beyond the ‘virtue signal’, They appear to be cocooned in some sort of fantasy world that is not part of everyone’s day-to-day living, that is compounded by their continual pop up Quango style for friends only departments to keep the ‘grandstanding’ in motion.
Any serious Government(i.e. one that believed in serving its people) that lived in the real world would start by cancelling COP 26, it adds more to Global Warming than all the speeches and false and phoney promises that it is generating. This ‘grand reset’ has become obscene, insulting and hamulating to the greater majority of the World.
August 5, 2021
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/an-eco-chat-with-allegra/
Allegra has also spoken about her mission on Conservative Woman.
August 5, 2021
The voice of the new Tory Green Party
”super new technology allows heat pumps. It will only cost up to around Ā£50,000 per property”
”Smart Meters means we will be able to ration supply when itās not windy or sunny”
August 5, 2021
Do you know something? I think the weather will do what it wants today, tomorrow and forever after that. Nuff said.
August 5, 2021
Is that why BBC weather forecasts are always wrong
August 6, 2021
The weather isn’t following the BBC narrative and therefore should be censored!
August 5, 2021
What qualifications and authority does Allegra Stratton have for commenting on these matters ? Wasn’t she recruited to host White House style general press conferences, for which an expensive studio was built, which were then abandoned ? Why wasn’t she made redundant at that point ? We’re obviously paying her plenty of she can run an old diesel car in London. We apparently have a minister, Alok Sharma, responsible for the forthcoming global warming love-in – why do we need to hear from anyone other than him ? He is at least elected and accountable to Parliament.
August 5, 2021
Stratton has half the story regards dishwasher pre rinse. The ideal method before loading the dishwasher is to scrape any food remnants into the food waste bucket, then rinse the plates and utensils in a bowl of (cold?) water resulting a bowl of water left over to put on the flowers or even to flush the loo. The problem with even the smallest particles f food is the blocking of the filter in the dishwasher and backing up the connecting pipe-work. Drives us engineers mad and results in bigger bills.
Incidentally, the water draw off from our hot taps ( before the boiler wakes up ) is also saved in buckets and used to flush the toilets. Works wonders, shame we have nowhere to re-site the boiler position though.
We also do the bread thing.
Can I have my gold star now?
August 5, 2021
Gold star?
No! How dare you ask for this, unless of course you are one of the chosen few, whereby these rules do not apply.
August 5, 2021
Successive UK Governments have been at the fore-front of selling UK PLC, its security, safety and wealth production to anyone and everyone, friends and foes. Then in its preachy tone it wants the UK People to cut back on everything, cut back on their pursuit of wealth, prosperity and security – their wellbeing in fact.
Then to add insult to this injury having moved everything abroad with the inherent loss of jobs here at home we are expected to buy from countries and regimes that don’t give ‘two hoots’ about the UK’s left wing agenda messaging. Buying in from Countries with a greater polluting base than the UK does not at any time stop those countries polluting or help reduce Global Warming. But the UK Government applauds and encourages that notion as it allows a ‘virtue signal’ albeit at the expense of UK prosperity.
Who does the UK Government work for?
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
This government works directly and complies with the KPIs issued by the UN and indirectly the suggestions and directives of the EU
August 5, 2021
forgot to included the unelectable ‘Green Party’
August 5, 2021
Net zero is your chosen course too Mr Redwood. In 2019 you stood on a manifesto committing you to it by 2050. Most of your contributors voted for this manifesto too – though few of them appear to have read what they were voting for.
Reply I stood on the need for green products and services to be popular. People will decide the timings of these moves.
August 5, 2021
Not for the abolition of ICE cars and boilers by 2030.
We told you that before, Andy but you don’t listen.
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
Indeed. Most of us aren’t against going greener (see what we’ve done already, dutifully and without complaint – Mike P’s post above) It’s the timescale has been so severely reduced and before the science to do it is here.
August 5, 2021
We’re against the BAN…..let the market and the people have the choice
August 5, 2021
Could John in form us please, by what date “perfectly good gas boilers” must be ripped out, and that existing ones will not be able to be replaced by like?
My understanding is that there is not one.
August 5, 2021
We all know gas and petrol is going to be punished long before abolition. Indeed, it’s already well underway with petrol.
August 5, 2021
Neither Ms Stratton nor the Leader of the Opposition are likely to change their vehicles or lifestyles unless the new, greener options are either a positive benefit to them or they are forced to do so by legislation.
