John Redwood's Diary
Incisive and topical campaigns and commentary on today's issues and tomorrow's problems. Promoted by John Redwood of 30 Rose Street, Wokingham RG40 1XU.
Search Site
See my article on tax and energy price promises in the Mail on Sunday on line
I donāt blame you for the selective extracts from the 2019 Manifesto. However, it was adamantly against fracking, saying āwe have listened to concernsā and there will be no return to fracking unless the āscienceā proves it to be safe. Of course safety is all relative given tremors from it are substantially less than with coal mining. The public interest is surely to enable it, but persuading Cuadrilla and others back into this vast potential market looks extremely difficult. Can Boris Johnson ever be persuaded heās wrong?
reply My immediate aim is expanding offshore oil and gas production. the fracking issue relates to Bowland
Mark January 2, 2022
The science has been tested at the United Downs geothermal project without anyone complaining that I have heard about. It was closely monitored for seismic activity, which was recorded as per the following chart
So are you willing to give up your Human Right To Peaceful Enjoyment Of Property, as you seem to expect others to do?
Because if those in the drilling area lose theirs, then so do you.
You’re both human, like, you see.
SM January 3, 2022
Good heavens, you are really a NIMBY at heart, aren’t you? Presumably you think all home owners who live near a busy airport or a major road should have the right to close down all nearby activity in the name of HR Peaceful Enjoyment of Property?
Nottingham Lad Himself January 3, 2022
Your presumption is as silly as ever.
dixie January 4, 2022
Human Rights Act Protocol 1 Article 1;
“Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall be deprived of his possessions except in the public interest and subject to the conditions provided for by law and by the general principles of international law.
The preceding provisions shall not, however, in any way impair the right of the State to enforce such laws as it deems necessary to control the use of property in accordance with the general interest or to secure payment of taxes or other contributions or penalties.”
So SM isn’t being silly, you are just being lazy – access to fuel minerals which the state owns anyway would be in the public interest. The property owner isn’t giving up their human right provided any compensation for disruption is appropriate.
Nottingham Lad Himself January 4, 2022
I know.
And what compensation would you expect people to receive?
It has never been tested, has it?
Elli Ron January 2, 2022
If we open new north sea oil resources they will be claimed by the SNP as “Scottish resource” and give them a helping hand when they run for indiRef2.
Fracking is a proven technology and we have huge reservoir under England, if the Government is serious about it the protesters can be controlled and we can have contractually reasonably priced gas (contract signed before drilling).
Old Salt January 2, 2022
Elli Ron
Try googling fracfocus.org ā what chemicals are used?
I would be concerned at the security of the water systems underground on our relatively small densely populated island and rapidly becoming more so. Why have so many less densely populated countries banned it?
Accidents can and do happen. Once contaminated what then? Import clean water or expensive desalination?
A Japanese company built such a desalination plant on Malta or was it Gozo? back in the 70ās.
Any such company responsible would probably go AWOL as clean-up would be nigh impossible.
This needs to be reserved possibly to be used as a last resort.
George Brooks. January 2, 2022
Somebody or some group of people are blocking common sense and Boris is sleep walking into a financial and political disaster. There must be a group of bright green Remainers programming the cabinet to bring this country to its knees.
If they are looking to have another group or political party in power they are deluded, as we have the best of a rotten and totally inexperienced lot.
We are down to about a hundred or so true Tory MPs who have age and experience on their side and until their numbers swell significantly we will stagger from crisis to crisis
Lifelogic January 2, 2022
Economic lunacy and a massive political disaster the net zero religion will be too. Far worse than John Majorās (entirely predictable and totally self inflicted) ERM fiasco – an apology is still awaited from the foolish man.
Andy January 2, 2022
The country is being run by Brexitists. The only role Remainers have in the mess you have all created is that we are there happily laughing at you all.
alan jutson January 2, 2022
Andy
I seem to remember Remainer Mp’s refused to allow a proper Brexit on WTO Rules, hence the mess we are in now.
You seem to have a very selective memory.
Andy January 2, 2022
In 2016 the Leave campaign promised a deal with the EU. If you want WTO terms go to the public and get a mandate. You donāt have one and you wonāt ever get one.
