The combination of belonging to the EU until 2020 and adopting strange accounting practises for attributing carbon has left us in permanent balance of trade deficit in goods with the EU. Taking responsibility for CO 2 generated here by producing fossil fuels or industrial products from fossil fuels,  but accepting no responsibility for CO 2 on energy and industrial production for our imports has reinforced the impact of EU rules and tariffs to make us a heavy importer of  European goods.
It is alarming to see in recent low electricity using days we have at times been importing  more than one fifth of our electricity.I have been warning about this for some  years, and have been very critical of  energy policies that keep putting in extra inter-connectors to allow us to import more instead of more domestic generating capacity.  New CCGT, wave  and water power, new oil and gas reserves  and nuclear have been blocked or delayed whilst cables have been built and imports encouraged. We have made ourselves more dependent on an energy short continent.
The government now says it wants to get more oil and gas out. So where are the production licences? Why is there still a windfall tax on home production when the windfall has subsided? Why is the UK still using a carbon accounting system that encourages imports whilst boosting world CO 2?
August 8, 2023
Good morning.
You last paragraph asks many good questions. And as to the reason why things are not being done ? Well its is all just naked propaganda. A ‘puff-piece’ to fill the news columns and to give the failing government an uptick.
Nothing to see. Please move along to the next crisis.
August 8, 2023
+++
I think that the production licences are a bit problematic.
Which woke bank is going to lend to any FF company?
And which equally woke insurance company is going to insure it?
Licences = worthless bits of paper.
If there is the remotest intention of drawing up any.
August 8, 2023
JR knows fully well energy connected to our fishing waters under sell out EU agreement! Therefore it is about keeping UK bound to EU control. A vassal state. N.Ireland already has that status with the addition of putting GB in an EU regulatory and legal straight jacket. Tory party=traitors. Simple. There is not other cogent reason.
Let us not forget Sunak and Hunt are in their position of PM and chancellor because of Tory MPs only. Not the public or party membership. We did not vote for the tin pot dictators. JR and his colleagues have the answer in their hands. This is what they chose.
August 8, 2023
Earlier I sent a letter to the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, headed “If Dublin really wants to help”:
“Dear Mr Varadkar
I read your comments in the Belfast Telegraph today:
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/london-reluctant-to-co-operate-with-dublin-to-restore-stormont/a1902931804.html
and it seems to me that if you really want to help then the best way would be to acknowledge that it was a mistake to insist that EU checks and controls must be applied to the wrong flow of goods:
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/letter-eu-checks-and-controls-are-being-applied-to-the-wrong-flow-of-goods-4244714
And then press the EU to agree to renegotiate the Northern Ireland Protocol/Windsor Framework so that the measures to protect the EU Single Market from non-compliant goods crossing the land border into the Republic would be applied only to those goods crossing the border into EU territory, and not to all the goods brought into Northern Ireland from Great Britain and to all the goods produced in the province.
Of course that would mean undoing the damage for which you and Simon Coveney were responsible in 2017:
https://drb.ie/articles/the-professional/
“However, Kenny changed the Irish approach in January 2017, arguing for an undefined âpolitical solutionâ. This was then reinforced in 2017 by Leo Varadkar, the new Taoiseach, and Simon Coveney, the new Minister for Foreign Affairs. It became our firm position that any checks or controls anywhere on the island would constitute a hard border.”
What nonsense that was, and if we had had a Prime Minister who was fully on our side then she would have denounced it as nonsense and made it clear that if necessary the UK was prepared to leave the EU without any special trade deal.
She was offered the correct solution to the relatively minor problem of regulating the carriage of goods across the Irish land border to protect the EU Single Market in February 20I8:
https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/letters-to-the-editor/128146/easy-solution-to-eu-border-conundrum.html
but instead chose to use the problem as a pretext to give the CBI and other business pressure groups what they wanted.
Dr D R Cooper”
August 8, 2023
@Mark B +1
Yes the last paragraph says it all. Maybe, keeping with their preferences, they are looking for the foreign investor so they can give them UK taxpayer money to take to their homeland. The removal of wealth, the Somerset battery plant as we now know, a big bung from the taxpayer, then Chinese expertise and Chinese imported materials. Wealth removed.
No UK wealth created, no UK security created. The Companies involved in this project are protected in their home territories, the Chinese require that 50% of local production must be Chinese owned. This Conservative Government – here is some taxpayer money take it home, you can keep control, ownership stay or go as you please. If you leave we will find more taxpayer money to bailout what you leave
August 8, 2023
Those whom the Greens wish to destroy they first make mad.
August 8, 2023
Excellent Mark! đ
August 8, 2023
The chumps and knuckleheads who cannot count, and are responsible for this, are easy marks.
August 8, 2023
Sir John, you know the answers to the questions in you lasts paragraph. The Government is not serious. All it wants to do is fool vters long enough to stay in poer in 2024. It merely invents headling grabbing inititative to that end. It has no serious purpose in the UK’s national interest. It is in fire fighting mode so it will not devote time to serious policy formation and delivery. There is a vacuum at the heart of the Tory Party where there ought to be a philosophy of conservative government on which a coherent set of policies can be built in the national interest.
The Tories can recover now only by being put out to grass. That means the UK will suffer at least five years of Labour and possibly also of Lib Dems. The responsibility for that lies with the Tory Party that campaigned for Remain, failed to understand and grasp the opportunities of Brexit, mindlessly embraced Net Zero and had no idea what to do with country it was surprised to find itself governing.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of Brexit is that it has exposed the utter vacuity of Westminster and the UK’s inability to govern itself. Someone once said the only way to make the English stand up is first to bring them to their knees. Perhaps over a quarter of a century or so, things might start getting better.
August 8, 2023
Well said.
Except I don’t believe 5 years of the Not-a-Conservative-Party being put out to grass will achieve anything. It needs culling so that a new, common sense conservative Party can emerge. The last thing we need is for the Not-a-Conservative-Party to lose narrowly in 2024; it needs obliterating.
