The road to net zero is meant to be a thirty year commitment. The three leaders or main players in favour of the whole speeded up plan were the EU, the USA and the UK at COP 26. The USA and the EU have already pulled back substantially from what they said and promised at the summit.
The ink was hardly dry on the compromise conclusions before an increasingly unpopular President decided he needed to take action to cut US petrol and diesel prices which were becoming inconvenient to motorists and business alike. He pledged to sell some of the US strategic oil reserve to help get the oil price down. More importantly he had words with his allies the Saudis to get OPEC to pump some more.No thoughts here to use higher prices to force more people and businesses off fossil fuels.
Also alarmed by the huge surge in European gas prices for home heating and industrial use, he decided to keep US gas prices way below European stressed levels. He issued 3091 drilling permits for more gas, and is auctioning 80 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration. He is now happy by implication that his predecessor Mr Trump  had provided a big boost to US gas output and is dining out on that success and boosting it further with his drill baby drill policy. The Greens see this as tearing up his good intentions and promises at COP 26.It is the reason US gas prices are so much lower than Europeâs.
It took the EU a bit longer after COP 26. Faced with a disastrous shortage of gas, a sometime shortage of wind power, and closures of coal and nuclear generating stations, the EU has decided to make a major pivot back to fossil fuels in the form of gas. They have now decided to buy up as much gas as they can in world markets to keep the factories turning and the lights on.They have also decided to designate gas as a green fuel which makes an important difference.
The US and EU pledges made for COP 26 did not make it unscathed to Christmas. China artfully avoided getting on the road to net zero anytime soon.
The U.K. should respond to the decision of two of the three largest generators of CO 2 in the world to change course like this. As the U.K. is still running on EU rules transposed into U.K. law this is one occasion when we should follow the EU lead and re designate gas. Unlike the EU we should not tie ourselves more to their shortage of domestic energy and gas but should use our independence to extract more of our own gas alongside imports from Norway to make our supplies of this recently greened fuel more secure. China of course, the worldâs largest CO 2 generator by far, was happy to see the west pledged to net zero whilst making clear China plans to increase its CO 2 output for most of the rest of this decade.
Germany is closing all its nuclear stations within a year and all its coal stations this decade. France has several older nuclear plants temporarily closed. This will worsen the EUâs energy shortage.  The U.K. cannot rely on imports from the EU. We  need to rely more on ourselves and have enough gas to heat our homes and to power U.K. industry.
January 3, 2022
Reviewing the papers today I see mass migration for corporate profits is rearing its very ugly head, illegal immigration is out of control, there are tax rises from energy to wine, voters expected to go green and absolutely no evidence of climate change is produced, people being coerced into taking a vaccine that rarely causes heart attacks, the tax payers are called racist, sexist, transphobes if they object ⊠meanwhile the civil service receive gold plated pensions, and the elite party like itâs 1999.
I am getting the very strong impression that politicians are âscrewing overâ the British people.
January 3, 2022
Not just the politicians: the entire British Establishment appears to be doing it.
January 3, 2022
Donna – The entire UK Establishment have been doing this for decades but now the people are waking up.
January 3, 2022
When ‘Boris’ was doing a piece to cameras the other day he talked about the behaviour of ‘the British people’, their views, behaviours, character etc..
Struck me he did not consider himself as a member. He was talking about others, he considered himself as a superior entity talking to an inferior group. He knew best.
January 3, 2022
‘He knew best.’
An expected Eton boy’s stance. Groomed (sorry) for leadership of the sheep, fawning at his words, ignoring his doubtful deeds, confident of the leadership. Oh dear!
January 3, 2022
You can make a list of things he has got wrong, but he is a double scholarship boy and wasn’t at all well off when young, either materially or emotionally. There is far too much lazy stereotyping of him rather than serious criticism of his policy.
January 4, 2022
Well the long list of criticism if often given on here, I can’t be ar,,d to repeat.
January 3, 2022
Its all political shenanigans; children arenât affected by covid and 99% of masks are non effectiveâŠso what does this government do â it instructions school children to wear masksâŠ.its all a political distraction
January 3, 2022
It’s more than a political distraction – it seems to me to be a deliberate conditioning of our future citizens: government knows best and you must comply. Sinister beyond belief.
January 3, 2022
absolutely, I think the enforced mask wearing for school pupils is outrageous, and shows how out of control our ruling class are, I for one am furious
January 3, 2022
+1
On topic -unilateral greenism is utterly futile. Especially as Andy and NLH tell us we are now an irrelevance and have no global influence anymore.
All this will do is slash the Tory majority by a huge amount. God help them if Labour get a credible leader.
January 3, 2022
PS, the war on motorists simply MUST end.
January 3, 2022
What “war” on motorists?
I’m one but haven’t detected such a thing.
January 3, 2022
Tax, restrictions/charges, give way to a pedestrian when turning from a major into minor road – even if they are just standing on a kerb with no intent to cross.
January 3, 2022
You miss most things that ordinary people get concerned about, while you spend your day writing trivia on here – and anywhere else we should avoid?
January 4, 2022
I always have given way to pedestrians crossing side roads, so no change there.
I’m a pedestrian too, and find that many, perhaps most drivers do too, notably in London.
And that being in the HC is “war” to you snowflakes is it?
January 3, 2022
Thank you, Sir John, for allowing this comment through moderation. It’s how many of us feel, but we’re used to being deleted.
January 3, 2022
Good morning.
It is all very well to have lofty dreams of a carbon free future, until reality kicks in. China no showed because it knew it was all just a bit of political posturing for a tiny vote share that they did not need to pander too. China needs to keep riding its bike and, like the EU Project, cannot afford to fall off. That for both of them is the reality.
Americans are very use to cheap fuel and cheap flights across their country. President Trump, like President Putin and Xi understand the need and power of affordable and reliable energy. Pity the Pound Shop Churchill in Number 10 does not. He needs to be told what to do and, so far, the Green Meanies seem to have his ear. I just hope for many of your colleagues, Sir John that when reality here also bites it is not too late.
So many of us all knew this would end in tears (for us) so, so long ago you just wonder what is the point of having a Parliament and MP’s ?
January 3, 2022
‘you just wonder what is the point of having a Parliament and MPâs ?’
Correct – for far too long Parliament has in reality been kicked into the long grass.
The PM, Cabinet and Cief Whip are in effect a dictatorship, more than managed before. Where is the mandate from the Party? We have a Party(?) in power that enjoys parties, but relies simply on its MPs sitting masked with no visible distaste for proceedings.
Even the Opposition needs to do nothing, sometimes lending it’s support against the PM’s own showing toothless protest. Time will tell, the prospect of the reins taken by another blinkered soul beckons, while doing nothing to secure it!
January 3, 2022
The US has suffered some pretty devastating weather disasters in recent years, and they seem to be getting worse, as climate science would suggest they would.
Perhaps a few more will change enough minds.
January 3, 2022
‘Seem’ is the important word, it seems that way because of our activist media, who peddle fear for their climate change religion, the evidence suggests otherwise of lessening storm strengths and falling numbers of casualties because of the weather.
January 3, 2022
Iain Moore :
Absolutely correct.
January 3, 2022
+1
Very true.
Not removing silt from levees etc and then throwing up hands in horrorâŠflood!
January 3, 2022
And rather than remove the silt this government would build a website, create a committee and appoint a minister to investigate
January 3, 2022
Indeed. LHM should educate himself on the web with a few actual facts not the peddled lies about a one off weather event. Plenty of sceptic “real” data out there.
January 3, 2022
So what is the evidence? Can you offer links?
January 3, 2022
The latest wildfires are suspected arson.
January 4, 2022
Were the once-in-a-generation but now frequent EF5 tornadoes arson too?
January 3, 2022
Forest fires due to arson are not climate change.
Climate ‘science’ is based on same faulty computers models used in Covid scam. We can’t predict our own weather a month in advance.
January 3, 2022
mostly not even a few days in advance…
January 3, 2022
They would report arson as ‘man-made’ climate change
January 3, 2022
”…they seem to be getting worse, as climate science would suggest they would.”
No – not ”climate science” suggests, but as better communications and the internet allow people worldwide are enabled to see what happens to poor souls in the rest of the world. These things have ALWAYS happened to a greater or lesser extent over the last few hundred years (a blink of an eye) and far longer – it’s just that now we can watch, within minutes, what others are suffering.
Climate science – piffle. Read what REAL scientists conclude from this, not the ones paid by ‘climate alarmists’ with axes to grind and bank accounts to fill.
January 3, 2022
Caught a repeat of some of the Trump/Farage interview. Trump made the point that ‘gas’ was less that $2/gallon when he left office and that Californians are now paying north of $7/gallon. Consumers here are going to go mad when the next round of energy price rises hit their doormats. That’ll be before the May elections, won’t it? I’ve already turned my heating down to the point where the house feels cold for much of the time. Others will soon start shivering.
January 3, 2022
At last the MSM excluding the BBC are waking up to the dogs breakfast of net zero.