Exactly the same should apply to the UK.
It is utter madness to go on a path to zero carbon which is economic suicide and hence is not being copied by the Worldās largest emitters of CO2.
This unilateral action is designed by the Marxist elites to destroy our economy and hence our social cohesion in order to bring about the revolution they seek in order to give them an opportunity to seize power.
August 5, 2021
That revolution (from above) happened a couple of decades ago.”They” are already in power-and fairly demonstrably so.
August 5, 2021
@Mitchel
Indeed
…but they are not inclined to stop there – they want their own version of 1984 for us, while they live like lords
August 5, 2021
On the subject of dishwashers.
In order to properly clean cooking utensils and avoid stains on chopping boards, cups and sharp knives etc. I pre-wash everything using no more than a quarter of a washing-up bowl of warm water with a tiny amount of washing-up liquid.
And since the dishwasher sets a cleaning time dependent upon how dirty is the first rinse I may even be using less water this way.
August 5, 2021
Yes, if you get down with a dustpan and brush first then you’ll be surprised at just how much quicker vacuum cleaning is too.
Think of the electricity that you save?
August 5, 2021
more for your Tesla.
August 6, 2021
“Whoooosh!”
August 5, 2021
The greens, and the establishment, do not really like the mass of the public to have the freedom to drive cars, fly on holiday and climate change is giving them an excuse to try and force the general public back to the past of bus and train travel and a lower standard of living. The elite of course will go on driving on half empty roads and flying on holiday to their favoured places without the “curse” of a lot of other tourists.
August 5, 2021
Elizabeth – don’t forget to buy your flat cap to doff as the elite go past.
August 5, 2021
The leader of the Opposition, like so many others that believe in the MMCC religion, is living in a fantasy world. While not in power he can insist on anything he likes, play to the green lobby and show his socialist green credentials – In power, should that ever happen and the sky has not fallen on Chicken lickin – he would be subject to the same issues that Boris has to balance, and would likely be stalled very quickly.
Why does anybody use a dishwasher – surely Stratton should be cracking down on that!
This will of course get even sillier as we continue down this unreal world of trying to starve our world of Co2 which is so useful to us — Doesn’t anybody think of the plants and what we need to grow, that all require it?
What are they going to ban next? I’m not going to make suggestions because no matter how idiotic, some clown would take them up.
Oh for some sanity in all of this – when is it going to percolate down to those making the decisions that while yes, Co2 can trap heat on Earth, there are so many other things affecting our climate that none of the over-heating models can possibly relate to…….. MMCC is the fantasy of the age.
August 5, 2021
I’m with you on dishwashers Bryan. I hate them with a vengeance. Loading them gives me backache, the dessert bowls never fit, ditto emptying them and my energy bill goes up. I put on gloves, use very hot water which is already in the cylinder and in 5 mins I’ve washed and my husband has dried and put away. Job done.
August 5, 2021
Some 81 countries, including major emitters China and India, refused to participate in Sharma’s shindig ahead of COP26. Already it is a failure, and the notion that flaunting our own hair shirt provides leadership that others will follow has once again been disproven.
China and the others have worked out that the best way ahead is to develop dynamic, productive economies that are rich enough to afford any particular adaptations that may prove necessary in the fullness of time. A policy we should emulate before they grab all the resources.
August 5, 2021
I see there is absolutely nothing on the ukcop26.org website about Sharma’s shindig. No record of the event at all. No listing of the vague aspirations touted by any of the attendees. It suggests that most aren’t worth the paper they’re not written on.
Tomeighto, tomahto. Let’s call the whole thing off.
August 5, 2021
It is estimated that Russia controls around one quarter of the world’s natural resources;a number of Russia’s friends and allies are also resource rich.Watch the USA’s hostility to Russia crumble during this decade.
Already,I noted this week,Russia has emerged as the US’s second largest oil supplier,overtaking Mexico in May of this year and Saudi Arabia last year.They are also buying a lot of Russian palladium.Furthermore,Russian agriculture potential is very significantly enhanced by climate change,the USA’s diminished.
In addition, on Monday (acc to Business New Europe)European gas prices hit $517 per 1000cm-this is THREE times the $170 used by Gazprom for it’s 2021 budget!Someone is in the money-and how!