August 8, 2023
+many.
August 8, 2023
But Donna, it was obliterated in 1997, and learnt nothing then: it cannot do collective purpose, and whenever a leader emerges who proposes national independence and a genuinely Conservative economic growth plan, it kills her off. Mrs Thatcher had to fight her own party every inch of the way. Truss was politically assassinated for exactly the same reason – to placate the self-interested Europa-lovers nestling in the Tory constituencies.
August 9, 2023
+1. Spot on.
August 8, 2023
+1 @ P. Gardner. It’s all smoke and mirrors. The false accounting of CO2 proves that they don’t believe that the climate emergency is real. Meanwhile resources are wasted on: Foreign aid, unwanted immigrants, HS2, Net Zero, and anti car measures. Resources which could be used to provide our young people with housing and a family life.
August 9, 2023
Housing, family life and motivation to work for rewards. They haven’t seen that for years, if not close to decades.
August 8, 2023
Well said Peter.
I well remember a certain Mr Major saying we need to get back to basics, the present Government do not have a clue what the basics even are. Not financially, not politically, not economically, no common-sense, no knowledge of human nature, in fact they are worse than useless.
I see the taxpayer funded immigration lawyers are now making a laughing stock of the Home Office again, the illegals cannot be put on the Barge because it is alleged they are afraid of water !,
They drink it, they wash in it, some even paid to cross the channel over it in a rubber Dingy, but a large barge moored up at a pier, very, very frightening, and against my Human Rights !
This illegal immigration farce which has now been going on for a decade, and the net Zero farce that is being pushed down our throats no matter what the cost, just shows how absolutely clueless and hopeless many politicians are at present.
Then we have the do as you like introduction of ULEZ areas with its chaotic differing rules spreading out all over the Country !
The list of farcical and expensive policies seems to be endless.
August 8, 2023
+1
August 8, 2023
well said – chickens are coming home to roost.
Many of us will welcome the lambs to the slaughter.
The misery of these years of pretence Tories knows no slowing down.
August 8, 2023
I think what you are predicting is almost inevitable Peter. I’m also quite sure that most people have no great expectations of any Starmer Government, so disillusionment shouldn’t take too long to set in. However the Conservative Party needs to take a good long look at itself, otherwise it will remain unelectable.
Sir John makes some very obvious points today, that should worry every voter but there is so much slight of hand and misdirection going on, both from the politicians and mass media that most folk can’t see what’s right in front of them. All very depressing I’m afraid. If I didn’t live in Sir John’s patch, I would not be voting Conservative at the next election, simple as that.
August 8, 2023
” the Tory Party that campaigned for Remain”
Most definitely not.
August 8, 2023
Indeed.
It seems are governed by deluded fools and/or crooks/vested interests on the make, take your pick.
August 8, 2023
There is only so much the productive can take and still produce can Hunt and Sunak not see this. We have absurdly high taxes, the war on motorists, energy market rigging, bank lending rigging, the net zero lunacy, restrictive planning, wars on the self employed and landlords, over regulation of everything, lack of fair competition in healthcare, schools, further education, over restrictive planning, Sunak/Bailey’s currency debasement, interest rates more than doubling…
August 8, 2023
Yet another post giving confirmation that our politicians really have not got a clue with what they are doing.
Depressing our what?
August 8, 2023
@ turboterrier – what is worse is that such confirmation has little effect upon not got a clue voters who keep returning such poor representatives.
August 8, 2023
They know exactly what theyâre doing theyâre following an agenda set out for them. They are merely agents of a superior power. They lie to us, we know they lie to us, they know that we know they lie to usâŚ..
August 8, 2023
the biggest qualification in selection is ‘ he/she will do what they are told, no private opinion will be voiced – delightful sheep’.
August 8, 2023
Agreed Hoof. They know what they are doing, otherwise they would do what JR tells them!
August 8, 2023
Ever since the Climate Change Act was passed this country sat back and allowed fear and weak minded politicians to set the path to our self destruction. The vast majority of people have been taken in by this cult religion and now so immersed and controlled by it, have accepted their fate allowing the poor excuses for politicians we now sèem to have elected to tide roughshod over us as they appear not to have the where with all to change things for the better and start thinking outside the box.
August 8, 2023
“allowed fear and weak minded politicians to set the path to our self destruction.”
Forty plus years of eu membership has left us with politicians that cannot lead. They can only be led by other international bodies.
August 8, 2023
Thats true David Brown, we must look to other directions like Reform UK
August 8, 2023
Indeed the Climate Change Act was not just passed, all MPs bar a tiny few voted for it. Such is the scientific and economic ignorance of our virtue signally MPs.
Reply True. I did not vote for it.
August 8, 2023
Well done JR, but why are so few MPs in touch with reality?
August 8, 2023
Only 36% support the ban on petrol and diesel cars it seems. They more they know (and get to know) about the costs and practicality the more they realise the lunacy of the net zero agenda. Though EVs do actually increase CO2 emission compared to keeping your old car.
August 8, 2023
LL- They are all box tickers, no debate, there again the quality of MPs in this day is abysmal.
The pension and perks are good though!!!
August 8, 2023
Yes, our host has succinctly summarised matters. How a great nation is brought low by those inside it conniving to be run by others (the EU).
August 8, 2023
…and the tories have never even thought about repealing the CC Act
August 8, 2023
NetZero Alert.
Freezing people donât only not vote they riot.
August 8, 2023
And then they get shot or harvested by the far, extreme socialist Left.
The only way out of this would be for us all to combine and say âNoâ.
However the weasely State has made sure that we are divided at every possible juncture.
(Not forgetting the fake opposition to which folk flock)
And the purposely-dumbed-down would drink neat bleach if told to by an agent for change or nudged by a govt. sponsored news outlet.
They donât even squeak when their country is given away.
August 8, 2023
Well they might. They certainly to not have any realistic method of getting to a sensible “non net zero pushing” government as almost every party and every major party supports this economic and anti-scientific lunacy.