Whilst the rest of the world is doing a screeching U turn, we blithely Carrie on with more of the same.
When are we going to licence fracking sea exploration and new coal fields.
Boris has had his fun now be rid of him and put someone sensible incharge. Preferably an engineer
January 6, 2022
Eton doesn’t turn out engineers.
JF
January 3, 2022
It looks like a massive ice shelf in the Antarctic is on the point of disintegration, which alone could cause a 0.6m rise in global sea levels in quite short order.
This will dramatically increase the flooding risk and smash property values in Tory-Leave voting areas of East Anglia etc.
I’m 100m asl.
reply Iâm sure people here will follow this forecast. How imminent is this?
January 3, 2022
If it is the A-76 4320 km^2 from the Ronne Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea its impact on sea level should be minimal as it was floating ice when attached.
If it is part of the Thwaites Glacier in the Amundsen Sea, people in the know of these things (the ice experts of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration) give anything between five and 30 years for the full melt of this 74,000 square mile piece of ice to increase sea level by two feet.
cires.colorado.edu, 13/12/2021 âThe threat from Thwaitesâ, presented at the American Geophysical Union December meeting.
January 3, 2022
Either way, the two questions which should always be asked when climate scaremongers start spouting their alarmist garbage are:
i. What PROOF is there that this is due to MAN-MADE climate change? and
ii. What PROOF is there that the UK reducing its MINUSCULE greenhouse gases will make ANY difference, given that the big emitters (China, India and others) are INCREASING theirs?
Of course, the marxist trolls who come here solely to cause trouble will never answer these questions, which is why I never bother reponding to their lies.
January 3, 2022
Spot On X-Tory
January 3, 2022
OK, fair enough. Now your turn, what PROOF is there that this is NOT due to MAN-MADE climate change? You must have a series of reasons all supported by ârealâ scientists that whatever happens now is due to natural variations, so I will wait for your answer and references. Thank you very much in advance.
You and your type, the various LL, GC, et al. keep telling us that real scientists are not being listened to. So please provide their names, affiliations and their published papers. It should be easy for you. And try not to play the usual game of quoting (without any references) various palaeoclimates when the distribution of continents was so different from today that ocean currents, temperature structure and wind distributions had nothing to do with the Earth conditions that have prevailed these last few thousands of years. Thanks again.
As for your second question, contrary to what you might be assuming I agree with you.
January 3, 2022
Yes, thanks.
January 3, 2022
Hereâs the link to show more ice in the Antarctic
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasa-study-mass-gains-of-antarctic-ice-sheet-greater-than-losses
Please provide your link on Antarctic ice shelf disintegration
January 3, 2022
30/10/2015, updated 07/08/2017, not a very recent reference, isnât it?
Anything using ESA CryoSat-2 or NASA IceSat-2 data?
January 3, 2022
âHeterogeneous retreat and ice melt of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarcticaâ, Science Advances, 30/06/2019, 5,1, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aau3433.
More recently on Youtube AGU#21 âPress conference: The threat from Thwaites: The retreat of Antarcticaâs riskiest glacier, 13/12/2021, about 30 minutes presentation by some of the ITGC scientists then 30 minutes of questions by journalists.
January 3, 2022
If that ice is in the water already, then its melting won’t raise sea-levels.
P.S. I was fortunate enough to fly around one of those mega-bergs in the South Atlantic well before Greta started ranting. Our C-130 dropped down to shelf height and flew around it, taking about twenty minutes.
January 3, 2022
I read
While the collapse of Thwaites certainly could trigger a wholesale collapse event, not everyone believes this will happen.
Other work suggests that the destabilisation of the Thwaites ice shelf and glacier may not lead to the kind of catastrophic outcomes that some fear. Sea ice and chunks of ice that break away from the collapsing ice shelf and glacier might have a similar restraining effect to the intact ice shelf, nipping the chain-reaction in the bud and preventing the sustained collapse of the entire West Antarctic ice sheet.
So once again we have the catastrophists getting all the attention.
January 3, 2022
What other work? Usually you are quite good at providing reference(s).
January 3, 2022
The same ice that started its melt in England 10,000 years ago.
Unilateral Net Zero is futile. We must adapt to change instead.
January 3, 2022
+1
January 3, 2022
about 500 years?
January 3, 2022
Quite, choosing between dampness leading to mould or having the heating on enough to stop it in this house.
January 3, 2022
It was pretty obvious this would not take long. Can our government stop fiddling while Rome burns and make a useful decision? We need some action pretty damn quick before we lose everything to other countries. Boris has got to get a grip and all MP’S need to make him wake up from his slumber. The future of the UK is his responsibility and he seems oblivious to this.
January 3, 2022
The question I often ask myself is which ministers and MPs understand the truth and are just lying over climate alarmism, renewable energy, net zero⊠and which ones really are so thick and ignorant that they actually believe the unscientific drivel they come out with?
It is not even as if it will be politically popular, it will be a disaster politically too once people see the costs, inconvenience and the reality of the agenda.
January 3, 2022
They’re just a bunch of sheep.
January 3, 2022
F U S
All mps need to wake him up….
You are having a laugh. You know as well as we do there is a high % of the population understand that there is a maximum of 80 members who are prepared to stand up and be counted. The rest will do nothing as always.
January 3, 2022
Can anyone persuade this government to turn away from it’s destructive net zero agenda? I doubt it. I always told myself that the EU, given a choice a two paths, will usually choose the path of self destruction and it appears that Boris now emulates them. How much longer do we have to tolerate this self inflicted hardship?
The UK economy will be destroyed (or sold off altogether) and the benefits for the world’s ‘climate’ will be zero. The UK creeps slowly (or not so slowly) towards Orwells 1984. We already have the makings of Newspeak where certain words are now being banned and history is being re-written by the ‘woke’ as we speak.
January 3, 2022
The problem for voters is that the other parties are signed up to even more extreme green agenda than Boris !
Unless the Reform party can get its act together, (unlikely) we will have nobody to vote for who will not impoverish us and destroy our competitiveness.
January 3, 2022
âThe U.K. should respond to the decision of two of the three largest generators of CO 2 in the world to change course like this.â
However, we will end up with whatever is best for Boris Johnson. He will do whatever he can get away with.
January 3, 2022
And we MUST question why we have to reduce co2
The IPCC have determined that man-made co2 via the burning of fossil fuel has contributed to the global temperature rise which, in turn, will increase the melting of the ice-caps which will result in oceans risingâŠ. according to unknown scientists but proposed by Al Gore
January 3, 2022
Then show us the evidence not forecasts by a rubbished computer model. CO2 is 0.04% of the atmosphere. The big yellow thing that we orbit has the greater impact on our climate, but it’s all to complicated to predict. So where do ice ages fit into the equation and what has always happened over the millennia between them? The temperature rises. There’s a thing.
January 3, 2022
Sir John,
I made exactly the same point on EU gas in a comment yesterday. It’s almost as if you followed my lead – except I know you’ve held this stance for much longer.
Agree there is no point the UK being the goody-two-shoes on the world stage when others are sticking two fingers up to their commitments. There is also the point that UK CO2 emissions are trivial against world targets. By all means let’s be in the lead group on change but opting to be the front runner is a dangerous and costly mistake.
Of course EU members have form on ignoring rules and promises. For example how long did France take to allow UK beef back into their country after the BSE crisis? And why was Greece allowed into the Euro when it blatantly failed to meet the entry criteria? One could go on.
January 3, 2022
PeteB
Agreed, trail blazing in business and politics is an exceedingly expensive programme to adopt..
The first in money, the second in votes !
The others soon catch up if it succeeds, or they save the money and hassle if it does not.
Sometimes it is better to come second !
January 3, 2022
Exactly the energy net zero agenda was always insane (in engineering & economic terms and politically disastrous too), showing very clearly that our energy, business and other ministers have no understanding of energy, energy engineering, business or energy economics. But they demonstrate this themselves in their speeches and interviews regularly.
Face masks for children all day at school is surely absurd and cruel. Nadhim Zahawi claims to have âobservationalâ evidence this works but has not released this yet – it seems highly unlikely they do have or it could even work – by what mechanism?
The claims about the ~ 90% effectiveness of the vaccines also seems to be totally false, just in my extended family 7 out of 20 fully jabbed and boosted people have caught it in the last couple of weeks. None has had much more than a cold though.
January 3, 2022
The war against CO2 is misguided & wrong for three reasons all seem to be true and any one of which is sufficient.
1. CO2 is not a serious problem anyway – there is no climate emergency.
2. On balance a little more CO2 plant food is probably a net benefit & a little warmer probably a net benefit too.
3. The solution proposed to reduce CO2 (solar, bio, wind, EVs …) do not work to any significant degree – not even in just CO2 terms – they just export jobs and industries and the CO2 production anyway.