August 5, 2021
Why does anyone need a dishwasher ???
A) The plates need to be partially cleaned before they go in
B) Loading needs to be done properly to optimise usage
C) The cups and bowls need to be dried when they come out
D) More cutlery and crockery is needed if a once-a-day wash is applied
The time savings are not all they’re made out to be and these appliances need replacing every 3 to 5 years .
We all managed perfectly well without them. In fact it created family time together and the saying goes “Those who do the dishes together stay together.”
———–
O/T but the issue of the century. Vaccination of children using an experimental GM drug which the Tories have wavered any liability for medical injury.
Also the Tories have written parents out of the decision making for children over 16.
I’m shocked at this development for such a vulnerable yet low risk group.
This is really sinister, Sir John.
(Don’t let any person who favours this wicked policy ever complain about GM food or chlorinated chicken ever again. And let’s not get started on those who favour abortion as a form of birth control – that happens to be bad for children’s health too.)
August 5, 2021
The Leader of the Opposition can pontificate as much as he likes – he is in Opposition, not Government, so whatever he waffles on about, he can’t do anything about it and judging from the polls and his (dis)approval ratings, he never will be.
The problem we have is the Government in power, which IS in a position to implement policies. We supposedly have a Conservative Government, but there’s precious little which is actually conservative about it.
Rather than ask Sir Keir what HIS policies are, we’d do better to ask the latest Mrs Johnson, since it appears that she is having a major influence on the Government’s policies …. without any kind of mandate from the British people whatsoever. It was she who effectively appointed the hypocritical Ms Stratton to lecture the peasants about the approved method for washing the dishes.
August 5, 2021
Of course we need lecturing – that is the level of contempt they have for us. Same as the jabs – HAVE IT OR BE CONTROLLED AND THREATENED. And those who HAVE had it are – STILL controlled and threatened.
August 5, 2021
+1M!
August 5, 2021
I feel it would be a good idea for Allegra to dry up.
August 5, 2021
+1 last para.
Why are we bothered about what Kier Starmer thinks. It’s Boris with who has the 80 seat majority !
August 5, 2021
No political party, government or opposition, will be taken seriously in their plans to impose electrically powered homes and cars unless they also plan and build extra electricity generation plant. But the BEIS updated 2019 report shows final electricity demand to be relatively stagnant between 2020 and 2040 (at around 40Mtoe). This is impossible, unless most people are to have cold homes and no cars. Which politician will admit that? And only politicians could opt for the most expensive form of energy for domestic consumption – electricity is around 6 times the cost of natural gas – whilst not planning and building it anyway.
August 5, 2021
Yup.
We must inject kids with experimental drugs to save the old… who will die of hypothermia because of green policies.
August 5, 2021
And to think that we all have to pay the bill for rubbish like this. Has the Government got nothing better to do with its time? Yes, of course I scrape the plates into the bin before putting them in the dish washer and have been doing so for years, not because it might save any rain forests,but because it makes it less likely that the drain will be blocked, and I will have to clear it, a job that I particularly dislike.
Have I got something wrong, but I thought it was the Leader of the Government who was promoting all the things you list in your third paragraph, not the Leader of the Opposition, though he probably would like to support them too, but, ‘The duty of the Opposition is to oppose’, isn’t it?
August 5, 2021
A climate change question to Johnson while on his trip to Scotland yesterday got this reply….’well we were at the beginning of the crime of burning fossil fuels’… or words to that effect . Our political class will just not get off their knees , they are like a stuck record in apologising for our existence. If it wasn’t for burning fossil fuels the industrial revolution wouldn’t have happened , and 90% of the population of the world today wouldn’t be alive , we would be still existing as serfs toiling the land . Sometimes you get the distinct impression that is the objective our climate change zealots have in mind now.
August 5, 2021
Iain Moore
“Sometimes you get the distinct impression that is the objective our climate change zealots have in mind now.”
More the case that they’re too stupid to realise they’re being played by corporate globalists.
The world will be a much nicer place without petrol cars and warm homes, everything will be rainbow coloured, don’t you know.
Let it happen Iain, then when these snowflakes lives depend on our help…..refuse.
August 5, 2021
There are a number of things Conservative MPs could do to help. Firstly, they could stop pandering to climate change deniers. You lost the scientific argument 30 years ago – and despite the fact that man made climate change is long since proven some still deny it. They are modern day flat Earthers – but more dangerous. Stop giving them the time of day.
