The Business Department needs to promote UK energy to promote UK industry

I attach below my proposal to the Business Secretary:

 

Levelling up requires the UK to attract and retain more investment in industry as well as services. One of the main requirements to keep and attract industry is a plentiful supply of affordable energy. This may well in the future be renewable electricity or hydrogen gas made using renewable electricity, but for the next few years industry remains heavily dependent on gas.

This means we either allow more UK gas to be produced and supplied on longer term contract at affordable prices, or watch as more of our industry is closed down and replaced with imports from countries that do have cheaper gas. If you want to make glass, ceramics, paper, steel, cement, plastics or many other products you need gas. Importing it from somewhere else does not reduce the carbon footprint. It usually  increases it.

The UK energy policy in recent years has been to close down our coal power stations,to avoid building much new gas generating capacity and to rely more and more on imports. We need Norwegian, Qatari and EU gas in increasing quantities to keep our plants open. When there is a worldwide gas shortage our partial dependence on imported gas at world spot prices causes particular stress. We need increasing amounts of EU and Norwegian electricity.

We compound the difficulties of the steel industry by failing to mine a specialist coal we have in the U.K. and need for steel output. The chemical industry of course relies on oil and gas feedstock for much of what it does, but we have not allowed sufficient production and a close working relationship  between the energy industry at home and the chemical industry. Germany has a larger chemical industry without a home gas and oil industry which should have placed it at a disadvantage but Germany does cut energy prices for industry and relies on a lot more coal in the total mix.

Shouldn’t we trust the market more and grant the permits for UK exploration and development of domestic oil and gas? Wouldn’t that reduce CO2 by cutting dependence on imports from coal based systems like Germany and China  and from the extra transport it takes to bring the goods to us?

 

212 Comments

  1. Mark B
    October 13, 2021

    Good morning.

    The original Climate Change Act (2008) called for the UK to reduce its CO2 emissions by 80% in 2050. In 2019 it was amended so that the UK will now reduce CO2 emissions by 100% by the same year. This was enacted by a Conservative (sic) government and parliament.

    To those that have read what our kind host requests of his colleagues in government I ask you this. Do you honestly think that the PM, the government and this parliament are going to suddenly backtrack and abandon the path they have just recently set this nation on ?

    They are not going to find new forms of energy and seek to bring down prices and secure supply. They have decided, much like the CCP of Mao Tse Tung on a plan of action and to hell with the consequences. It is not good us voting for some other party, as they will do the same. It’s for our own good you see.

    Now. How did that, ‘Great Leap Forward’ workout for the people of China ?

    1. Mark B
      October 13, 2021

      It is not hard to see why you decided to hold this in moderation. Given all the plaudits below it is much easier to focus on the ‘pretend truth’ rather than the reality. To reiterate my point above, no government is going to contradict itself by changing legislature in support of the Green Lobby whilst building new CO2 producing power stations. It is that stark reality that you do not want people to see and the futility of your actions.

      They aren’t listening to you, and never shall.

      1. DavidJ
        October 13, 2021

        +1

      2. No Longer Anonymous
        October 13, 2021

        +1

    2. Timaction
      October 13, 2021

      If you can spare the time, 1.5 hours of interview. Dr Patrick Moore, a Canadian real scientist is interviewed on his latest book on climate and CO2, “Fake Invisible Catastrophises and Threats of doom”. His explanations, research and knowledge, backed up by his qualifications debunks Boris climate change baloney and zero carbon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5K5i5Wv7jQ&t=59s

      1. John C.
        October 13, 2021

        This Moore chap knows his stuff, but the majority of the media and politicians just accept this Climate nonsense without question. They are never, ever challenged or faced with the facts.

      2. glen cullen
        October 13, 2021

        Is that the same Patrick Moore was the Co-Founder & Ex-President of Greenpeace…I believe it is

        1. glen cullen
          October 13, 2021

          This video needs to be screened in the House of Commons to all MPs

        2. Timaction
          October 13, 2021

          Yes it is. Totally supports cleaner environments, as we all do, but not the lies and nonsense around CO2. Well worth a listen to him on above link.

      3. Timaction
        October 13, 2021

        Sir John,
        If you get a chance please listen to this interview. I know its a big ask as it is a long time, then forward it to your colleagues. People need to know the science NOT the religion and differentiate the two.

      4. Mark B
        October 14, 2021

        Thanks.

    3. John Hatfield
      October 13, 2021

      ” It is not good us voting for some other party, as they will do the same. ”
      That depends upon which party you vote for. It doesn’t have to be Lib, Lab or Con.

      1. John Hatfield
        October 13, 2021

        The only other alternative would be for the Tories to dump Johnson and elect a prime minister with conservative beliefs. A very long shot.

        1. Mark B
          October 14, 2021

          John

          I am aware of that. I am also aware that there are a lot of people who have never heard of the, ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ and that the same thing can apply when voting or, promoting a pandemic.

  2. Fedupsoutherner
    October 13, 2021

    That’s a great letter John which is full of common sense. I hope you’re not expecting a coherent and sensible reply. Do keep us informed.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      October 13, 2021

      The Tories have been in power for eleven years, yes, for eleven years.

      Did none of them during that time bother to pay attention to assessments – if any were ever commissioned at all – as to the UK’s resilience in energy matters?

      Given the zero attention that they paid to the report into its readiness for a pandemic, and the scores of thousands of lives lost needlessly as a result, I’d say that it is reasonable to assume that none of them did.

      1. Hat man
        October 13, 2021

        No, NLH, more than they paid attention to a cost/benefit analysis of lockdowns, not for first , nor the second, not for the third one, by which time there would have been ample infoormation to carry one out. That didn’t interest the authors of the ‘report’.

      2. Peter2
        October 14, 2021

        Still 10 points ahead in polls.
        Lol

    2. Peter
      October 13, 2021

      FUS,

      The points are sound and Sir John Redwood is now on record as having made them.

      However, Johnson is only interested in the Davos crowd and their ‘Build, Back, Better’ mantra. So we will continue to damage the national interests under cover of a green agenda.

  3. David Peddy
    October 13, 2021

    I agree with this.
    The government’s economic and energy policy is confused, contradictory and incoherent
    We need growth which requires investment and start ups .So what do we do ? Increase Corporation Tax and NIC contributions which deter investment and employment
    We should be fracking in the North West , mining coking coal in Cumbria and opening the Jupiter field in the North Sea; investing in the RR mini nuclear plants
    We should be ensuring that public procurement is directed to British industry and not abroad wherever possible

    1. Enrico
      October 13, 2021

      David Peddy did you forget about Hydro as the seas create waves 24 hours a day 7 days a week and so on?

    2. SM
      October 13, 2021

      +10

  4. DOM
    October 13, 2021

    You’re flogging a dead horse Sir John. Johnson’s not listening.

    Maybe you should condemn him from a public platform before he drags us all into a net-zero, progressive, racial world no one wants to go.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      October 13, 2021

      +1

      Insulate Britain have more support from Johnson than Sir John does.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      October 13, 2021

      Sensible countries, still operating on the principles of the Enlightenment – there are some across the Channel – are not in the lamentable and risible position that the UK is because they have sufficient gas stored a) to maintain supplies during any shortage or interruption in the wholesale market and b) not to be forced to buy during price spikes.

      In so far as they may have handed over such matters to the private sector, it would appear that they have maintained such diligence, oversight, and control as to ensure that their respective countries continued to have what one would expect in that regard in the First World.

      Their storage capacity is typically between ten and thirty times that of the UK.