August 8, 2023
Britain had to be convinced that it was a useless, hopeless country that could do nothing for itself. We canât even pick our own fruit.
Gerrymandering the laws and accounts to force that is just a detail compared to all the rest of the psycho ops, education and media perversions etc.
August 8, 2023
++
Yes.
The BBC did a very good job.
August 8, 2023
Surely it has to be the case that the EU screwed our vegetable and fruit production?
Even here there used to be a great deal of local production and employment in growing and picking.
Asparagus, soft fruit, apples, cauliflowers, potatoes, I definitely remember those and that was in the 80s before the EU really subsumed usâŚor rather we were sold, no doubt for several pieces of silver!
August 8, 2023
Farmers have become addicted to set-aside and environmental subsidies.
August 8, 2023
I must fill out that defra form for doing F all …..sorry re-wilding
August 8, 2023
++
Yes.
âRewildingâ seems like a natural progression from âset asideâ really.
In the early days of our EU subjugation people used to sayâŚ
âYouâll never meet a poor farmerââŚ.And so the farmers thrived on subsidy.
Until they realised the trap. And then there were a lot of suicides.
August 8, 2023
JRs govt is making this their strategy Lynne, that I am convinced. No sane rational person would be making this mad economic strategy let alone energy, immigration, cultural through mass immigration etc. It is though they want the public to think there is no hope outside the EU! Look at N.Ireland who would give away part of their country while at the same time claiming how much help Ukraine needs against an invader which they helped to creat through EU policies ie March east and remove elected govt!!
August 8, 2023
Iâm afraid Sir John, this country has allowed those with no interest in the country to have pushed the self destruct button. It just seems to have gone so far now that there is little hope for our once great nation. Once Labour get in we will be completely finished. Once my commitments here are over I am off to Perth Australia. At least their children sing the national anthem in school. Can you imagine that here.
August 8, 2023
“We have made ourselves more dependent on an energy short continent”
Of course our politicians have. They signed us up to comply with the EU’s Energy Policy and are still complying with it.
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/68/energy-policy-general-principles
Thanks to the Remainer Establishment, we are no longer IN the EU; instead we are attached to it and controlled by it.
August 8, 2023
An excellent article that exposes the egregious, destructive nature of globalist driven (BBC scum, Guardian slime, EU, UN and Washington) NZ politics but one that shines a light on what WILL happen when the governing class push all of this far too far.
I am now convinced that the powers that be are deliberately indulging in deliberate provocation to engineer a response allowing them a reason to impose even greater authoritarian infused laws against the lawful.
It feels like we are under attack
ps I see GB News and Brexiteers are once again being targeted by the usual regressive forces
August 8, 2023
Indeed it feels like it because we clearly are under attack.
August 8, 2023
DOM – . We may have to wait a littlle while but as I have said many times before,
Nothing can stop what is coming, NOTHING.
By the way you did not mention NATO and Westminster (plus many others) in your list.
August 8, 2023
The blob. Thatâs whatâs responsible for such policies, this is very blobbish stuff. For any right of centre govt to get anything sensible done, we need ministers with the vision, skills and tenacity to face down the blob on these and many other issues. I donât underestimate the difficulty. If any of these policies were subject to serious scrutiny or revision, objections would immediately become the top item on all BBC outlets and would dominate the leftist media as the blob fights back.
Iâm afraid this all a legacy of the catastrophe of Liz Trussâs election as Conservative leader, which took us from -5% to -30% in the polls. Sunak has clawed back to -20%, but feels he must govern exceptionally cautiously, pretty much as a European social democrat to try to get to 35% of the vote at the next election. We have to hope the strategy works, and Starmerâs humbug and vacuity stops him getting a majority. Then perhaps there will be a new opportunity for sensible centre-right govt.
August 8, 2023
Liz championed growth, I donât know what Sunak champions âŚ.heâs got his 5 pledges, but theyâre prove to be meaningless and will be soon forgotten like the Miliband pledges in stone
August 8, 2023
And how can you justify being fanatically loyal to a party and government when you are totally opposed to the vast majority of its beliefs and practices?
Clearly they take no notice of you, as you said when interviewed on GBNews the other dsy. It seems your comforts in it are more important than anything else.
August 8, 2023
++
Last night I caught a bit of a drama on TV ( which Iâd already seen) about Alan Clark.
It reminded me of that incredible political loyalty we used to see, especially to the Conservative Party.
The same spirit that created patriotism and the Empire. Tribalism actually.
Shame they couldnât spare a little of it for us!
August 8, 2023
I nolonger know what the conservative party stands for …their next manifesto should be an interesting read
August 9, 2023
depends how much fun you get from reading fairy stories?
August 8, 2023
Totally agree. You must surely feel you are in the wrong party by now John. The so called Conservative Parliamentary party to which you belong is anything but Conservative. Nothing to choose between it and Labour. Have you thought about switching to Reform? They are the only party with Conservative values and in tune with the electorate. Iâm a life long Tory voter and I will now be voting for them in future as will many of my Tory friends.
Reply You Voting Reform be a good way to help elect a Labour government
August 8, 2023
But the reform party is the new conservative party
August 8, 2023
Reply to reply
Not falling for that one any more John. As far as Iâm concerned, weâve already got a Labour Government posing as Conservatives. Yes Labour will probably be worse but thatâs no longer a reason to vote for the fake Tories.
August 9, 2023
but voting FOR the pretend Conservatives brings you more of the last 13(?) years!
Even the most patient ought to have had enough by now, surely?
When you stood once again for Wokingham, did you really imagine what was to take place in the Party name you stand for? Yet you seek retaining your seat in the same name..,. You ought to stand Independent or alongside the party who best fits your views. Is that still Conservative? That would be the ultimate test of our local views – you are supported and continue true to your views, or you seek to uphold these last ruinous years.
August 8, 2023
The answer to the questions has been known for a long time. Little if anything is likely to change for the better until the inept leadership of the Conservative Party is dumped and replaced with sensible operators.