Secondly, stop pretending that electric cars and heat pumps do not work. They do work. Yes, they are different from petrol cars and gas boilers but different doesnāt necessarily mean worse. Absolutely there are challenges with these technologies- including the higher upfront costs involved. But they
are also much cheaper to run. So use policy to help consumers adjust to such changes.
Thirdly, get people to eat less meat. One of the best things we can all do for the planet to eat less meat – and avoid soya where possible too. This isnāt hard. If everyone went two days a week without eating meat weād cut meat consumption by more than a quarter.
Fourth, stop objecting to onshore wind power. It is a really silly thing to complain about and in its place is the right solution.
Lastly, if you are not prepared to be a part of the solution – and many of you arenāt- then get out of the way and let the rest of us fix the problem. There are fewer sights more sickening than reading elderly men abuse a teenage girl who happens to care about the planet. Greta has already achieved more in her short life than any of you have in your long ones. The vitriol aimed at her by some contributors here js sickening. Your children and, particularly, your grandchildren would be appalled. It isnāt the teenager who needs to grow up.
Secondly,
August 5, 2021
The vitriol from you is sickening, or it was. Now, it’s just amusing.
August 5, 2021
Andy :
āYou lost the scientific argument 30 years ago ā and despite the fact that man made climate change is long since proven some still deny it.ā
It hasnāt been proven at all and what is the explanation for the fact that the Earth has been gradually warming since the last Ice Age maximum 22,000 years ago?
The correct historical analogy is not with flat Eathers but with the Pope and all the (scientific?) elites at the time who used the same heresy argument to silence Galileo with the 1615 Roman Inquisition concluding that heliocentrism was foolish, absurd, and heretical.
August 5, 2021
Indeed. There was a time when the elite consensus was that the earth was flat! Just saying.
August 5, 2021
The elite might have insisted that, but scientists, astronomers and seafaring folk knew otherwise.
August 5, 2021
The church and governments banned books saying the earth wasn’t flat and jailed anybody saying the same….good old days
August 6, 2021
GC, I guess you do realise that the major support to the Flat Earth theory came during the period 1870-1920 when Darwinās ideas about evolution developed and became accepted. From Eratosthenesā time to the Middle Ages, the prevalent idea further supported by Muslim astronomers/logersā observations was that the Earth was a sphere.
As for books, Copernicusā book was on heliocentrism (1543), was originally accepted by the (catholic) church, then banned between 1616 and 1835 initially starting because of the opposition to ārisingā Protestantism. Galileoās problems with the Church were because his observations of the moons of Jupiter were bringing support to Copernicusā ideas.
So, only if you can provide better support for your āchurch and governments banned books saying the earth wasnāt flat and jailed anybody saying the sameā, will I not take your above comment as pure drivel as it appears obvious you mix up āflat earth theoryā and āPtolemyās geocentric view of the universeā. Rather a confoundingly basic error.
August 5, 2021
Andy :
āSecondly, stop pretending that electric cars and heat pumps do not work.ā
You are correct, they do work. But the issue is that they are currently not good enough for a sensible long-term solution.
Both are very expensive compared to current technology and are difficult to use for those who donāt live in house.
EVs use up a lot of the Earthās resources to build, the batteries are not yet able to provide the range, longevity and pulling power needed and are very difficult to re-cycle.
Heat pumps are large and only efficient when transporting heat between temperatures with a small difference.
With regard to running costs we all know that fossil fuels are far cheaper.
August 5, 2021
Andy :
āFourth, stop objecting to onshore wind power. It is a really silly thing to complain about and in its place is the right solution.ā
Onshore wind power is definitely not the solution.
It would take up a huge amount of land which should be used for other uses, such as growing our food, and the power it produces is highly intermittent and hence extensive and expensive backup solutions are required.
A far better solution is nuclear power (fission) which over the long-term produces the safest, most reliable and cheapest non-fossil fuel electrical power as well as utilising very little land.
August 5, 2021
andy,
Do you believe the world will end in a few decades?
Because that is now what those who say we have a climate emergency are saying.
Or are you a denier on this claim?
August 5, 2021
Andy
“Stop insulting a teenage girl…”
She was put there as a human shield by cynical, old and rich white men.
If she cannot be challenged then what you have is a child pharaoh.
Please stop thinking that your wealth and your family is safe from all this.
