Readers know that I spend a lot of time urging changes and improvements to government policies in some areas. Often people write in to say they agree and to complain that government does not. Conference this year shows that there are changes for the better that offer a clear difference and superior choice than the Labour/Lib Dem policy.
Take the speech of the new Energy Security Secretary. She stated that she intends to source more energy domestically instead of relying on more and more imports as the net zero policy enthusiasts have wanted. She proposes more energy that is “home grown, clean and cheap”, essentials for stronger industry and rising prosperity.
She sees energy independence as ” our best defence”. She says she will back our own North Sea “instead of relying on oil imports , as Keir Starmer would have it”. As proof of that she has already given the go ahead for the new Rosebank Field, an important future source of oil and gas, well paid jobs and plenty of UK tax revenue.
She promises us “the first large scale nuclear project since Margaret Thatcher’s government”. She has moved the competition on to find the right company to develop and roll out many small nuclear modular reactors. Done well this could be a big boost for UK manufacturing, with plenty of scope to export as well as to install a number of these probably at existing nuclear sites where there is already a trained workforce facing the closure of an old nuclear generator.
She reflected the change of direction over the road to net zero announced by the Prime Minister. “If we are to succeed, net zero cannot be something that is done to people, by a privileged elite” “We cannot force people to make wrong decisions for their families. And it is immoral to put forward policies that will impoverish people here, when emissions are rising abroad.”
She argued that as the UK produces 1% of world CO 2 emissions and China 30% more of the burden of adjustment must now be undertaken by the large emitters. She attacked the left who have made “Net Zero a new religion, showing condescension to people’s way of life “. She does not want to lecture people about eating meat, taking a foreign holiday or driving to work.
She recognises government can only get change if it takes people with them, and if the new products and services are affordable and popular.
All this makes much more sense than the command and control system based on bans, higher taxes and legal requirements.
October 7, 2023
Good morning.
I take it then she talks of the ‘Left’ she means the ‘Left’ of the once Conservative Party ? Because I think you will find, Sir John that most of the policies regarding Nut Zero have come the the ‘Greenest Government’ EVER !!
What I want to know is details. She does indeed talk a good game but, energy requires planning, and planning over a timescale greater than that of parliament.
I was discussing SME’s on another site way back in 2012 – Over ten years ago ! If the government of the day, a Tory-Lib Dem coalition, managed to go down that route rather than the very expensiveness, Ed Davey solution we would be energy independent by now.
What I think we will get is more wind farms, mostly offshore. Doggerbank seems favourite at the moment. So I guess this is what she truly means.
When will people learn ?
October 7, 2023
“take it then she talks of the ‘Left’ she means the ‘Left’ of the once Conservative Party” Which clearly includes 90%+ or so of Tory MPs, Sunak, Hunt most of the Cabinet…
October 7, 2023
Dogger looks becalmed at the moment. Bailey or Rockall look a better bet for windfarm location, as they often seem to be whenever I look at the wind charts. But then, is it practical to run power cables to where it’s needed?
October 7, 2023
@Dave Andrews; Power cables are rarely the issue with off shore projects, I suspect a bigger question is if it is even practical to site wind turbines in Bailey or Rockall.
October 7, 2023
I had to look them up, they’re in the Highlands of Scotlands, I wonder if some of Britains highest energy using companies could site themselves up there, mind you with the Scots wanting to leave the union it would perhaps be a wasted investment.
October 7, 2023
May stated in parliament she would build on ‘Red Ed’s’ ‘Marxist’ policy. How many Tories voted for the Climate scam Act? Hot air and no action once again by the lying Tory govt. who shut down and blew up coal fired power stations- Tories. Who prefers to buy LNG from US and Qatar- Tories, who buys coal from Russia- Tories. Who said they would frack then banned it- Sunak!
Get real JR. Base your blogs on fact and record from the last 14 years under 4 different PMS. The lies and narratives could equally apply to Brexit, Taxation, Economy, debt, debt interest, immigration, illegal immigration, crime and disorder, knife crime, education, Health, local authorities, planning, reform BBC etc etc.
October 7, 2023
@Mark B +1 its just talk the same talk we have had over the last 14 years, as that is how long the situation has been know.
October 7, 2023
With a total of 30,531 votes cast in thursdays Scottish by election, the green party only got 601 votes …..so why are we doing the net-zero and green revolution if there’s no support from the voting public …tory politicians & the media are the enemy against democracy
October 8, 2023
There is no plan. There are only green fantasies that assume we will have unicorns.
The first job for Coutinho is to force DESNZ to get realistic. The recent work by the Royal Society showing that a renewables based energy supply requires vast quantities of storage (even though they greatly underestimate how much because of the unicorn assumptions they took from the rest of the green fantasies) is a shock to the system. So was the failure of the AR5 CFD auction, mirrored in offshore wind projects being aborted or not bid for in several other countries, including the US and Spain. The assumption that wind is cheap and going to be cheaper is wrong: especially if you have to add costly storage systems and massive grid expansions and backup systems to make it work.
The whole basis of Net Zero planning needs to be scrapped, and re-thought. That might produce a more viable plan, aimed at a transition to cheap nuclear underpinning the system – but that will take time to establish, not least because of the need to sort out regulation. Almost certainly it would throw up the idea that a 100% Net Zero solution is likely a) unattainable, b)unaffordable, and c) insane.
For renewables I’d suggest that Twenty is Plenty, to re-purpose a slogan.
October 7, 2023
Agreed, “All this makes much more sense than the command and control system based on bans, higher taxes and legal requirements” – but were not all those bad things what this government was pushing before Coutinho’s speech?
Are where its instincts and desires lie revealed more by Sunak’s tobacco ban rather than Coutinho’s apparent Damascence conversion?
October 7, 2023
With fishy taking his orders from Klaus there is no chance in a change of direction
Taxing alcohol to death will be the next big policy. Energy will continue to be sourced from hostile states.
October 7, 2023
Too late. It is all words and no action. the Tories now will say anything that might help get them elected, knowing they will will never have to deliver real action.
October 7, 2023
PDG,
Agreed.
