Yesterday evening I was asked to join a discussion about net zero policies on LBC. The person putting the net zero view wished to mount a personal attack on me on false grounds rather than dealing with the realities of the damaging policies he and Mayor Kahn are proposing to Mr Burnham. He seemed surprised by my line of argument and unable to cope with it.
In the short time I was given I tried to summarise my long advanced case that the main UK net zero policies are self harming and self defeating. I pointed out that most of them lead to more world CO 2, most notably the crazy decision to keep our gas in the ground, replacing it with imported LNG. This generates three to four tines as much CO 2 as using our own piped gas. This came as a shock to my LBC counterpart who then tried to deny the obvious.
I did not have time to point out if I bought a battery car large quantities of CO 2 would be generated abroad in its manufacture to mine the battery materials and make the battery. More importantly when I plugged it in to recharge most likely they would need to burn more gas in a gas power station to meet my extra demand. How does that help? It would be more efficient to burn the fossil fuel directly in the vehicle.
I did point out in the ten years from the Paris climate Treaty there has been a big increase in world CO 2 led by China, India, USA, Russia and Brazil. There is no sign of that trend changing. The UK inflicting self harm and choosing a self defeating policy makes things worse all round. Why won’t they listen? How many more times do we need to explain the obvious?
August 10, 2026
Well it is a religion so logical explanations are very unlikely to change their minds.
A little more CO2 plant, tree and crop food and even a little warmer is on balance a net good. But even if you accept the devil gas climate emergency religion the policies they push (EVs, “renewables”, public transport, bikes, walking do not even reduce CO2 to any significant degree many policies increase it.
Anyway what the UK does is insignificant in world terms and, as you say, the policies in China, India, USA, Russia, Brazil… make us irrelevant anyway. We are impoverishing ourselves for no reason at all and endangering our defences too.
August 10, 2026
I did not hear the programme. I googled for detail. I am not sure if there was more than one discussion on this.
There was a discussion with James Hanson and Sir David King a former government scientific advisor.
Apparently, prompted by Khan’s encouragement of Burnham to pursue Net Zero and Miatta’s talk of relaxing it to spare household bills.
Not sure exactly who said what, or when, so it is difficult to comment. More information needed.
August 10, 2026
But Coutinho and Kemi are still essentially dithering and on the fence on this topic at best. A touch on the brakes people essentially. Coutinho especially, under (abandon ship and £600bn spent doing net Covid lockdown and vaccine harms) Sunak was very pro Net Zero. So what is her/their true position then or now?
Reply Not true. Read their cheaper energy plan.
August 10, 2026
To reply:- So do we believe them then or now? Two brains Lord David Willett on Any Questions confirmed on Friday that he thinks are still essentially believers in climate alarmism and the war on CO2. No Tory MPs forces a vote on Mays Net Zero and she was put in the Lords and still given the whip. David Starkey in his recent video suggest that Willett’s agenda as University Sec, has largely led to the Prof. Arday lunacy at Cambridge with him forcing the DEI agenda on universities.
Let us hope the civil engineering, aerospace engineering, physics, maths, medicine faculties are not too affected but I know they often are. If do not want my aircraft, bridges, defences or operations done by DEI appointed people with two O levels in PE and Textiles or similar.
Reply Willetts was allowed on the BBC because he disagrees with the Conservatives on these matters!
August 10, 2026
The prospect of people in jobs as responsible as a structural engineer being appointed on the basis of DEI is terrifying. Even without DEI, things sometimes go disastrously wrong.
The number of scientists who know the climate field and have the ethics and the competence of say William Happer, Steven Koonin, Richard Lindzen, Willie Soon, Judith Curry or John Christie is small. Following the scientific method in full is difficult and challenging.
Current academic employment conditions make it almost impossible, which is why Judith Curry resigned from her US academic post. I don’t think it’s been possible in the UK since academic tenure was abolished in 1988. It’s not much better in the USA but at least in principle the brightest people have academic freedom of speech from about age 35 onwards.
August 10, 2026
LL
Have you not leaned anything ?
What politicians ‘say’ in opposition is completely different to what they ‘do’ when in power.
August 10, 2026
Indeed, Fully costed Plans, No taxation on working people as an example.l
August 10, 2026
@Mark B – the real political mantra. Added to do what I say, not what I do. Don’t look at my record it will change with the breeze
August 10, 2026
Yes I think I managed to grasp that by about the age of 12. Indeed once in office nowadays they do not try, attempt oe even pretend to do as promised.