    3. Everhopeful
      October 13, 2021

      +1
      Exactly.
      And a public platform is what is needed.

    4. glen cullen
      October 13, 2021

      Agree and sadly I’ve came to the conclusion that Boris, his cabinet, his government and his backbenches are no longer listening to its voting members
.we have a rogue government

    5. Timaction
      October 13, 2021

      Indeed. We have a Government of know nothings. They export our manufacturing, energy generating capacity and CO2 footprint. All these things are manufactured and generated elsewhere and imported back using more CO2. That’s a special kind of stupid!!! Gas storage anyone?

      1. DavidJ
        October 13, 2021

        +1

    6. lifelogic
      October 13, 2021

      Let us hope post COP26 he will recover from Covid/Carrie/green crap syndrome and return to being the old could not pull the skin of a rice pudding, small government Boris! Rather than this new green crap, tax and regulate to death socialist fool.

      1. Paul Cuthbetson
        October 13, 2021

        LL – No chance, Boris is a Globalist and will promote the Globalist UK Establishment World Economic Forum, NWO Great Reset ideology. We need to change the system and it starts at the very top. Remember you are a subject. Nothing can stop what is coming, Nothing.

      2. glen cullen
        October 13, 2021

        Like you I am still optimistic that the men in grey suits will have a word

      3. Mark B
        October 14, 2021

        LL

        He has his eye on the post PM speaking circuit and possible seat in the HoL. Which would really suit him. IYKWIM

        😉

  5. Sharon
    October 13, 2021

    Lots of common sense ideas here
hope they’re listened to.

    Why does looking after our own interests not seem to figure into the British government psyche?

    1. Paul Cuthbetson
      October 13, 2021

      Sharon – Do you really think your government cares about you??

  6. bigneil - newer comp
    October 13, 2021

    We need more power – – got to keep those hotels full of migrants, who aren’t paying a penny for anything – – to keep nice and warm – – while WE have to pay for it all.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      October 13, 2021

      Bigneil – Haven’t you got it yet ? Those causing this to happen LOVE hearing you bleat about it.

    2. jerry
      October 13, 2021

      @bigneil; There are many British nationals who do not pay a penny for their keep either, the work-shy who live on JSA/UC, those who live on cheap (never to be paid back) student loans, those who are in jail, but you never rant about them do you, why would you, after all they’re British…

      1. Sir Joe Soap
        October 13, 2021

        If we have so many British work-shy, why does the country need to import more?

        1. jerry
          October 13, 2021

          @SJS; Yours is the usual “All migrants are lazy” nonsense.

          Before Brexit, before the pandemic, I used to see or knew of many very hard working migrants around these parts of the UK and elsewhere doing hard, often physical, work for the market rate that most fit and able British born would not get out of bed for, not even to read the job advert – work on a farm, work in a chilled environment for 8 hours, not on your life!

        2. Fedupsoutherner
          October 13, 2021

          Look at the number of unskilled job vacancies…about a million. Why are people sitting on their backsides claiming UC etc? Could it be that benefits actually give them a better lifestyle than working. My friends neighbours who live on benefits are currently enjoying their twice yearly vacation in Spain. They paid for it themselves… or rather you and I did.

    3. Sir Joe Soap
      October 13, 2021

      Perhaps that’s how this will get done. Breach of their Human Rights not to have heating at the touch of a button.

  7. turboterrier
    October 13, 2021

    All very good proposals Sir John.
    Let’s hope that the recipient fully understands how the energy business actually works especially in the manufacturing industries you have highlighted. Whoever is really in charge has got to take full ownership of the problem and fight his corner with no quarter asked or given. That principle applies to all those that work within the department. If things do not dramatically change then these sectors of British industry will be yet more offerings on the altar of the Church of Renewable Energy and Saving the World.

    1. SM
      October 13, 2021

      +1

  8. Sea_Warrior
    October 13, 2021

    A timely intervention, Sir John. Amongst other things, I would like to see approval given for that new Cumbria coal-mine. We need diversity and resilience in our energy-generating mix – especially on yet another cool, windless, overcast day. Off to Gridwatch!

  9. Shirley M
    October 13, 2021

    Why do we pay 3 to 4 times as much for power as other European countries? Is it because we import most of it, or because of taxes? Either way, it is putting the UK, its industry, its businesses and its citizens at a great disadvantage. Such disadvantage that the country and its citizens will be bankrupted.

    Why does the UK cripple its industries while China, Germany and the USA support their own? Whatever sacrifices the UK makes, it will be a mere ripple on the ocean so far as climate change goes, but it will be a dirty great destructive tsunami to the future of the UK.

    1. DavidJ
      October 13, 2021

      +1

    2. John Hatfield
      October 13, 2021

      “Whatever sacrifices the UK makes, it will be a mere ripple on the ocean so far as climate change goes,”
      Or possibly none at all, Shirley.

  10. Cynic
    October 13, 2021

    @JR. None of this should need pointing out to any government minister. I wonder why they blindly follow their perverse agenda.

    1. alan jutson
      October 13, 2021

      Cynic

      Green I would suggest is the key word, the problem is if you simply think green with no thoughts of anything else, everything eventually turns red as businesses lose money, eventually close, and people are put out of work. Not withstanding the increase in the populations utility power bills.

      Actions in the UK alone will not save the World, neither will virtue signalling.

    2. Christine
      October 13, 2021

      Unfortunately, we are governed by virtue signalling fools. Boris keeps all the sensible MPs out of all cabinet positions.

      1. Paul Cuthbetson
        October 13, 2021

        Out of a total 650 MPs from both sides, how many are sensible? 5% if that.

    3. Everhopeful
      October 13, 2021

      Are they poor, “bought”, compromised creatures?
      Terrified?
      It has to be bad to have done what they have done.

  11. Dave Andrews
    October 13, 2021

    One bright consequence of the energy problem, if cement isn’t being produced and not available through imports because of transportation problems, that means less English meadow being ripped up and covered in concrete.
    Will the government be bothered about the loss of heavy industry, given the high levels of jobs available in the UK?

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      October 13, 2021

      It means that Bluekip-voting white van man might get a bit grumpy too, Dave.

      Tsk. What a pity.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        October 13, 2021

        NLH – What ? You mean the guy that kept the country going during the pandemic ? The one that brought middle class people their stuff while they were in hiding ?

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          October 13, 2021

          Well said NLA.

    2. Everhopeful
      October 13, 2021

      +1

    3. Sir Joe Soap
      October 13, 2021

      No worries, just import it. Taxpayer will foot the bill.

  12. DOM
    October 13, 2021

    This morning the Islandmagee (Larne) gas storage project given go ahead in Northern Ireland. This could become a centre for gas storage and export to the rest of the UK

    ‘Notification by Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (“DAERA”) to issue the Marine Licence for the Islandmagee Gas Storage project. ‘

    This project needs backing to turn it into a LNG centre

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      October 13, 2021

      Yes, it’s a pity that the Tories just sat there, and let the Only-For-Profit lads shut down the existing gas storage in Great Britain, isn’t it?

      1. Peter2
        October 14, 2021

        You just need reliable energy supply.
        Would you invest hundreds of millions in gas storage when the stated desire is to get to zero fossil fuels?