In the meantime grow a pair and accept some responsibility for your Brexit mess. It is pathetic listening to you elderly whingers moaning about your Brexit being lousy when we spent five years telling you it would be lousy and you were too obtuse to listen.
This mess is entirely on people like you.
Peter2 January 2, 2022
Total nonsense andy
Most leave voters didn’t want a deal with the EU
WTO would have been fine.
It works for over 90% of every nation on Earth.
Nottingham Lad Himself January 2, 2022
To have a mandate, more than 95% of Leave voters would have had to have wanted No Deal.
You see, they only won by 52:48, didn’t they?
No only that, but an estimated million or more have turned up their toes since then.
And since Article 50 inherently involved negotiating a deal, and Leave said that “no one was thinking of leaving the SM” it gets tougher still.
Go on, prove that there’s a mandate now, for your daft, self-destructive demand, eh?
Peter2 January 3, 2022
Leaving the EU was what the referendum was about NHL
Not the 3 year delay and BRINO.
We still have not really left the clutches of the EU.
Negotiate a deal for trade if you want to, but the EU had no intention of doing a deal so it was a waste of our time.
We were to be punished for leaving, to try to stop other unhappy members also deciding to get out.
WTO works for 90% plus of world trade and the biggest trading nations with Europe have no formal deals which you tell us are vital.
Get over it you lost.
Nottingham Lad Himself January 3, 2022
You’ve never been asked as to those details.
alan jutson January 3, 2022
Andy
I do not recall any Brexit supporters (other than the official negotiators) visiting the EU officials during so called talks and negotiations, in order to help them frustrate the then Governments plans.
Yet we had past Prime Ministers, Ministers, past Ministers Shadow Ministers, and Mp’s of all Parties acting against our Country during negotiations.
If you are looking at treasonable acts, can I suggest you remember those people first.
But I guess you feel they were actually acting in the best interests of the Country at the time eh !
Micky Taking January 3, 2022
Andy : – obtuse? – – did you get a dictionary/thesaurus for Christmas?
Or possibly working your way through ancient Readers Digests – 5 words of the month?
Peter2 January 2, 2022
If only it was young Andy.
Dave Andrews January 2, 2022
I might have voted to remain, on the grounds that the politicians the country elects are too incompetent to run the country, which job should be given to those not so inept.
Had I done so, I would have accepted the brave decision of the majority to leave and done what I could to prove myself wrong.
You really paint Remainers as worthless people who will just stand by whilst others struggle.
Andy January 2, 2022
Not only was the decision in the 1975 referendum to remain every single general election for the subsequent 40 years then returned a massively pro-Europe majority both in terms of vote share and seats in Parliament.
No form of Brexit has ever secured majority support from the north electorate at an election – nor will it ever.
You didnāt appear to have any trouble campaigning against the democratic will of the people as expressed in nine consecutive elections and a referendum over a period spanning four decades.
I will take no lessons from traitors.
Peter2 January 2, 2022
What does you…young andy…really know about 1975?
Hilarious nonsense.
Nottingham Lad Himself January 2, 2022
The Leave blowhards know that their claims are rubbish, just as the lumbering lout who barges into you in the pub knows that you really did not spill his beer, which he accuses you of having done.
Their motives are akin too, which is unsurprising, as in plenty of cases, they are exactly the same people.
Peter2 January 3, 2022
Usual pathetic abuse NHL
Is that you in that pub you are referring to?
Micky Taking January 3, 2022
Martin – change your pub.
Mark January 2, 2022
I didn’t notice any replacement in the civil servicebthat spent its time before the referendum on Project Fear.
forthurst January 2, 2022
The Tory party in parliament does not represent the best this country could produce.
The FPTP electoral system facilitates those who use money to control our politics ensuring the English people are never represented by individuals who put our country and people first.
alan jutson January 2, 2022
I see it is being reported that the EU are now considering labelling Gas as a green power source to get over the immediate problem, Russia will be pleased !
Germany not happy that having scrapped there own Nuclear power programme, France wants to part re-label that green as well.
Once again Politicians realising that if you make a mistake, then you can simply call the mistake something else whilst you carry on as normal.
Looks like Cop 26 falling apart before its even begun.
Some Countries are waking up to the Green timetable fiasco and the so called promises made !