August 5, 2021
Andy, You sound like Prince Charles – we have “less than 100 months to act” to save the planet. Yea gods even Dr Michael Mann is now criticising the climate doomsters. Haven’t you noticed that the doomers have been making dire predictions for 30 years and none of the dooms have happened? The GCMs tune out natural climate variation, so of course “prove” all climate change is man made.
None of your climate doom technology works properly (or at all). Battery electric cars are about 50% heavier (and therefore c50% more expensive), have short ranges, long charge times, and the batteries are a ecological time-bomb. Windmills and Solar are intermittent – so much so they need almost 100% back-up which is not costed against them. Which is why Wind is claimed to be cheaper, but your electricity bills keep going up. Diesel was a failure. Bio fuels use up food. CCS is not operable at scale. And so on.
Only the technologically inept such as politicians, Greta and yourself believe in this green twaddle. Certainly China and India don’t. Which is why China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam are planning to build more than 600 coal fired plants in the next 20 years. And we won’t even build gas fired CCGT. And it is my children and yours who will pay the Ā£6 trillion bill. And all for nothing.
August 5, 2021
You lost Nick.
Get over it.
August 5, 2021
after you Martin.
August 6, 2021
I am not trying to reverse the policy decision to leave the European Union.
I think that it is far better off without the UK for the foreseeable future.
I think that for Britain it is absolute rubbish, a detriment to the country and its people, and I will continue to hold Leave campaigners and voters responsible for their damage, on the other hand.
August 6, 2021
Not sure how that happened! That should have gone to another poster. Please delete above comment in reply to ‘Mickey Taking’. Thanks Sir John.
August 6, 2021
Nice try, Martin, but I think you’ll find that when climate scientists start criticising doom-mongers, it is the CAGW zealots who are losing.
August 5, 2021
Andy
“…..man made climate change is long since proven”
Even if it was…..take your argument to China and the US corporates who financed it with their rabid quest for cheap labour and shitty goods, not us. We’re a tiny island of a mere 60 million population. We didn’t stink the planet out. Why should we have our lifestyles and freedoms messed with because you don’t have the guts tackle the real culprits.
August 5, 2021
Who is this woman who ‘presided over’ anything? I thought she was just a media person a spokesperson not yet another unelected decision influencer. That is our MPs job!
August 5, 2021
Perhaps Boris should be listening to Allegra Stratton about electric cars ?
Allegra could always buy a electric Vauxhall Corsa. The electric version costs twice the price of the petrol model and will struggle to complete a 140 mile round trip without recharging. She’s absolutely right to continue to drive her Diesel Golf because the current crop of electric cars have half the range, take twice as long to charge and are at least 30% more expensive than they need to be to be competitive.
It’s obvious that until dramatic improvements are made in all three areas, sensible car buyers will not make the switch.
I keep an eye on developments in this field because I am a car enthusiast. I recently saw a headline that a new Mercedes saloon has a range of “up to 453 miles” and will take just 35 minutes to go from 10% to 85% charge.
That looked promising, until I looked further. It’s their forthcoming top-of-the-range S class electric car and, judging by the price of their diesel equivalent model, it will cost at least Ā£100,000-Ā£120,000 !
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
Can you hear that?….. Yes, that’s right, it’s the rest of the World laughing their heads off at our Woke Green B.S.
August 5, 2021
The rest of the world is not laughing : just about every western government is also signed up to the green crap agenda, especially the USA since Biden was elected.
Some voters in other countries might be laughing now, but when their own governments impose the kind of thing every UK political party is proposing, they won’t be !
August 5, 2021
If not the World, Putin and Xi Jinping certainly rightly think what fools lead the rest of the World.
August 5, 2021
There’s a big push from our government and the media as to the ‘what’ to do, but very little as to ‘why’ we should be doing it
August 5, 2021
Or how we can realistically do it without out becoming a banana Republic.
August 5, 2021
I wouldn’t pass.I rinse most crockery to prevent bits sticking and having to put it through the cycle again.I bake my own whole meal bread which doesn’t have a preservative and therefore becomes stale quickly.Breadcrumbscan be made and stored or the birds enjoy the whole grains.
August 5, 2021
Someone should tell Stratton that it is possible to wash the dishes by hand, without the help of an electric dishwasher appliance. Many people have, for a long time, been keeping bread in the fridge, or the freezer if keeping it for longer than 3 or 4 weeks.