    2. Mark
      October 13, 2021

      The project is for 500mcm of storage- about 5.5TWh. While it could supply the equivalent of 14 days of peak demand in Northern Ireland it is still quite small relative to GB demand, currently about 200mcm/day, and double that in a cold snap. It offers added security against any need to shut the pipelines from Moffat for maintenance (there are lines to Dublin as well as to Larne). That pipeline is effectively fed from UK and Norwegian gas landed at St Fergus so is not suitable for reverse operation, and with Ireland becoming increasingly short of gas as the Corrib field ages that is unlikely. LNG requires cryogenic storage below minus 160 C, so do not expect the caverns to store it. Whether the island of Ireland could justify an LNG terminal is doubtful, and there would be pressure to build it in the South in any event, partly to take advantage of the distribution infrastructure already in place for Corrib and partly because of deepwater ports that could take a Qmax vessel. More likely would be another pipeline, perhaps from Milford Haven that already has 2 LNG terminals.

      1. acorn
        October 13, 2021

        The Moffat pipeline has been separated into two independent pipelines at the Moffat end and both upgraded to interconnectors at both ends. Why do you think GNI spent a lot doing that; if, as you say, “is not suitable for reverse operation”? “Ireland becoming increasingly short of gas as the Corrib field ages”. That will come as a big surprise for Irish Gas Engineers. You mention the Islandmagee capacity at 500 mcm (million cubic meters), is that total gas or working gas?

  13. Lifelogic
    October 13, 2021

    Exactly – but hydrogen made from renewable electricity is very unlikely to ever make economic or environmental sense. It is very expensive, very energy and materials wasteful and is expensive to store and distribute. Even more energy is wasted if converted back to electricity you waste something like 60% of the electricity initially generated produced doing that and it is hugely expensive too.

    Methane is far preferable and we can extract plenty of it to keep us going until we get better nuclear.

    1. Original Richard
      October 13, 2021

      Lifelogic :

      I agree that hydrogen with its high expense (and danger?) to store (700 bar) and higher pressures to distribute than methane/natural gas – so we can’t use the existing natural gas/methane pipes – is not the answer.

      Methane is the right way to go until we either can rely on renewables because the storage problem has been resolved or through advances in nuclear energy (fission or fusion).

      Methane is plentiful and we can use existing distribution pipes, boilers, burners, and ic engines to use methane and its CO2 emissions are far less than other fossil fuels.

      In addition large quantities of green methane (biogas) can be produced via anaerobic digesters working with waste and grass or from renewables when they are producing excess electricity

      1. Lifelogic
        October 13, 2021

        +1

    2. Dave Andrews
      October 13, 2021

      I agree with you on methane – far better than hydrogen. Not so sure about nuclear, as it comes with all that radioactive by-products that have to be stored forever and massive decommissioning costs. How about geothermal power – perhaps not solved economically for the UK but given research? The earth leaks heat 10 times the global electricity generation all the time, so it’s not as if we will tap into it and freeze the infernal regions any time soon.

      1. alan jutson
        October 13, 2021

        Dave

        Been to Iceland and seen their geothermal power system in operation. Staggering and simple.

    3. dixie
      October 14, 2021

      So where are the facts and numbers to justify your usual black crap exaggerations?
      If no gas/oil is available at all or only at uneconomic levels, say because China or Germany can afford to pay more or an unfriendly government wishes to turn the screws, are H2 and renewables still uneconomic then?
      UK Gov pays wind farms to not produce if they are surplus so that capacity is wasted. Surplus power could instead be used to produce H2 instead, stored locally as generated Methane or synthetic liquid fuel to power the backup generators. What is the true wastage then when waste capacity has been turned into dispatchable storage?
      And how is nuclear going to keep your antique vehicles running, HGVs delivering and aircraft flying?

  14. alan jutson
    October 13, 2021

    Surely your comments are just common-sense are they not.

    If the Business Department do not already know this is the way to go, then what is the point of their existence.

    1. Paul Cuthbetson
      October 13, 2021

      AJ – including the majority of departments for that matter. Jobs for the boys, index linked pension etc. There again Globalist “control of the masses”policies are what matter. The “man in the street” has more ideas because he is spending his money.

  15. Oldtimer
    October 13, 2021

    It is a sad commentary on the current state of this and indeed previous governments comprehension of the elementary that it is necessary for you to even have to write such a statement of the obvious to the Business Secretary. The UK needs another “dash for gas” to extricate itself from the very deep hole it is in.

  16. Nig l
    October 13, 2021

    I see Government proposals are to give emergency loans to companies hit by rising energy costs subject to restriction on bonuses/dividends etc.

    So pensioners through their funds and other investors relying on dividend income are ‘being taxed’ indirectly, so their income is suffering, to pay for government failure.

    And Hancock who played a major role in the unnecessary deaths of thousands of people, not named in the recent committee report, but part of the cabal that failed us, is now back in the fold with some sort of important job.

    He should, with many others, be permanently out on his bloody ear.

  17. Ian Wragg
    October 13, 2021

    The whole point of net zero is to de industrialise the country. I bet Boris and Carrie were salivating when the fertiliser plants shutdown before realising it affected half the food processing industry with no CO2..
    They will also wet themselves when steel, glass and chemicals are all offshore and they cut CO2 even further.
    Sod the UK residents and their jobs, levelling up sorted.
    You will be poor………

    1. glen cullen
      October 13, 2021

      Correct and every MP is complicit for allowing the current situation to happen
.the writing has been on the wall for many years
      Cancel cop26, stop the green revolution, cancel the Paris agreement, cancel the fossil fuel bans
..tell business that the lights will remain on and the cost of energy will be the lowest in the developed countries

    2. Everhopeful
      October 13, 2021

      +1
      Dear B & C
      “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal …” (Matthew 6:19-20).

      ie drop the greencr*p and put your people first!

      1. glen cullen
        October 13, 2021

        Goddamn Right

        1. Everhopeful
          October 13, 2021

          +1

    3. Mitchel
      October 13, 2021

      There is a lovely videoclip that has been doing the rounds for the past week of Vladimir Putin addressing a German audience in 2010(pre NS2):

      “What are you going to heat your homes with?You don’t want gas,you aren’t developing nuclear power….will you burn wood?Even for that you will have to go to Siberia.”

      The audience roared with laughter at the mention of Siberia.

  18. Everhopeful
    October 13, 2021

    I wonder if the “experts” have decided how to make hypodermic syringes when there is no more coal? Not to mention surgical instruments.
    They might be somewhat hampered in their ambition to turn us into human pincushions.
    Yes I know about the “sustainable” alternative to steel needles but there are big drawbacks to that fantasy product.
    Oh but then, it doesn’t look like medical care ( for the peasants) figures very highly in the “expert’s” plans.

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      October 13, 2021

      To be honest, most hypodermic needles are made in Japan, Korea and China.

      This whole business of energy and listening to “Tombstone” Ed M. this morning leads to me thinking the direction of travel here by both parties is nationalisation of power closely followed by government prescribing those industries and individuals who are entitled to use it. Without a Faragist alternative the future is black, and that’s not coal-black.

      1. Everhopeful
        October 13, 2021

        +1
        Well I assumed that at some point even they would be required to go green?
        Or I suppose we keep using them to offset our carbon.
        How about Tice? I just don’t know.

  19. Colin
    October 13, 2021

    Yes, but Carrie wouldn’t like it…

  20. Sea_Warrior
    October 13, 2021

    I see that we have 9% of our electricity coming in through the interconnectors today – and that our coal-fired power stations are in operation again. (Something that comforts me.) I hope that we’re topping-up their coal-yards.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 13, 2021

      +1, and that they will not destroy anymore coal fired power stations or gas storage facilities and get fracking. The weather is still rather mild too currently – what will it look like in Jan/Feb/March?

    2. Everhopeful
      October 13, 2021

      +1
      Tee hee! Various outlets are selling COAL now!
      “Small Coale a penny a peake.”