Andy January 2, 2022
You missed the key bit of the manifesto Mr Redwood – the bit where you promised net zero by 2050.
To achieve that pledge you need to start working on it now – not in ten years time.
We do not need more gas – gas is part of the problem. We need more insulation, more double glazing, more solar panels, more wind turbines, more heat pumps, more electric car charging points and more inter-connectors.
This is all easy stuff. Imagine – you could use 2022 to promote sensible policies to make people wealthier and healthier. That would be a good change. A welcome change.
Prices have gone up because of Brexit. People voted to be colder and poorer and they will be.
Reply No I did not miss it and I set out my views on pace and costs of change warning against forced heat pumps and EVs before they are affordable and popular
Andy January 2, 2022
I am sure you will all be sympathising with your grandchildren (children in my case) – who now have to wear masks in school this term.
Why? Because 100 Tory MPs who, frankly, know nothing about epidemiology held the government hostage and refused to allow the sensible restrictions we needed over Christmas to stop Omicronās spread.
It is now out of control and temporary wards / morgues are being built in hospital car parks to cope with what comes next.
Itās almost as if the Tories didnāt learn lessons from the mistakes they made the first time around. (And second time around). ((And third time around)).
Peter2 January 2, 2022
Ridiculous whataboutery young Andy.
Over 180,000 cases a day yet hospital admissions are low and happily deaths are very low.
Andy January 2, 2022
You missed the lessons of the first outbreak. And Alpha and Delta.
Hospitalisations peak 2-3 weeks after cases. Deaths 2-3 weeks after that.
No doubt vaccinations have helped but deaths linked to your Tory Christmas Covid catastrophe come in late January and February.
It is your age group whose lives are being put at risk. Some people of your age are already infected with Omicron – and in some cases it will kill them in about a month. They donāt know it yet.
Happy 2022.
Peter2 January 2, 2022
Thanks for the bad lecture on primary statistics young andy, but my comments still prevail.
You forget Omicron is much less dangerous.
Micky Taking January 3, 2022
I hope you don’t volunteer for Samaritans..
glen cullen January 2, 2022
73 deaths today, best call in the army
glen cullen January 2, 2022
I meant āsend in the navyā, as we no longer have a standing army
Micky Taking January 3, 2022
42 today ….
Philip P. January 2, 2022
Andy, I realise you don’t want to know, but once again: restrictions don’t stop virus spread, as international comparisons between the incidence of Covid, and severity and duration of restrictions, abundantly show. The data is in by now. Please try and keep up.
Secondary school kids will be forced to wear masks all day long (communal areas and classrooms) not because of 100 Tory MPs, but because that’s what the teaching unions want: ‘The four main teaching unions covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland – ASCL, NAHT, NEU and NASUWT.. said: Masks in secondary school classrooms are “overdue” ‘ (BBC news). Zahawi has caved.
Nottingham Lad Himself January 2, 2022
Which is the more “traumatic”?
Requiring schoolkids to wear a bit of cloth on their faces or making them play rugby?
What a hoot!
Micky Taking January 3, 2022
The schooldays trauma for most lads was the cross-country running, almost skeletons made to run a couple of miles wearing just shorts (and shoes). And then either frozen to death in the communal showers or given almost third degree burns by badly regulated hot water.
Kids these days grow up as wusses….
Nottingham Lad Himself January 3, 2022
So you get my point.
Donna January 2, 2022
Incorrect (again). Daily reported infections in England have dropped by 24% overnight, to 123,547 on January 2nd down from 162,572 on January 1st. It isn’t “out of control” …. the wave of infections is already decreasing. And sadly, those who have died WITH the Omicron variant already had an imminent appointment with the Grim Reaper due to their age and/or terminal illnesses.
The only reason children are being forced to wear masks in schools is because this cowardly Government is terrified of the teaching unions and we’d struggle to find a backbone if we X-rayed every one of them.
Nottingham Lad Himself January 2, 2022
No, plenty of otherwise healthy people, some quite young, have been killed by this SARS2.
It’s not quite the clear-out of weaklings, that some on the Right appear to celebrate.
Sometimes there is poetic justice, however.
Peter2 January 3, 2022
Who on the right are celebrating NHL?