August 5, 2021
No-one objects to doing sensible and cost-effective things to reduce emissions, a self-charging hybrid car, for example; ensuring, through grants perhaps, a that all boilers in use are “A” rated; introducing a scrappage scheme for all diesel cars and vans without a particulate filter as a quick win to improve air quality in towns and cities for example. What is not justified by the Uk’s tiny (and diminishing) share of global CO2 is the hugely expensive use solely of electricity for domestic heating and the crazy pursuit of “net zero”. What is needed is to have “minimal carbon” as the objective and to use our collective technological and engineering skills to achieve it without bankrupting the country and most of its population.
August 5, 2021
Pieter C
“No-one objects to doing sensible and cost-effective things to reduce emissions”
Actually I produce as much Co2 as possible, deliberately. Because I object to a mandate-less buffoon thinking he can tell me what to do.
I deliberately burn coal, the occasional tyre, in fact anything that produces Co2 I do in excess. Just to spite Johnson.
August 5, 2021
John, when will those who rule our lives, take the basic responsibility of assessing the evidence? If they do, they will realise that climate change is not in the gift of man, but a cyclical (not linear) phenomenon that is determined by external factors – sunspots, cloud cover etc – which are not incorporated into the IPCC or other models on which the doom predictions are based.
They might also note that, once the IPCC’s predictions have invariably proved false, the mantra changed from eliminating ‘global warming’ to fixing ‘climate change’. This makes no sense.
They will also see that the focus on a few high-profile weather events – wildfires and floods in particular – is selecting evidence to suit a pre-determined conclusion. The media conveniently ignore the record breaking blasts of cold, snow and ice across many parts of the globe. ‘Global Warming’ too – presumably.
Proselytes of climate change do not embrace science. There is nothing which will refute the proposition that man is a significant determinant of climate. This is not science but religion. The sooner those wishing to impoverish us with costly remediatory measures recognise this, the better for us all.
August 6, 2021
Cloud cover, external factor? Nothing to do with moisture, temperature, condensation nuclei, turbulent or convective motions in the atmosphere? All incorporated in weather forecast and climate models. (Here your ignorance is abysmal).
If you were to try to get a bit more informed, you would not be repeating the usual vacuous meme about climate change vs. global warming. The very first IPCC report in 1990 was from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, not from the IPGW. Only the GWPF (for obvious reasons) goes on with GW.
All āthe record breaking blasts of cold, snow and ice over many parts of the globeā are the daily bread of the MetOffice and other meteorological officesā forecasts.
And if you had ever worked in one of those offices you might realise there are more scientists with STEM degrees in these places than in all of the UK government (I agree it is not a very high threshold to cross).
So, what do you make of the 03/03/2021 livescience.com āThe Gulf Stream is slowing to a ātipping pointā and could disappearā? This (and other studies, eg, J.-C. Duplessy, 1999 Climate and the Gulf Stream, Nature, 402, 593; N. Boers, 2021, Observation-based early-warning signals for a collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, Nature Climate Change, 11, 580-588) would show that for the British Isles there is as much a chance of very cold winters (less transport of warm water by the weakening Gulf Stream from the Gulf of Mexico towards GB, Iceland and Scandinavia as of increasingly hot and humid summers due to prolonged blocking (stationary) patterns allowing increased precipitation over several hours).
August 5, 2021
Forcing behaviour changes that cause hardships, emotional and financial, is a slippery slope to mass civil disobedience and more and so risks catastrophic failure, clearly.
There must be strong doubt that even if human activity were to be varied, the climate would change back to any noticeable extent.
August 5, 2021
I think we all (including your good self Sir John) already know the answers to your questions.
Unfortunately I don’t think there is going to be a peaceful or bloodless end to all this :o(
August 5, 2021
It is impressive that Allegra, an elite politico, is able to come up with an engineering energy saving process for a dishwasher.
These solutions exist, they just need some creative thinking.
However she did not think it through fully.
You do not need the dishwasher at all!
When you have a coffee, just stand it in a bowl of water as you drink it, the waste heat from the coffee mug will warm the water and this can be used to do the dishes with a brush or a sponge.
Air conditioning can be replaced with persons waving a hand held device known as a fan. (Technology well known in China) These are probably the green jobs Boris is often talking about.