    3. Mike Wilson
      October 13, 2021

      I hope that we’re topping-up their coal-yards.

      So do I. But it will be with imported coal. It takes a special type of fool to prevent us mining our own coal leaving us reliant on imports. And, of course, as always money and jobs leave the country.

      1. Shirley M
        October 13, 2021

        +1

    4. agricola
      October 13, 2021

      We probably are , but the coal is imported, unbelievable.

  21. Sakara Gold
    October 13, 2021

    If the government – as confirmed on BBC R4 10mins ago – is going to provide yet more fossil fuel subsidy to support UK high-energy usage industry, then they absolutely have to do the same to hard-pressed UK energy consumers.

    If the UK did go for more domestic production of gas, it would take 18months minimum to deliver and whichever oil major won the contract, they would want the spot price. There would be no benefit over importing more LNG.

    Putin’s GAZPROM should not be allowed to get away with imposing their recent tremendous price rise for energy. A windfall profits tax should be imposed imediately. This will offset the higher fossil fuel subsidy payments.

    1. MWB
      October 13, 2021

      Gazprom is a Russian company and is entitled to name their price, so if you don’t like the price don’t buy from them.
      Perhaps less NATO aggression against Russia would be helpful.

    2. Mitchel
      October 13, 2021

      Why do people like you continue to post such rubbish-there is a market price for gas.The EU told Gazprom to be more market oriented ie no long term contacts,just purchases at market prices.So,they did just that….and now you see the result.China -and Asia more generally -are buying aggressively-they are determining the market price.

      1. MWB
        October 14, 2021

        Rubbish.

  22. Andy
    October 13, 2021

    Unelected national embarrassment David Frost spent taxpayers cash travelling to Portugal to make a speech in which he said your Brexit deal is lousy.

    This is the same Brexit deal which both buffoon Johnson and national embarrassment David Frost described as great deal.

    Why do Brexitists keep humiliating themselves? Nobody in Europe thinks Frost is a hard man. Nobody thinks he is tough. They all think he is a blithering idiot.

    The other night Brexitist embarrassment Bernard Jenkin went on Newsnight. His performance was pathetic. He cannot so hard questions. No wonder he likes GB News – news for toddlers.

    On the plus side even I didn’t expect your Brexit to be such a monumental car crash. It’ll be undone soon enough and the perpetrators will be off to Belmarsh.

    1. Nig l
      October 13, 2021

      Thanks for reminding us of your obsession. Do you bore your family with it as well as us?

      1. Andy
        October 13, 2021

        I don’t think I will ever get bored of teasing you all about what a miserable failure your Brexit is. It’s fun.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      October 13, 2021

      Unless the Daily Express states – expressly – every day that the pudding Frost himself negotiated the NIP, then its readers will not attribute that to him, Andy.

    3. Lifelogic
      October 13, 2021

      Wrong on almost every point as usual.

    4. Original Richard
      October 13, 2021

      Andy :

      I agree with you that the Brexit deal was “lousy”.

      But this was because we ended up in a bad negotiating position through the efforts of a PM and many in Parliament, the civil service, the MSM, the corporates and the judiciary who were working for the EU and against the democratic decisions made by a majority in the UK through a referendum and 3 elections to leave the EU.

      This fifth column is still hard at it today and these are the people who should be ”off to Belmarsh”.

      1. Shirley M
        October 13, 2021

        +1 Why would anyone want to harm their own country to benefit a foreign organisation, other than hurt pride and being a bad loser?

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        October 13, 2021

        No, it’s because the UK is an offshore country of 67 million people, next to an advanced, wealthy, integrated market of 450 million – of which it too was once a fully functioning member – but which it has decided abruptly to cease being part.

        It’s just those inescapable facts.

        It’s brexit.

        1. alan jutson
          October 13, 2021

          NLH

          Have you actually visited or worked in any of those EU Countries, and seen first hand what goes on ?

          Or are you relying on Andy’s postings !

          Many who live and work there would simply not agree with you, that’s why 6,000,000 came here to live and work.

        2. Fedupsoutherner
          October 13, 2021

          NLH. Brexit. Wonderful. Get over yourself.

        3. Micky Taking
          October 13, 2021

          you didn’t mention many countries living on the back of the industrial might and lordship, with massive unemployment levels and zero future ahead.

      3. Andy
        October 13, 2021

        You ended up in a bad position because Brexit is dumb idea.

        But I am enjoying you all make a complete mess of it. It is very funny.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          October 13, 2021

          There is no more a mess to be made of brexit than there is one to be made of a sewage works collapse in a landslide, Andy.

          It is what it inherently is.

      4. No Longer Anonymous
        October 13, 2021

        +1

        Also our present predicament is largely through the push for Green and poor treatment of lorry drivers because of our membership of the EU.

    5. IanT
      October 13, 2021

      I watched the Frost speech and thought that it was reasoned and very measured. Of course, I’m old (and voted for Brexit) so I’m quite obviously a “Blithering Idiot” too in your view Andy.

      Oh well, I’ll just have to learn to live with that! 🙂

    6. Beecee
      October 13, 2021

      You shamelessly humiliate yourself every day on this site, so stop complaining when you think others are following your example!

      There is a good old Yorkshire saying which you may wish to heed:- when thy got nowt good ta say – shut thee gob!

    7. Sea_Warrior
      October 13, 2021

      Do you work for the EU?

      1. Andy
        October 13, 2021

        No. But I do work. Which is one up on you.

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          October 13, 2021

          Sea Warrior spent a career at sea sacrificing family life, safety, putting himself in the line of fire (Falklands, one presumes) and working 18 hour days for months on end without days off. That’s a lot up on you, Andy. A lot.

        2. Micky Taking
          October 13, 2021

          really – must be cushy, you have time to scribble on here, plugging in EVs, checking your children’s education, reading up on nation taxes, inventing political daft words ( you could work for Boris there), surveying both the UK and EU public in numerous countries, travelling on holidays and to your French property.

    8. jon livesey
      October 13, 2021

      Another argument for people to read Frost’s speech themselves.

  23. Bill B.
    October 13, 2021

    But meanwhile your party leader is grovelling to teenage climate alarmists at a Milan videoconference.
    What’s Kwasi Kwarteng supposed to do, follow a different policy from Johnson?

    1. turboterrier
      October 13, 2021

      Bill B

      Party leader. Think not, couldn’t lead us anywhere other than catastrophic failure with his net-zero policies

  24. boffin
    October 13, 2021

    Message for the Entropy Secretary:

    The gas turbines used to produce most of our electricity whenever the weather is uncooperative were originally designed to run on aviation turbine fuel.
    AVTUR (or gas oil for that matter) is very much cheaper to buy and to store than imported LNG.

    (Cannot even he understand something so simple?).

    1. boffin
      October 13, 2021

      We most urgently need fuel-switch and storage provisions to be put in place before the high-pressure natural gas grid goes down. When (not if!) that happens it will be far, far too late to preserve our electricity supply if these are not ready.

  25. jerry
    October 13, 2021

    Our host makes good points but seems to be talking about the middle or far of future, something needs to be done now, today, this month, this year with regards what some are having to pay for their energy.

    I hear it reported that HMT is talking about allowing low cost loan to help energy intensive industries cope with the extremely high cost of energy at the moment, at the same time other govt departments are warning us these high prices are likely to remain for the conceivable future, so how are these industries ever going to pay their loans back, including one assumes HMT/BoE interest – about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike!

    A word little used since the 1970s, in fact whilst in the EU it was a word that could not be used, “Subsidies”, now that doesn’t mean HMT handing over wads of cash, HMT could simply give such industries emergency tax breaks for example, no?