Come on eh
Donna January 3, 2022
We are talking about the Omicron variant, not the original one (which also primarily selected the very elderly/frail and those with co-morbidities, but did prove terminal for a relatively small number of apparently healthy people).
Do keep up.
Micky Taking January 3, 2022
MARTIN – do you have a problem with naming it Covid like 99.9999% of the rest of the world?
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – is what it is, SARS is just abbreviation after all !
Nottingham Lad Himself January 3, 2022
*”Sudden”
Mark January 2, 2022
The mask wearing decision seems to be the result of pressure from the teaching unions based on no proper understanding of the position over omicron, and has nothing to do with votes in Parliament. Those nations that opted for harsher lockdown measures are finding that they have no significant effect on the spread of omicron. Indeed, they have become tardy in submitting their data to avoid the truth being too obvious.
Meanwhile it is looking as though cases may already have peaked in England, with hospital bed occupancy now rising at a slowing rate that suggests it too will soon peak far below the catastrophist projections from you and your friends, while ICU beds taken by covid patients have actually declined marginally, confirming that omicron is mild, and deaths of those with covid are showing no increase despite the upsurge in cases, suggesting that they are dominated by people who died of other things but had a positive covid test within the previous 28 days.
If you had been following the progress of the omicron outbreak in South Africa you would know that it is almost over there now, without the waves of hospitalisation and death associated with delta. We are unsurprisingly seeing similar behaviour here in the real world, even if modellers are still trying to catch up with reality.
Narrow Shoulders January 3, 2022
There were restrictions last Christmas Andy my middle aged friend. My children still had to wear masks and freeze with open windows last January through March.
It’s a virus, which is mostly caught in the home. Restrictions do little.
Micky Taking January 3, 2022
so who introduces it into the home, and how was it caught in the first place?
Atlas January 2, 2022
… if only those cabinet ministers who finally challenged the scientists over Covid would now subject the Global Warming scientists to a similar scrutiny instead of meekly accepting their diktats, then we might find that there was no urgency at all …
glen cullen January 2, 2022
When asked most people believe that climate change (global warming didnāt work as a strapline) and net zero is to save the planet
What most donāt know is that Al Gore and later Elon Musk campaigned with the UN IPCC to reduce āman-madeā co2 via the reduction of coal & fossil fuels to stop the oceans rising
glen cullen January 2, 2022
Fascinating that they both have interests in Tesla
Original Richard January 2, 2022
Should a majority of EU members back this proposal :
āThe European Commission has proposed plans to label some gas and nuclear power as green, prompting criticism from Germany.ā
It will be interesting to see the reaction from the climate alarmist Marxist Britphobes who inhabit No.10, Parliament, the civil service (BEIS) and the BBC itself.
But Iām not expecting any policy changes as we head over the energy cliff edge into blackouts and poverty as a result of travelling backwards in time to 8th century windmills for our power.
XY January 2, 2022
It would be useful if you could reproduce the text here.
I tried to read it there, but the cookie thing expects you to switch off every single vendor setting individually – when I see that, I just close the site, I don’t have half an hour to spare for that.
Everhopeful January 2, 2022
Such a good article.
Wallow in the sense and stability of it ā¦like a soothing warm bath ( with bubbles!).
An antidote to eco loonery.
Why canāt JR stand in a leadership election??
The comments on the article were soooo positive.
Real Person January 3, 2022
Because *** wouldn’t let him .
Also
The “Andy ” thing ruins this blog it’s cringeworthy false.
Stick to real people.
Lister January 3, 2022
Any party leader has to do what they are told ( advised ). Only the naive would think otherwise.
Micky Taking January 3, 2022
you need a heating source for a warm/hot bath…. it might have to be heating old kettles on an open fire, candles lit for heat as much as soothing!
ed2 January 2, 2022
We left the EU ?
claxby pluckacre January 2, 2022
The clue is in the title…turn the lights off !!..let’s do it, turn off every two motorway lights, and needless office lights left on 24/7, not forgetting so called security lights blazing away with retina burning power.
Mike Wilson January 3, 2022
Everything you say in that article is pure common sense – and impossible to argue with. It is a shame the Daily Mail doesn’t get fully on board and really start hammering the message home.