August 8, 2023
John and readers,
I agree that Carbon Tax is applied in a distorted manner and one should measure the total life-cycle along supply chains from mining minerals out of the ground to the day the items are scrapped and materials reclaimed if one is to apply it fairly. Given that the application of this lunacy has not only pushed up energy production costs in the UK and Europe to levels where we cannot make anything any more and we tax anyone using sensible fossil fuels on top because of CO2 emissions whilst we don’t tax the carbon emissions from foreign producers is a pathway to ecconomic ruin, making everything uncompetitive, causing deindustrialisation and impoverishment of our citizens.
However like all the false claims and constructed alternative ‘matrix’ reality of global warming and CO2 this is another window tax. CO2 does not control the climate as it has a tiny impact on teh surface temperture budget, not trapping a measurable amount of heat, and is actually very, very beneficial to life on Earth. It should not be taxed or regulated AT ALL.
The idea that CO2 is a pollutant and an external cost to the environment and civilisation that requires a tax to be applied (and then applied unfairly as well) is madness and evil. There is no externality cost of carbon the cost of carbon should be a negative tax as it benefits life on the planet making crops grow quicker and enabling plants to grow in the desert. All the laws, national regulations, targets and international treaties need to go as soon as possible. If you want to tax things for environmental damage and social costs, then look at mineral mining in africa, noxious emissions to rivers and air in Africa and China and the slave labour used in mining. I would apply a 3000% tax on all those evil and destructive ‘green’ products and not tax carbon at all.
Everything in the category of woke and Net Zero involves some form of distorted world view and application of corruption to economic, scientific and political processes to obtain the aims of the true believers.
Let’s see a counter revolution back to uncorrupted and free science, host accounting, and true reporting about viability, pros and cons of engineering and technoological developments and regulation proposals rather than the current ideology based policy development and application.
August 8, 2023
The madness of Gov. energy policy centered on saving 1% of 0.045% of the atmosphere.
August 8, 2023
So Shapps dissembling in the DT the other day then. We now read an independent think tank is saying the price cap a.k.a. State imposed pricing is actually doing the opposite of what is claimed, namely keeping prices high being a disincentive to competition and with the cap reviewed every three months, inability to react quicker.
This is the same cap opposed when Milliband introduced it for the same reasons but then ignored.
In other news the government is crowing that it is reducing the waiting time for illegal migrants to be assessed in effect completely opposite to the so called tough signals it is sending.
With few/zero being sent back, that means permission to stay is being fast tracked. In effect an amnesty. Hardly a strong âdonât comeâ message. Yesterday we saw the poor junior minister put up to discuss the barge say the 500 would be in, in a week and separately, the Ascension Islands suggested as an alternative to Rwanda, both quickly denied by the Home Office.
This useless administration cannot even coordinate its messaging.
August 8, 2023
+ 1 They shouldnât even be given the courtesy of being treated as asylum seekers. They are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS who should not have been allowed to set foot in the country never mind have their claims assessed but who will nevertheless be given permission to stay by a useless Government. They should be turned back in the Channel. Like you say, they will be given complete amnesty, no wonder they go to such lengths to get here. Meanwhile our services are falling apart, people canât get on the housing ladder or get their much needed hospital treatment, not that Sunak or Hunt know anything about that. Over 1 million migrants allowed in through legal routes last year to an already overcrowded England. Whatâs another 50K or so illegals? Useless the lot of them.
August 8, 2023
They are not ‘useless’, they are very useful to the people they represent. Lest you have forgotten, the Government are signatories against the will of the British people to the UN Global Compact on Migration, which says that mass migration (into white majority countries) is both necessary and desirable. The intent is to destroy national identities in order to facilitate imposition of their ‘Great Reset’. All of the stuff about Rwanda, the barge, and Lee Anderson is just a smokescreen to enable the Tory faction of the Uniparty to retain office, and will be forgotten as soon as this is achieved.
August 8, 2023
I doubt any oil producer would want to start new projects in UK, not with high taxes under the Conservatives and the threat of cancellation by Lib/Lab, and UK banks and investment houses operating ESG mandates that prevent funding such projects. Sunak knows that so granting new licenses is just performative window dressing in search of votes. You
August 8, 2023
Nice to see you raising the alarm about our ‘… adopting strange accounting practises …’. But the cynic in me thinks that this is just another problem that some minister will be too bone-idle to sort out. The practises should, of course, be dumped and the civil servants be set to work, ‘at pace’, to fix the mess. It’s not as if doing so would cost anything.
We are an energy-rich country with a long-standing balance of payments problem. When it comes to energy, we should be importing next to nothing.
August 8, 2023
Siemens Energy lost nearly âŹ4.5bn because of the problems of the Spanish subsidiary Siemens Gamesa and the cost of maintaining wind turbines. The Group’s loss in the third quarter of this year was âŹ2.9bn, even though demand was high. Additionally âŹ1.6bn was spent maintaining the wind turbines, in the 4th quarter: another âŹ600m loss.
During the same period gas power brought in âŹ291 million. Is âcleanâ wind energy financially viable?
August 8, 2023
How about we forget the ridiculous and completely anti scientific CO2 obsession? Instead focus on what actually benefits the people of this country rather than the ruling elite.
August 8, 2023
I âve been doing that for years but still despair at those who buy the con and believe the lies they are told! Des.
August 8, 2023
Sir John, we have not made ourselves depandant on imports of Electricity the Government/ Parliment has done this just to look good in the wider world at great cost to the tax payer.
Once you accept that the country is no longer run for the benefit of it”s citizens and very few in Parliment share you views and indeed the Conservative Party as a whole, perhaps you may consider a Political change. Like the the issue with the small boats crossing the channel there will be some legal chaÄźlenge to stop us generating our own CO2 and continue importing it. In any case the damage has been done to our economy and all a bit too late as usual.