Interesting to hear the now relatively sensible Juliet Harley-Brewer has a dalliance with Labour and the SDP in her youth. I suppose David Owen was not that bad but Shirley William, Woy Jenkins and Bill Rogers ! A bit like the now fairly sensible Liz Truss.
August 10, 2026
Kemi Badenoch’s Cheap Power Plan is a Conservative policy proposal aimed at reducing household and business electricity bills by roughly 20% (or about £165 to £200 annually for a typical family).Key Components of the PlanScrapping Green Levies: Remove specific green taxes, carbon pricing, and “rip-off” wind/renewable subsidies loaded onto electricity bills.Axe the Carbon Tax: Eliminate the carbon tax on electricity generation to lower wholesale electricity prices.Cut VAT: Remove VAT on domestic energy bills.Boost Domestic Supply: Lift bans on new drilling licenses to back North Sea oil and gas, and invest further in nuclear power.Repeal/Replace Climate Change Act: Remove rigid net-zero targets perceived as putting artificial deadlines ahead of energy security and economic prosperity.
Well we need energy to be about 1/3 of current costs or less as in the US or China not just 20% less.
I see it says Remove “rigid” net zero targets – so as I say sitting on the fence and retaining flexible targets. But her real problem is ever gaining power again after the serial and quite deliberate betrayals of Cameron, Osborne, May Hammond, Boris, Sunak, Sunak, Hunt.
How to ever regain the trust these people so appallingly and quite deliberately betrayed?
Sunak.
August 10, 2026
In reply to this depressing pro-fossil fuel and anti-net zero post as the world is burning up – again:-
1) We cannot afford the huge subsidies paid to the extraction companies to make the tiny remaining oil and gas fields economic.
2) Sunak’s 2024 delay to the ban on sales of new ICE cars was not wanted by the SMMT, has resulted in the transfer of EV production to the EU, the closure of factories in the UK, significant penetration of the UK EV market by exceedingly cheap Chinese models and the loss of jobs
3) Many people who have installed heat pumps report significant savings in electricity costs and warmer homes
4) The taxes on ICE cars should be massively increased to compensate for the loss of road tax and VAT on fuel as EVs come to dominate the market
5) 14 years of stonking increases to the national debt, as Sunak in particular printed more money than any Chancellor in history, have bankrupted the Treasury. The taxes on extraction of hydrocarbons should be doubled and those on renewables should be eliminated
7) The wind has failed to blow on only 5 days so far this year, we do not need additional CCGT plant to compensate, just more battery storage and more N Sea windfarms. Onshore wind and solar and the EU interconnectors give us greater energy security than gas pipelines from Norway, LNG tankers from Quatar and huge oil rigs dotting the N Sea
The Conservatives had 14 years to build RR’s modular nuclear reactors. Why did they not do so?
August 10, 2026
SG
The aim of all the UK’s Net Zero policies are to tackle climate change.
Can you tell us, when we eventually get to Net Zero, how much will our efforts reduce global temperatures ?
August 10, 2026
Aim or just a bogus justification excuse?
August 10, 2026
Please read up and get real Sakara. The total energy used by humans in the UK is about 90% from fossil fuels. Even higher if you allow for imports of goods made using fossil fuels, shipping fuels, flights and the large amount of fossil fuels needed to make and maintain wind farms and solar farms.
Battery storage is so expensive and very energy wasteful it rarely make much economic sense. Load of fossil fuels needed to manufacture the short lived batteries too. Plus fire risks.
Electricity is about 4 times the cost of oil or gas per KWH and heat pumps are vastly more expensive to install and run least efficiently (COP factors as low a 1.5) when needed most on cold winter days. Very rarely indeed will they be cheaper to run than a far cheaper, faster to heat and far more practical gas, wood or oil boiler. Anyways where is all the low carbon electricity for heat pumps coming from in winter?
August 10, 2026
Sakara you seem rather confused.
“The taxes on ICE cars should be massively increased to compensate for the loss of road tax and VAT on fuel as EVs come to dominate the market”
ICE car are hugely overtaxed already and EV are under taxed and even subsidies yet despite this EV still cost more per mile and they do not even save CO2 in reality. Surely you need a per mile charge on EVs to address the loss of fuel tax that ICE cars do not pay?
August 10, 2026
@Lifelogic, EV’s, BEV’s are oversized and overweight, as such the do more damage to the roads and infrastructure and are currently not paying their way for use of our infrastructure.
A recent study showed that 80% of the Worlds pyroclastics pollution in the oceans come from car tyres(the are more plastic than rubber nowadays), by their very composition(size & weight) EV’s, BEV’s contribute proportionately more to that pollution.