Mike Wilson January 3, 2022
I meant to add – I grew up in a house heated by one coal fire in the back room – which was only lit in the evenings. We slept in bedrooms with ice on the inside of the windows. I won’t forgive any government that takes us back to those days.
Micky Taking January 3, 2022
agreed- and the coal storage was bought and paid for in the autumn, any possibility of non-delivery would have been a catastrophe.
DavidJ January 4, 2022
I’m afraid that any common sense ideas from Sir John and elsewhere will be ignored by the fool in No. 10 who is under the influence of our enemies, especially his globalist friends.
January 2, 2022
I donāt blame you for the selective extracts from the 2019 Manifesto. However, it was adamantly against fracking, saying āwe have listened to concernsā and there will be no return to fracking unless the āscienceā proves it to be safe. Of course safety is all relative given tremors from it are substantially less than with coal mining. The public interest is surely to enable it, but persuading Cuadrilla and others back into this vast potential market looks extremely difficult. Can Boris Johnson ever be persuaded heās wrong?
reply My immediate aim is expanding offshore oil and gas production. the fracking issue relates to Bowland
January 2, 2022
The science has been tested at the United Downs geothermal project without anyone complaining that I have heard about. It was closely monitored for seismic activity, which was recorded as per the following chart
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/P5OE0/4/
Time to make use of that experiment.
January 2, 2022
So are you willing to give up your Human Right To Peaceful Enjoyment Of Property, as you seem to expect others to do?
Because if those in the drilling area lose theirs, then so do you.
You’re both human, like, you see.
January 3, 2022
Good heavens, you are really a NIMBY at heart, aren’t you? Presumably you think all home owners who live near a busy airport or a major road should have the right to close down all nearby activity in the name of HR Peaceful Enjoyment of Property?
January 3, 2022
Your presumption is as silly as ever.
January 4, 2022
Human Rights Act Protocol 1 Article 1;
“Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall be deprived of his possessions except in the public interest and subject to the conditions provided for by law and by the general principles of international law.
The preceding provisions shall not, however, in any way impair the right of the State to enforce such laws as it deems necessary to control the use of property in accordance with the general interest or to secure payment of taxes or other contributions or penalties.”
So SM isn’t being silly, you are just being lazy – access to fuel minerals which the state owns anyway would be in the public interest. The property owner isn’t giving up their human right provided any compensation for disruption is appropriate.
January 4, 2022
I know.
And what compensation would you expect people to receive?
It has never been tested, has it?
January 2, 2022
If we open new north sea oil resources they will be claimed by the SNP as “Scottish resource” and give them a helping hand when they run for indiRef2.
Fracking is a proven technology and we have huge reservoir under England, if the Government is serious about it the protesters can be controlled and we can have contractually reasonably priced gas (contract signed before drilling).
January 2, 2022
Elli Ron
Try googling fracfocus.org ā what chemicals are used?
I would be concerned at the security of the water systems underground on our relatively small densely populated island and rapidly becoming more so. Why have so many less densely populated countries banned it?
Accidents can and do happen. Once contaminated what then? Import clean water or expensive desalination?
A Japanese company built such a desalination plant on Malta or was it Gozo? back in the 70ās.
Any such company responsible would probably go AWOL as clean-up would be nigh impossible.
This needs to be reserved possibly to be used as a last resort.
January 2, 2022
Somebody or some group of people are blocking common sense and Boris is sleep walking into a financial and political disaster. There must be a group of bright green Remainers programming the cabinet to bring this country to its knees.
If they are looking to have another group or political party in power they are deluded, as we have the best of a rotten and totally inexperienced lot.
We are down to about a hundred or so true Tory MPs who have age and experience on their side and until their numbers swell significantly we will stagger from crisis to crisis
January 2, 2022
Economic lunacy and a massive political disaster the net zero religion will be too. Far worse than John Majorās (entirely predictable and totally self inflicted) ERM fiasco – an apology is still awaited from the foolish man.
January 2, 2022
The country is being run by Brexitists. The only role Remainers have in the mess you have all created is that we are there happily laughing at you all.
January 2, 2022
Andy
I seem to remember Remainer Mp’s refused to allow a proper Brexit on WTO Rules, hence the mess we are in now.
You seem to have a very selective memory.