October 7, 2023
Indeed. Nothing to do with electoral Armageddon on the horizon. Unfortunately the weak Hunt is still captured by the Treasury so he will continue to hose money at the public sector without noticeable output improvements (er how is that not inflationary?) and to make up for that, has to keep tax at egregious levels.
Obviously lowering corporation tax albeit increasing the overall take and thus attracting more investment, reducing supply shortages etc are myths created by uninformed people like a certain Sir JR.
October 7, 2023
They’re in “reduce the scale of the loss” mode now …. save as many of their mostly useless MPs as they can.
October 7, 2023
Many Conservative MPs will be standing down anyway. Here are 50 :-
https://conservativehome.com/2023/10/06/our-list-of-conservative-mps-standing-down-at-the-next-election-timpson-the-latest-to-announce/
October 7, 2023
I am disappointed the Conservative MP for North Devon is not on that list.
October 7, 2023
+1 Exactly. Spot on.
October 7, 2023
“The Tories now will say anything that might help get them elected, knowing they will will never have to deliver real action” Yes, it does seem that they learned quite a lot from the Lib Dems whilst in coalition with them… 🙂
Ultimately, action speaks far louder than words. Never mind the next 10 years, start doing things in the next 10 months and you may still stand a chance to remain in office – but I’m certainly not holding my breath.
October 7, 2023
These are welcome statements but are too little too late – by ten years or more – and are likely to be nullified by a change of government.
October 7, 2023
Indeed the green crap pushing Tories lie May, Boris, Kwatang have been waffling on about the Saudi Arabia of wind for years now and subsidising it hugely for no good reason. Of total UK energy use now only about 4% is wind and even that does not take into account all the energy use we have pushed overseas for manufacturing of steel, cement, cars… we import. Not does it allow for their waste full back up needed that wastes energy at gas fired generating facilities or the energy used in connecting them all up to the grid.
October 7, 2023
Yeah, but … 13 years on, the highest taxes in 75 years, massive debt, a hash made of Brexit – and now, suddenly, facing electoral oblivion, you are trying to take the people with you.
Way, way too late. Labour will be in power for the rest of my life.
October 7, 2023
Indeed above all a complete hash made of Covid in every respect – the pointless net harm lockdowns, the net harm vaccines, the inflation causing QE plus the open door to large scale migration too.
October 7, 2023
I’ll give Labour one term. As bad as the Tories are, Labour are worse. Starmer might blow in the wind of popularity, but the left wing zealots in his party won’t let him. Perhaps there could be a reformation of Conservative Campaign Headquarters during their time out of office and we might even get some sensible candidates standing next time.
October 7, 2023
CCH won’t allow sensible candidates to be put forward…
October 7, 2023
Mike,
And then it is Only words!! They gave away N.Ireland to EU without a cross word! They placed a, order down the Irish Sea that the PM claims no British PM would do! They gave away our fishing waters to EU for nothing in return! They are acting in lock step with EU and tying country under EU rule when we voted leave! UK fined last week by EU!! We left! I cannot think of a more treacherous and traitorous outfit than this lot. 200 years ago it would have cost them their lives, quite rightly so.
October 7, 2023
Well said Hope, Fishy has his hands tied to WEF, he will never fight for the man and woman on the Street!
October 7, 2023
@Mike Wilson; “now, suddenly, facing electoral oblivion, you are trying to take the people with you. “
I don’t see any move in that direction by the Conservative party, reflecting on what we heard (publicly) from conference, and from govt in the last 11 months, what I see is a doubling down to protect the core vote, not entice the centrist floating vote, nor many “Red Wall” seats saved by the PM suggesting he is heir to Thatcherism! The Tories need more than London and Home Counties+ votes to stay in govt, more so if the SNP vote switches to Labour, as is now being predicted following Thursdays by-election.
“Way, way too late. Labour will be in power for the rest of my life.”
Indeed, 1964 all over…
October 7, 2023
I’m pretty sure the Tories are about to spend some time in the ‘wilderness’ to consider their lack of conservatism but I don’t see Labour’s upcoming honeymoon period lasting too long once they are in the hot seat. We will see the real Kier Starmer (and finally) his ‘policies’ and I suspect many will not like them any more than the current Lib-Dem Tories.
This conviction has just been re-inforced by watching Angela R ranting at a pre-conference fringe group this morning. Poor girl grew up in a Council house (boo-hoo – so did I) and didn’t go to Eton (Heavens! – neither did I) and puts her success down to Labour. Well, I certainly don’t put anything I’ve managed in life down to Labour. It was mostly just hard graft, a bit of common sense and watching the pennies. Nothing to do with Labour Governments (or recent Tory ones for that matter).
October 7, 2023
The change is good. What wasn’t good was all the time and effort it took to convince those responsible to change when they should have known better themselves at the outset, before drifting into adverse ways.
October 7, 2023
They have changed really, just touched the brakes ever so slightly as an election is coming. They fools or frauds are still heading for the net zero cliff, presented by this totally deluded devil gas religion.
Sunak, Hunt, King Charles, Prince William Starmer are all in with the disastrous WHO’s globalist agenda using net zero as the ruse for more ever taxation and ever more control.
October 7, 2023
Sorry – They have “not” changed really…
October 7, 2023
@Lifelogic +1
I got your first meaning
Just more speeches that will be followed up with a manifesto entry to be reneged on once the X’s are on the paper. We have a GE coming so hence the lies, proven by 100% the complete opposite of Conservatism for nearly 14 years.
October 7, 2023
+1
October 7, 2023
Well not so much moving in the right direction but still moving in the wrong direction towards the cliff edge but very slightly more slowly after a tiny touch on the brakes by Sunak.
You say “She attacked the left who have made “Net Zero a new religion,” So who are these people? Sunak, King Charles, Prince William, Hunt, most of the cabinet and about 90%+ of MP. The Net Zero war on plant, tree and crop food was nodded through (without a vote) and only a tiny handful did not vote in favour of Ed Miliband’s moronic Climate Change Act. We still have the appalling Committee for Climate Change pushing an insane agenda.
1. Manmade CO2 is not causing any climate emergency anyway.
2. About 40% of the, rather trivial warming, over the last 150 years is due to the urban heat effect not greenhouse gasses.