August 10, 2026
You’re not arguing against JR, SG, you’re arguing against what he pointed out: the simple reality that while we inflict economic damage upon ourselves, CO2 emissions worldwide have gone up since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Other countries will not wreck their economies, so why should we wreck ours?
August 10, 2026
Point 1) But we can afford the massive subsidies paid to the renewable companies ……?
Point 2) the transfer of car manufacture to the EU is of course driven by the huge cost of energy here in the UK.
China has cheap energy derived from it’s many coal-fired power stations.
Point 3) I have a heat pump. It’s impossible to say if my bills are lower because of it. As the cost of electricity rises so regularly. (to pay all the subsidies) The house is only eight years old and is extremely well insulated.
Point 4) The taxes on driving an ICE car are already extreme. VED, petrol duty, VAT , insurance premium tax, parking charges, road tolls and more. The loss of VED by the exemption for EV’s has been addressed. They now pay it. They also pay VAT on charging electricity. Soon they will be hit with 3p/mile charge too.
Point 5) switching tax source is unlikely to benefit the consumer. Labour wants more taxes.
Point 6) There is no point 6
Point 7) The intermittency of wind and solar causes severe problems for the grid as per the Iberian peninsular outtage in April 2025
Non Numbered point) Probably for the same reasons that Labour didn’t build any nuclear power staion before them. The last one was built under Mrs Thatchers government. Started 1987, finished under John Major in 1995
August 10, 2026
There is not real net subsidies for oil exploration it is hugely taxes in the UK. Taxed out of existence almost.
WE could easily have coal derived (and on demand) electricity in the UK for less than 5p a KWH alas the mad Alok Sharma blew them up or converted them to burn
wood (young less efficient coal). From gas if we fracked or drilled for it locally electricity would be a bit more but could be less that 8p. Again this is on demand power so just ditch the deluded net zero religion.
August 10, 2026
Point 7) The intermittency of wind and solar causes severe problems for the grid as per the Iberian peninsular outtage
This intermittency means gas, nuclear and bio plants run less efficiently too & far more capital costs and then wasted capacity much of the time plus the vast extra grid investments needed also largely wasted. Solar in the UK is especially bad as power is mainly summer daytime and not when needed in cold dark winters.
August 10, 2026
Severe outages will kill many people in the UK and further damage a disrupt the economy too.
August 10, 2026
1. We have been heavily subsidising the renewables industry and yet we manuafacture no solor panels nor wind generation equipment in the UK. We must therefore import all of it from countries that do not use renewables to produce them. A double whammy since CO2 production is not mitigated and we are dependent on others for energy security.
2. Weird economics – the influx of cheaper Chinese cars would happen whether we produced EVs here or not.
3. Obfiscation – Heat pumps offer significant savings if you were previously all electric heating but not if you use gas heating and that is if you ignore the large upfront capital outlay
4. Spiteful economics – with the heavy use of the cudgel it’s hard to tell if you are a green or a libdem. The cost of EVs need to be brought down to be competitive enough and the infrastructure improved to make local, transit and destination charging viable. Then people will move to the alternative.
5. Do you understand that petrol, deisel, shipping and aviation fuels are only one product set from hydrocarbons we are dependent upon? Plastics and pharma are also reliant on oil based feedstocks.
6. Words fail me.
7. Interconnectors give us no energy security at all, quite the opposite. They are a means for us to be blackmailed and bullied by unfriendly nations – France has already used that method against the Channel Islands in 2021.
August 10, 2026
Agree with the very fist sentence of point 5, and the very last paragraph at the end, otherwise No.
August 10, 2026
The weather is changing – the sun has been more active.
The sun’s distance and position relative to the UK results in an average temperature swing between 28 and -2.
Do you deny that a bit more activity within the sun, is capable of increasing the world’s temperature by a couple of degrees?
August 11, 2026
+1
August 10, 2026
You think if all cars were EVs they wouldn’t tax EVs ? Ha ha. Very naive. Current high taxes on ICE will simply transfer to EVs as they already are doing. It’s cars and motorists in general they don’t like.
“Many people who have installed heat pumps report significant savings in electricity costs and warmer homes” And many don’t. What’s your point ? Also no heat pump will ever make a home “warmer” than a gas boiler. Maximum water temperature from a heat pump is around 55 C whereas a gas boiler can reach about 80 C so how would it ever be “warmer” swapping a boiler for a heat pump ?
