Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Former British Secretary for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd, who admitted to “inadvertently” misleading parliament when she resigned as Home Secretary, has just conflated criticism of the British Government’s Brexit proposition with “climate denial”.
Amber Rudd compares Eurosceptics to climate change deniers as she warns over ‘sobering risks’ of no-deal Brexit
Anyone who claims Brexit will be easy is ‘being as cavalier with people’s future as those who deny that the belching of fossil fuels into the atmosphere is warming the planet’
Lizzy Buchan
Political CorrespondentA former cabinet minister has compared Brexiteers to climate change deniers as she fired off a warning over the “sobering risks” to the economy if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal.
…
Writing in The Sunday Times, Ms Rudd, a former energy secretary, said: “Yes, we will leave the EU’s political institutions in March next year – we will no longer have MEPs or be members of the European Council. But disentangling regulatory and legal systems that have been entwined for more than 40 years will require delicate diplomacy.
“Such an endeavour will not be straightforward. Anyone who claims it will is being as cavalier with people’s future as those who deny that the belching of fossil fuels into the atmosphere is warming the planet.
“Just as we must listen to scientific warnings about the risks of manmade climate change, so we must listen to the businesses and economists warning that a chaotic Brexit will threaten our economy.”
…
There is no doubt that post Brexit, many British greens will miss their generous former friends in the European Union.
But in my opinion Amber Rudd’s attempt to conflate climate “denial” and criticism of the government’s Brexit plans in my opinion is a desperate and rather clumsy attempt to shut down public debate.
Green on the outside, Rudd on the inside…
ROFL 🙂
Eric
Worthy of note.
UK anti fracking activists are now adopting the tactics of terrorists.
“Boy, 14, referred to anti-extremism scheme over fracking activism”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/30/boy-14-referred-to-anti-extremism-scheme-over-fracking-activism
Smoke and Mirrors…Smoke and Mirrors
EPIC 😀
She’s a lying fool. Disentangling regulatory and legal systems is utterly facile. It requires no negotiation whatsoever. The UK has laws and regulations, and on the day we leave, we have laws and regulations. That is literally it. What exactly do we negotiate?
The trade stuff can be made a bit more complicated and can require negotiation, but that is not laws and regulation. Another Remainer who simply has no clue what she is talking about, but is happy to make it all sound very difficult.
If you read what she said properly, she told the truth, even if accidentally.
We should treat both sets of warnings the same way. That’s precisely what she said.
YES! We should pay the same attention to both warnings. We must not listen to those warnings.
I wasn’t aware that the EU as an entity had been around for 40 years. I thought the EURO and thus the EU came to be between 1999 and 2002. In my math that is 20 years ago. Granted though there has been some kind of agreement in force since the end of WWII
Bryan A
The UK voted to join the Common Market in 1976(?). It was an agreement to encourage the free passage of goods across Europe (very roughly) and we Brits were assured it would never turn into a political union.
The EU was formed in the early 90’s from memory 93/94 I think by which time the political movement within had become gradually established.
The economic and monetary union was introduced in 1999(?) and the Euro currency itself around 2002. The UK steered clear of both.
Smart lot to do so. She must be referring to the Common Market agreement then as the 40 year thing…Thanks
Of course, it was a lie: Heath and co were well aware of what the Common Market was planned to become.
European Coal and Steel Community
for beginners:
https://www.google.at/search?q=European+Coal+and+Steel+Community+(ECSC)&oq=European+Coal+and+Steel+Community+(ECSC)&aqs=chrome.
CommieBob, I had a similar thought response. Since she thinks the the 2 threats are comparable, her statements produced the thought: No evidence of catastrophic warming means no need to worry about catastrophic Brexit.
SR
The union was originally created primarily to help integrate/manage/promote an efficient coal (and steel) industry among members.
It (the union) has morphed 180 degrees into an entity that has, among its main priorities, a desire to decimate any real efficiency as associated with the coal industry.
Her statement seems to be a confirmation of the above.
It goes back to the European Coal and Steel Community, founded in the 1950’s to prevent the outbreak of World War One, as any fule kno.
DonM – No! It has been all smoke and mirrors from the start. The “union” or EEC as it was known before it became the EU, was NOT created to “help promote an efficient coal and steel industry” …. The “thinking” at the time was that intertwining Germany’s coal and steel industry with (initially) France’s, followed by the other original four member states (Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg) would prevent Germany ever having the capacity to go to war in Europe again. Or that is how some people have interpreted it. Others see the EU as a continuation of dominance in Europe by Germany by other than military means.