3. We are in a period of a relative dearth of CO2.
4. The solutions pushed EVs, wind, solar, walking, cycling, hydrogen, heat-pumps, public transport save trivial or no CO2. EV in general increase CO2 compared to keeping you old car.
5. World cooperation would be needed to reduce CO2 it will not happen with China, India, Russia… anyway CO2 is not even a serious problem.
6. Even if CO2 were a serious problem then adaptation is far cheaper way to save lives than cutting CO2, far more effective and far quicker to tax effect. Maintaining dams properly in Libya would have save 11,000+ for example.
7. A bit warmer is on balance rather better than a bit colder.
8. Most sensible, independent physicists and scientist think it is at best a gross exaggeration and at worse a total fraud for the state to extort/justify ever more tax and introduce ever more regulations & control of people.
October 7, 2023
How can one believe that the government actually believe the CO2 devil gas religion when they allow and use private jets, private helicopters, first class travel, flying half empty aircraft around, people to have pet dogs and cats that eat meat, new cars with 5+ litre engines…
When I hear politicians talk about their CO2 devil gas religion I tend to think “is this person really so thick he or she believes this drivel or is he another lying fraudster.”
Mark Harper still quite wrongly believes that making people switch to new EVs saves CO2 – at best it just exports it mate. Government web sites still claim that cycling and walking cause no direct or indirect CO2 (so are they written by liars or scientifically illiterate morons? They are fueld by very CO2 inefficient human food. They also claim trains and busees are much more efficient than car in CO2 terms – very often they are actually worse once you add in the often double end connections trips, indirect routes needed and this especially if the car is full.
October 7, 2023
I’m afraid that Northern Ireland is not moving in the right direction as far as unionists are concerned.
It’s OK for those who want to move it away from the rest of the United Kingdom, but not for unionists.
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/columnists/jim-allister-ignore-the-spin-around-the-windsor-framework-it-has-achieved-what-the-ira-failed-to-achieve-4363556
“Ignore the spin around the Windsor Framework – it has achieved what the IRA failed to achieve.”
October 7, 2023
I agree with Jim Allister, I fear for peace as soon Sinn Finn will be the ruling party in the Republic of Ireland ( our real enemy)
October 7, 2023
In 2020 Coutinho called offshore wind “one of the most remarkable success stories in the U.K. today”, and welcomed the “green measures” in the upcoming budget. More recently Coutinho has been an active member of the Tory green caucus, the Conservative Environment Network, and has campaigned for “wilding” the countryside. So I am not convinced by this one conference speech she’s made. Also, the approval of Rosebank was in the works already before she became minister. She will have to do a lot more to oppose what she calls the Green “religion” before I’ll accept she is no longer a believer in it.
October 7, 2023
Small modular nuclear has its place but large nuclear plants are generally much cheaper, safer, easier to protect amd connect up & a better bet, or they should be if they got all the planning and legal obstacles out of the way and left it to some decent engineers to deliver.
October 7, 2023
Our large nuclear reactor power stations and nuclear technology were bought by EDF in 2009 so we would be starting from scratch having had the first nuclear power station in the world. SMRs are brilliant for powering nuclear submarines. Who else in the world think they are the solution to domestic despatchable electrical energy?
October 7, 2023
+1 they have their niche but not the best solution for most situations.
October 7, 2023
But thats to fix a problem that doesn’t exist… just look a China, a new coal power stater every month
October 7, 2023
Hinkley c 3.2GW approx £33bn not yet complete.
No further power plants should close on spurious cost grounds until we have surplus capacity.
They should be nationalized as needed and ran at safe maximum output levels throughout winters.
Enough of man made shortages.
October 7, 2023
anon
The construction for the duff technology and expensive Hinkley Point C was given the go-ahead by Sir Ed Davey (PPE).
Dieter Helm, professor of Energy Policy the University of Oxford, told the BBC :
“Hinkley Point C would have been roughly half the cost if the government had been borrowing the money to build it at 2%, (the rate at the time) rather than organising EDF’s Chinese cost of capital at 9%.”
South Korea built a 5.4 GW nuclear power plant for the UAE on time, in 10 years, at a cost of £20bn = £3.7bn/GW. Hinkley Point C by your figures is £10bn/GW.
Just another HS2 job by our idiocracy.
BTW, RR SMRs are £4.2bn/GW
October 7, 2023
LL :
Whilst large-scale nuclear plants are certainly cheaper, more reliable and secure than any renewables it will be SMRs that will eventually prove to be the more important energy source.
There is no logical reason why the 2 x 1.6 GW EPRs of Hinkley Point C cannot be replaced by 7 x 0.47 GW RR SMRs on the same sized site with the added advantage that one or more units can be used to load follow.
SMRs can be built quicker and cheaper on production lines in factories under cover so weather cannot cause delays and critical operations such as welding can be performed under ideal conditions.
The small size of SMRs (from 5 MW upwards) makes them ideal for many applications, such as factories, process heat, ships, small towns in sparsely populated countries where no country-wide grid exists etc.
October 7, 2023
Sunak’s government has rolled back many net zero commitents, such as forcing the foreign pension funds that own our rental housing stock to insulate their properties to the standard required.
Sunak, Hunt and Shapps have forced N Sea renewable energy producers out of the market with excessive windfall taxes on the cheapest form of electricity available to us – in favour of yet more fossil fuel extraction, which will get £billions in tax break subsidies. The government will not effectively change the planning regulations to allow investment in onshore renewables, yet has given big oil £20 billion for their carbon capture and storage scam
There are constant attacks on companies which wish to make EV’s and battery gigfactories here, we need more charging points – especialy in rural areas – and upgrades to the electricity grid. Our rivers are heaving with filth and after having seen £billions taken out in dividends, the public is now to be charged for the sewage and water infrastructure improvements that are necessary.
It’s about time that the far right of the party realises that these anti-environment policies will cost the Conservatives the next election and embraces the green revolution, regardless of the 1%
October 7, 2023
Wind is NOT the cheapest form of electricity available to us. Read this; the Government falsifies the stats. by ignoring the true costs of wind-powered electricity.
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/10/07/no-wind-power-is-not-cheaper-than-gas/
October 7, 2023
+1
October 7, 2023
I too am very keen on keeping the environment pleasant – but CO2 has almost nothing to do with this. I say “almost” as CO2 is food for trees, plants, seaweed and crops, and so a little more greens the planet rather nicely a net benefit.