August 11, 2026
Roy
“…55 C…”
Hence the reason many retrofit installations need new pipework and larger radiators, a huge disruption and additional cost.
August 10, 2026
SG:
Many have already pointed out to you the nonsense of your points 1-7 so I will not repeat them except to say that renewables are the most expensive energy as well as being chaotically intermittent and hence totally unreliable and are only able to be employed because we have subsidised them to the cost of £220bn since 2002 and they are supplied by China who use to make them cheap coal-fired power, slave labour and ignore all the environmental damage caused in the mining and manufacture. We even learn that vast areas of the Amazon are now being illegally logged to provide the balsa wood for wind turbine blades. But I will answer your last question regarding RR SMRs. The reason is because we have had socialist governments who do not wish us to have cheap (nuclear) power. Hinkley Point C was sabotaged by using Chinese finance at 9% instead of government borrowing at 2% and insisting upon 7000 changes to the original design to make the radiation leakage 100 times less than natural radiation. The RR SMRs, which would be far cheaper than renewables, are being deliberately delayed as long as possible. It is ridiculous that the FiD will not be given until 2029. We built our first commercial nuclear reactor, Calder Hall, in 3 years.
August 10, 2026
You’re wasting your time John. Net stupid is a religion and as with most cults, they’re 100% righteous in their beliefs.
I was discussing the recent wildfires with a friend who was trying to tell me they were the result of global warming. I pointed out that 90% were man made or arson.when I showed him the article about rewinding being a big prob all he could say was Tory rag.
There is endless comment on the Internet saying we need to build more and more wind and solar even though it’s destabilising the grid. They don’t or won’t understand the necessity of inertia or Reactive load on the system. I’ve stopped arguing.
We need and will probably get some serious power cuts in winter
This may give pause for thought.
August 10, 2026
@Ian Wragg
Your post smacks of panic – at the prospect of being unable to drive your ICE car when petrol rationing is introduced in the autumn.
Do try to keep a level head. Panic stricken rants about how it’s all net zero’s fault are unhelpful
August 10, 2026
Is the shortage of water because there is less water or because we have more people and have not collected more during the wet periods?
The Summer has been glorious.
August 10, 2026
If petrol rationing does evolve, I’m sure the dead hand of government will be behind it to push for more EV sales.
All that will happen is government revenues will reduce and borrowing will rise.
As I say, bring on the power cuts.
August 10, 2026
Oh well have to get my steam engine out chop some wood and buy more coal then. Or convert the car to liquid gas.
August 10, 2026
SG
Petrol rationing…hilarious.
Warnings of peak oil have bern made for decades.
We should have run out of oil by 2000
Now we are awash with oil.
August 10, 2026
As LL noted the other day, the logical consequence for global warming is more rain, as rising sea temperatures mean more evaporation. Our very long dry spell seems to be a local climate change phenomenon, as summers have become warmer generally.
In our last house we had solar panels and the inverter required a steady mains supply to define frequency and phase. If all you have are solar panels and wind turbines the grid becomes undefined. That doesn’t mean you can’t use renewables, but it does mean you need to have more rotating machinery to provide inertia even if it isn’t generating.
August 10, 2026
The forthcoming review of the BBC – which will include funding – is causing excessive salivation from Reform and the right of the Conservative Party. At long last, after years and years of agitation, they see the prospect of breaking up the beeb – and allow American media giants to dominate British broadcasting to the dteriment of British cultural programming
The vast majority of television viewers in the UK are happy to pay the very reasonable licence fee. The right-wing minority who refuse to pay should be prosecuted to the limit of the law. Why should the rest of us who do pay for their licence have to suffer because a few fanatics want to control editorial policy? Those who advise on social media how to avoid paying the licence fee should also be censured.
The BBC review should include prohibiting political appointments to the unitary board of the BBC – including the Chair and members. The licence fee should have a modest annual rise for the next 5 years – say £7.50 each year. Anybody who insults the impartiality of the BBC should be banned from airtime and lastly, the BBC should be free to discuss any of the important issues of the day.
August 10, 2026
I pay my licence fees and do overall get value from it. But I resent paying it this mainly due to the endless Climate Alarmist, anti-Semitic, left wing, anti Trump, pro EU, pro-COVID “Vaccines” unscientific drivel and propaganda they push endlessly.
That and the dire “isn’t the BBC wonderful” adverts I have to pay for and then get bombarded with. Their one advantage was no advert but now they are stuffed with adverts and product placements.