Encouraging for example (using tax breaks and grants) people to trade in old perfectly good older cars for newly built, short lived and rather limited EV (emissions elsewhere) cars actually increases net world CO2 production. So why are we doing this exactly Boris, Carrie, Shapps, Hands, Kwarteng? Plus we do not even have sufficient low carbon electricity to charge them with anyway. Importing wood from the US to burn equally irrational in CO2 terms.
January 3, 2022
+many
Oh but the lefty climate change warriors have their own truth.
Whatever they believe to be trueâŠjust IS!
They donât need to be consistent or rational or accurate.
And the bend over backwards brigade have allowed them to s l o w l y assume the reins of power.
January 3, 2022
I am the same age as our host and have no intention of switching to an electric car for all the reasons you mention. Apart from the very high initial purchase cost, they don’t have the kind of range I need.
I recently added a 67 year-old Rolls Royce Silver Dawn to our small stable of interesting cars.
The Rolls Royce will still be up to the time when petrol becomes unavailable, by which time it will be at least 100 years old. It is therefore a fully sustainable solution because it’s carbon footprint over a century will be far less than that of the six to ten lesser IC-powered convenancies and electric cars that the average driver and their offspring would get through over a century.
It cost me less than any Tesla to buy, needs no MOT or road tax, is cheap to insure and will suffer no depreciation !
It is also a reminder of brilliant British Engineering of the highest quality.
January 3, 2022
Indeed and if you can eventually no longer get petrol then you can ask Prince Charles how to convert it to run off waste Cheese and Wine perhaps – like his Aston Martin. Should not cost more than ~ ÂŁ100k to convert but I am sure Charlie can give you more info.
January 3, 2022
I fear I may not be around to drive it by then. If I am, I will already have received my telegram from King William !
January 3, 2022
Johnson has been ‘looking at the data’ and so far he’s minded to say we have to learn to live with this virus, according to Edward Argar, Minister of State at the DHSC. I know I’ll get flak for this, but let’s give the PM one last chance – to do the right thing and not go down the path of tyranny, as they are doing on the continent.
January 3, 2022
Telling people they canât go to nightclubs to help save peopleâs lives is tyranny?
Okay. Odd view.
Tell me – have you actually been anywhere near a nightclub since the turn of the century?
Thought not.
January 3, 2022
+1 the only realistic PM alternatives are even worse than Boris.
January 3, 2022
Richard
How many times has Alexander Johnson MP stood at the lectern and said he would or would not do ‘x’, then go on to do the opposite a little while later ?
Too often !
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
January 3, 2022
+1
Platoâs âShip of Foolsâ! Except that this âshipâ has all been led by âexpertsâ just totally useless ones!
Making masks obligatory for children (or anyone) is clearly an act of cruelty. Disgusting and disgraceful.
The arrogant disregard for our sensibilities and dignity will never be forgiven.
Cheese and wine and revelry for someâŠmasks for others!
Three years ago youâd have been arrested for wearing a mask!
January 3, 2022
+1
January 3, 2022
LL. I heard Zahawi on R4 (yes I know!) and he waffled his way through. There is not a single study in the world that proves masks work so perhaps ‘observational’ evidence of delusion, but real evidence of damage to communication skills and psycological damage to children. Never mind having to breath their own foul air.
January 3, 2022
’20 fully jabbed, 7 caught it but only had a cold type. The vaccines do not work 90 percent’.
How do you know this? They vaccines meant to subdue the virus, not stop it. Very few vaccines have ever put a stop to a viral infection. Surely you can see the absurdity of what you said. What do you think would have happened had no-one been jabbed?
January 3, 2022
Tis reply to Lifelogic, but the system sees fit to put it in the wrong place.
January 3, 2022
We don’t know how serious the adverse effects attributable to these vaccines will be, because the vaccine producers have stood down the control groups. That is a crass violation of scientific method. So much for ‘following the science’.
January 4, 2022
Why that? Could it be that it is more and difficult to have such a control group when more and more people get vaccinated, and that most of people presently dying from/with Covid are from the non-vaccinated group? Just a question.
Moreover the âpeopleâsâ VaxControlGroup and Control Group Cooperative Ltd are still around if you really want to register. Nobody is preventing you from being part of one of those.
January 3, 2022
It can been seen from the hospitalisation figures too vaccinated or not though honest figures are hard to get. The vaccine seems to reduce your chances of hospitalisation only to about 1/4 of an unvaccinated person of the same age/gender on my rough calculations (certainly worth having for the elderly) though some of this is probably due to less dangerous versions of the virus. The ~ 90% claims can not be supported.
January 4, 2022
It would be good if you were to produce the details of your calculations, in particular those showing how the ~90% claims cannot be supported.
January 3, 2022
So the vaccines weren’t meant to stop the virus, Graham? Well, some of us remember the 95%-effectiveness-of-the-vaccines story. Here’s an example of what the public were being told by the NHS last winter: ‘The vaccine is 95% effective against the virus causing symptoms and they are currently being rolled out across Coventry and Warwickshire.’ (https://coventrywarwickshireccg.nhs.uk/health-services/covid-19-vaccination/)
I don’t think they’re claiming that now.
January 4, 2022
Exactly – 95 percent effective at reducing the symptoms, not stopping it. This was never claimed as no vaccine does that. My point is that he said the vaccines had been taken by 20 of his family, 7 got Covid very mildly. Does that not suggest the vaccines had the effect? Latest figures for intensive care show most of the people in there were not vaccinated. What do you want with a vaccine, not release it for years when we have a current pandemic? What would have happened had we not had the vaccines? Billions of doses have been given world wide. You are not forced to take it, but must be prepared for the consequences if you don’t. Presumably you are not vaccinated then? If you are, then why did you do it?
January 3, 2022
These are pragmatic responses by the USA and the EU. I note that US shippers of LNG sent a convoy of ships to Europe, some on spec, in the expectation of profiting from high gas spot prices. I also recall seeing a recording of Truss being asked at a fringe meeting of a Tory party conference if the UK should stick to its COP commitments if China did not play ball too. Her reply, sotto Voce, was No. Perhaps it is time she spoke up more publicly and in the Cabinet to repeat this view.
January 3, 2022
Be careful for what you wish for â Tuss would like us back in the EUâŠ.remember all the promises Boris made said during the election ?
January 3, 2022
I can see two of those vessels steaming up and down outside Milford Haven, both having loaded in the USA, with “for orders” destination- Bonito LNG and Pearl LNG, in addition to the Yamal cargo on the Christophe de Margerie which is waiting for the Atlantic Voyager (also ex US supply) to complete discharge.
I also see a Yamal cargo discharging at Rotterdam, and another about to arrive at Montoir. Nothing at present at Grain, Zeebrugge or Dunkirk.
January 3, 2022
Of course the UK should immediately define natural gas and nuclear as ‘green’ sources of energy. And then, in order to be as ‘green’ as possible get moving with small modular reactors and gas fracking. This will have the happy result of ensuring energy security, hugely boosting the economy, avoiding mass fuel poverty and reducing CO2 emissions.
January 3, 2022
Richard. And providing much needed employment in the areas where Boris wants to level up.
January 3, 2022
It could easily have been avoided if they had used common sense and ensured there was a proper transition in place and using our own resources. Not that difficult to work out.
January 3, 2022
+1
January 3, 2022
In the Telegraph today both are surely correct.
Tory Britain is no place to run a business
The Conservatives appear to have lost all interest in wealth creation, enterprise and the free market
Annabel Dedham
Masks in schools are both pointless and cruel
Nearly two years into the pandemic, the âone last heaveâ argument is wearing very thin indeed
Tim Stanley
January 3, 2022
Yes, Zahawi has effectively attacked the weakest in society. How can he be left to run our education system?
January 3, 2022
BillB, Zahawi isnât in charge, the school unions are and if they want masks theyâll get masks or they wonât work. I donât think people realise how much power the unions have in the public sector. He is just trying to get them back into school so he doesnât have to close the whole thing down. He should have trainee teachers waiting in the wings to fill absence slots and his department must try think of new ways of doing things in schools, bring in artists and musicians that canât work (and canât get furlough) and have their teachers passes to expand classes and cover for up to 25% absence we are told, they could hold classes in English inc. Shakespeare, music, yoga and other sports, others have skills in mathematics and science.
Also many more women work in schools, woman are more cautious than men, it will be interesting to compare over the past three months how many teachers have been off work sick with other sectors and how many have had multiple cases of covid to create this panic measure.
January 3, 2022
He said today that if you have Covid then wearing a mask âwill protect othersâ how? Whatcevidence does he have for this claim? If you turn the masks round will it then protect you? It is surely drivel.
Meanwhile they want to double up class rooms so as to keep kids in school where teacher are short. If you do this the students are far closer and much more chance of an infected person(s) being in the room. At the very least you increase the chance of any child being infected by ~ 3+ times.
January 3, 2022
My task this year (call it a New Year’s resolution perhaps) is to galvanise the local engineering companies together with the schools to promote engineering as a career option, given that school children have practically no horizons in this direction. And why not when you consider the engineering legacy of this country, threatened as it is with extinction?