January 2, 2022
In 2016 the Leave campaign promised a deal with the EU. If you want WTO terms go to the public and get a mandate. You donāt have one and you wonāt ever get one.
In the meantime grow a pair and accept some responsibility for your Brexit mess. It is pathetic listening to you elderly whingers moaning about your Brexit being lousy when we spent five years telling you it would be lousy and you were too obtuse to listen.
This mess is entirely on people like you.
January 2, 2022
Total nonsense andy
Most leave voters didn’t want a deal with the EU
WTO would have been fine.
It works for over 90% of every nation on Earth.
January 2, 2022
To have a mandate, more than 95% of Leave voters would have had to have wanted No Deal.
You see, they only won by 52:48, didn’t they?
No only that, but an estimated million or more have turned up their toes since then.
And since Article 50 inherently involved negotiating a deal, and Leave said that “no one was thinking of leaving the SM” it gets tougher still.
Go on, prove that there’s a mandate now, for your daft, self-destructive demand, eh?
January 3, 2022
Leaving the EU was what the referendum was about NHL
Not the 3 year delay and BRINO.
We still have not really left the clutches of the EU.
Negotiate a deal for trade if you want to, but the EU had no intention of doing a deal so it was a waste of our time.
We were to be punished for leaving, to try to stop other unhappy members also deciding to get out.
WTO works for 90% plus of world trade and the biggest trading nations with Europe have no formal deals which you tell us are vital.
Get over it you lost.
January 3, 2022
You’ve never been asked as to those details.
January 3, 2022
Andy
I do not recall any Brexit supporters (other than the official negotiators) visiting the EU officials during so called talks and negotiations, in order to help them frustrate the then Governments plans.
Yet we had past Prime Ministers, Ministers, past Ministers Shadow Ministers, and Mp’s of all Parties acting against our Country during negotiations.
If you are looking at treasonable acts, can I suggest you remember those people first.
But I guess you feel they were actually acting in the best interests of the Country at the time eh !
January 3, 2022
Andy : – obtuse? – – did you get a dictionary/thesaurus for Christmas?
Or possibly working your way through ancient Readers Digests – 5 words of the month?
January 2, 2022
If only it was young Andy.
January 2, 2022
I might have voted to remain, on the grounds that the politicians the country elects are too incompetent to run the country, which job should be given to those not so inept.
Had I done so, I would have accepted the brave decision of the majority to leave and done what I could to prove myself wrong.
You really paint Remainers as worthless people who will just stand by whilst others struggle.
January 2, 2022
Not only was the decision in the 1975 referendum to remain every single general election for the subsequent 40 years then returned a massively pro-Europe majority both in terms of vote share and seats in Parliament.
No form of Brexit has ever secured majority support from the north electorate at an election – nor will it ever.
You didnāt appear to have any trouble campaigning against the democratic will of the people as expressed in nine consecutive elections and a referendum over a period spanning four decades.
I will take no lessons from traitors.
January 2, 2022
What does you…young andy…really know about 1975?
Hilarious nonsense.
January 2, 2022
The Leave blowhards know that their claims are rubbish, just as the lumbering lout who barges into you in the pub knows that you really did not spill his beer, which he accuses you of having done.
Their motives are akin too, which is unsurprising, as in plenty of cases, they are exactly the same people.
January 3, 2022
Usual pathetic abuse NHL
Is that you in that pub you are referring to?
January 3, 2022
Martin – change your pub.
January 2, 2022
I didn’t notice any replacement in the civil servicebthat spent its time before the referendum on Project Fear.
January 2, 2022
The Tory party in parliament does not represent the best this country could produce.
The FPTP electoral system facilitates those who use money to control our politics ensuring the English people are never represented by individuals who put our country and people first.
January 2, 2022
I see it is being reported that the EU are now considering labelling Gas as a green power source to get over the immediate problem, Russia will be pleased !
Germany not happy that having scrapped there own Nuclear power programme, France wants to part re-label that green as well.
Once again Politicians realising that if you make a mistake, then you can simply call the mistake something else whilst you carry on as normal.
Looks like Cop 26 falling apart before its even begun.
Some Countries are waking up to the Green timetable fiasco and the so called promises made !