  26. agricola
    October 13, 2021

    Promoting unnecessary, we know what it is , where it is and we have the means of extracting it. Unfortunately we have a myopic government that has it’s own undemocratic agenda. Take a look at the streets of Brighton if you wish to know what green means.

    1. turboterrier
      October 13, 2021

      Agricola

      Correct. It stinks and it is not the seaweed. Nothing heard from the sitting MP!!

  27. Lifelogic
    October 13, 2021

    An excellent letter in the Telegraph today:-

    Our net-zero future will be unemployed, poor, static, freezing and dark

    He rightly concludes:-
    “While foreign competitors keep gas, coal and oil power stations going full tilt and provide low-cost energy to business and domestic customers, our Government appears hell-bent on dragging us into a future of mass unemployment, lower living standards and an altogether poorer nation.”

    Also a less well defended and much more vulnerable nation.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      October 13, 2021

      And such as Insulate Britain say that they are not being listened to… no, poor lambs, except by Prince Charles, The Prime Minister, the Prime Ministers wife, the government, the civil service, the BBC, the advertisers… and on and on..

      I don’t think anyone should be frustrated with Insulate Britain btw. The frustration should be with the police and the Government which already have the laws they need to deal with them but refuse to do so.

      Does Sir John really think he influences the party from within ?

      It looks rather more like he’s on the fringe and being ignored.

      1. Lifelogic
        October 13, 2021

        +1

  28. The PrangWizard of England
    October 13, 2021

    There is no doubt the UK and England in particular is at serious risk and in danger. But this is not from climate change lunacy; it is from ‘Boris’, Carrie, Greta, the BBC, Sky, David Attenborough and an enormous list of others who have joined the climate change/emergency/catastrophy gravy train.

    Their response to every criticism is that we must have even more renewable power sources and the abandonment with extreme urgency of the most effective and essential means which gives us the lifestyles and health we enjoy. They expect us to feel guilty but they have no care at all about their demands of thousands upon thousands more of hideous windmills which destroy sea-beds and the land upon which they stand, industrialising the countryside and destroying wildlife which they claim to cherish. If they have their way we will regress into a more primitive way of living over which they will demand control.

    Technology and engineering has improved present fuel efficiency and will continue that way if it is allowed and it is vital we should here use the vast natural resources below our feet. How does ‘Boris’ justify the bringing of the very same materials from around the world? It is not sensible, it is not practical, it is not secure and makes us slaves of others, but the trouble is that ordinary people suffer when fanatics like him and his friends are in charge of us. I see he thinks he is Churchill now with his painting kit in the Mediterranean sunshine.

    1. Iain Moore
      October 13, 2021

      ‘Their response to every criticism is that we must have even more renewable power sources’

      It’s like Socialism, when it fails its because the policy wasn’t extreme enough. Well they are one and the same.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        October 13, 2021

        No, you’re getting mixed up with brexit and brexiters, mate.

      2. Lifelogic
        October 13, 2021

        +1

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      October 13, 2021

      Prang. Good post.

    3. Lifelogic
      October 13, 2021

      +1

  29. Nota#
    October 13, 2021

    Good morning Sir John

    With respect ‘Levelling up’ is just a dumb phrase that someone that doesn’t know a thing about marketing has come up wit and illustrates contempt for their audience. Its along the lines of ‘Build back Better’ and so on. maybe more honest to start banging out ‘The Great Reset’ before each speech.

    Governments can only use these tokenisms for so long, they soon get annulled when as under this shower nothing seemingly promised gets delivered.

    The again that is the ploy use a phrase that cant be quantified and their is seemingly a belief you will get let off ‘Scott Free’

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      October 13, 2021

      It should actually be called Levelling Down, which is what it really is.

  30. Nota#
    October 13, 2021

    “Shouldn’t we trust the market more” – when a Government cant even trust the people is has been asked to serve what hope is their of any change?

  31. Nota#
    October 13, 2021

    Quoting Ross Clark in The Telegraph

    ‘the UK has cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent since 1990’ – ‘UK economic manufacturing has fallen from 16.8 percent to 9.9 percent’ – ‘Close a factory in Britain – where electricity comes mostly from gas, nuclear and renewables – and transfer production to China, where much electricity is still produced by far dirtier coal, and you have increased emissions.’

    Then we get UK emissions associated with imports from China have soared by 64 per cent over that period.

    So the UK has exported jobs and its economy while at the same time increasing World emissions – you couldn’t make it up.

    1. turboterrier
      October 13, 2021

      Nota#
      So the UK has exported jobs and its economy while at the same time increasing World emissions – you couldn’t make it up.

      Agreed, Words like urine, neck, and rain come to mind. All words, no action and definitely no real consideration to the people of this country who will be hurt the most by net- zero

    2. alan jutson
      October 13, 2021

      Nota
      A Perfect comment. +1.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      October 13, 2021

      Really obvious, isn’t it !

      Plus we’ve created another aggressive superpower.

    4. Lifelogic
      October 13, 2021

      +1

  32. rose
    October 13, 2021

    It would be well worth people listening to Lord Frost’s Portuguese speech if they haven’t already. It is on youtube, courtesy of the DT.

    1. jon livesey
      October 13, 2021

      Or they could even, Gosh, read it, since it is on gov.uk.

  33. Lifelogic
    October 13, 2021

    You say:- “One of the main requirements to keep and attract industry is a plentiful supply of affordable energy.”

    Indeed some others are low simple taxes, a bonfire of the vast volume of misguided regulations, easy hire and fire employment laws, quicker a simpler planning process, competitive banks, freedom, better quality and fair competition in healthcare, education, housing, banking, a much smaller state, no delays in issuing driving licences etc, freedom of choice, not banning fracking, not pushing rich and talented people and industries overseas, not paying healthy people to encourage them not to work or learn how to work, having a robust currency 


    So that will be zero marks out of one hundred for this dire Socialist Government then!

    1. Lifelogic
      October 13, 2021

      affordable and “on demand” energy.

    2. Sakara Gold
      October 13, 2021

      @Lifelogic
      We should imediately start fracking your back garden. The council should issue an emergency Compulsory Purchase Order on your driveway and garage to store the equipment.

      We should also be making better use of the tremendous green spaces in Wokingham and frack those too. Howard Palmer Gardens is far to big and needs fracking immediately. Not to mention Joel Park & Holt Copse and the King George V Playing Field. Langborough Recreation Ground could accomodate at least six fracking rigs. The new park at Arborfield is a waste of space and should be fracked too.

      Reply No one is proposing gas wells in public parks nor suggesting there is a layer of gas under Wokingham.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        October 13, 2021

        Sir John – can it be that Peter2 is your nom de plume?

        1. Peter2
          October 13, 2021

          And that MiC is yours NLH.

      2. Fedupsoutherner
        October 13, 2021

        Sakara. What a stupid comment. As you are such a great advocate of renewables and in love with wind perhaps you would like a couple of 600ft turbines in your backyard? Some in Scotland already out up with turbines practically in their gardens and have to pit up with the flicker and noise from them now. Stop being silly.

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      October 13, 2021

      Full access to the world’s most sophisticated, educated, and one of its largest markets also helps too.

      D’oh!

      1. jon livesey
        October 13, 2021

        And it manages to be the most educated without a single University in the World top fifty. Quite magical.