August 10, 2026
And apart from the hot air you are emitting. What has this to do with ‘net zero’
August 10, 2026
Looks like something’s gone wrong with SG’s algorithm. This was the Diary’s topic yesterday,
August 10, 2026
A golden moment. You say BBC review should include prohibiting political appointments to the unitary board of the BBC and then you say BBC should be free to discuss any of the important issues of the day (which are mostly political!).
August 10, 2026
I am impressed with your advocacy of free speech on a state broadcaster.
August 10, 2026
@SK – American media giants already dominate UK TV. The BBC lost its way and its audience when it took up the clarion call for Socialism and left wing biased bigotry. They lost the meaning of impartiality when they started having 4 left wing extremists shouting down the centre grownd
August 10, 2026
Every time I watch something on GB News I first get Jacob RM saying “ vox populi, vox Dei” the voice of the people is the voice of God. I assume he thinks this means “the opinion of the large group or the public is right or has supreme authority”. THE ENDLESS repetition is getting very tedious. Is GB News just “controlled opposition”? It certainly is clearly under the thumb of the dire OFCOM who were particularly appalling at pushing false and hugely dangerous news during the Covid vaccination tyranny and are also absurd on Climate alarmism like the BBC. I even heard that they want all the Media to use the phrase “Our NHS” rather than the more sensible phrase word NHS or better still the usually dire, rationed and often too late NHS.
The public can often be right but also they are often quite wrong or have been indoctrinated by endless lies from government, the media, OFCOM and BBC types or are motivated by the evil politics of spit and envy. Like our dire education secretaries (and Michael Gove at one point too).
Well perhaps Jacob, but as we have seen in the UK for 40+ years or so the voice of the people has largely been ignored by all governments and most MPs for over 40 years. As to the voice of God this is clearly inaudible (other than in the heads of religious people of numerous religions each of whom has their own ideas of what he or she is telling them to do. Some think God is ordering them to totally cover their women in black, others think he is ordering them to kill dancing children and ban music, others think he is telling them to chop down forests in America and burn this young coal at Drax to save the world!
August 10, 2026
@LL – the again, OFCOM a Quango along with the BBC appointed by a left-wing deeply socialist parliament what could go wrong?
August 10, 2026
Agreed about GB News – lots of mindless repetition of clips and some dismal weather forecast elevator music – quite infuriating for an otherwise novel and refreshing format. For example just now the discussion with JRM, Stephen Pound and our kind host. Civil, informative and constructive discourse; really good! They should take the time to extend and deepen such things – maybe we could make some progress that way
August 11, 2026
Make that 35 years.
August 10, 2026
They need this stupid band wagon of Net Zero climate change rubbish or how else are they going to tax us to death, all these level headed people know it’s a conspiracy full of lies to brainwash us to giving over our well earned money in some form of tax under the guise of Climate Change know it’s a con of the 21st century but sooner or later the truth will come out, or we will be annihilated by a asteroid that’s somewhere out in space waiting to collide into Earth and take us all out like the Dinosaurs we’re millions of years ago
August 10, 2026
LBC News were pushing the fifth heat wave for all it was worth yesterday and had various ‘experts’ on telling us it was unprecedented, would get worse with 40C plus temperatures by 2050 and all the other nonsense. It seems to have escaped them that last week’s fourth heatwave went unnoticed by many of us and ended almost before it started. Also the strange statistic that the temperature has exceeded 30C for 35 days this summer, a 30 year record – that is anywhere in the UK, not one place, and most of the figures will be from class 4 or 5 weather stations. Yes it has been nice and warm this summer and I have certainly enjoyed it.
August 10, 2026
This summer has been as enjoyable as summers 2025 and 2022. I happen to be heat-tolerant and cold-intolerant. I dread the start of what I regard as ‘winter’ in October, lasting until at least mid April.
The garden is flourishing and the trees, shrubs and hedgerows around here look verdant and healthy. No, I hardly water. Stored rainwater or used washing up water is utilised on newly-planted material and on a few plants which dislike extreme drought. A lot of fruit trees thrive with no watering because they come from warmer drier climates than the UK. Gardeners learn these things, as do farmers.
Many people actually pay £100s or £1,000s to fly to countries where the maximum temperature on a summer day is 25-35 degC. This year they haven’t needed to do so. However the BBC/Met Office propaganda on ‘dangerous heat’ and other nonsense has been both incessant and wearing. We didn’t have any of it in 1975 and 76; why now?
August 10, 2026
Good morning.