Personal heating can be avoided by the introduction of person sized hamster wheels, solves the obesity problem at the same time. /sarc
August 5, 2021
Love your post Wil. Gave me a good laugh.
August 5, 2021
I suggest that we all have personal crockery and cutleryā¦one of each plate, cup etc. you understand and just keep using them.
Dishwasher once a week/month?
Everyone will be relieved to learn that a dishwasher saves about 10kg of CO2 per year over running the tap. ( Would that be daily?). And of course since we deserve no life of any sort, a small ācarbon footprintā must be our goal and obsession.
Mind youā¦too much unwashed china etc just might lead to a pandemicā¦ā¦.
August 5, 2021
Everhopeful
“Mind youā¦too much unwashed china etc just might lead to a pandemicā¦ā¦.”
First class ! +10
August 5, 2021
OFF TOPIC.
A judge at the Old Bailey pressed prosecutors to explain whether they stand by a string of Extinction Rebellion (XR) convictions.
Since 2019, XR says that hundreds of its followers have been convicted of blocking roads.
Many of those convictions now appear to be in doubt after the Supreme Court recently ruled that peacefully and briefly obstructing a highway for a genuine political cause was lawful activity.
Define peacefully, briefly and obstructing. Then what is a genuine political cause?
The Supreme Court has made conviction for this dreadful protest activity impossible to police.
August 5, 2021
The latest Shapps Highway Code proposals make obstructing the highway entirely legal. Is he an XR member? Closer to them than Conservative, anyway.
August 5, 2021
The usual trust-funded kids, Lefty state retirees and students will be doing it.
Those trying to run the country can’t afford the time to do it.
August 5, 2021
All the imminent imposed changes to our lives in order to “stop Global warming” are possibly fine for the well-heeled, but spell disaster for those on low incomes or “just about managing”. So, when I’ve made the massive changes to my house in order for a heat pump to be sort of effective, (most UK housing stock is unsuitable for this technology) where do I find the money for an EV? Meanwhile, CO2 from Chinese and Indian emissions will continue unabated as politically they cannot slow down their economies. And as we reduce our meat consumption we render marginal land and hill farms redundant and consign huge areas of arable land across the globe to monocropping to feed humanity, with devastating effects on wildlife and bio-diversity.
August 5, 2021
David, remember Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London at the time, making London a non Nuclear Zone, thinking such an action would make all London residents safe from any Nuclear attack.
So following on with that thought, Boris could perhaps make the whole of the UK a non Climate Change Zone which would thus protect us from the affects of Climate change, if it happens.
He may of course have to learn some lessons from King Canute’s attempts at controlling the tides, but we have practised, and been successful so far with the Thames Barrier.
Real engineering may therefore be a solution in time, rather than stupid rapidly applied polices and tax hikes.
August 5, 2021
Allegra Stratton epitomises so much that is wrong with Boris Johnson. She was appointed purely for reasons of political correctness (she’s a woman) and to appease Mrs J (she’s a friend of Carrie’s); she is incompetent at her job (drivelling on about how to use dishwashers); is not a Tory (she advocates people join the Green Party); she is a PR disaster (she refuses to buy an electric car); and organisationally she is more of a hindrance than a help (she does not report to, or even consult with, Alok Sharma, the COP26 organiser).
In any case, why on earth do we need a spokesman specifically for climate change? We don’t. We don’t have separate spokesmen on other issues, do we, like health, or defence, or crime, or whatever. No, it is a pathetic, embarrassing pandering to the “green crap” lobby. Boris really is so contemptibly weak.
August 5, 2021
X Tory
“In any case, why on earth do we need a spokesman specifically for climate change? ”
We don’t need one, but Johnson thinks he does. Something to do with his fear of angry people.
As I have said before, one of Johnson’s characteristics is to dump responsibility on someone else. Another is to expect someone else to clean up his mess.
“follow the science”…..in other words: ‘it wasn’t me, it was them’…. ‘Oh, sorry I can’t face the music right now I have ter self isolate ‘.
August 5, 2021
Climate Realism – Climate Bullshit is a true description and anyone who belives all this crap needs to wake up immediately. I have asked this question many times and I will ask it again. Where does all the money for the Paris Climate Accord go? Climate!!!!!
There again JR is a politician so I do not expect an answer. Wake up people.