I fear that other engineering company owners may drag their feet, even if they welcome the initiative, or that the schools might be reluctant because of their politics. But what I fear most of all is that I will have to be honest with the potential candidates and tell them the government is intent on frustrating British industry, making it internationally uncompetitive with excessive taxes and high housing costs for the workers.
I still think it’s a worthy aspiration, so will continue with the plan.
January 3, 2022
British engineering is being destroyed by your Brexit anyway. It isnât a viable career for most Britons – unless they also have an EU passport.
January 3, 2022
Complete and utter nonsense young andy.
Engineering is a great career in a growing sector.
Stop your trolling and do some research before making yourself look stupid.
January 3, 2022
it comes easily….
January 3, 2022
Freedom of movement is a essential for many engineers. Your company builds a complex machine for export to the huge European single market they need people who can move freely over borders to maintain it. Britons are no longer useful for that as their free movement was removed by the Tory pensioner minority.
Reply Free movement for skilled people is current policy
January 3, 2022
More complete and utter nonsense.
Do some research young andy.
You are making yourself look even more ridiculous.
January 3, 2022
Bull. They can, for example, build the wings and engines for your beloved Airbusii.
January 3, 2022
Andy – destruction of engineering was well underway whilst in the EU.
January 3, 2022
Dave Andrews I applaud your strategy.Engineering was the foundation of our society but has been eroded over time with Blair the main instigator as he wanted children to go to universities rather than apprenticeships.The U.K. has and is still suffering from this stupidity.
January 3, 2022
+1
Yes scrapping the Tech colleges was the icing on the cake of failure, calling some of them Universities has not worked either, because they have changed the courses on offer.
January 3, 2022
Proper engineering requires a university education.
January 3, 2022
Total nonsense yet again.
Just like your pal young andy just above.
Why do people who have never been involved in engineering say such ridiculous things.
January 3, 2022
Not true.
January 3, 2022
You are getting confused with technicianship.
That’s because you are British rather than German, say.
January 3, 2022
NLH
“Proper engineering requires a University education”
Really, what engineering degree do you have ?
Many thousands of first class practical engineers/designers went through the day release system of actually working with college study at the same time gaining City and Guilds, HNC, HND qualifications, all passed through their training earning wages and had no debts.
Many thousands of these qualified engineers were sought after and often promoted to engineering design and senior management, with the advantage and benefit of huge practical experience, not just theory.
January 3, 2022
More total nonsense from someone who has never been involved in engineering ever.
Eh, NHL?
January 3, 2022
And very well said Alan.
Excellent post.
January 4, 2022
Well my brother âonlyâ has an HND in electronics engineering and only worked on the missile guidance systems for our nuclear subs.
I worked in Construction Engineering for 20 years. Many of the graduates I worked with were useless fools who thought having a degree made them competent.
January 4, 2022
@ NLH/MiC – you are ignorant of the facts or lazy;
The UK regulatory body for professional engineers is the Engineering Council which provides Chartered Engineer status for professionally qualified engineers – ie “proper” engineers.
A degree only became a mandatory requirement for CEng registration in 1999 and before that HNC and HND were accepted. But a degree or HNC/HND are not enough alone anyway, there must be substantial profession experience and CPD to qualify which take time.
So a registered professional engineer with CEng today might well have an HNC/HND rather than degree as their academic background.
January 3, 2022
Wishing you good luck with that Dave Andrews! Hope you have some success.
January 3, 2022
@Dave – Have a look at TeenTech, they may already have an activity in your area and if not could certainly point you to people who have been involved in such activities elsewhere.
January 3, 2022
Few people believed the BS from Boris etc about what COP 26 achieved. We know these events cannot âfailâ so politicians once again treat the public as idiots, cue Cameron telling us the great concessions Merkel/EU had made.
Maybe more honesty on this subject would start to get your electorate back. We are now hearing almost nothing from Ministers on heat pumps etc. what they said was misleading and uninformed. I guess they realise this.
The cost per household, rewiring, underfloor heating, re plumbing, larger radiators etc is eye watering and as ever, much spun government schemes are the equivalent of a gnat on an elephant.
It is now time to acknowledge that the technology is not far enough advanced and take pragmatic action until it is.
January 3, 2022
Retro fit heat pumps are an insane, impractical and very expensive idea for most flats/houses.
The sensible solutions are short term more gas, oil and even coal – in the long terms better nuclear and then nuclear fusion. Hydrogen is rather pointless too as we have no hydrogen mines and producing it is very expensive and produces much CO2 in the process anyway. So H2 is just a very expensive and energy wasteful battery system with no real advantages over natural gas.
January 3, 2022
50% of properties arenât suitable for heat-pumps, just like 50% of properties arenât suitable for EV home charging, but hey-ho let press on anyway
January 3, 2022
and 50% of the adult population do not get paid enough to contribute any meaningful taxes, however Sam Cooke may have got it right:-
I was born by the river, in a little tent
Oh, and just like the river
I’ve been running ever since
It’s been a long
A long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it will
It’s been too hard living
But I’m afraid to die
‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there
Beyond the sky
It’s been a long
A long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it will
January 3, 2022
Much more than 50% of homes in cities are unsuitable – where EVs more more sense but for this!
January 4, 2022
In a sense natural gas (as well as oil and coal) is part of a very expensive and wasteful battery system that took millions of years to charge up.
An advantage of H2 over natural gas is we could produce it on demand and it is a renewable resource, whereas the natural gas you refer to is not technically renewable by the same process in usable timescales and gets depleted.
The other advantage is we wouldn’t have to get the H2 out of someone else’s ground, we are surrounded by it.
January 3, 2022
Like everything else that comes out of Downing Street, this net zero is a stupidly myopic idea. When will the current residents of No. 10 climb out of the rabbit hole and back into the Real World? Or more to the point, have they the rational to see the Real World?
January 3, 2022
+1
January 3, 2022
and unsurprisingly in the real world of South America, Africa, Middle East, Asia and the Far East couldnât care two hoots about climate change
January 3, 2022
GC – Worked both in West Africa and South America and I can confirm that. Burning of plastic rubbish etc., rubber tyres with plumes of black acrid smoke, vehicles pumping out black smoke, piles of rubbish in the streets plus, plus, plus and no one gives a – – – – !!!!!! They survive though.
January 3, 2022
We all know what should be done Sir John. The obsession with Net Zero and outlawing the use of fossil fuels is destroying what remains of our manufacturing base and loading costs onto people who cannot afford to pay for the Eco lunacy of the green obsessives.
But the Jolly Green Giant doesn’t have either the common sense or the necessary spine to change policy. He’s shackled to an Eco Warrior (and the son of another); appears to be “owned” by the UN/WEF and is terrified of the BBC.
To change the Eco Loony policy you will first have to change the Eco Loony Leader.
January 3, 2022
Or at least his potty theatre studies wife! He was once a climate realist with his “blow the skin off a rice pudding” comments. He was once a small government, low taxes libertarian too.
January 3, 2022
Talk is cheap ….. or in the Buffoon’s case, it was very expensive for the DT.
Ignore what they say; watch what they do. We now know for certain exactly what Johnson is …… and it isn’t a Conservative, let alone a libertarian one.
January 3, 2022
Agree
January 3, 2022
Donna, so well put, thank you, + lots and lots
January 3, 2022
Your best ever post on this subject, thank you. No doubt you will be invited to expand on your theme when invited onto Skyâs Climate Show and BBC Newsnight!
January 3, 2022
Unlikely how the media is so easily corrupted and/or bought!
January 3, 2022
LL- Look at who owns and controls the media.
January 3, 2022
As the government have declared the science on climate change âsettledâ it doesnât have to provide any balanceâŠ.how deceitful
January 3, 2022
In spite of the blatant fossil fuel lobby scaremongering posted by the usual dinosaurs here, the lights still seem to be on this morning. Once again renewables are producing 14.6GW or 56%% of nationwide demand. We are exporting 15% of production to the EU via the interconnectors (3.8GW) and are easily covering today’s CCGT generation of 3.5GW by domestic production of gas. Coal is offline today.
There are ample supplies of gas available to us and the EU. Fossil fuel producers have arbitrarily imposed the 400% price rise to recover their losses during the lockdowns. There have not been – and there will not be – any power cuts because of variable wind.
The new German Chancellor has ordered a review into their decision to take their perfectly safe and well maintained nucear reactors offline, apparently with the Green’s support. Belgium and the Netherlands are doing the same. France will be replacing its ageing fleet in the next ten years.
The next crisis will be EDF demanding more than the ÂŁ92.5/MWh agreed with May’s government to build Hinkley C. The spot price last week was fluctuating around ÂŁ140MWh.
Reply What an unreal world you try to create. there has been a massive shortage of gas in Europe which drove the price up. Mild weather and better wind is now abating it but we cannot rely on the weather to always be this helpful.