This has nothing to do with Climate Change, CO2, or saving the environment. The whole point of this SCAM is to modify behaviour and to justify moving industry from the highly regulated West to the less regulated East. All the time they are flooding Europe with people who do not care about the Nation they reside in, or its people. All they care about is extracting resources and, various politicians and political parties are happy to see this as they are confident of getting a new voting block to support them.
Until people begin to wake up and stop playing ‘Distraction Politics’ and address the ‘real’ issues facing us, we are on the road to disaster.
August 10, 2026
‘ Anybody who insults the impartiality of the BBC should be banned from airtime ..’
Nice one.
I am reminded of the BBC’s ‘Not the nine o’ clock news’ and the ‘points of view’ sketch :-
‘ Personally I think the fee is far too low. I would willingly sell my house and all its contents to help the BBC.’
August 10, 2026
John the problem with the Net Zero Fanatics is they look and think no further than their own nose, they seem incapable of understanding the wider world wide consequences of their local UK plan, with wanting the banning/high taxation of the use of fossil fuels, whilst exaggerating the theory of Co2 and its effect on the weather.
The UK has made significant cuts in our Co2 during the last few decades, but our weather is no different from Northern France than it was previously.
The gap in temperatures between us and the rest of Europe is still the same as it always has been.
Stop drilling for oil and the plastics industry collapses, as will the cable insulation production, and many more products.
August 10, 2026
Wow ! You really are mad.
If you own a TV and watch live broadcasts you have to, by law not ‘choice’, have to have a TV License. Year on year more and more people are no longer paying for a TV license. Reason may vary, but the number is falling.
I am Right-Wing, whatever that is, and I do not pay for a TV License. But then I do not have a TV. Am I to be prosecuted ? And what about Left-Wing people who do not have a TV License ? Are they to be prosecuted too ?
And why should those who do not want to watch the BBC have to pay for those that do ?
The only way to avoid paying the TV licence ‘Tax’ and not to break the law is not to have a TV and not to watch live broadcasts, which is what I do. If this is the advice given then there is noting anyone can do since this is the position of both the BBC and the UK Government.
For nearly ten years now I have been without access to a TV and not had to pay the BBC any money. Why is another question. How is by obeying the law. Despite years of being sent endless letters and threats they have finally given up.
Sakara Gold, you are the new ‘animie5’ of once this parish. And no, that is NOT a compliment 😁
August 10, 2026
Not just not have a TV but anything that is capable of showing TV. A laptop, a computer are all capable of showing TV or live streaming sports events when on WWW. I don’t watch bbc but I do watch motogp, gbnews and the boss watches sewing street on freeview. Bbc tax therefore must be paid. It is wrong.
August 10, 2026
SG is merely the new incarnation/sock of uanime5. Same person different cosplay outfit.
August 10, 2026
I am right, you are wrong, the science is settled.
Covid, trans net zero, benefits, disability payments
Rinse and repeat.
August 10, 2026
Totally agree the policy’s are crazy. I am not anti reduction in CO2 but we need to do it in sustainable way. In my working life I did project management in Combined Heat Power CHP. In large glass houses we used to store heat from day to use at night. We cleaned CO2 and feed to in this case tomato to increase growth. By the use of of the photo word I can’t spell. This mad dash costing money from hard working people is not good. But we need to move forward in a sensible way.
August 10, 2026
Climate catastrophism and Net Zero no longer belong in the realms of science, policy or even fact. They are now quasi-religious articles of belief and self-identity. We all know it’s fruitless to argue about faith.
Men go mad in herds, as Charles Mackay wrote, but recover their senses slowly and one by one. Happily, there are plenty of signs the crisis has passed and the world is on the mend, but enormous damage is surely being done in the interim.
August 10, 2026
Net Zero is a mass delusion adopted mostly by people of the Left. It is in the same class of groupthink as the way to expand the economy is to tax & spend and expand the public debt to £3 trillion. These people are mad but, unfortunately, in control.
August 10, 2026
Well said!
There’s none so blind as those who will not listen.
The left are so stuck in their ideology and love of pseudo-science, never mind their soundbites and lengthy arguments that go all around the houses while insulting the sensible view with innuendo and insults.
Very few people fully understand the alleged science behind alleged climate change, so none of them, especially from the left, can explain the gaps in logic between effect and result – There is no sustained link between man’s use of Co2 and what the weather is doing.
Weather is a natural phenomena which obeys it’s own rules.
We should however be questioning the dodgy use of particles dropped from planes, allegedly to stop the sun’s rays. That does no good but to waste money, confuse the situation and poison our skies.