The “union” was subsequently promoted as a “free trade” zone, a reasonable sounding agreement between neighbors – which was precisely what the British thought they were agreeing to in 1973, for the most part unaware that it would slowly morph into the undemocratic creature that has now resulted in BREXIT.
I think you and your 53 supporters might be in for a shock on March 30 next year if there is a “no-deal” Brexit. It’s not the trade that is difficult; it’s the agreements the UK will no longer be part of that will cause the trouble. For example, all EU countries accept each others driving licences.What happens when the UK is no longer part of that agreement? I don’t know the answer to that and neither do you!
There are several hundred of those agreements, any one of which in the absence of a negotiated replacement could prevent access of goods or people between the UK and the European mainland if their “laws and regulationx” are not your “laws and regulations”.
In fact in many areas you don’t have any laws and regulations of your own any more and you’re going to have to create them. Meanwhile the EU laws and regulations you signed up to no longer apply. I wish you luck.
Observer
It’s a two way street. European driving licences are accepted in the UK along with everything else.
But that wasn’t always the case, and whilst it was a bit more inconvenient in the past, we didn’t have a common driving licence or passport standard before the EU.
How do UK drivers fare in other countries outside the EU? Perfectly well from my experience. And part of the desire of Brexit is to stop unrestricted immigration, so yes, travel will again be slightly more inconvenient, but far from restrictive, unless the Europeans want to be bloody minded about it.
Laws and regulations are also a smokescreen. America and China import goods into the EU whilst conforming to the laws and regulations. Why would they suddenly become an insurmountable problem for the UK the day after we leave?
It’s much like the disasters ‘project fear’ predicted would overcome the UK when the referendum was decided. The predictions of calamity weren’t even close, the UK prospered, and we’ll do so again after we leave.
My wife just drove herself and me across the United States from Boston to San Francisco (I can’t drive – epilepsy). Trip of a lifetime and we met so many brilliant people along the way.
My wife has a UK driving licence, which was accepted without question. Last time I looked, the US wasn’t a member of the EU…
All you have to remember about Rudd is she has a majority of 346 and hopefully will be gone at the next election.
I suspect she will be recycled to the House of Lords…
I’m afraid you are correct.
Dispose of litter thoughtfully.
Can someone lock her up in the ladies room instead, please?
Oh,you make me feel ill.
The general direction of travel is MP, then head of a quango working 2 days a month for a fabulous salary ( you can head up more than one at a time) then onto the EU, probably as a commissioner, then the House of Lords where you can snooze in a corner of the chamber, often described as the best members club in London.
Lots of golden troughs that the greedy elite sup from.
Obviously they are very keen to retain their gilded existence. We are very keen to prevent them.
Tonyb
The poor woman was promoted way beyond her ability. Irritating as she is, I hope she doesn’t lose her seat in the next election as the thought of Jeremy Corbin running the UK is truly scary!
Very many MP’s are promoted wildly above their abilities. Theresa May is the best example of this, I wouldn’t put her in charge of a corner shop.
Tonyb
I had the misfortune to live in her constituency, but moved before I had the opportunity to reduce her majority further.
Oh dear.
I have just moved house and become one of Amber Rudderless’s constituents.
The hysterics over Brexit are now beyond surreal – food rotting in the fields, everyone at risk from super-gonorrhea, plans to nuke the Channel Tunnel if Brexit goes badly (no, really). I should have expected this to be hitched to climate issues at some point.
Rudd will be receiving a lengthy letter and then a visit from me in short order.
She’s a remnant in a leave constituency with a tiny majority, out soon. I would spend the time enjoying Hastings and Rye but each to his own! (401 constituencies out of 632 estimated to have voted leave of course!)
Out soon, to be replaced by … ?
A “leave” constituency but will they have a “leave” candidate ?
Don’t these morons realise that the Tory party is likely to be demolished at the next General Election, their only hope being to get behind Brexit properly ?
As for hitching Brexit to “climate change”, well, only shows that she merely reflects the vacant ideologies she derives from the bbc and similar propagandists.
OE: I begin to think that some dipstick in back-office of the Tory party has worked out that the vast majority of Leavers across the country are to be fond in Labour constituencies, the thinking being that fewer Tories will be discombobulated by a failure of Brexit than Labour. They – the dipsticks – probably think it a risk worth taking.
But NOT in my name. WTO works for me. I just want OUT!
Harry
No, the majority of leavers are in Tory constituencies although those in labour ones are also well represented.