August 8, 2023
From exploration to extraction to generation to the flawed business model that overhangs it, UK energy policy and execution is an unmitigated disaster. Who sits over it, 650 MPs, an army of scribes and every maniac pressure group you can imagine. As with immigration, a national emergency should have been declared long ago and corrective steps taken under the umbrella of it. You have all been asleep on duty.
August 8, 2023
Pertinent questions; with high electricity / power costs making it difficult for UK industry to compete and a high ratio of employment composed of govât and local govât employees the UK trade balance will remain under pressure. Very important that we do not continue to worsen the trade situation by unnecessary imports of electricity.
August 8, 2023
and what are the names of our politicians who dreamt up these schemes?
August 8, 2023
The Conservative Government methodology of âcancel, ban & importâ has as everyone knows increased World CO2 output exponentially.
This Conservative Government has yet to answer how a Car or even just batteries manufactured in China using Coal Powered Power stations is better than a UK home grown product. The cant answer how a VW Product(VW, Audi, Bentley etc) that not only uses Coal to power their Power Stations they actually own these Coal Powered Power Stations is better than a home grown UK output. Now we even have Ministerial Cars from this source.
This Conservative Government is dressing up a race that no one participates, especially the Worlds Greatest polluters, in as somehow a good thing.
This UK Conservative Government will export UK wealth and taxes at a drop off a hat, even when the recipients ban reciprocal arrangements to protect themselves. They the Conservative Government know what they are doing, they know they are maliciously destroying the UK â that has always been the plan.
August 8, 2023
I suggest that this was more theatre to make it appear that HMG was listening to our complaints and actually doing something – If these licences do appear the whole process will then be drawn out to make sure the oil will be of no use to us.
This shows:
– our establishment is locked into the EU preventing us from making unilateral decisions;
– HMG have neutered themselves – they are weak, allowing the EU to take advantage of them at every stage – calling them ‘our government’ is an insult to those functional governments of the past that really did work for British people.
– in the big scheme of things Co2 doesn’t matter – this has always been about exerting control over us all, to bring in the great reset.
August 8, 2023
Putting people into barges when we should be putting them into the fields to help harvest the crops – mad stuff
August 8, 2023
better still, turned back at mid-channel.
August 8, 2023
We have around 5 million of the indigenous population doing nothing but living off the rest of us who could be put to work in the fields if this so called Tory Governmentâs benefit system wasnât so generous. The ones they are putting into barges should be put back into dinghies instead and towed out to French waters. As one senior Tory politician said yesterday âif they donât like the barges, then they should fâk off back to France instead. They should make that man PM. If only the rest of the whole sorry lot of them had that attitude, theyâd have a change of getting re-elected but sadly they havenât.
August 8, 2023
You are well aware of the reason why we are importing more electricity via the interconnectors. Since the government has imposed a stonking windfall tax on renewable producers and imposed VAT on EV chargers etc, it is cheaper to import electricity than make it ourselves.
The renewables tax and pricing regime imposed by Schraps, Hunt and Sunak has swung in favour of fossil fuels; the government has rigged the market in a blatant and attempt to destroy the renewables industry. Renewable producers are now cancelling half-built projects and leaving the market.
The fossil fuel lobby will be laughing into their air-conditioners as the planet cooks.
August 8, 2023
Sakara
Why are the renewables making stinking profits to get a windfall tax in the first place, I thought the idea was that it was supposed to be cheap alternative.
August 8, 2023
You are now confusing me SG
It seems only yesterday when you were telling me that renewables were far cheaper than fossil fuels.
August 8, 2023
Don’t want to be rude, but who in Government, or the Conservative Party, is listening? Your last 3 articles sum up how useless the Government has been over the last 13 years. Most of our MPs are pathetic nodding donkeys!
August 8, 2023
It seems this Government is doing everything possible to destroy our country. Until voters wake up to this fact we won’t get out of this downward spiral they have set us on. Politicians should be ashamed of what they have done.
August 8, 2023
âWe have made ourselves more dependent on an energy short continent.â
Those in charge of our energy policy are not only intent upon making us more dependent upon imported energy from the Continent, even if this energy is not necessarily âgreenâ and certainly cannot be considered to be secure, but also totally dependent upon China, a country described by our security services as âhostileâ, for all our energy infrastructure and electrification devices.
The wind turbines, solar panels, evs, heat pumps, motors, generators, batteries, cabling and all the metals and minerals necessary for the complete electrification of the UK will all be imported from the far cheaper coal-burning China.
If it was considered unsafe to allow Huawei to supply all our telecommunications equipment why is it considered safe to allow China to supply all our energy infrastructure and electrification devices?
What is the real purpose for this considering that our unilateral net zeroing of our own CO2 emissions will only reduce global CO2 emissions by just 1%?
August 8, 2023
@Original Richard – making ourselves dependant was the Boris Johnson plan, by suggesting a race no other Country would join. It was the subterfuge of imports are less polluting than having an economy, security, self reliance, and resilience. Keep the noise level up and no one will notice until total destruction has been achieved.
August 8, 2023
@Original Richard – âwhy is it considered safe to allow China to supply all our energy infrastructure and electrification devices.â And why is it good for taxpayer money to be showered on them(the Chinese) for a large Tata Battery Factory in Somerset. Slight of hand at play, China has the component resources and technical no how â Tata doesnât . Whoâs good investment was that,clearly not for the UK.
August 8, 2023
Bozo and Truss marginalised whatever quality we had in politics and now we’re left with quantity
August 8, 2023
Sir John, All perfectly sensible questions but it’s YOUR Government who are doing these STUPID things. If they’re serious about CO2 why aren’t they counting the amounts of CO2 produced by our imports and its transportation from China/India/Bangladesh etc? The dirtiest producers on the planet who abuse their own people. YOUR lot still sending them foreign aid, why? Does it reduce the number of boat people? No.
All virtue signalling fools. Don’t start me on the ridiculous carbon capture as I have a bridge to sell YOUR Government.