Sakara do please so go and read some books written by sensible independent physicists, scientists & climate realists. You have been conned.
October 7, 2023
SG :
Offshore wind is the most expensive form of energy we have. Not only is it expensive to build, requiring 1000 times more concrete and steel per unit of power than nuclear but requires a complete backup system for when the wind doesn’t blow. Often the 28 GW of installed wind power produces less than 1GW. As I write it is supplying just 7 GW.
I will however, agree with you that the £20bn earmarked for CCUS is a scam. We should just burn hydrocarbons without CC as Happer & Wijngaarden have shown that increasing CO2 produces no additional greenhouse effect because of IR saturation and we need more plant food in the atmosphere to green the planet and grow more food to prevent famines.
Net Zero and electrification just exists to destroy our economy, cause impoverishment and control us through the introduction of individual smart meters.
October 7, 2023
Total nonsense Mate! He only moved it back five years. – nothing in the scheme of things.
October 7, 2023
I am not voting for the current Labour Light conservative party or any other political party. My vote will be spoilt.
October 7, 2023
And mine!
October 7, 2023
@David Brown I’m joining you and Sir John is my MP(so its a shame)
October 7, 2023
! Sir John being the one person in the present Parliament speaking for the people and actually doing some good.
October 7, 2023
@formula57 – yes a real out and out shame, but as the Conservative Party refuses us a Conservative Government(they have/had it within thier gift), the electorate is left with responding with the same total destruction that they are causing for the Country. But in reality some good MP’s in all sides are going to be destroyed by a Parliment that has lost all reasoning and purpose
October 7, 2023
If you have one of the very few sensible Tory MPs like JR then surely you are rather lucky and should support them. Who else would some one sensible vote for in Wokingham? I would have difficulty voting for anyone who voted for the recent mad energy bill, the climate change act, for the idiotic HS2 project, the Windsor Accord, the failure to take proper advantage of Brexit, for lockdowns, for the poorly tested net harm vaccines for the young who never needed them anyway and actually forced onto many in some job areas…so that is about 90%+ of the Tories rules out. But the viable alternatives are almost always even worse.
October 7, 2023
Please don’t waste your vote, DB. At least vote for a party that has conservative values, such as the Reform Party.
October 7, 2023
In other words you will disenfranchise yourself.
October 7, 2023
I believe it is possible to vote NONE rather than spoil the paper and as a protest vote that apparently counts.
But don’t take my word for it. Look it up. I’m probably wrong.
Hope this is allowed?
https://www.votenone.org.uk/protest_votes_count.html
October 7, 2023
@Everhopeful – ‘None of the Above’ should be on all ballot papers
October 7, 2023
Vote for what you detest and get what you detest?
My vote goes to a Party which stands for what I want. That can only mean Reform !
October 7, 2023
Neither am I, but my vote will go to Reform UK, I do not like spoilt or non voting, In the Scottish by election only one third of the electorate voted, the two thirds were not mentioned by MSM
October 7, 2023
Exactly as others say, it’s all too late and virtually no-one trusts the government would do what it says were it to be elected. Your MPs know it and most are doubtless wisely positioning themselves for jobs outside of Parliament in the next year or so.
October 7, 2023
Finally some common sense from Government.
October 7, 2023
There’s a saying, better late than never!
The measures implemented over decades until we reach today, have been quietly put in place, much like land mines – you don’t know they’re there unless you step on one. Conservative MPs were selected by central government rather than at grass roots level, was that to ensure more left wing candidates – don’t know ?
Whatever, we see a tiny patch of green shoots of change. We, the public, need to keep pushing for change and collectively saying no to unready authoritarian measures. Dr Gary Sidley wrote that probably only about 15-20% of the public is needed to afford change.
As I said before in this thread, this global infiltration into our institutions needs smashing at national level. I’m going with the positive. Rome wasn’t built in a day, this damage had been decades in making, it’ll probably take years to put right.
The globalists such as the UN need toppling somewhere along the line. They’ve lost their collective ways for why they are there.
October 7, 2023
I’m not sure where the word unready popped up from before the word authoritarian.
October 7, 2023
This is the most common sense I have heard in years!
The big question is – will the promises be actioned???
Or is this just to win votes?
Sadly the latter was the case with Boris.
Trust in all party politics is at an all time low.
Honesty & true actions are needed now, in spade fulls!
October 7, 2023
@Jude
We have had similar statements and proposals for nearly 14 year especialy in the run up to elections. What we have never had is delivery, just a refusal, a constant renaging on propossals made. Never ever think of this as a Conservative Government
October 7, 2023
I wish Conservative MPs and commentators would stop pretending that Sunak has had some kind of “Road to Damascus” revelation on the lunacy of Net Zero. He hasn’t; he still supports it and intends to deliver it despite the fact it is an obvious SCAM and will do absolutely NOTHING to affect the global climate. ALL he has done is re-aligned us with an EU we voted to leave.
It is impossible to achieve Net Zero without ruining what is left of our manufacturing base and destroying household finances as well as their ability to heat their homes effectively and move around the country in their own car.
I’m not interested in a marginally better “offer” than the other two branches of the Westminster Uni-Party. All of them are just dancing to the Davos tune and I want the music changed.
October 7, 2023
If she’d announced a cancellation of the current energy bill then we may have become slightly less pessimistic. But Net Zero remains firmly in place as the overarching policy objective, imposed by the Conservatives and no one else, with draconian enforcement via the new energy bill/Act to come.
October 7, 2023
Well, yes, but how do we know if these ‘suggestions’ are merely there as words, ideas, or more simply theatre to persuade people to vote them back into power?
HMG has had more than enough time to show us how they manage our country and their record is abysmal – They still have their netzero and perverted thinking over covid and lockdowns, nothing substantial has changed.
In any case, actions speak louder than words. Let’s see if they can make some things right instead of just staging more dismal opera.
October 7, 2023
Had to go somewhere else to find the name of the new Security Energy Secretary – everything is moving so fast it’s hard to keep up.
October 7, 2023
Persuasion is much more powerful (and cheaper) over the long term than diktat!