August 10, 2026
No honest free thinking person could find fault in your view. You did however, omit the cost to the Country of the bigotry ideology of NetZero, the first thing they have done and are doing is cancelling the means to pay for it all. While the World sails on by and increases wealth to pay for things. They have no, absolutely no plan to create the money to pay for their and our future.
Of course this is Socialist command and control zealotry and ideology of the first order it is solely about control the people with them doing the ordering – it has as they keep proving nothing to do with NetZero. That is of course the problem for us all Socialism is a defunct religion fighting for a purpose to keep the Politburo in charge
August 10, 2026
They won’t listen because Net Zero is only a stepping stone in the Anti-capitalist Degrowth agenda many of these zealots are pursuing.
August 10, 2026
I am not convinced we can do much about the changing climate. Ìt has gone through various cycles over the last 2000 years, so this might just be the latest.
If it is really man made, it is the big polluters that have to take action but they are not doing nearly enough.
We, on the other hand have already contributed a lot, but fanatics like Miliband are doing their best to bankrupt us.
August 11, 2026
The typical weather patterns around the globe in El Niño years are well known, but do not persist after El Niño has ended. They include hotter summers in Europe, followed by a mild, wet and windy autumn, so we can expect alarmists to switch from fires to floods as the season changes. There is also a risk of episodes of polar cold and snowfall from January because of the phase of the QBO weather pattern.
We seem to have forgotten the disappointing wet summers we’ve had in recent years with just a few hotter days. But that is the nature of weather propaganda.
August 10, 2026
John, there are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
The issue we realists have, is how do we get through to the quasi religious believers of Man made Climate Change. They refuse to accept we have no measurable effect on climate. They refuse to acknowledge our less than 1% of global CO2 emission is insignificant and is annually made less significant. China India Indonesia and all other evolving economies are adding new coal burning facilities into the world each year greater than our pathetic 1% contribution.
The only benefit our deindustrialising has, is in emerging manufacturing economies. They have less competition and continue to build out ever more of their own manufactures. Plus they are able to sell some to us because we are getting desperate for ‘stuff’. We no longer make, Fridges, washing machines, televisions, cars, tractors, shoes, chemical, batteries, light bulbs, textiles, furniture, building materials, boats, ships, and fastenings of every kind. I may have missed a dozen or two you can fill in your own lists.
We used to make it all, we made it well and often better than anyone else.
!972 was a turning point and we have never recovered from that decision to abandon national strength in favour of collectivisation. The others in the collective were not as generous or as willing to abandon their national interests quite as completely as we did. One of our greatest good fortunes was being self sufficient in energy needs. Thanks to our fixation with internationalisation of all decisions we are now an importer of energy, it is clearly ridiculous.
More free fish anyone,,,,,,?
August 10, 2026
Dear Sir John, thank you for, as ever, your clear explanation of the facts. I am afraid we are in an age that values feelings over truths and ideology over facts. Your frustration is evident and the only consolation I can offer you is that not everyone is the same and your message is heard, appreciated and highly valued. We must never, ever, give up the argument for the sake of a quiet life and you are a crucial figure in the new enlightenment we must trust is coming
August 10, 2026
“How many more times do we need to explain the obvious?”
The Left understand “the obvious” completely. They know there is no climate crisis caused by burning fossil fuels and would not have invented their climate crisis hoax if their “solution”, Net Zero, was not sabotaging our energy and consequently destroying our industry, economy and national security. Those that believe that anthropogenic emissions of CO2 (3% of total CO2 emissions) can control the planet’s temperature are as deluded as those who believed in anthropogenic tide control. The history of CO2 shows that CO2 follows temperature, when both are exceptionally low, as evidenced by the Antarctic Vostok ice core data and the real science of Happer & Wijngaarden has shown, using the IPCC’s own radiative CO2 warming theory, that there is already sufficient CO2 in the atmosphere to cause all the warming feasible and hence adding more CO2 makes little, if any, difference. They have no explanation as to why 3 million years ago the planet was warmer than today with lower levels of atmospheric CO2 and methane and how it is that melting glaciers are revealing 7000 year-old tree stumps and 5000 year-old human artefacts.
August 10, 2026
A round up of how warped, pathetic and missing in action the UK Parliament has become – anything but ‘reality’
Spy cameras on Navy drones secretly sent data to China
Chinese wind turbine maker urges Burnham to overturn security ban
Burnham to crack down on hard-to-cancel subscriptions
Pound at risk’ from Burnham council tax raid
Samantha Niblett MP. she urged the nation to enjoy a “summer of sex”, that’s the least of her bizarre weird offering to the Nation
Olivia Bailey MP, PC Harpers MP voted to have his killers released early
With a snippet of un-listened too common sense, Maurice Saatchi – ‘Imagine if we had a PM who understood that money is the route of all progress’
August 10, 2026
What you exposed on your LBC programme is that the Net Zero Fanatics don’t understand, and don’t want to understand, the facts.