Why are they reporting on the floating boat in Dorset and how many have refused to go there when this isn’t enough accommodation to house a days worth of the illegal invaders? All a distraction on YOUR Governments hard left acceptance of illegals and its failure/refusal to do what is needed. Turn them around at sea and escort them back to France or return them same day by the train tunnel. Tell France to protect its borders or this WILL happen. Stop them making their problem, ours!! No need to process them and take years by our useless Home Office who will just accept them anyway. We can’t afford for you to keep raising our taxes to pay for these illegal foreign invaders. Its now being reported that social media promoting the fact that for 1000 Euro’s the British Government will house the boat people free for a year plus in 4* Hotels with food and pocket money. I wonder what the pull factors are??
August 8, 2023
@Timaction +1
Having to ask why highlights the deceit of those that have high-jacked the Country for their own personal pleasure
August 8, 2023
Timeaction
Your comment are so obvious to anyone sensible, and there is the real problem !
August 8, 2023
Too many weirdos and fanatics in the civil service.
The Conservative Party needs to deselect ministers who are running civil service policies.
August 8, 2023
Getting priorities right doesn’t seem to influence or bother the Government . One of the troubles is Sunak ; his wealth isolates him from the basic problems the average family faces and Hunt will do as he is told in order to cling on to his job . The stalemate we now have is directed from the top and it must change . The EU now faces a huge problem due to the severe downturn in Germany and without its economic input it will have to turn to other means and the UK is one of its focused targets . We have the international means to tackle most of our difficulties and turning the relevant taps on is a must .
August 8, 2023
May I digress from the usual topics here to other crazy ways in which our society operates.
It has now been highlighted that the only people who have been billed for their stay in prison have been those who have been belatedly found not guilty. (It is also absurd that failure to admit guilt, even untruthfully, is a complete bar to release instead of just one consideration among many.) That is like a hostage being billed for his food while held hostage. (Wrong also is taxpayers having to pay the bills for compensation rather than taking the money from the state employees, police and prosecutors who were personally so manifestly at fault.) Yet why aren’t guilty prisoners made to pay something for their prison stay upon release, especially when students and their parents are made to pay for their university education? It seems if one is badly brought up and harms the neighbourhood or neighbours one pays nothing but if one works hard to be educated or indeed becomes divorced one is liable to pay.
Prisoners should surely have deductions from benefits or pay upon release. Also, why should 2 people doing the same job have very different takehome pay because one went to university and the other one didn’t, as often happens? The problem is there are far too many students and it is counterproductive. In 1961 just 3% of the age group went to University. So the state could afford to pay the tuition fees and almost all jobs and opportunities were open to non-graduates of ability. Now nearly 50% of the age group go to University, standards have gone down and many jobs have become a closed shop for graduates.. This is crazy.
Our governance has become ever more irrational. Fundamental change is needed.
August 8, 2023
G B
Interesting comment.
You could also add that when were were a manufacturing giant of a Country (yes actually we were many decades ago) and we were constantly inventing and designing new products, few went to University but many went to technical colleges, and served a proper apprenticeship.
Now very many want to talk a lot at meetings, complain about everything, do nothing productive themselves, because getting up early in the morning and getting your hands dirty, is beneath them.
The work ethic of the population has now changed.
August 8, 2023
As I write – solar 10%, wind 25%. Surely the most rabid âgreen crapâ believer must agree this is, on balance, a good thing.
If nothing else at least the wind and sun that we use are not imported and the energy source is free. As far as I know we donât have to pay for the sunlight and wind we receive. Whereas we have to pay, through the nose, for gas, coal and nuclear.
It makes sense to me to use free energy sources.
And, before you point out that solar panels and wind turbines are not free – neither are coal, gas and nuclear power stations. Nor are coal mines, oil and gas rigs etc.
August 8, 2023
I suggest Mr Wilson next time you look for information, you try to understand what you are reading!
So-called renewables are not free , despite what you believe as we pay even when we are not recieving any power!
August 8, 2023
Straight back at you. I said the energy SOURCE was free. Bit too tricky?
August 8, 2023
By your argument, the coal, gas and oil are free – itâs just extracting them and harnessing them that causes costs, just like the wind and the sun.
At least coal, gas and oil donât vary their output depending on the weather.
August 8, 2023
No, whoever owns the land owns the coal, gas and oil. People who own the land sell the drilling rights. I could put solar panels on my roof and a wind turbine in my garden and enjoy free energy.
August 8, 2023
We don’t pay for oil at the bottom of a well either. We only pay after the well has been drilled and the oil produced. It’s the same with wind and solar. You have to invest to harvest it, and you have to pay for that investment. Overseas dependence should be calculated on the items and services necessary to harvest the energy.
With oil and LNG we have the option to buy from anyone exporting, which offers security through competitive choice. Unlike being debanked, if you fall out with one supplier you can find another. With solar, we are looking at the risk of extreme long distance cables to solar power in Morocco. Not in our control, and very vulnerable, with no ready alternative supplier.
August 8, 2023
MW : “It makes sense to me to use free energy sources.”
If renewable energy is “free” why has Vattenfall withdrawn from the AR4 Norfolk Boreas project, having already spent ÂŁ400m, when :
1) We are told that wind energy is 9 times cheaper than gas and hence this should be a very profitable operation :
2) The terms of the AR4 CfD even allow Vattenfall to not take up the CfD price (ÂŁ37.35/MWhr at 2012 prices and now ÂŁ45.37/MWhr and rising) until they wish and can therefore sell at the market rates, as are currently Hornsea 2 and Moray East.
I doesnât make sense.
Surely Vattenfall cannot be asking for further subsidies when wind is now 9 times cheaper than gas?
August 8, 2023
I see another half wit in yesterdays paper rambling on about Brexit and itâs damage to investment and the economy. No mention, weirdly, of the uncompetitive corporation tax policy of Mr. Redwoodâs government.
Not in my name.