October 7, 2023
08.35 07/10/24
That we should source our own energy is refreshing but only half of the story. You have yet to accept that the business plan is a bad one and is equally responsible for the unprecedented high cost to the UK consumer. Only idiots would let it go to the world market and be sold back to us at world prices. It totally undedmines the industrial base of the UK guaranteeing us high prices for everything and in the process makes all our business activity much less competitive in the world market place than it shoul be. There are only two beneficiaries from this insane business plan. Government that rakes off a fixed percentage in tax and VAT and the oil companies who from their results are laughing in our faces. SJR, if you want our support tell it complete and straight.
October 7, 2023
No answsrs then SJR.
October 8, 2023
I have been looking at the accounts of the Moray East Wind Farm for 2022 which were published recently. Their revenue was £702.24m and their production was 2563.8GWh, giving an average sales price of £273.90/MWh. By no stretch of the imagination is that cheap, or anywhere close to the price of £58.85/MWh that the government thought was the most it would have to pay for AR5 wind farms.
October 7, 2023
maybe some politicians are saying the right kind of things, however we can all see the senior layers of the public sector ignore the politicians anyways.
so many examples, the FCA finding no wrongdoing by RBS/NatWest despite clear letter from Chancellor etc
October 7, 2023
Seems like a candidate for the top job? That will probably be Leader of the Conservatives in Opposition.
October 7, 2023
So, some common sense at last from Claire Coutinho, but she must feel rather lonely in this Government! Sadly, one sensible swallow does not make a summer.
October 7, 2023
Yes some sense at last or is it the obvious. But why has it taken so long? Possibly in reality its all too late for the Conservatives – there are so many things they should and could have done.
October 7, 2023
Finally The Government announces good and sensible news.
October 7, 2023
But nothing has changed ….full on net-zero is still their current policy, none of the net-zero targets have been removed ….its still full steam ahead for net-zero, full support for UN, UN COP & UN WEF net-zero targets, the climate change committee is still in charge !
October 7, 2023
Excellent points made by the new Energy Secretary. However, thirteen years have been wasted by Conservative administrations. This is an egregious mistake and one that may well lose them the next election. Why has it taken so long for the Government generally and Energy Secretary’s in particular to understand the vital importance of energy security, storage and supply. Why has it taken so long to commission work to produce small nuclear reactors? Why hasn’t the Government awarded the contract to Rolls Royce, a British Company for god’s sake? Why has there been so much dithering and delay Sir John?
October 7, 2023
@Michael Saxton
The Rolls Royce small nuclear reactor division is seperate from the parent, the biggest owner after RR are the French. Without the French being rewarded this Government would not have considered a UK only company for the project.
October 7, 2023
Michael – they won’t just lose the next general election (with what’s coming do they want to win it ?) but will never govern again. The victors will rewrite the rules and rewrite history and the Conservatives will forever be known as The Disaster Party. I’m not inclined to defend them to my children anymore. They are certainly not the friends of the striving classes and are going to pay with a lot of seats and ruined careers for their betrayals.
October 7, 2023
@Paula – if only they where Conservatives, then there wouldn’t be this responce
October 7, 2023
1. Does anyone really believe that politicians or anyone other person can control the earth’s temperature and climate?
2. Why have carbon, the element on which human life is based, and its compound CO2, without which there would be no life on earth as we know it, been demonised?
3. If man made CO2 is responsible for “climate change” and is only 3% of the 0.04% of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere, what is the impact on the climate of the other 97% naturally occurring CO2?
4. As the UK contributes just 1% of the 0.0012% man made CO2 i.e. 0.000012% of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere, does anyone realistically believe that reducing that to 0% will make any difference to the climate?
5. Isn’t it the case that man made climate change and net zero, far from saving the planet, are scams designed to control and impoverish the majority of people for the benefit of the already lavishly rich globalist minority?
October 7, 2023
+1. Makes no sense when rationalised with these figures. The Westminster uni party needs to head off to the Chinese, Indian and USA embassies and pray outside to their net zero God for reductions in CO2, a plant food.
October 7, 2023
@Brian Tomkinson – there are only 6 Countries in the World(Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, Denmark, Hungary) that have signed upto ‘a law’ on NetZero, the big ones, China, India, the USA and even the EU have no such inclination, they all value their economies. Then again there is no proceddure for sanctions of those that break the ‘Law’. So this Conservative Government fully intends to destroy the UK while the World prospers.
October 7, 2023
Perhaps next time Sir John is urging changes and improvements to Government policy, he could show them this article and ask them why they so blatantly LIE about the costs of wind energy? And why they persist with a policy which costs a fortune to NOT supply cheap and reliable energy; isn’t environmentally friendly or “green” when you take into account the whole life of the turbines and batteries needed to back it up; and slaughters thousands of sea birds, raptors bats and, it appears, causes whales to beach themselves?
The policy doesn’t need tinkering with. It needs to be scrapped entirely.
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/10/07/no-wind-power-is-not-cheaper-than-gas/
October 7, 2023
She seems, however, to be a fan of wind farms, stating recently that we have the 4 largest (off shore?) in the World and are building what will be the fifth.
Apart from a six monthly maintenance cycle, has anybody built into the cost that the life span of a wind turbine is c. 20 years?
October 7, 2023
Before the next elections we need to see ACTIONS demonstrating that the Conservative Party has remembered what conservative actually is.
Over past years it has been harder and harder to see the difference between them and Labour and to be honest I am disillusioned. And since Covid, tending to be distrusting also.
October 7, 2023
@Sue Elvis(the Conservative Party) left the building on that nearly 14 years ago, the Socialist extreme have commandeered the Party and control of the Government. Those like our kind host are hung out to dry and ignored.
October 7, 2023
Too late.
You’re all going to lose your seats, I’m afraid. The Conservative party will never reach office again.
I notice the Tory press are in full Sunak-saves-the-day mode but please read the comments, not the articles themselves. The game is up.
October 7, 2023
“The Conservative party will never reach office again”
No Paula, Labour will always find a way to get them back in again! 🙂
October 7, 2023
Not this time. They will enfranchise 16s and educate them that the Tory Party are The Disaster Party. Which it is but not for the reasons that they will claim.