August 5, 2021
+1
August 5, 2021
JR
“She has suggested not rinsing crockery before putting it in the dishwasher”
I suggest she refrains from assuming a right to tell other people what to do.
“She has also presided over a welcome delay to introducing expensive heat pumps ”
In other words: ‘it’s a stupid idea and a vote killer’
“She has said she prefers to run an older diesel car”
…..hypocrisy. What climate cultists famous for.
August 5, 2021
Pleased to see some realism from the Fair Fuel UK APPG calling for abandoning the Gove diktats on banning ICE vehicles.
August 5, 2021
The opposition leader is just pathetically trying to toady – up to the green lobby, because he stupidly thinks it’ll get him elected. It doesn’t occur to him that even traditional conservative voters really do hate Boris Johnson because of his support for the net zero scam.
The man’s a fool who’s backed the wrong horse, and will come to realise it when he sees what we do to Johnson.
August 5, 2021
Daily Mail
āBostonās acting Mayor Kim Janey likened vaccine passports to the papers that newly-freed slaves had to carry around after the civil war as she dismissed the idea of implementing them in her city.ā
August 5, 2021
Ms Stratton could fairly cheaply score lots of greenie points by converting her Polo to CNG, compressed natural gas. This conversion means she is halfway to the hydrogen economy and she can use the plentiful reserves of shale gas under the North Sea, Yorks, Lancs and even, amusingly, Glasgow.
By this simple act she could ensure that her name will not be associated only with (faulty) advice about dishwashers.
JF
August 5, 2021
Hang on, we need more carbon dioxide to make the planet green, not less . . .
August 5, 2021
For decades the conservative message and principals have all been centred on freedom of choice, fair competition, low taxation, consumer demand, low regulation, law & order, low migration, business growth and international free tradeā¦.what went wrong
August 5, 2021
JR
I sometimes wonder just out of curiosity, Mr Redwood, when you choose and write your excellent topics if you see yourself as doing so on behalf of the party, or for some personal reason, or for benefit of readers ?
I wonder because I cannot believe for a minute that you’d be unaware of the nation’s contempt for and loathing of your party leader. Especially with his policies on immigration, NI, the EU, fishing, and climate to name but a few.
The man is a dodger, a promise breaker, and frankly an outright con merchant. Before long he may even surpass Blair as being the most deceitful PM ever.
I simply cannot believe a man of your education and talent would waste his time and effort for the likes of him, or indeed back benchers who do nothing to rid the nation of this foreign – serving tyrant.
You must surely therefore be running this blog as some kind of hobby, i.e it’s your ‘thing’ or maybe even passing our views onto the party…..though I’m sure nobody would object as it gets our views known.
Carry on the good work Sir, whatever your motive.
Reply I Wish to contribute to the national debate, to influence decision takers and commentators. It is not a hobby.
August 6, 2021
Do you have pastimes, John?
For instance, Ted Heath was a conductor, and Ken Livingston kept newts.
I’d be interested to read.
Reply Cricket
August 6, 2021
and yours Martin? The collected works of Chinese Emporers?
August 6, 2021
Allegra Stratton can best conserve the planet’s energy by holding her tongue.
Ronald Reagan gave the correct advice to all meddling governments: ‘Don’t do something – just stand there!’
August 6, 2021
But you the Right – collectively – appear to want to ban everything from eScooters to postal voting to factual, informative notices by the National Trust.
So what do you mean “just stand there”?
August 6, 2021
‘want to ban everything from eScooters to postal voting’
That sort of includes everything, typical leftie generalisation.
August 6, 2021
And you want to ban turning up at the polling station, Martin.
August 6, 2021
?
August 9, 2021
As a postscript to this thread Sir John, it may be worth catching up on Channel 4ās programme tonight (9th Aug) with Guy Martin building and testing an electric car to race in. An hour into the programme he drives from the Midlands to John OāGroats in a family production EV. Half of his pre-planned charging points didnāt work or had other issues like payment authorisation failures and the cost of his trip in electricity from public charge points was Ā£400 I think, compared to Ā£160 had he bought diesel. Further evidence of how far we have to go to convince motorists to switch.
Reply Yes I saw that. I have now seen 3 such trials and all found the same problems with rang3 anĀ£ recharge. That is one reason why I have not bought an EV.
August 10, 2021
Apologies the figures were Ā£204 electric vs Ā£140 diesel, still a big gap though. This in the footage from 50 minutes in.