Not that CO2 is a problem anyway.
The essential problem is that too many MPs lack any analytical skills or common sense to educate themselves or challenge the Net Zero nonsense. As a side issue, the main culprit is the BBC, which refuses to allow any proper discussion about Global Warming / Climate Change, and constantly says every weather event is caused by it!
For example, look at the BBC news about the weather, panicking about our 6th heat wave this year. It is just the summer weather, not yet as bad as 1925.
August 10, 2026
non-topic.
A small boat has crossed the English Channel carrying 230 people, the largest-ever recorded number to make the journey in a single vessel. The boat arrived in the UK in the early hours of Monday.
The 230 people on one boat breaks the previous record from July when 165 people made the crossing on a single vessel.
A Home Office spokesperson said this latest incident demonstrated the “reckless and dangerous tactics employed by criminal gangs… who continue to put lives at risk by cramming ever greater numbers of people onto unseaworthy vessels”.
Perhaps the gangs will soon hire a Cruise ship?
August 11, 2026
Don’t give them ideas. I doubt the navy in Portsmouth could prevent them reaching Southampton.
August 10, 2026
Our esteemed host asks: “Why won’t they listen? How many more times do we need to explain the obvious?”
Is it possible not only to explain the economic consequences of various government decisions, but to go further and offer some general guidance about a plan to save the planet? This may be what is bugging people.
August 10, 2026
@Wokinghamite – Personal political ideology trumps common sense
August 11, 2026
They’re in the process of spending £200bn on more grid to “save” that, using the bill as an excuse. Unfortunately as we add more wind farms surpluses that have to be curtailed for lack of a market will increase more than pro-rata because more hours will be in surplus, while the surpluses in surplus hours grow.
The extra grid will result in a competition for which wind farms get paid to curtail and which get to continue generating and collecting subsidies that way. The volume “saved” will be small, but we will have paid hugely for it. The grid assets will be massively underutilised. We need to stop this mad programme that can only push costs much higher.
August 10, 2026
John’s arguments are true but don’t get to the root of the problem. Climate changes, wobbling as it goes, now coming out of a great ice age with no help from us.
The idea that man can drive the climate doing a sort of hand-brake turn to keep the weather as preferred follows from the wrong-headed assumption that the industrial revolution, partly coinciding with a mini ice age, induced change, the villain being CO2 for which the only evidence is to the contrary.
The drive to insulate homes against the cold now makes them impossible to inhabit in a heat wave so they want to punish people for homes and workplaces being too hot. I live in a cob house, cool in summer, warm in winter but fallen off the EPC scale. When will they stop forcing us how to live? It’s not to change the climate anyway which everyone knows it can’t, but just to bully and tax us.
The real stoppable catastrophe is population explosion with its stresses on all natural systems but rather than allow it to fall naturally they want to boost it.
August 10, 2026
Saturday 8th – 258 illegals
Sunday 9th – 423 illegals
August 10, 2026
Civil war is pretty inevitable now sadly
I dont think the chattering classes “get it”, John included
All bets are off
August 11, 2026
Actually it could well be Police/Army being a referee between struggling residents and entitled invaders.
August 10, 2026
‘Excess wind power costs British taxpayers £1billion this year so far’ ..https://www.gbnews.com/money/excess-wind-power-costs-british-taxpayer
August 10, 2026
I find the climate disaster activists insistence that they want to “save the planet” somewhat laughable, if it wasn’t so sadly misguided. The planet will survive whatever WE do. It has dealt with far worse than us for billions of years. But WE won’t survive as we are currently living. Overpopulation and misuse of available resources cannot be sustained.
Unfortunately human nature being as it is offers no easy answer. Our nature is to consume and procreate.
We could seek to make Britain an example of how mankind can live sustainably.
Control our population numbers, and that means control our borders. Live within our means, grow our own food, generate our own energy, produce our own goods, recycle our used materials.
Sorry, but our current lifestyle makes too many of us spoilt brats so there is no easy answer.
August 10, 2026
A geologist, Scott Tinker, has been doing talks and interviews about climate change on various channels. His explanations make perfect sense to me and he shows that net zero is probably the worst possible policy that can be implemented. I recommend giving him a listen!