January 2, 2022
You missed the key bit of the manifesto Mr Redwood – the bit where you promised net zero by 2050.
To achieve that pledge you need to start working on it now – not in ten years time.
We do not need more gas – gas is part of the problem. We need more insulation, more double glazing, more solar panels, more wind turbines, more heat pumps, more electric car charging points and more inter-connectors.
This is all easy stuff. Imagine – you could use 2022 to promote sensible policies to make people wealthier and healthier. That would be a good change. A welcome change.
Prices have gone up because of Brexit. People voted to be colder and poorer and they will be.
Reply No I did not miss it and I set out my views on pace and costs of change warning against forced heat pumps and EVs before they are affordable and popular
January 2, 2022
I am sure you will all be sympathising with your grandchildren (children in my case) – who now have to wear masks in school this term.
Why? Because 100 Tory MPs who, frankly, know nothing about epidemiology held the government hostage and refused to allow the sensible restrictions we needed over Christmas to stop Omicronās spread.
It is now out of control and temporary wards / morgues are being built in hospital car parks to cope with what comes next.
Itās almost as if the Tories didnāt learn lessons from the mistakes they made the first time around. (And second time around). ((And third time around)).
January 2, 2022
Ridiculous whataboutery young Andy.
Over 180,000 cases a day yet hospital admissions are low and happily deaths are very low.
January 2, 2022
You missed the lessons of the first outbreak. And Alpha and Delta.
Hospitalisations peak 2-3 weeks after cases. Deaths 2-3 weeks after that.
No doubt vaccinations have helped but deaths linked to your Tory Christmas Covid catastrophe come in late January and February.
It is your age group whose lives are being put at risk. Some people of your age are already infected with Omicron – and in some cases it will kill them in about a month. They donāt know it yet.
Happy 2022.
January 2, 2022
Thanks for the bad lecture on primary statistics young andy, but my comments still prevail.
You forget Omicron is much less dangerous.
January 3, 2022
I hope you don’t volunteer for Samaritans..
January 2, 2022
73 deaths today, best call in the army
January 2, 2022
I meant āsend in the navyā, as we no longer have a standing army
January 3, 2022
42 today ….
January 2, 2022
Andy, I realise you don’t want to know, but once again: restrictions don’t stop virus spread, as international comparisons between the incidence of Covid, and severity and duration of restrictions, abundantly show. The data is in by now. Please try and keep up.
Secondary school kids will be forced to wear masks all day long (communal areas and classrooms) not because of 100 Tory MPs, but because that’s what the teaching unions want: ‘The four main teaching unions covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland – ASCL, NAHT, NEU and NASUWT.. said: Masks in secondary school classrooms are “overdue” ‘ (BBC news). Zahawi has caved.
January 2, 2022
Which is the more “traumatic”?
Requiring schoolkids to wear a bit of cloth on their faces or making them play rugby?
What a hoot!
January 3, 2022
The schooldays trauma for most lads was the cross-country running, almost skeletons made to run a couple of miles wearing just shorts (and shoes). And then either frozen to death in the communal showers or given almost third degree burns by badly regulated hot water.
Kids these days grow up as wusses….
January 3, 2022
So you get my point.
January 2, 2022
Incorrect (again). Daily reported infections in England have dropped by 24% overnight, to 123,547 on January 2nd down from 162,572 on January 1st. It isn’t “out of control” …. the wave of infections is already decreasing. And sadly, those who have died WITH the Omicron variant already had an imminent appointment with the Grim Reaper due to their age and/or terminal illnesses.
The only reason children are being forced to wear masks in schools is because this cowardly Government is terrified of the teaching unions and we’d struggle to find a backbone if we X-rayed every one of them.
January 2, 2022
No, plenty of otherwise healthy people, some quite young, have been killed by this SARS2.
It’s not quite the clear-out of weaklings, that some on the Right appear to celebrate.
Sometimes there is poetic justice, however.
January 3, 2022
Who on the right are celebrating NHL?
Come on eh
January 3, 2022
We are talking about the Omicron variant, not the original one (which also primarily selected the very elderly/frail and those with co-morbidities, but did prove terminal for a relatively small number of apparently healthy people).
Do keep up.
January 3, 2022
MARTIN – do you have a problem with naming it Covid like 99.9999% of the rest of the world?