August 8, 2023
My post contains âitâs damageâ. You can blame my stupid iPhone for that and not my lack of education. That said, you can blame education in general for a lot of negative things.
August 8, 2023
More to the point – why are you still part of the governing party? You decry the actions of your government every day, but youâre still in there. I donât understand how you can reconcile your views with being, by definition, complicit in your partyâs actions.
The argument that someone wields more influence inside rather than outside an organisation is clearly not applicable here. It ainât working.
âJohn Redwood, who recently resigned from the Conservative Party because he fundamentally disagrees with the leadersâ policies on everything âŚâ
Reply
1 I promised my electors to be a Conservative MP, and am keeping my word
2 I agree with many things the government does and in many divisions prefer the government to the Opposition proposal and vote for it
3 I and my friends do influence government as with the new policy of backing UK oil and gas investment
August 8, 2023
Reply to reply. I take your point 1).
As for the rest, which policies do you support?
1) Handling of the economy – massive build up in debt and losses courtesy of the Bank of England. Iâd assume ânoâ to that one.
2) Policy of mass immigration? Another no?
3) âPolicyâ on the Channel boats? No again?
4) Law and Order – disappearance of police stations and the police from our streets. Massive backlog for âjusticeâ. You agree with this.
5) NHS – government policy is âthrow more money at itâ. Would that be another ânoâ?
6) Housing – youâre up for and accept the policy of aiming to build 300,000 houses a year?
7) N.Ireland – well, we know you disagree there.
8) Phasing out of ICE cars by 2030?
Perhaps it would be easier t ask – which of your governmentâs policies do you broadly support?
August 8, 2023
Lets face it, the conservative party we once knew and loved, just doesn’t exist anymore ….I don’t recognise this government
August 8, 2023
Sir John agrees with reform of the H of C, and H of L, but Conservative policy pays merely lip service.
I am unsure, does Sir John support UK universities essentially being funded by the vast numbers of spies( students) enrolling at the cost of British places?
Does Sir John agree with the role and outcomes for Ofwat, Ofgem, Ofsted?
Does Sir John agree with the 2% to be spent on military defence?
Does Sir John agree with the ÂŁ15bn approx handed out annually to all manner of open hands as Foreign Aid?
Reply I support a minimum of 2% on defence. I favour using more the Sid budget to pay the first year costs of legal migrants into the UK
I do favour universities accepting any spies as students
I have not proposed structural changes to the 3 regulators. I favour clearer statements of government policy to be pursued by them
August 9, 2023
reply to reply.
It is reported that In 2021-22 there were 679,970 international students studying in the UK. 120,140 of these were from the EU and 559,825 were non-EU, quoted at 22% the year before.
⢠the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) spent ÂŁ8,175 million on ODA in 2021, compared with ÂŁ10,663 million in 2020 (a decrease of ÂŁ2,488m). The FCDOâs share of total UK ODA stood at 71.6% in 2021, a decrease from 73.7% in 2020.
⢠non-FCDO spend on ODA (by Other Government Departments and other contributors of UK ODA) was £3,248 million in 2021, compared with £3,814 million in 2020 (a decrease of £566m). The non-FCDO share was 28.4%, up from 26.3% in 2020.
⢠the largest amount of bilateral ODA was focused on the sectors âRefugees in Donor Countriesâ (ÂŁ1,052m), âHealthâ (ÂŁ970m) and âEconomic Infrastructure & Servicesâ (ÂŁ820m).
The RPC is the independent regulatory scrutiny body for the UK Government. The Committee assesses the quality of evidence and analysis used to inform government regulatory proposals. This independent advice and scrutiny helps ensure that ministerial policy decisions are based on accurate evidence, and helps to produce better regulation. The committee is supported by a secretariat of civil servants formed of economists, policy advisers and operational researchers. (enough said).
August 8, 2023
Mike
As you know well JR writes his own manifesto thoughts and pledge’s on his leaflets at every election, he does not follow the Party line, or uses Party produced literature, unless he agrees with that particular policy, It is why I vote for him.
Unlike most Mp’s who stand for Office, I know where he stands on most policies and he has not been found wanting yet.
However I agree he is now being tainted by being a member of the Conservative Party and it’s total incompetence for the last decade, and that incompetence seems never ending..
August 8, 2023
Spot on, and we should rebuild expertise in generating nuclear power by encouraging Rolls Royce and others to build small nuclear power stations close to where the electricity is required.
It’s about time we reviewed our trade relationships with the EU, with a view to retaliation where necessary. If the EU continue to impose bureaucratic (non-tariff) delays to our exports, we should cause similar delays to imports from the EU. And we should recognise that some EU nations are more bloody minded than others and start to discriminate between them. If the level of our tariffs on imports from the EU is lower than theirs on ours, we should raise it. If the EU require our car exports to require a certain proportion of UK manufactured parts, we should do the same to their car exports. Etc.
August 8, 2023
Sunak publicly stated he did NOT want to compete with EU neighbours! He has given away N.Ireland but wants our taxes to fight for Ukraine!! Utter disgrace I wonder why he lost the vote to be Tory PM and the coup got him there irrespective what the public think! Same for useless Hunt.
August 8, 2023
I can say that every day I study the production of our electricity on gridwatch.org.uk. As I write this at midday, 3.82% is coming from Norway, 3.18 from nemo (Belgium) and no less than 12.70% from France. Wind produces 18.15% and gas (CCGT) 11.33%.
This is in no way unusual. If you look on the site you can easily see that it is quite normal.
I do not think many people know that – especially not the decision makers. Perhaps I ought to buy a megaphone?
August 8, 2023
National Grid as at 14:00hrs today
Europe Interconnectors – 19.8%
Its summer and we’re paying europe for one fifth of our energy, and don’t forget the gas & biomass that we’re importing from around the world ….whats its going to be like in the winter ?
August 8, 2023
Will you go and stand outside H of C? More worthy protest than the recent idiots.