      2. Peter2
        October 14, 2021

        The biggest importers to Europe are America China India and South Korea NLH
        None are members of the EU
        None pay billions a year in fees.
        None have a formal trade deal

    4. No Longer Anonymous
      October 13, 2021

      Except any help with electricity for industry is actually a reduction in Government surcharges but looks like a bailout. It is nothing of the sort.

      Our manufacturing businesses cannot operate on a level playing field because of the rush for Green.

  34. rose
    October 13, 2021

    “So now the EU accepts it has been disrupting and diverting GB to NI trade and should relax a bit. Time for the U.K. to take control of all trade within our internal market. The Protocol is damaging and wrong.”

    Perhaps we are now at last seeing the negotiation which would have taken place had it not been for the Surrender Act passed illegitimately by the Traitors’ Parliament.

    1. Shirley M
      October 13, 2021

      +1

  35. oldwulf
    October 13, 2021

    The Party which saves the British people before it goes on to save the world will probably win the next election.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      October 13, 2021

      Sadly all that is needed is a Corbyn or a Rayner for another Anyone-but-Them win.

      Luckily for the Tories the British people are too thick to see that the (now) 80-seat-majority Conservatives were the problem all along.

      I think they soon will though.

    2. glen cullen
      October 13, 2021

      People as interested in keeping their jobs, paying their bills, the odd holiday and looking after the family
..not saving the world, net zero, helping the French refugees, what greta says or maintaining a level playing field with the EU

    3. Micky Taking
      October 13, 2021

      feels like a long-shot after the events of the last couple of years.

  36. Iain Moore
    October 13, 2021

    The BBC was all very excited about China saying they wouldn’t be building anymore coal fired power stations abroad, I think their words were….’this is a very significant move’ … the rest of us of a more cynical persuasion were thinking what about the ones their are building in China, now we see the Chinese regime make fools of them all with the announcement they are going to be building loads more of them.

    //Shanxi – China’s biggest coal-producing region – ordered its 98 coal mines to raise their annual output capacity by 55.3 million tonnes and allowed 51 coal mines that had hit their maximum annual production levels to keep producing.//

    //’Domestic oil and gas exploration will be intensified.’ //

    Meanwhile our jokers are driving us to penury in pursuit of their extreme religion.

    1. Mitchel
      October 14, 2021

      Plus,listening to Mr Putin’s address at the opening of Moscow Energy Week yesterday it looks like the putative Power of Siberia II pipeline (which will take gas-in very large quantities- from regions that historically have supplied Europe to China) is going to go ahead.

  37. X-Tory
    October 13, 2021

    As I said yesterday, what we need is a government policy of CHEAP energy. Increasing domestic production may eliminate shortages and reduce price peaks caused by the need to import at inflated prices, but it won’t reduce the base cost until the government cuts all the tariffs and taxes, and also allows the cheapest form of power generation. In particular, the carbon levy needs to go.

    If this is too big a step for the government they can merely ‘suspend’ it, and say it will return when ALL other countries impose similar costs on their own energy, thus eliminating the unfair competition we currently face from countries like Germany, China, etc. CHEAP energy must be the poloicy if the government wants a successful manufacturing and farming sector. I am amazed the Northern Research Group are not pressing for this. They are obviously not particularly bright or good local MPs.

  38. Nota#
    October 13, 2021

    UK Governments have been going out of the way to cripple the UK economy for years.

    Creating levies and taxes that don’t change how the ‘World’ copes with increasing emissions it is lunacy to think so, in fact they hamper and create greater problems. They just set out to punish the poor.

    The UK emission wise has become one of the Worlds biggest polluters. How does that go down with the Boris’s version of COP26? He has continued the stupid-ness that has been going on for at least the last 5 Governments, but more so. He is overseeing the biggest destruction of the UK economy and industry in peace time – why? What little there is of any proper action and policy being arrived at by this Government has at every turn increase World pollution.

    As a policy exporting jobs, the economy, then importing from the World largest polluters only makes the Country poorer and the World more polluted

    In the mean time the UK economy suffers, the UK energy market is now controlled directly by the political will of foreign Governments. People in the UK are now forced to become poorer on the back of an individuals ‘ego’. Yet the UK is rich in resources and capability.

  39. William Long
    October 13, 2021

    That is very well said, but my guess is that the reaction of this Governement to your views will be similar to that of the BBC earlier in the week.
    In addition, I would have pressed the Minister on fracking, but perhaps that would just be a red rag?

  40. Nota#
    October 13, 2021

    The system has become corrupt. The endless subsidies are corrupting.

    Sir John you mention ‘levelling up’ when in reality at best its the opposite. Every subsidy, take solar panels, electric cars, street side charging points – so on and so on, rewards those that can afford something by being financed by those that couldn’t get on to the ladder their life time.

    Subsidies as they play out are playing into the ‘Lefts’ strap line that under the Conservatives ‘the rich will get richer and the poor poorer’. That is not what Conservatism is about, but it certainly is what this Government is ensuring it gets to remember it for.

    The UK has the ability to become self reliant and resilient in energy and in its industrial base. Having the UK’s core security and safety deliberately forced into the hands of foreign competitors is neglect by Government.

    The removal of the taxes, the levies the bureaucracy, red tape over burdened regulations that mitigate a UK Company getting past go would be a good starting point.

    The Government has in its gift to change, morphing into some sort of centralist controlling Socialist’s State is not the answer. Government just doesn’t need to be controlling every day life with the sort of intensity they now do. They need to trust the people with the same zeal that the people have entrusted Parliament to serve the Country.

  41. Lester_Cynic
    October 13, 2021

    Ha!

    Perhaps you Sir John would care to explain exactly why I can’t get a refund for money stolen from my credit card?

    Something else to be brushed under the carpet

    Presumably you’re in agreement with the behaviour of the membership department?

  42. a-tracy
    October 13, 2021

    John, all excellent points. Do you MPs in government ever get to meet the ‘The Climate Change Committee’ or the ‘Adaptation Committee for England’? What % of these advisor organisations suggestions are picked up by the MP in charge of BEIS or Defra? Are the members of these committees the same regardless of which government is in power and does Boris’ new government get to pick a board member to discuss your manifesto promises and aims?

  43. Denis Cooper
    October 13, 2021

    Off topic, ahead of seeing the details of the EU’s (undoubtedly still presumptuous) new proposals on the Irish protocol I would like to recall my letter published in the Irish Times three years ago:

    https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/brexit-time-to-mind-our-own-business-1.3636142

    “Brexit – time to mind our own business?”

    “Sir, – I was amused to read about “perfidious Albion” (Opinion & Analysis, September 20th), when we have the Irish Government scheming to keep a part of the United Kingdom under EU economic control, ostensibly to act as a kind of buffer zone to protect the Irish market and the wider EU Single Market from unwanted goods such as US-style “chlorinated chicken”.

    Perhaps you will permit me, an ordinary British citizen, to bluntly tell your readers what my persistently pro-EU and mealy-mouthed government is still reluctant to say: that once the United Kingdom has left the EU it will be none of the EU’s business what goods are permitted in Northern Ireland, or any other part of the United Kingdom and its internal market.

    The legitimate interests of the EU and its Irish satrapy do not extend beyond the nature of the goods circulating in its own EU Single Market, and it is gross impudence on the part of the EU to presume that it should be able to continue to control goods permitted in the United Kingdom once we have freed ourselves from the EU, any more than the EU can expect to control goods permitted in the United States or other “third countries”. ”

    It’s a great pity that nobody paid any attention then, it would have saved us all a lot of trouble.