January 3, 2022
@Sir John – reply
I have attempted several times to post links here to firms developing non lithium gridscale energy storage solutions. Why have you moderated them? Energy storage should be part of the mix to mitigate wind variability
reply I do not have time to read the links to check them out and this site does not promote particular companies or receive money from commercial interests or public bodies.
January 3, 2022
Far better to generate the electricity only when needed this rather than to try to store it in general. Storage is very expensive indeed often dangerous (barrage breaches in particular) and wastes 25%-60% of the energy in the in/out process.
There have indeed been power cuts due to wind destabilising electricity grids.
January 3, 2022
L/L. Agree and having to keep ramping up and down gas stations is not environmentally friendly and is expensive.
January 3, 2022
+1 and a waste of a valuable asset when generating only part time.
January 3, 2022
Indeed, the primary cause of the August 2019 blackout was the sudden loss of output from the Hornsea offshore wind farm on a windy day with insufficient inertia left on the system to manage the loss. Just in case anyone wants to pretend that such a loss is no longer possible, the whole 1.2GW of output was tripped offline in October 2020, causing another severe frequency excursion, although this time there was sufficient available inertia to recover.
January 3, 2022
But the 2019 grid failure wasn’t that simple was it, according the National Grid Director of Operations it was caused by two power generation systems, gas then wind disconnecting near simultaneously
January 3, 2022
@LL You will of course have evidence of power cuts in this country due to “wind destabilising” electricity grids.
January 3, 2022
@Sakara Gold
Could you post them somewhere else that would give you anonymity? A Facebook or Twitter account not in your name perhaps? Something like that? I’d be interested in having a look at those links.
January 4, 2022
@Mike Wilson
The front runner is Highview Power’s CRYOBattery system, followed by Stiesdal Storage Technologies crushed rock system. Both these systems are grid-scale, have been built and installed and operational data is being taken. The fossil fuel lobby is attacking the CRYOBattery system, so this is the one they are worried about
Heindl Gravity Storage is propably the cheapest system, but has yet to be fully developed
Thanks for your interest
January 3, 2022
There are many R&D activities and it depends on what you mean by “grid scale” but apart from pumped hydro and Lithium batteries I don’t think there are other technologies currently operational in the UK.
For example flow batteries, gravity, air and thermal have been demonstrated elsewhere on a small scale but not operationally at large scale.
January 3, 2022
I’m curious Sakara Gold …… how many poor or old people are you prepared to see die of the cold each year, or driven into penury, so you can achieve your “green” objectives? Because cold kills and the British weather is very variable so a prolonged period of cold, frosty weather with no wind is likely to result in a large number of deaths amongst people who either cannot afford to heat their homes or are too terrified of the extortionate bills to turn it on.
January 3, 2022
@Donna
Its because of the 12year failure of government energy policy. I have read much scaremongering here about wind, but claiming that wind is going to cause the deaths of people is ridiculous. The government has taken in excess of ÂŁ3.5billion in extra VAT because of the 400% price rise imposed by the oil and gas majors. They can use that to reduce our energy bills
It is now obvious to many that the best solution is to complete the nationalisation of the energy industry begun by May when she introduced the price caps.
January 3, 2022
Wind won’t cause their deaths. Lack of wind/excess wind and no alternative reliable source of energy will.
As will massively expensive energy, however it is produced.
I note you didn’t answer my question. How many are you prepared to see die each year so you can achieve your (impossible) “green” nivarna?
January 4, 2022
@Donna
Your obvious hatred of green policy – particularly renewable energy – and your persistent climate change denial, in spite of the obvious evidence and overwhelming scientific opinion, is extremely irrational. I would not wish to shake you out of your comfort zone. Suffice to say that nobody is going to die because of windfarms, but many poor people and pensioners will die thanks to the stonking 400% price rise imposed on us by the fossil fuel industry. And the government’s refusal to cut the VAT on domestic energy bills.
If you are preparing to blame windfarms on the forthcoming fatalities as pensioners, the working poor and the single mothers freeze this winter you can expect a reaction.
January 3, 2022
Ironic. As you seem quite content for people to die as a result of your twin Tory Brexit and Covid catastrophes.
January 3, 2022
Sakara, a second day of the same selective message on green electricity. Yes, we exported wind generated energy overnight last weekend, when demand is very low. Over 2021 though, renewable made up les than 25% of UK power needs and we were net importers. As things stand the UK needs gas and nuclear power – 0r we revert to tallow candles and cook on wood fires?
January 3, 2022
Not a second day, but just another one. I challenged it and got an insult rather than a reply. His assertions clearly do not add up and is very selective. I prefer experts to zealots.
January 3, 2022
And that is just UK âelectricalâ energy needs. Total energy needs are circa 5 times this figure for heating, transport, industryâŠ
January 3, 2022
Very selective with your data. It is a bank holiday, most companies are closed. Demand is at 60% of average.
We are expecting high pressure to dominate later this week and some frost. Demand will now pick up and renewable will be down at its 19% average. That is only possible due to the ÂŁ26 billion of subsidy piled onto our fuel bills.
January 3, 2022
Once again we are having to pay the French, Belgians, Dutch and Norwegians to take electricity we cannot use. Once again there will be more payments to wind farms to shut down – we paid out ÂŁ4,642,172 for this for New Year’s Day. All while the windfarms continue to receive massive subsidies out of British consumer pockets.
January 3, 2022
@Mark
Where do you get that number from?
January 3, 2022
It comes from the Renewable Energy Foundation website, who extricate the figures from Elexon data that record the payments due.
January 3, 2022
Mark, I must be a bit slow but I donât understand, are you saying we pay other Countries to TAKE our excess energy rather than them pay us for it?
January 3, 2022
Mark,
Thanks again for your very useful information.
January 4, 2022
Thank you.
January 4, 2022
That information appears to be behind a paywall – are we really paying for other countries to take our energy over the interconnectors?
January 4, 2022
Like most of the other bullshit you post here, this assertion is nonsense. We are not paying the europeans to take our energy. The Renewable Foundation is selectively using an algorithm with highly exagerated assumptions and does not include unmetered wind. You pay for entry into their paywall if you want.
January 3, 2022
Right to reply â âmassive shortage of gas in Europeâ
Thereâs a shortage of coal, fracking and nuclear power stations in Europe leading to an increased reliance upon more imported gas
January 3, 2022
The current value of the Hinkley Point CFD is ÂŁ106.12/MWh, because it is indexed to RPI, which will adjust up sharply with present inflation: this should be a very adequate price, being about three times the average wholesale price in 2020. I am far more concerned about whether EPR technology is viable at all. The reactors at Taishan, China are shut down following problems with damage to fuel rods. Nuclear engineers consider a redesign of the reactor core to reduce vibrations may be needed. The Flamanville reactor is still incomplete. The Finnish one at Olkiluoto us supposed to be starting up now some 20 years after it was ordered. We should have stuck to proven technology that could have been built much more cheaply, on time and been reliable.
January 3, 2022
Mark : âWe should have stuck to proven technology that could have been built much more cheaply, on time and been reliable.â
Agreed.
Thanks for your information.
Do you know why the Chinese government were brought into this project?
January 3, 2022
Mark – The unproven French technology along with the Chinese money/influence concern me . How much are we indebted to the Chinese and how much influence will they have on the final operation? You do not loan billions without any influence.
The Sizewell B Westinghouse system works well so one wonders why we did not follow on from that?
January 3, 2022
Sakara Gold : “There have not been â and there will not be â any power cuts because of variable wind.”
Only because the windmills are using fossil fuel generators for short-term grid stability and long-term energy backup when the wind is not blowing at all.
The whole windmill industry would collapse if the government ran windmill auctions properly with the windfarm suppliers guaranteeing a continuous fixed amount of energy and thus being responsible for the costs of their own variability and intermittency.
At the moment the fossil fuel generators are effectively subsidising wind energy and cheaply too because the non-fossil fuel grid stabilisation and back-up solutions are unbelievably expensive.
January 3, 2022
Sakara Gold – do you not know that the 56% you claim were from renewables includes the wood pellets used at Drax?
Hardly green are they? The trees are felled, moved to the pelleting factory then transported by road to a dock, where they are loaded onto a ship for transport to Drax, each and every element of their journey being enabled by fossil fuels.
Utter madness driven by people with no understanding of the real world.
January 3, 2022
+1
January 3, 2022
Yes, meanwhile in the the UK the thick (whoever it is) thought Boris was still popular with the electorate and could get away with doing nothing!
Sadly, for whoever, that is no longer the caseâŠ
January 3, 2022
+1
Absolutely.
WellâŠthey trusted ooky polls (skewed I am sure, to mislead).
He must be the most sung-about PM weâve ever had!
I always think the football ladsâ songs are so clever and incisive.
(Not very flattering either!).
Nor that Nightclub one, come to that. đ€
January 3, 2022
All because a teenager has convinced leaders around the world that a gas making up .04% of Earths atmosphere, is responsible for every extreme weather event……………..