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – is what it is, SARS is just abbreviation after all !
January 3, 2022
*”Sudden”
January 2, 2022
The mask wearing decision seems to be the result of pressure from the teaching unions based on no proper understanding of the position over omicron, and has nothing to do with votes in Parliament. Those nations that opted for harsher lockdown measures are finding that they have no significant effect on the spread of omicron. Indeed, they have become tardy in submitting their data to avoid the truth being too obvious.
Meanwhile it is looking as though cases may already have peaked in England, with hospital bed occupancy now rising at a slowing rate that suggests it too will soon peak far below the catastrophist projections from you and your friends, while ICU beds taken by covid patients have actually declined marginally, confirming that omicron is mild, and deaths of those with covid are showing no increase despite the upsurge in cases, suggesting that they are dominated by people who died of other things but had a positive covid test within the previous 28 days.
If you had been following the progress of the omicron outbreak in South Africa you would know that it is almost over there now, without the waves of hospitalisation and death associated with delta. We are unsurprisingly seeing similar behaviour here in the real world, even if modellers are still trying to catch up with reality.
January 3, 2022
There were restrictions last Christmas Andy my middle aged friend. My children still had to wear masks and freeze with open windows last January through March.
It’s a virus, which is mostly caught in the home. Restrictions do little.
January 3, 2022
so who introduces it into the home, and how was it caught in the first place?
January 2, 2022
… if only those cabinet ministers who finally challenged the scientists over Covid would now subject the Global Warming scientists to a similar scrutiny instead of meekly accepting their diktats, then we might find that there was no urgency at all …
January 2, 2022
When asked most people believe that climate change (global warming didnāt work as a strapline) and net zero is to save the planet
What most donāt know is that Al Gore and later Elon Musk campaigned with the UN IPCC to reduce āman-madeā co2 via the reduction of coal & fossil fuels to stop the oceans rising
January 2, 2022
Fascinating that they both have interests in Tesla
January 2, 2022
Should a majority of EU members back this proposal :
āThe European Commission has proposed plans to label some gas and nuclear power as green, prompting criticism from Germany.ā
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59850093
It will be interesting to see the reaction from the climate alarmist Marxist Britphobes who inhabit No.10, Parliament, the civil service (BEIS) and the BBC itself.
But Iām not expecting any policy changes as we head over the energy cliff edge into blackouts and poverty as a result of travelling backwards in time to 8th century windmills for our power.
January 2, 2022
It would be useful if you could reproduce the text here.
I tried to read it there, but the cookie thing expects you to switch off every single vendor setting individually – when I see that, I just close the site, I don’t have half an hour to spare for that.
January 2, 2022
Such a good article.
Wallow in the sense and stability of it ā¦like a soothing warm bath ( with bubbles!).
An antidote to eco loonery.
Why canāt JR stand in a leadership election??
The comments on the article were soooo positive.
January 3, 2022
Because *** wouldn’t let him .
Also
The “Andy ” thing ruins this blog it’s cringeworthy false.
Stick to real people.
January 3, 2022
Any party leader has to do what they are told ( advised ). Only the naive would think otherwise.
January 3, 2022
you need a heating source for a warm/hot bath…. it might have to be heating old kettles on an open fire, candles lit for heat as much as soothing!
January 2, 2022
We left the EU ?
January 2, 2022
The clue is in the title…turn the lights off !!..let’s do it, turn off every two motorway lights, and needless office lights left on 24/7, not forgetting so called security lights blazing away with retina burning power.
January 3, 2022
Everything you say in that article is pure common sense – and impossible to argue with. It is a shame the Daily Mail doesn’t get fully on board and really start hammering the message home.
January 3, 2022
I meant to add – I grew up in a house heated by one coal fire in the back room – which was only lit in the evenings. We slept in bedrooms with ice on the inside of the windows. I won’t forgive any government that takes us back to those days.
January 3, 2022
agreed- and the coal storage was bought and paid for in the autumn, any possibility of non-delivery would have been a catastrophe.
January 4, 2022
I’m afraid that any common sense ideas from Sir John and elsewhere will be ignored by the fool in No. 10 who is under the influence of our enemies, especially his globalist friends.