    1. Denis Cooper
      October 13, 2021

      This chap on France 24 ends by pointing out that “in the meantime the border is just open”:

      https://youtu.be/knUkW_jfzas?t=300

      Which surely revives the question of how many British sausages are taking advantage of that “backdoor”, in reality more like a “catflap” or “letterbox”, to drive down and contaminate the precious EU Single Market, and whether that illicit flow is sufficient to sustain any kind of black market in the Republic:

      From June:

      https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/06/23/letter-to-transport-secretary-about-season-tickets/#comment-1238910

      “It is good of Leo Varadkar to offer Dublin’s help in finding fixes to the Northern Ireland protocol.

      A useful starting point could be for his government to share whatever information it has on the degree to which a black market in British sausages has developed across the Irish Republic over the past six months.”

      “Have Irish trading standards officers found that sausages labelled “Not be sold outside Northern Ireland” are being flogged under the counter, have they exposed any large scale criminal operations to disguise the forbidden origin of these sausages, are spivs accosting passers-by in city streets and quietly asking whether they would like some British bangers?”

    2. Hazlet
      October 13, 2021

      Yawn yawn .. i don’t think many are too concerned with what goes on in NI.. think we have enough on our own plates at the moment

      1. Denis Cooper
        October 14, 2021

        This is on our own plate.

  44. Bryan Harris
    October 13, 2021

    As mentioned before – If the UK allowed development of oil exploration and started to use fracking, there would be no energy crisis.

    <B<This phase of the crisis is all down to this government's inability to even imagine they could be wrong about net-zero.

    Whether the government does nothing or acts sensibly will show us what they are made of.

    1. turboterrier
      October 13, 2021

      Bryan Harris
      Imagination? That’s a word totally out of sync with our leader and his cabinet. Have you not heard they walk on water, what possibly can go wrong?

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      October 13, 2021

      +1

  45. XY
    October 13, 2021

    All good points, but I suspect falling on deaf green ears and dense green minds.

    I often read here letters from your good self to a minister, but I’m not always sure if there are replies. And if those replies are anything more than the old soft-soap.

  46. Mark
    October 13, 2021

    But we’re only using 1GW of coal out of 3.7GW of available capacity at the moment. We should be using all of it.

    1. turboterrier
      October 13, 2021

      Correct

  47. glen cullen
    October 13, 2021

    The former Labour Jared O’Mara MP didn’t represent his constituency by his lack of attendance and venturing into other pursuits
..what’s the difference between him and Matt Hancock and his new job as the UN special representative for Africa
    I don’t trust MPs, nor their departments, nor their civil servants, nor their committees
so why should business
    Why isn’t Matt Hancock in his constituency fighting for his local businesses and inward investment ?

  48. Shirley M
    October 13, 2021

    Why do we pay 3 to 4 times as much for power as other European countries? Explanation, please.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      October 13, 2021

      Because (like the railways) we privatised and then re-nationalised under foreign governments.

      The ‘strategic’ was taken out of strategic infrastructure.

      At least it’s the Tories in office to reap the whirlwind they sowed. And I make my apologies for having ever voted for them.

      Reply The UK railways are financed and controlled by the U.K. govt

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        October 13, 2021

        Reply to reply

        How much was paid out to foreign operators ?

    2. Mark
      October 13, 2021

      We pay a wholesale premium to ensure we can import over the interconnectors. When imports can’t be increased any further we then pay a large premium to bring on balancing generation. This chart shows the cross country comparison of household prices and the amount of renewables.

      https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/tNfQ4/1/

      As you can see we aren’t quite the most expensive, but the push to more renewables will push us that way, although Germany is likely to lead as it closes nuclear and coal capacity.

  49. Hugh
    October 13, 2021

    1. Frack.

    2. Please stop apologising for CO2. What puts the carbs in carbohydrate? CO2 does. India has just had a record harvest partly thanks to higher CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. What puts the C in C2H5OH – that’s beer and wine? You know.

    CO2 follows temperature. Effect cannot be cause. https://www.history-of-geo-and-space-sciences.net/2021-05-26_hgss-2021-1_latest-version-of-the-manuscript.pdf

    Let’s help stop this nonsense. Net zero is not needed.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      October 13, 2021

      Go to Hebden Bridge and make your oh-so-confident proclamations in the market place there.

      They’ve had two “once-in-five-hundred-years” floods in about a hundredth of that time, the worst in memory.

      Countless businesses were ruined, and their premises now cannot be insured, along with hundreds of homes.

      Go on – enjoy.

      (If and when you’re out of hospital, go to another Pennine town, and do the same in the Rhondda valley.)

      1. Peter2
        October 13, 2021

        Dryer or wetter, hotter or colder it’s all due to the climate religion.
        Got all bases covered.
        It used to be just warming.

  50. turboterrier
    October 13, 2021

    notalotofpeopleknowthat.files.wordpress.com on the 8th October.
    According to the web page and in association with Sky News Drax despite all the millions of subsidies is still the largest producer of CO2 in this country. You cannot make it up

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      October 13, 2021

      Turbo. Are we suprised? A big fat no.

  51. glen cullen
    October 13, 2021

    Damian Collins MP the chairman of the UK Parliament Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill said today that he wants to collect evidence from the ‘facebook’ whistle-blower saying he was concerned by her statement that ‘facebook’ puts profit as its main priority
..doesn’t every private business
    I am surprised that we have any inward business investment with the attitude of the Tory Damian Collins MP grandstanding

    1. DOM
      October 13, 2021

      Draft Online Safety Bill. Code for the destruction of online freedom and open adult discussion

      We live in a nation (UK and the USA) now ruled by people who hold freedom, liberty, democracy and its people with total and utter contempt. What makes this even more vile is that millions have voted for these two parties that are systematically ripping apart the very fabric of our liberal democracy and our god given freedoms.

      Time itself will expose these evil, despicable forces but by then people like me will have descended into the earth, thank god

      It will be for future generations to confront the dystopian horror of what these people have planned

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        October 14, 2021

        If it were not for the mass propagation of personally-targeted lies by social media, and for the obscure funding which financed this – likely cryptocurrencies, then there would probably have been no brexit, no violent near-overthrow of US democracy, and many people around the world who are now dead through political violence would still be with us.

        Civilised countries are quite rightly looking at how this scourge can be eradicated.

        1. Peter2
          October 14, 2021

          What is it with you lefties always being in favour of state censorship and control.

          1. hefner
            October 19, 2021

            What is it with you righties always having to comment on everything? Isn’t that a form of potential censorship and control? Are you not a libertarian keen on letting people expressing themselves? Or is the liberty you claim to love only your prerogative, not to be enjoyed by anybody outside your tribe possibly expressing a different point of view?
            Are you so paranoid and panicked to lose whatever power you have (as a MP, an ‘entrepreneur’, a ‘businessperson’) that you have to find (like Sir John the other day) people and institutions over the whole world (the globalists, the IMF, the UN, the EU, 
) supposed to prevent you from applying your ‘program’.
            Have you ever thought that after more than 40 years dominating the economic thinking, the ideas you are defending that might have been correct in the 70s, might have lost their relevance? And might have to be adapted, possibly revised or even changed?

            Isn’t that displaying a rather limited worldview?

  52. Lester_Cynic
    October 13, 2021

    The mystery of what happened to my tracked and signed for letter has been \solved courtesy of a very helpful individual at a nearby sorting office, the tracking information on any correspondence which is delivered to conservative head office which requires a signature as proof for delivery is deleted so it’s impossible to prove that the correspondence has arrived on the correct desk, an indisputable sign of open and honest government

    It would be impossible for me to be an MP, it would been necessary to sacrifice my integrity, how do you sleep at night?