Some 65% of all constituencies voted leave, which in a General Election would have resulted in an overall majority of some 60 seats.
As has been said, the Tory party is playing with fire in taking the current route
Hi Climatereason. The actual numbers were 422 : 228 constituencies for Leave. My point was based on teh fact that an awful lot of Labour voters voted Leave but I wasn’t sure of the constituency numbers, Either way, there will be a lot of Leavers and Leave constituencies pissed off with anything other than a clean Leave. Unfortunately, I think we’re being sold down the river and, in not leaving we shall not remain – in the form that some idiot Remainers seem to think. Our place in the EU and the EU itself will change as a result of this – for the poorer (meaning, for the rich).
Good, sock it to her with passion – remember, they don’t like it up ’em.
“Amber Rudd’s attempt to conflate climate “denial” and criticism of the government’s Brexit plans in my opinion is a desperate and rather clumsy attempt to shut down public debate.”
Don’t worry Eric, nobody’s going to listen to her. She was one of Cameron’s cronies, who, like Theresa May, some suggest were promoted beyond their executive abilities. Like Mrs May, she will not be missed and will leave no lasting positive legacy.
Sadly, we don’t have a leader to “drain the Westminster swamp” at this time, but one lives in eternal hope.
The UK desperately needs a Trump to shake up Westminster
John Endicott
That leaves a choice of two. Nigel Farage or Boris.
One exception might be, however, Sajid Javid. A good business track record and seems able to make a decision.
Jacob Rees-Mogg seems a good candidate. He never managed to lock himself out of his own house.
Oh, like there’s anyone who has NEVER locked themselves out of their house.
~¿~
I havent, i dont live where you need to lock doors or the car,……
ha! rural, then? population density problems only exist in cities.
we don’t even have homeless in the country- there’s no place for them to live…lol
I keep wondering what happened to Owen Paterson. He seemed to be competent, strong-minded, and a British patriot. Why hasn’t he stepped forward? He could well be a great PM.
I agree, Pat. I had high hopes for Owen Paterson myself, having watched his interviews on TV and read about his success at his job.
There are people about, who are capable and logical, but…. where have they gone and why don’t we hear more from them?
competent, strong-minded, and a British patriot capable and logical
I think you have answered your own question there. Such characteristics have no place in the modern political world any more than those who are honest, honourable and forthright are.
I lied about my postcode and send Paterson a message to step forward. I asked him whether Winston Churchill’s effort was stillborn, to see the UK dissolve away.
Pat Frank
“Paterson became part of Leave Means Leave’s political advisory board.”
That’ll be the reason.
Pat,
Owen was useless — only he could blame badgers for “moving the goalposts” when asked why his department had failed to shot them.
“…some suggest were promoted beyond their executive abilities.”
Here in the States we call that the Peter principle. Just be glad she didn’t survive long enough for the Inverse Peter principle to take effect. That is where someone is promoted to the level where their incompetence is no longer obvious.
I’m afraid with Amber, that’s already happened
What abilities?
If Brexit works as well for you Brits as the Trump revolution is working for us here in the USA, you’re in for some good times ahead. The business of conflating Brexit with climate change is nothing but an utterly futile attempt to be relevant.
As soon as the UK gets out of the EU they can make an Amazing trade deal with Trump and the USA.
It will be yuge, YUGE!
Tom Abbott
Mother Theresa? Put together a deal? You’re avin’ a larf intcha?
Sorry, you can’t seriously be paying attention to anything that woman says on absolutely anything. Ignore her. 60 million Brits already do.
Don’t forget those in the colonies.
Another moron politician with an opinion. Well, like arseholes, everyone has one!
from what comes out of them, one could easily believe the moron politicians have 2 arseholes.
Cheers!
Joe
One at both ends!
Opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one, and most of them stink.
Well all these mob ever had was censorship….. They never had any decent arguments.
Rather be a Eurosceptic than a Euroseptic .
Or a Eurosubject.
Sometimes I think the Germans just play along with French and UK stupid to not reveal their more determined industrial and economic strategies. The power market was the exception with uniform stupid.
“Just as we must listen to scientific warnings that a chaotic Brexit will threaten our economy, so we must listen to the businesses and economists about the risks of manmade climate change.”
we must NOT listen to politicians who have already demonstrated that they lie and chronically misinform us to gain support for their privately held ideas and issues.
There is something rotten in the heart of British politics.
We have crime levels increasing and prisons minister stating that prison does not work.
We have an aid budget, giving money to foreign governments who have armed forces and space programs larger than the UK.