August 8, 2023
We import â
Gas 50%
Biomass 82%
The UK imported ÂŁ19.6 billion of gas in 2021
The UK imported ÂŁ30.0 billion of oil in 2021
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/articles/trendsinukimportsandexportsoffuels/2022-06-29
August 8, 2023
The increase in interconnectors is a result of your government’s policies on the energy market Sir John. The foreign-owned wind energy generators want to supply the market where they can get the highest price for their electricity at any given moment. The “Saudi Arabia of wind”, remember ?
Also, it is a result of relying on wind and solar, which are weather dependent. We are told that a Europe-wide market allows those countries with a current excess of wind or sunshine to sell to those with a current shortage of either. Covering a wide geographical area is said to enhance security of supply.
This again is part and parcel of your own government’s net zero plan (such as it is).
When you expect your constituents to vote for Sir John Redwood in the next GE, this is what they are voting for. You yourself may not support the policy, but nevertheless this is what a Conservative vote means.
August 8, 2023
@KB and the UK taxpayer pays for others to benefit directly while they(the beneficiaries) exclude reciprocal arrangements
August 8, 2023
I don’t know about that, because as Sir John says, we import a lot of electricity via the interconnectors. So you could say we are “benefitting” from this.
National Grid gets paid for the use of interconnectors, so they have a vested interest.
August 8, 2023
From the Daily Telegraph
“France becomes Europeâs top energy exporter as British demand surges” or the UK Taxpayer subsidises the French State directly because after 13 years this Conservative Government has given up on ensuring the UKâs safety and security, preferring to subject the UK to Foreign Political Whims
How about UK taxpayer money going to support the UK, its industry, its enterprise and its future.
August 8, 2023
From todays Media.
âVW Group, the countryâs biggest car maker, warned last month it was âexperiencing a general reluctance to purchase electric carsâ after reducing production at one of its German plants in June.â
âMeanwhile, China has managed to leapfrog Germany and Japan to become the worldâs biggest exporter of cars, shipping 1.1 million abroad in the first quarter of 2023 alone.â
You get to export in large numbers when you protect your Home Market from Competition.
That is the real answer to most questions âprotectionismâ allowing trade to become weaponised. The EU does it big time, so China is only following on. If trade cant be mutual and reciprocal why engage with the aggressors?
Our Conservative Government of some 13 years encourages UK taxpayer money to head abroad to those Countries that do not and wont reciprocate. That’s this Conservative Governments idea of mutual benefit.
That is the real answer to most questions âprotectionismâ allowing trade to become weaponised. The EU does it big time, so China is only following on. If trade cant be mutual and reciprocal why engage with the aggressors?
August 8, 2023
Please read Immigration Act 1971 section 24
It is a criminal offence to enter the UK without visa or passport â why arenât they arrested and held in secure accommodation
It is a criminal offence to âfacilitating the commissionâ of a breach of the immigration law â why are we allowing lawyers to support these criminals
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/255350/sponsorguideappBfrom060412.pdf
August 8, 2023
Maybe it is just that global diktat trumps U.K. law?
After all tearing down a public statue must be a crime really.
August 9, 2023
Interesting. It would be interesting to see how quickly the dinghies would stop if all those coming in without papers were arrested as they hit the beach. My guess: a couple of days.
August 8, 2023
I would expect every Parliamentary candidate for Wokingham at the GE to explain loudly and clearly what living under a Net Zero regime would mean for those of us who aren’t hugely wealthy. I suspect we’re not going to like it very much.
August 8, 2023
That, presumably, would include Mr. Redwood? His government is as much ânet zeroâ as the next party. You canât be a MP for a party and simply disassociate yourself from what your party does.
Reply You can disagree with your party and campaign to change a policy you do not like. It will be Conservative MPs ( and public opinion) who change government policy, not Reform with no MPs and low single figures in the polls.
August 9, 2023
REPLY TO REPLY.
The electorate will decide they prefer Labour, warts and all. That is what these successive Governments have caused. if that outcome is so unpalatable then vote for Reform.
August 8, 2023
In answer to your last questions, John, because we never left the EU.
August 8, 2023
Government should have thought about all of these things before diverting so much away from the EU.. we could have left on terms much more advantageous to us but Boris the ERG and Lord Frost thought better – where are they now? So suck it up
August 8, 2023
The dog that didn’t bark in the night.
According to the CFD Auction timetable, today, August 8th:
Delivery Body issues a âNotice of Auctionâ inviting qualified applicants to submit sealed bids
The âNotice of Auctionâ will specify that an auction is to be held and the deadline for the submission of sealed bids
There has been no such notice publicised. That means that there are insufficient potential bids to merit an auction. All applicants will therefore get the full Administrative Strike Price for their technology. This is likely to mean very small volumes of expensive tidal (ÂŁ270/MWh in today’s money) and floating wind (ÂŁ155/MWh in today’s money), and perhaps a few solar projects if they can get a grid connection, but even these must be in doubt. It increases the probability that there are no bids at all for ordinary offshore wind.
August 8, 2023
– please look at Thunder Said research for info and statistics re UK / international energy issues. One issue not much aired recently is the inefficiency added to the Grid by renewables. Due to their intermittency renewables cost far more to distribute.
August 10, 2023
So what else have we been spending our money on? Some recent stats from GB News:
Between 2016 and 2023:
– Civil Service employment up by 25%
– Civil Service employment in London up by 33%
– Civil Service payroll costs up by 60%
Simultaneously, the Government announces (see TV ad) that it has introduced 40 different schemes to ‘help families’. Let’s try something different:
– Take anyone earning ÂŁ20,000 pa or less out of income tax and personal NI
– Get rid of as many as possible of the 40 schemes
– Sack the Race Relations Board in its entirety
– Sack the NHS’s Equality and Diversity Officers
– Reduce the NHS’s Senior Manager to Manager ratio from more than 50% to 20%
– Reduce the number of other non-clinical staff on the NHS payroll
– Reduce the number of organisations trying to determine NHS policy
– Slim down the Regulators and get them to focus on domestic monopolies