January 3, 2022
Greta herself was perhaps convinces by the endless drivel, weather porn, bogus school lessons and duff science coming out of the BBC, many other media, governmental, international governmental and so called âcharitableâ organisations. Further distorted by universities, bought âexpertsâ and selective allocation of research grants.
Rather like the huge over reaction to Covid & the endless Covid alarmist propaganda and totally wrong âbut in the right directionâ modelling.
January 3, 2022
LL – Greta is a globalist puppet along with Boris.
January 3, 2022
You’d be a bit bothered if that gas making up 0.04% of the Earth’s atmosphere were hydrogen cyanide, wouldn’t you?
January 4, 2022
Indeed but it is not, it is harmless CO2 tree & plant food and the source of all the oxygen we breath. So what is your point exactly do you have one?
January 4, 2022
and?
January 4, 2022
0.04% is sufficient to have dramatic effects.
There is orders less again ozone in the upper atmosphere, but that is essential to life on this planet.
January 3, 2022
And in related news we read that even the latest Smart Meters will have to be updated yet again, as Civil Servants decree 2g and 3 g is closed, the spectrum being more valuable for other uses.
Who cares that the overall cost for a household is ÂŁ400 plus. And we read in an authoritative book on the complete foul up from start to finish by the coalition in Afghanistan, as an example of waste, the British government spent (our) money on an airstrip that was used once every two days.
Politicians complain about the vitriol they receive. When we are constantly reminded how much of our money they allow to be pissed down the drain, they deserve it.
January 3, 2022
And last year they voted to keep spending 0.5% of our money on other countries, whilst we see major tax rises, increased fuel and food costs.
January 3, 2022
The Presâs personal dwelling (I read) is being occupied by lefties demanding he declare a âClimate Emergencyâ and act accordingly.
I was a bit puzzled but if the âoccupationâ story is true then the above article explains the discontent.
Oh dear meâŠlol đ
January 3, 2022
We all see the need to stop relying on fossil fuels as it’s supply is not unlimited but it should be done gradually, and only when VIABLE alternatives become available. I cannot see the logic, or benefits, of reducing CO2 and most ‘green’ products are anything but ‘green’, when you take production and decommissioning into account. The claim that climate change is caused by increasing amounts of CO2 is NOT proven, and probably never will be without some serious data manipulation and a religious belief. Children are being brainwashed as we speak by some very dodgy ‘science’ and religious CO2 nutters.
I think the world should be concentrating on reducing human populations, pollution and waste instead of chasing fairy tale CO2 reduction and wait until science provides viable and economical alternatives.
January 3, 2022
+1
Earlier this year the blades of a wind turbine ended up on the beach of a village on the north Cumbrian coast. Not full blades, but shards of fibre glass. It took over a month to clear most of it, but the ‘team’ are charged with coming back once a week until further notice to ensure all the shards (which are dangerously sharp) are removed. I wonder who ends up paying for this clean-up exercise?
There have been reports of blades breaking off before and when you consider these monstrosities are less than 20 years old, (the first were installed in 2003) the shelf-life does not justify the costs. Further, taking into account the manufacturing, installation and start-up (diesel generators) processes , just how green is this ‘wind power’?
January 3, 2022
+1 not v. green at all.
January 3, 2022
J Bush. It’s even worse when they catch fire. The fire goes on for days and the toxic waste ends up on agricultural fields where animals graze.
January 3, 2022
It is being done gradually. Over a period of 40 years – and weâre about 10 years in. So you can really stop your moaning.
January 3, 2022
Shirley. Boris could do with advice on populations. He’s added to it amply.
January 3, 2022
Why does all this have to repeatedly said. It is a subject on which the government is not fit for purpose, seemingly led from the PMs bedroom. Much the same can be said of the NI Protocol. To date Liz Truss is not one to dither about, so who is applying the brakes and causing so much agony in NI. We are suffering a government of can kickers.
January 3, 2022
What agony? The NI economy is far outpacing the rest of the UK because it retains many of the benefits of the single market.
Having rejected Brexit most people in Northern Ireland are content that the Protocol is the least worst option.
The Tory Brexitists who negotiated it, stood for election on it and voted the Protocol through Parliament donât like it because it proves their Brexit has failed. If the part of the UK still on the single market is economically outperforming the rest of the U.K. it proves Brexit is an economic failure.
A bunch of gobby DUP extremists donât like it either. But those irrelevant dinosaurs have made their careers out of whinging. We do not care what they say.
Brexitist should welcome the NI Protocol.
It creates a control experiment in Northern Ireland. If GB outperforms NI economically – as most of you have always insisted it will – you were correct. Brexit was an economic success. But that isnât whatâs happening. Which is why you are all moaning about your deal.
Not that itâs your problem because you live in Spain. Have they kicked you out yet?
January 3, 2022
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/12/27/the-norwegian-and-swiss-approach-to-economic-management/#comment-1288064
âSince the protocol came into force, the evidence from official statistics is that economic growth in NI has been one of slowest of any UK region.â
January 3, 2022
There’s an old rule in marketing that you have to deliver your message seven times before it will properly stick with members of your audience, potential customers, for example:
https://medium.com/unexpected-leadership/say-it-7-times-the-art-of-overcommunication-5d019b2c33d4
There’s also a potential problem that the message may not even get to the person to whom it is addressed … MPs’ personal assistants in particular are often far more concerned with “strict parliamentary protocol” – “Are you a constituent? If not you should ask your own MP.” – than the Irish protocol.
Nevertheless I saw here a month ago:
https://ukandeu.ac.uk/new-survey-shows-only-one-in-four-labour-and-conservative-mps-think-the-protocol-is-good-for-northern-ireland/
“Only 23% of Conservative MPs and 25% of Labour MPs expressing an opinion think the Northern Ireland protocol is âa good thing for Northern Irelandâ a new representative survey of Members of Parliament, carried out by Ipsos MORI for the UK in a Changing Europe, has found.”
so why don’t they insist on getting it sorted out?
January 3, 2022
All British governments (“rulers”) like to disadvantage the British people so as to follow whatever area of policy is fashionable, to “provide an example to the world”. The present Government is no different.
Usually it very much provides a perfect example of what not to do.
January 3, 2022
I’m starting to think that BoJo would struggle to change a light bulb.
January 3, 2022
He’d get a donor in.
January 3, 2022
No. He’ll get 2 million HK Chinese to change said light bulb.
January 3, 2022
he tried once and his hair has never been the same since.
January 3, 2022
Reality has taken over in the USA, brought on partially by Biden’s disastrous poll ratings.
Sound familiar ? Boris’s ratings are going the same way but he is still living in cloud cuckoo land with his green crap agenda, which, incidentally, I discovered yesterday, has become a banned term anywhere in the Times Comments section.
The Cabinet need to make sure that Boris get’s real pretty quickly and certainly before those impossibly-high increases in energy prices hit voters. Otherwise Liz Truss will have no majority to inherit.
Just subsidising energy bills at huge cost will not fool anyone, our politicians needs a plan to increase gas and oil production to ensure we are self sufficient for as long as possible, and certainly until adequate new Nuclear stations are actually delivering to the grid.
However, the deal on Hinkley Point shows us that cost of that new electricity will be much higher than we have been paying up to now which in itself is four times the price we pay per Kw/hr for gas. No politicians have addressed this huge barrier to the electrification of home heating, other than vague references to improving insulation of homes. That cannot reduce the consumption of energy by half, let alone by a factor of four or six to maintain bills at a manageable level.
The problem is for us poor saps who will be forced to pay up, all the other parties have committed to even more extreme green policies than Boris. Something will have to give, sooner or later.
January 3, 2022
ChrisS
Perhaps they will eventually move the goal posts, Just like France by re branding Gas as Green, otherwise we will be out on our own, and we will simply crucify our own industry with such huge power costs to such a degree, they will all move abroad.
Then Companies will be building abroad, not back better.
Quite what us Consumers will/can do with regards to home heating costs when it really does start to get cold, who knows, at the moment it’s just either pay up, or do not switch on.
Boris already looking like King Canute standing up and shouting COP 26, when all they others are saying, you stand where you want to, but we COP out.
January 3, 2022
We recently installed a wood burning stove and it has proven so successful that we are planning on buying another. They come from France and I can buy them for âŹ350.
The fire is rated at 15kw and we fuel it with surplus pallets which we pick up for free on the local industrial estate : the firms are very pleased to see the back of them !
Our fire uses one pallet per day and my electric jigsaw cuts a pallet into firewood in less than three minutes. With the gas Aga, running, we can turn off the central heating. With a second fire, if gas becomes too expensive, we won’t need to run the Aga which will be a pity as it’s such a lovely addition to the kitchen which is inevitably the centre of life in the house.
Governments will at some point try to ban wood burning stoves but I doubt whether they will go so far as demand existing ones be taken out. Get yours while you still can !
January 3, 2022
We have independent 5KW gas fire with no electrics, so an independent source of heat in power cuts, many gas appliances now have an automatic electronic safety switch off, which disables the gas unit (Hob, oven, fire, boiler) in time of no electricity (they call it progress of design.)