October 7, 2023
@Paula – reading today’s Daily Telegraph they have a list of what for the most part what is left of a real Conservative, that have decided to stand down at the GE, not wanting to be associated with this crowd of charlatans.
October 7, 2023
Sir John
Speeches, proposals, reviews are not doing they are pseudo self congratulatory statements. The UK’s energy situation was known nearly 14 years ago when this Conservative Government grabbed power and started to show us they are not Conservatives. In all those year, they have talked, known and done nothing.
So moving in the right direction? How, when? All we have seen is demonstrations that the Conservative Government has placed its self to the Left of the Socialist regimes of the Lab/Lib coalition.
Not once has the Conservative discipline of getting expenditure in tune with earnings shown its head. Not once has freedoms and democracy be allowed. Not once has UK Enterprise been championed before sending taxpayer money to foreign regimes. , This Conservative Government has raised inflation with exorbitant taxes and then sort to blame every one else, the have borrowed more money than the Taxpayer can afford to pay back so they could just keep spending. Other than stating it, ‘the bonfire of the Quango” what have the Conservatives Government done? They have increased Quango’s , the home for mates that cant find a real job. So Quango’s are Conservative self patronage for those that fail.
Over 14 years the Conservative Government with the Conservative Party have what appears to be lied to get elected, then reneged on all proposals. Every thing they try to manage cost us more and delivers less.
So more speeches, more proposals are meaningless, all the while the main thrust has been ban, cancel, control and maliciously create more costs and debt for the Taxpayer.
October 7, 2023
I don’t agree. Until there has been a mea-culpa on lockdowns, booster vaccines, mass migration of low skilled workers, NetZero misinformation then it shows things haven’t changed.
October 7, 2023
You will be waiting a long time for that order to be filled Javelin.
October 7, 2023
It sounds as if we are heading in the right direction, it sounds good!
As a down payment, she could of come out and supported Fracking, as a contribution, and part of the New Energy mix!
But, it sounds good!
I wish her luck!
BR
October 7, 2023
Delaying the ban on the sale of new petrol cars to ’35 ignores the increasing penalties to sellers of new cars if they’re not electric which hasn’t been adjusted to match. So the Government’s intervention will yet again skew the market. Those wanting to buy a new petrol car will find the garage either isn’t keen to do so or will slap on extra to cover the fine they suffer for not meeting their electric-car quota. As ever, the consumer pays because companies don’t pay taxes or fines, people do.
Has thought been given to the funding and maintenance of the gas-supply network as ‘stop gas’ deadlines near? Just as some car manufacturers daft enough to think Net Zero is plausible have already made decisions to cut petrol-car production and engine research, so boiler manufacturers will start winding down production, including of spare parts, and CORGI will see fewer engineers pay to register. As folks start to drop gas in anticipation, the burden of funding the supply network falls on fewer people, increasing costs and pushing more away from gas.
Even if the gas itself becomes cheaper by moving from imported LNG to domestic fracking, harm can be done to the supply network well ahead of cut-off dates for selling new equipment. Thus it’s vital that Government’s adjust these implausible deadlines well in advance: the back propagation of their impact reaches far. And that requires changing the ‘I want to leave a political legacy’ constraints placed on Government’s today by Blair+Miliband, May, and Johnson through the Climate Act.
October 8, 2023
The unstated aim is to reduce the number of cars on the road substantially, by making it very difficult to afford a new one of whatever kind.
October 7, 2023
Some common sense being said but unfortunately labour will ruin it when they win the next election as the conservatives have wasted their majority and in fighting
October 7, 2023
It’s not enough and it’s too late
October 7, 2023
After 13 years of Tory government that is it!?
We are being told domestic energy supply is better than importing energy, well who could ever have worked that out.
We are told we are looking for ‘someone’ to make mini nuke generators? I wonder who has been making such things for the past fifty years in one form or another?
Seriously, if that is the extent of our great new direction we are royally f…ed.
How is the gifting of half a £billion/year to the French border guards going? Seen any reduction in illegal boat traffic yet?
What about the HS2 spend that has been talked about ever since Brown initiated it? The project costs have quadrupled over the period of the present government and the scope of the system has halved.
Do you think a Tory party under Thatcher would have been that inept?
As the latest Tory marching instructor shouts out to the troops every day, Left, Left, Left…..
October 7, 2023
”Diversity is our strength, importing people who hate the west can only enhance our own culture”
October 8, 2023
Where does the BBC publish daily illegal immigrant small boat landings?
I never spot it anymore. Is that because they would rather it carried on than keep attention on it?
October 7, 2023
Afraid it is too little too late to make any real difference in an election JR, but thanks for your efforts in trying, Shame they did not listen to you years ago when it would/could have made a real difference.
Shame it has taken all of those wasted years for the Party leaders to eventually come to a similar conclusion that you and many of us out here came to a decade ago, that 2050 Net Zero, and in particular the 2030 target push, was a step too far, too soon.
October 7, 2023
As we shall have a socialist government irrespective of who wins the next election, anyone who believes in traditional Conservative values would be well advised to vote Reform in the hope that a decent showing by that party might encourage the Conservative Party to mend its ways in time for the election after that.
October 7, 2023
Precisely. The bigger the kicking they get, the more notice they’ll take of it.
October 7, 2023
Too little, too late summarizes matters.
October 7, 2023
What we have is policy proposals, comprising of more banning, more cancelling, more punishment. Even the statement of NOT banning petrol and diesel in 2030, had the hidden sting in the tail in that all manufacture would have to pay fines for each one produced that is not electric over quota. Yet the Conservative Government will still transfer UK Taxpayer to the Chinese Government while other regimes reserve it(taxpayer subsidies) for home grown production.
We also get more and massive Tax grab to send the money abroad to support other regimes.
The French and the Japanese are a little upset at the cancelling of HS2, the will not get handed as much UK taxpayer money as before – but they will still receive some. The Water Companies are to get taxpayer hand outs and raise prices to hit the Consumer, so they can get to send more UK Taxpayer money to their homeland tax authorities. They have yet to fulfil there existing obligations of service, preferring a money transfer first approach.
The list is endless of illustrations of a failed Conservative Government failing around in the breeze, on the one hand keeping in step with the Socialist WEF ideals, while ensure that they install a punish the UK first approach. No other Government in the World is punishing their own very existence in the way this Conservative Government is doing.