  53. Denis Cooper
    October 13, 2021

    Off topic again, JR, I wonder whether you or any of your colleagues know whether this is correct?

    https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/esmond-birine-the-role-of-the-european-court-in-northern-ireland-is-an-important-matter-not-just-a-legal-technicality-3417152

    “EU market law requires that any reduction in level of taxation in a region requires a reduction in the cash transfer from the national exchequer to that a region equivalent to the reduction in revenue collected.

    This was spelt out in the Azores Judgement at the ECJ. So, it was an ECJ ruling which implied that if the Stormont executive had chosen to reduce corporation tax in Northern Ireland there would be a corresponding (considerable) reduction in the block grant to NI. Under the protocol (as is) the Azores ruling still applies to NI. A similar principle is likely to apply to any other future proposals for tax reduction in NI.”

    1. Bitterend
      October 13, 2021

      Yes.. I took a holiday in the Azores a few years ago.. a magical place.. really enjoyed it.

  54. Ian Pennell
    October 13, 2021

    Dear John Redwood

    Boris Johnson’s Conservative Government is really going to have to impose some radical Supply-side policies in the next few months if we are to avoid a major period of Stagflation. The problems of getting gas to the UK, getting imports in from abroad (due to a shortage of truck-drivers) are going to compound the effects of falling values of Sterling and high levels of Government debt- I would not be surprised to see zero growth combined with 6% inflation over the last quarter and all that entails.

    So, the Government needs to suspend the Green policies for the next two years, cut red tape like Equality Monitoring legislation and the need for risk assessments for most jobs. The Government should also suspend the provisions of compulsory Insurance- like Employers liability insurance -for big firms for the next 12 months: When you have major supply issues in the Economy it is imperative that you made it easier for businesses to produce, transport and sell goods at lower cost. The Government should be ready to step in to pay Insurance pay-outs if Insurance companies cannot afford it.

    If the Bank of England raises Interest Rates- to tame Inflation- the Government’s costs of borrowing and debt servicing costs will soar by ÂŁ25 billion annually- or more. So, there needs to be cuts to the bloated Quango budget and to Whitehall to keep the Government solvent and able to fund existing commitments to the NHS, Police and the Armed Forces. The HS2 White Elephant should also be axed- there’s ÂŁ110 billion to fund Levelling Up in the North which can be paid for without borrowing more (something that’s soon likely to become unaffordable!).

  55. glen cullen
    October 13, 2021

    Today I predict that our government will acquiesce to the new EU NIP plans and announce a joint victory while throwing Lord Frosts plan in the waste bin

    1. The Prangwizard
      October 13, 2021

      My sentiments too. Our leader is a posturer and betrayer.

    2. jon livesey
      October 13, 2021

      No-one ever agrees with the initial proposals of the other side. That’s not how a negotiation works.

  56. John Hatfield
    October 13, 2021

    There is a profound stupidity in this governmet and its policies. From whom is it taking its instructions because this foolishness certainly doesn’t come from the voters who are far more sensible?

  57. Pauline Baxter
    October 13, 2021

    Yes Sir John. As usual you talk sense about our Energy needs.
    You say it is a proposal put forward to the Business Department.
    So WHAT DIFFERENCE WILL IT MAKE?
    Apparently there is a report in the ‘Guardian’ today that China’s Premier has spelled out how they will open more coal burning power stations because the country needs to maintain energy supply to its industry and self sufficiency is essential to the country.
    What a CONTRAST to the attitude of your Party Leader, our ‘Premier’.

  58. jon livesey
    October 13, 2021

    “Shouldn’t we trust the market more and grant the permits for UK exploration and development of domestic oil and gas? ”

    Nah, too complicated. But you know, if we rejoined the EU, they could give us *permission* to develop UK coal and oil and gas. And wouldn’t that be a simply wonderful thing?

  59. jon livesey
    October 13, 2021

    I see the EU has decided to extend its investigation over the Nvidia-ARM merger over “competition issues”. Exactly what does the euro area have that competes with companies like ARM and Nvidia?

  60. jon livesey
    October 13, 2021

    The latest EU proposals on the NIP do not go far enough because they still insist on their Courts having jurisdiction over the UK, a sovereign country, on the topic of the NIP. But their latest proposals do have some interesting aspects.

    They are offering significant concessions on an agreement they insisted for month they would never renegotiate. They are offering to abandon checks that they previously said were “essential” to the running of the Single Market – but under the NIP they could reinstate them at any time, which is why jurisdiction needs to be sorted out. And in particular they are offering to abandon checks on goods like chilled meat that they previously said were “dangerous”.

    One interesting aspect of their offer is they want to formalise the way in which NI acts as a “land bridge” between the rest of the UK and the ROI, by having green and red lanes for trucks at ports. We effectively have that already in the rest of the UK when it acts as a land bridge between the ROI and the rest of the EU.

  61. Micky Taking
    October 13, 2021

    Liz Truss and Dominic Raab are to share the grace-and-favour Chevening House mansion, ending a row between them over who should have access to it. The foreign secretary and deputy PM had been at loggerheads over the Grade 1-listed, 115-room country house in Kent since last month’s cabinet reshuffle. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson has decided they should both have use of it for personal and work use.
    Will they let, say 100 rooms be made available for ‘refugees, or economic migrants’ having to put up with quite boring hotel accommodation? Let them see what can be had as you climb the ladder in the UK.

    1. glen cullen
      October 14, 2021

      This government sitting on the fence again
.lets share everything like the good little communists we are….but only share amongst the elite

  62. Frances Truscott
    October 13, 2021

    Just not fracking. There is only one place in the world which can clean up fracking water enough for it to be returned to the water cycle. Its in the USA.

    1. Peter2
      October 14, 2021

      So copy their technology.

  63. Hazlet
    October 13, 2021

    What happened with the cry to blame it all on Junker or Carney.. Jeez when I think back how we were lied to and to where the whole thing has brought us and now the rest of them the ERG crowd gone to ground.. with not one of them prepared to come out and answer the call.. not IDS Peter Bone or Sir B Cash not even Steve Baker.. then I see Farage has joined another organisation it seems.. ‘up the RA’ and not one of them prepared to come out and explain about where we are and where we are going

    1. Peter2
      October 14, 2021

      Sir Bill Cash was on BBC Newsnight only last night.
      More twaddle from you Hazlet.

  64. Pieter
    October 13, 2021

    Ah! You guys are on your own now.. take it away.. dream on if you like.. the empire has gone. But in your mind you have taken back control

    And in todays terms Felixstowe is blocked up.. Maersk is pulling out becausde of too many empty containers stacked up and not enough HGV drivers and then all of this is a result of the pandemic.. would you believe.. could you believe?

    1. Peter2
      October 14, 2021

      Yes Pieter because you see everything that happens through your Brexit obsession.

  65. Mark
    October 13, 2021

    I see that the green tyrants in the Lords have been let loose on the new Environment Bill. It is a license to use a pollution excuse to shut down industry, agriculture and to take away your car and crush it at the whim of the Secretary of State. It allows for the setting of standards that are impossible to achieve without shutting down the economy, and grants powers to yet another quango.

    Too late now, the only solution will be repeal. There is a difference between having a reasoned tightening of an environmental standard, with proper consideration of all the consequences, and a clear understanding of how it can be achieved, and letting the green Taliban have power over us.

  66. ChrisS
    October 14, 2021

    What you are saying makes perfect sense : it is the only satisfactory solution, given the big gap in our power requirements.
    Why is it that almost everyone posting here understands this but Governments never listen, especially this one with its ridiculous Green Crap Agenda ?

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