We also have the option of an open fire.
January 3, 2022
Hinkley Point is nowhere near to running and the only similar reactor in China has been shutdown for safety reasons.
It may never work. That’s what you get from buying untested technologies.
January 3, 2022
I agree. The French have 56 reactors, 52 of which are of just two types, giving immense economies of scale yet they are developing a completely new system for their replacement.
Why haven’t they just made some minor adjustments to the better of the current generation to reflect developments in electronics and get building quickly and much more cheaply ?
Hinkley Point is the third of a completely different type that EDF have built and neither of the others in China and Finland are working yet ! It isn’t looking good, is it ?
January 3, 2022
ChrisS : âHowever, the deal on Hinkley Point shows us that cost of that new electricity will be much higher than we have been paying up to now which in itself is four times the price we pay per Kw/hr for gas.â
It is shameful that we are using EDF (the French government) for the design (which is struggling with technical issues) and borrowing from the Chinese (whatever for?)
The BBC reported 04/06/2018 :
âDieter Helm, professor of Energy Policy at the University of Oxford, told the BBC :
“The sheer cost of building new nuclear power stations means it makes sense for the government to help finance projects like this,” he said.
“Governments can borrow much more cheaply that private companies and that lower cost of borrowing can drastically reduce the ultimate cost. Hinkley Point C would have been roughly half the cost if the government had been borrowing the money to build it at 2%, rather than EDF’s cost of capital, which was 9%.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44363366
Weâre governed by idiots.
January 3, 2022
With the technology of Hinkley Point being so dubious and the first two of the type so troublesome, I’m quite glad that EDF and the Chinese are financing it rather than we taxpayers. If they can’t get it working profitably, it will cost us nothing.
However, we certainly should be ensuring that we use public/private finance for the Rolls Royce SMRs as these are largely proven technology based partly on the experience of building the reactors used in our submarines.
They need to be an all-British show, although I believe that one major component ( the containment vessel ? ) will currently have to be built abroad. Why ?
January 3, 2022
Chris S – We do not know the intricacies of the fiscal deal with the Chinese but you can bet they will not lose and WE will be pay regardless. Unfortunately we do not have a Donald Trump negotiating on our behalf.
I would like to know who negotiated the Hinkley Point deal.
January 3, 2022
We are lucky that Big Tech and the “liberal” media got a senile president elected with his socialist administration. They provide a barometer for our political weather.
Once we have a new electrical grid and reliable fission (or preferably fusion) power, we can indulge in the Green fantasies. To attempt to put us back to the lifestyle of the middle ages will result in piano wire and lampposts.
January 3, 2022
John may choose to focus his gaze on the issue of energy supply but he knows the real problem is the party he represents. It is the one issue he conveniently avoids referring to. That the party he represents has now become an extension of the Labour’s political construction. It has become a deceit and that is the real tragedy of all that we are now seeing
There is now no opposition in British politics to State authoritarianism fuelled by Labour, the unions and Socialist, progressive lobbyists. The Tory party is now to all intents and purposes, expired.
January 3, 2022
DOM, +1
Paragraph 1, Agreed
Paragraph 2, Agreed
January 3, 2022
It comes to something when other countries and leaders have seen the light and abandoned destructive Net Zero, even the EU, even biden! China meanwhile has opened a new, very big coall fired power station in the East of China.
Our Govenment, led by Alexander the cautious, remain steadfastly on course to Net Zero to reduce our CO2 emissions by 1%? Madness and delusion, I venture.
January 3, 2022
In your manifesto you said by 2050 not 2030 why not just readjust to what was written – 2050 – and take precautions like other Countries are. Your government have told as many as possible to work from home, this costs more in personal home energy use this is not going to be pretty next year if your government donât take action now with VAT to start and by sorting our cheaper energy as you suggest.
January 3, 2022
Just a pity that the Tory govt in the mid 1980s chose to convert so many coal fired power stations to burn either oil, gas or biomass, pity the Tory govt also chose to withdraw the subsidies than kept our strategic coal reserve’s accessible, pity the Tory govt chose to hand out tax cuts rather than fund the building of many more new nuclear power stations (to come on stream from the late 1990s onward), I wonder what then Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit thinks now? đ
As for current UK energy policy, and government by pillow talk….
January 3, 2022
It was done to improve air quality Jerry.
Coal isn’t a clean fuel when burnt compared to gas.
January 3, 2022
@Peter2; Nonsense, coal fired power station emissions could have been -and could still be- made a lot cleaner still, as debated only yesterday by Leslie Singleton, nor is burning “Bunker A” grade fuel oil any cleaner than burning coal [1], whilst there is no air quality issue with nuclear power. But as usual you totally missed my point, even if there was a case to phase out coal, beyond political dogma, the energy crisis we face today is a result of inadequate future planning 30 plus years ago (before the collapse of the USSR and Warsaw Pact, but after the rise of middle eastern militancy), natural gas, certainly from the UK North Sea fields, was always going to be a finite resource with an early end date.
[1] whilst Bunker oil grades B & C are far worse
January 3, 2022
Are you really claiming coal is a clean burn fuel compared to gas?
I thought you were on message with the modern green revolution.
Now you have gone back to coal.
I’m shocked
I really am.
January 3, 2022
We will achieve net zero by 2050 because my generation and, particularly, my childrenâs generation demand it.
It would be helpful if the geriatric Tory dinosaurs in power kept their promises and started that journey now. But we know they find it easier to whinge than to act and we know their manifesto pledges are not worth the paper they are written on.
We all know what happened to the actual dinosaurs. The Tory dinosaurs will go the same way. We will make them extinct.
January 3, 2022
Andy. No.
Your generation don’t demand it otherwise they would be cutting right back right now and they aren’t. Your children are children. They would demand free sweeties and toys if you let them.
January 3, 2022
@Andy; Demand all you want, lie to your children all you like, the laws of Physics remain the same!
January 3, 2022
Really? My eldest lad (32) drives a Discovery with a diesel engine that does feck all to the gallon. My youngest lad (26) drives an S5 – 3 litre supercharged petrol engine that also does feck all to the gallon. Lots of their friends drive similar cars and go on lots of flights. They don’t seem tooooo bothered about net zero.
January 3, 2022
Maybe they were badly brought up?
January 4, 2022
Maybe. I drive a Yaris hybrid when I can afford a big gas guzzler. And they were brought up vegan. But they earn big money (despite Brexit!) and like cars. And they donât think that electric cars make environmental sense if you take into account the whole life cycle and how the electricity is produced. And their new houses both have gas fired boilers. The thing is? I brought them up to think for themselves and not just accept bullshit fed to them by government the media.
January 3, 2022
If the proclaimed reason for ‘net zero’ is to stop the oceans rising in line with UN IPCC recommendations (by reducing earths temperature, by reducing co2, by banning fossil fuels), why hasnât this government set measuring posts every mile around our coast to ascertain real climate change? Maybe because thereâs no real world evidence of biblical ocean rising?
January 3, 2022
But the govt. IS capable of meticulous forward planning when it suits.
Look at the 4* hotels.
No âtent cityâ here!
Accommodation of the highest order, ready and waiting.
And us locked up in our houses and not allowed to travel!!
Well!
January 3, 2022
Too true Sir John.
One suspects that the modern-day supporters of Net Zero would, in past times, have been the ones to impose the building of Stonehenge upon us all “… So that the Sun will rise every day for our solar panels to work …”.
January 3, 2022
Does Boris realise that his fair weather friends have deserted him, and he stands isolated – Is he truly aware of the consequence of going it alone with Net-Zero?
If Boris is to live up to any of our expectations of him, he would reverse course immediately, and introduce some sanity into government – There’s plenty he could do, like cleaning up the Westminster Swamp.
I won’t hold my breath, for unfortunately it seems Boris is a true believe of the MMCC religion, and his handler is even more devoted!
January 3, 2022
OT: When Boris was trying to persuade MPs to vote for the last set of restrictions he promised that Parliament would be recalled if any new restrictions were to be added. But apparently there will now be masks worn all day in secondary schools (not by the teachers of course) with no vote in Parliament and no recall. Just another lie from Boris.
January 3, 2022
He gets away with it, Roy, because it’s a recommendation, not the law. Not that that will stop teachers and school administrators from imposing it, I don’t suppose.
January 3, 2022
Off topic, I see that Lord Frost has come in for some social media criticism because he congratulated members of the Brexit negotiating team on various honours they have been awarded.
Of course we know that the deal that they negotiated is poor in a number of respects but particularly over the Irish protocol. However I would be prepared to accept that they did a good job within the constraints imposed first by MPs and then by Boris Johnson.
A year ago I had a letter printed in our local newspaper pointing out that:
“When Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the nation on Christmas Eve he may have broken his personal record for mendacity with this claim:
âWe have completed the biggest trade deal yet, worth ÂŁ660 billion a year”.”