October 7, 2023
@acorn +1
The UK has the resources and the capability yet this Conservative Government hands those to Foriegn Governments that take their tax share to sell back to the UK at an increased tax inclusive price.
October 7, 2023
Make no mistake, the Conservative Party still believes in the impossible and economy destroying Net Zero Strategy, the proposed “solution” to the false theory that anthropogenic emissions of CO2 caused by burning hydrocarbons causes climate change.
And, worse still, to the impossible idea that wind energy will provide us with “cheap, abundant energy always there at the flick of a switch” (Net Zero Strategy P19) and again at the SoS of DESN’s speech to conference.
Without repealing the 2008 CCA the Conservative Party knows that any measures they promise the electorate to slow down their Net Zero Strategy promised in order to garner votes will safely come to nothing as they will be taken to court by ClientEarth for falling behind its CCC determined carbon budgets, as has already happened.
To ensure the Government is successfully sued by ClientEarth the Government, through the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), are a major funder of ClientEearth.
October 7, 2023
I read in an engineering magazine (the IET engineering and technology journal) of an interview with the then head of the U.K. atomic energy agency, who said the U.K. needed 50bn and 12 years to develop a working fusion reactor. If we had started this at the same time as HS2, we would have a limitless energy source for half the cost of a train line to Birmingham.
October 7, 2023
Yup.
Had HS2 companies not ripped off the taxpayer and filled their boots they would not now be seeing a large part of their project cancelled.
October 7, 2023
Tories still banning fracking for shale gas, the BoE still promoting esg and anti fossil fuel investments, tory government still promoting smart-meters and standing charges, tory government reduced coal fired power stations and oil distillation capacity, and they still refuse to create an UK internal energy market ….net-zero under the tories is still king
If this is your ‘right direction’ than thank christ for ‘reform’
October 7, 2023
Given that we will only have 5% nuclear in 2 years time, increased wind generation requiring gas and wood burning 95% back up during winter lull, with battery or hydrogen storage economically and physically impossible, why not U turn again on fracking. Has Klaus and his corporations, young leaders and the UN agenda writers forbidden it?
The cost of energy is already causing economic collapse. The green bright blue policies have caused my own bills to be 50% and 40% standing charges, having insulated my house and reduced the total gas and electricity to around £1200.
October 7, 2023
The Conference and the mood it established did bring a glimmer of hope in my head , however the mountain left to climb is more than I believe the Conservatives can achieve in the short time before the election . The biggest mistake made was allowing non elected bodies to influence the economy and allowing Hunt to spread gloom . I fear for the next few years because Labour will introduce schemes that punish those individuals – the very people who we all rely on .
October 7, 2023
Claire Coutinho has been moving us in the right direction but why hasn’t she immediately cancelled the unnecessary tender process for SMRs and just given a development contract to Rolls-Royce and maybe one other bidder ?
We don’t have the time to waste on a delay of at least three to five years before work starts on building the first few installations as our existing nuclear stations are all due to go out of service before 2030.
The Civil Service are behind this tender process but they need to be reminded that we are no longer in the EU and we can give contracts and grants to whoever we like.
October 8, 2023
We are no longer IN the EU, but the Treacherous Tories ensured that we are still attached to it. The BRINO “deal” means we have to abide by their rules on procurement.
October 8, 2023
The Civil Service have just demonstrated that they can’t run an auction. They’re trying to prove that again, I suspect.
October 7, 2023
The SoS for DESNZ said in her speech to conference that we need our energy to be “home grown, clean and cheap.”
But note, not “secure” or “dispatchable” (always available on demand).
Renewables are not “home grown” or secure because the turbines, solar panels and the metals and minerals for the infrastructure and batteries, motors, generators and cabling is sourced from China, a state described by our security services as “hostile”.
Renewable power is not “clean” when taking into account the environmental damage caused by the mining of the metals and minerals required for electrification and the toxic chemicals used in the production of solar panels which end up in the Chinese tailing lakes and also leach into our fields as the solar panels age.
The primary renewable energy source, offshore wind is not “cheap”. Firstly the building costs per unit of supplied energy are more expensive than nuclear, requiring 1000 times more concrete and steel than nuclear as well as 1000 times more area. Secondly because renewables require a second, parallel energy system to run alongside for when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. This makes renewable energy the most expensive energy system of all.
October 7, 2023
1000 times more concrete and steel per unit of power and 1000 times more area per unit of power.
October 7, 2023
Unfortunately I no longer trust political leaders. They say a lot mostly just to stay in power.
If this “new direction” was commenced 10 years ago we would have the results to show today and could believe in Government.
The only major achievement is fuelling a war with Russia at the expense of everything else.
HS2 just shows how incompetent the Nation has become. We look to Politicians to improve the lot of the ordinary citizen not make it worse for the sack of some ideology or other.
October 7, 2023
The UK needs to totally abandon all of this “net zero” nonsense. The Conservatives need to do this in order to have any hope of winning a general election.
October 7, 2023
“She attacked the left who have made Net Zero a new religion, showing condescension to people’s way of life “
Uh huh. Until about a week ago, that was also her party. And they were doing more than mere policy, they were driving it forward, enshrining this nonsense in law.
Also, announcements are just announcements – especially when they are announcements about future “reviews” (which we all now know means “we’ll take a long time to decide to do nothing by then few people will remember or care”).
So – when are the rules on the required proportion of EV/ICE car sales being changed? Because all that “rolling back to 2035” stuff is just more hot air unless that changes. Perhaps one of your questions to ministers needs to be crafted? Also raise the question in the HoC?
Last I heard (which was earlier this year), at least 22 per cent of the cars manufacturers sell next year will have to be electric – or they could face fines of up to £15,000 per car (18k on some other vehicles) if they miss their target.
So roughly 4 people who want to buy an ICE car (or even a hybrid) have to wait until someone buys an ICE car?
Or perhaps they can pay the £15k penalty and get it now? Eek.
This was always nonsense, but the key question is… when will it change? Sunak has annouced some form of rolling back by 5 years but that needs these things to change, along with timescales/rules on heat pump vs gas boilers etc.
People now recognise smoke-and-mirrors politics when they see it. A real annoucement is “we will be bringing forward legislation by the end of this year to do XYZ”. Anything else is pie in the sky waffle. I’m surprised that you are painting such a positive picture of the current waffle – it feels as though you’re just being a “good Conservative” at election time.
October 7, 2023
Who is she? What is her name?
In the last 14 years what has your government achieved for our energy security?
Where has government spending on energy gone in the last 14 years? What has been the outcome of those subsidies. I understand that six years of it was as a compliant member of the EU, then a further 5 years WA when nothing could change but what did you put into effect then?
How much wind farm energy is being used by the UK general public and how much goes back into the EU lower than it costs to produce it? We the consumers are being tied into long term high costs of energy, via tax or directly to the energy companies with new green levy (those of us with dual fuel pay twice).
October 9, 2023
Her name is Claire Coutinho, appointed 31.08.23. (can’t keep up)
Energy Security & Net Zero Secretary.
October 7, 2023
A pity that the policy ideas emanating from your time are not addressed PDQ, SJ.
Had Downing Street done so, the Conservatives would have been outstripping Labour et al in the regular Polls. Hopefully, better late than never.
LOL – ‘Never’ should be the word to describe Starmer’s policies and those of the other socialist parties out there. Put Britain and the British, FIRST!! As do our global comptetitors for their own respective countries.
October 7, 2023
Biggest war in Europe since WW2, armageddon in the Middle-East and China invading the South China Sea territorial waters ….but don’t worry folks our Tory government has energy plan using wind-turbines and ULEZ to save the planet
October 7, 2023
The Nett Zero hypothesis is not “settled science” as our national broadcaster, the BBC, has decreed. There are many detractors (“deniers”) including James Lovelock, the author of the Gaia hypothesis.
May I give a link to a rational science-based explanation of the subject, by Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace:
https://youtu.be/TclmRoTGsO4?si=vSfAYt8WygsAvHdf
The fact that such an informative lecture on this critical subject could not be broadcast by any UK TV channel demonstrates the utter lack of balance in our broadcast media, where no dissent is tolerated.
October 7, 2023
The ‘settled science’ decree was made by this governments climate change committee, then jumped upon with vigour by the BBC …the finger needs to be pointed at the Tory policy of net-zero
October 8, 2023
The BBC decided that the science was settled back in January, 2006, when they also decided that every kind of programme was fair game for climate propaganda.
October 7, 2023
What an excellent presentation by a proper scientist, blowing the net zero religion out of the park!
October 7, 2023
+1
October 7, 2023
Then there was the cancelling of joint winner of Nobel Prize in Physics Dr.J.F.Clauser by the International Monetary Fund when in July 2023 he spoke on the crisis of pseudoscience .
Find his speech on brownstone.org
October 7, 2023
One good thing about Lockdowns was that it gave Plebs time to think.
While the sainted , monied MPs still had their little secret groups
plebs had more time to examine motives and characters
and they didn’t like what they saw.
One occasionally hears of political nobs doing some good.
( I think I read about Cameron driving an aid truck )
but very, very rarely
October 8, 2023
He could have stayed on as the MP instead of throwing his toys out of the pram, and sulking off to offer his words of wisdom to suckers who financed £millions for his pathetic words of wisdom.
October 7, 2023
I was holding out a glimmer of hope that, in the privacy of the voting booth, a large percentage of former Conservative voters would look at the ballot paper and realise that, whatever the deficiencies there are with the Sunak government ( and there are many ), they are nothing compared with having Starmer and Ginge in Downing Street.
However, after the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, if Labour can recover upwards of 30-40 seats in Scotland from their present 2, the chances of even a small Conservative majority are looking vanishingly small.
October 7, 2023
I’m sorry Sir John, I think you are clutching at straws. All I heard were a few throw away remarks designed to improve a Globalist Government’s chances at the rapidly approaching election.
If they had called in mRNA jabs for a full safety review, scrapped the threat of fines on gas boiler and ICE car makers or, perhaps, commissioned a couple of coal fired power stations then I might be more convinced.
October 7, 2023
Indeed, the net zero con trick need to be abandoned fully and just a tiny touch on the brakes. Sunak must surely know it is a fraud, unless he is even dimmer than I think he is.
October 7, 2023
Leftism has never been so rampant under 14 years of Tory rule.
That’s why you’re out.
October 7, 2023
Angela Rayner Dep PM
Horrific. But nope. Still not voting Tory.
October 7, 2023
We were meant to be in sunny uplands and not Anne Widdecombe telling us not to eat cheese sandwiches if we couldn’t afford them or Dan Hannan telling us that “Oh well. It all got blocked.” and Labour will probably win the next election and we’ll go broke and begging to the IMF. ****ing great !
Just get out. Please get out.
October 7, 2023
Any oil or gas from new fields will go onto the energy markets to get the best price. It will take many years before we see gas and oil from these fields.
With regard to fracking here in the UK the CEO of quadrilla said that the geology in this country is unsuitable for fracking and is differs to America s geology where fracking is easier.
October 8, 2023
You mean the ex-CEO?
October 8, 2023
Just like the windmills ALL hot air and can we please STOP all reference to Net Zero as it is all total BS.
October 9, 2023
social workers in schools to herp identify child abuse. can we have that
October 10, 2023
What infrastructure projects have you been slick at in the last 14 years? Is there anything you are proud of?
Labour are promising to build 300,000 homes per year, as housing is devolved is this just for England? Wasn’t that your promise? What stopped it from being achieved I think my area got more than its fair share, and in London I just see high rise mixed development, after high rise mixed development being built, does Labour’s version mean lots and lots of high-rise ghettos again for everywhere, because how else can you build so many homes in a short space of time. How much have Homes England given to councils for social rental and affordable house building? Who gets to own them? Are they just going to give them to the local HAs that have failed to build anything in 20 years and have actually gone down in number.
https://fullfact.org/economy/boris-johnson-affordable-housing-conservative-labour/
According to data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), 557,217 new affordable homes were completed in England in the 13 years between 1997/98 and 2009/10, inclusive.
[doesn’t that average 42,862 per year] compared to 61,089 2010/11, 65,959 in 2014/15. So how is Labour going to build 5x that total the highest number they managed last time was 58,297?