As mentioned recently:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/12/21/what-a-recovery-package-would-look-like/#comment-1285747
I am still trying to get an official answer on what his “fantastic” trade deal may actually be worth, but I am quite certain that it was not worth risking the integrity of the United Kingdom to get it.
January 3, 2022
The UK is committed for the foreseeable future to an unusual dependence on wholesale gas imports, this is why we are worse off than most of Europe . There is no prospect of this changing soon as we do not have the storage capacity .The lead in time for any serious change to this would be decades not weeks .Sir John Redwood is away-with – the- fairies here .
On the hot air blown about by Governments on the environment on the other hand , he is , of course correct.
The point of idiotic claims about the next 50 years was to take political credit now and make young people pay later ( twas ever thus )- .Given the minded motive it could never survive a brush with reality and it has not .Naturally Boris Johnson was all over this pay later wheeze , thats how he rolls . So why is he not doing his usual ..” um ah , ooops ah ,, crickey got that wrong” ..yet ?
Tell you why …the Blues are losing their Alf Garnett vote which now sees they were duped , they know Liberal England will never forgive them for Brexit. He thinks if he backs down now he is further down an electoral cul-de -sac.
January 3, 2022
It seems that reality is finally breaking in generally, but not yet to UK politicians. I suspect that Boris & co are simply putting their fingers in their ears and hoping that it will go away, but of course it will not. An article in today’s D Tel confirms that in addition to all the other huge costs for householders, many house electrical systems will need to be upgraded to cope with the increased amount of power that will be needed, costing up to ÂŁ15,000. My brother, a retired engineer, and I have been talking about this for more than two years. The “man in the street” has known far more about the practical and cost consequences of “net zero” than our ignorant politicians and their advisers, who have been too immersed in “Groupthink” to look at the real world.
January 3, 2022
ChrisS – you say “The problem is for us poor saps who will be forced to pay up…” I must be one of those saps, because my dual energy costs in my modest, well insulated bungalow have now shot up from ÂŁ118/month across an average year to my bill for a warmish December alone being ÂŁ202 – a price hike of ÂŁ94. And I would add that I am as economic as practically possible managing gas and electricty consumption.
I doubt that I am alone but it is a truly shocking increase and across the board is going to drive some into penury. Or worse…..
January 3, 2022
Support for the Conservatives is going to plumment far sooner than they think : it will start the moment the next quarter’s energy bills land on the doorstep and will keep going until they have more than doubles by this Autumn. The Government not only needs to subsidise current energy costs but it has to demonstrate that it is atking the necessary action to reduce them back to 2020-2021 levels ASAP.
This can only be done with the signing off of production from new gas and oil fields, removal of VAT and recommissioning older gas and coal generating plants. They will also need to extend the life of our existing nuclear stations. We can then be independent of the EU and its foolish dependency on Putin’s gas pipelines.
January 3, 2022
Just had my electric only bill. It’s ÂŁ44 more than this time last year and I was away for 5 days so no energy being used. Not looking forward to my next oil bill either.
January 3, 2022
This is all too sensible for what passes as a modern day politician.
January 3, 2022
That is why he must be ignored and kept as far away from office where he might do some good.
January 3, 2022
The national crisis we have is indeed based upon dangerous policies and practices but the main problem is the PM. ‘Boris’ is obsessed with ‘green’. It is he who is promoting the chaos and disturbance being forced upon us. I suspect he thinks his unpopularity is because people don’t understand ‘green’ well enough and thinks more is needed. We should forget changing him. Just get rid of him.
Tories must forget the party for a while and put the country first.
January 3, 2022
Related to ‘greenery’ and gas problems is an overarching crisis which does not get mentioned enough.
That problem is our dire balances of trade and payments.For decades it has been on the government’s ‘who cares’ priority list.
Anything we need and don’t produce ourselves can always be imported and paid for with magic money. Foreign stuff is always better than we make or grow after all and it helps PMs make friends if we buy from others. Our industries can be put up for sale too. City friends like that.
It needs bringing to the top of the Action Now list and attitudes need reversing.
January 3, 2022
I am ok with green energy and enjoy the sustainable days we’re on 100% wind & solar renewables (intermittant) – but our energy has to be RELIABLE and PRICES have to be affordable and so we will need guarenteed on-demand base load to cater for our variable weather.
Relying on the spot market and our friends & partners in the EU simply DOES NOT WORK and is downright costly and open to threats and abuse.
UK Energy security is a pre-requisite which HMG is continuing to be ignore. Re-write the rules and get on with the job. N Sea gas, SMR reactors, some tidal…. really not that difficult…. lacking a credible strategy and policies!
Thanks Boris/Carrie for increasing my domestic energy bill from ÂŁ1,200 to ÂŁ4,000 a year come April…. I will vote accordingly. These cost increases are an existential threat to many people and the Tory party imvho.
January 3, 2022
Good.
I say so because the sooner people are hit directly in the pocket the more likely politics will be changed and hopefully not too late.
January 3, 2022
But this has a wider effect. If people are spending more on fuel, food and government services (Council Tax), then there is less money to spend on clothes, days out and other things. This will have a dramatic effect on the economy. And if the economy takes a slide, then the housing market will too. This could push us into a deep recession or depression. And with inflation biting away we could face even stagflation.
January 3, 2022
Rhoddas
Wow mate ! That’s a lot. Sorry to hear that.
January 3, 2022
And who exactly are you going to vote for, Rhoddas ?
Labour, the Greens and the Libdems are all demanding Boris goes further and faster towards net zero than the Conservatives.
Unless the Reform Party gets its act together, we are all going to get significantly poorer together and our economy will be trashed.
And at the same time the Bank of England is going to increase interest rates to try and quell inflation which is going to be caused by the rising cost of energy ! Complete nonsense, of course. The energy companies are going to reduce household expenditure all on their own without the B of E making things even worse !
January 3, 2022
Boris has had a haircut. I think that this is significant.
January 3, 2022
Sir John,
Everything you say is correct.
Unfortunately we have a PM (who is thinking of changing his name to Boreas Johnson in honour of the North Wind) who has dug himself and the UK into the most enormous hole promoting us as the âSaudi Arabiaâ of wind together with all the wind energy nonsense spouted during and for COP26.
Wind is low energy density, is variable and intermittent and there is as yet no non-fossil fuel alternatives to short-term grid stability or for long-term backup when the wind doesnât blow.
All the electric vehicle and heating appliances are expensive and sub-optimal and there is even the strong possibility that we will find we cannot get sufficient supplies of the minerals and metals required to effect the transition to 100% electric, let alone afford it.
How does your Party get to implement your ideas and hence get itself and our country out of this hole?
January 3, 2022
Original Richard.
Unfortunately ‘Boreas’ is very much in the way and so far there does not seem to be enough support within the ‘Party’ to amend that. I.M.H.O..
January 3, 2022
What makes you think we have assured access to the resources necessary for our current way of life?
January 3, 2022
Since we are still following E.U. rules transposed into our own law, lets follow them in declaring gas ‘green’ energy!
Yes. I really like the irony there!
But it MUST be our own gas. Not Russia’s, ‘kindly’ spared to us from the E.U.
January 3, 2022
Dear Mr Johnson
Rescuing your people from the increased energy costs – is todays problem. Rescuing the world from whatever you want to rescue it from – is tomorrows problem. China has been aware of this and now the USA and the EU have come around to this way of thinking.
The substantial energy costs (as well as extra tax costs) will take a lot of money out of our economy. “Levelling up” will become even more difficult and your converted red wall seats will be even more at risk.
Yours sincerely
January 3, 2022
With our host’s permission –
Daily Mail: The UK regions WORST hit by surging energy prices.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10267485/The-UK-regions-WORST-hit-surging-energy-prices.html
“Robert Halfon was among 20 signatories â including five former ministers â of a letter to Mr Johnson this weekend calling for action.
The Tory MP said: ‘I have huge worries about the rise in energy costs for hard-working people and they’re going to rise even more.
This is not the Government’s fault, this is because of the international price of energy, and I strongly believe, that given the price cap is going to go up this year in the spring, that the Government should look at other measures.’ “
January 3, 2022
People often say Brexit Britain can move more nimbly than the EU. Well, why has the EU been allowed to move more nimbly in redesignating nuclear power and gas as green?
January 3, 2022
You’re right Sir John, but I feel you are shouting into the wind. Keep shouting though! đ
January 3, 2022
Sir John, has anyone in parliament understood what would happen to electric cars and nuclear fusion reactors if we were to experience a coronal mass ejection the size of the Carrington event? With our weakening magnetosphere such an event is increasingly anticipated. Just wondering.
January 3, 2022
Thank god there are only 42 covid deaths today….just wish it was headline news
January 3, 2022
As always JR talks sense.
Unfortunately not so with our government. Addled as it is with greenwash and net zero, all based on corrupt climate models.
We need more self reliance – such as increased gas storage and more nuclear power stations built by British companies. And burning coal is better than burning forests, and growing crops is better than having solar farms.