We are unable to order any substantial project with any hope of success (delivered on time/to budget) or even just working:
We have new royal navy vessels which can not operate in warm seas;
We have NHS computers systems ordered then canceled with a spend of £10bn;
We have a failing education system as demonstrated in international tests;
Our train system is crumbling;
They insist we live the green dream with all that entails;
Not enough housing for the size of the increasing population.
The only major success of British politicians is their continued smooth transfer into well paid jobs when they leave politics.
Western democracy is failing as we elect people who only toady to our basic greed and irresponsibility by bankrupting our nations to give us unnecessary services and low taxes.
If we don’t introduce constitutional changes to inhibit government borrowing we will fall like Rome.
Its all designed to destabilize the UK to ensure it is weak enough to be bossed by Brussels.
There is a lot of strategy in letting a system decay to the point of failure. Only at that point can you get permission to rebuild that system in your own image.
That appears to be what most Western governments are doing. They let society fail to the point that the people demand revolution, and at that point, they implement revolution with the cheers of the people. Only to discover that you’ve been duped into agreeing to something far worse than what you had originally.
I believe it’s called the Cloward-Piven strategy?
They did use this strategy for a specific target. I’ll quote wiki:
Cloward and Piven “proposed to create a crisis in the current welfare system – by exploiting the gap between welfare law and practice – that would ultimately bring about its collapse and replace it with a system of guaranteed annual income. They hoped to accomplish this end by informing the poor of their rights to welfare assistance, encouraging them to apply for benefits and, in effect, overloading an already overburdened bureaucracy.”
I’m not aware of any government that has been toppled this way. I thought the Chinese communist revolution may have been it, but my reading of this just now, tells of a long drawn out fight for control over a nearly 30 year period.
Others may know more of history than I do.
She is a big government globalist with political beliefs more akin to Labour than Conservative.
Bizarre argument in her opinion piece in the Sunday Times – Rudd is proud to say that she took a huge gamble with the security of supply of Britain’s electricity when she was Energy and Climate Change Secretary in 2015…
“I stood up and said that we would shut every coal-fired power station in the country within 10 years. We were not certain exactly how we would achieve that goal…”
Even admitting that “Action [in curbing carbon dioxide emissions] by us alone will make little difference.[to Climate Change]”
Tellingly, she thinks that the gamble was a “political” one. No, it’s real and we are all paying for it now, daily.
So remind me, who is it that was/is “… being cavalier with people’s future”?
I guess it’s OK to be cavalier if your beliefs coincide with Ms Rudd’s. Anyone who doesn’t share those beliefs is “yawningly” open for insult and a “denier”.
“We were not certain exactly how we would achieve that goal…”
ah, I see she’s been consulting the the Underpant Gnomes
So, the people she asked didn’t know. And the people who consulted with the government didn’t know. But she believed that we should go ahead with it anyway.
She obviously doesn’t feel any pain in her hip pocket from her own decisions or failures. Nor does she care (or probably know) if anyone else is hurting. These are the people who are a danger to society.
“…as those who deny that the belching of fossil fuels into the atmosphere is warming the planet.”
Someone is belching fossil fuels into the atmosphere? What a waste of perfectly good fossil fuels! Why aren’t they burning them for transportation or to make electricity?
Once an idiot, always an idiot.
The Brexit vote was a rare and precious display of guts these days from a nation that was once the greatest ever. I didnt think there was any of this adventurous spirit left, bogged down as it is by fears and entitlements wrought by a seemigly metastasized Old World marxbrotherism. That over half voted to leave was a huge surprise.
The languishing since on closing the deal, however, shows the Lilliputians are still running the show. I’ve heard Brits point out that the Conservatives were in power over the last number of years. They dont get it do they.
Sadly there are too many “Conservatives” like Rudd who shouldn’t be in the Party. We need a real centre – right party that espouses policies close to those in the last UKIP manifesto.
Flake news
UK Libertarian party is an option. Small, but right wing.
Last year I read that the EU did their own internal poll to find out how the Brits felt about the EU. This poll illustrated Britain had no interest in the EU. Wish I could re-find the link for that.
Three times we have had a vote.
One with Cameron promising the referendum- he won.
The referendum- won by Brexiteers.
May won the election thus cementing the desire to leave.
Further polls-
“Arch-Remainer Tony Blair has been humiliated after a poll by his Institute for Global Change asking if Britain should stay in the EU found an overwhelming majority in favour of ‘Hard Brexit’.
and recent polls seem to favour the above though as we know polls are not that accurate.
If “No Deal Brexit” is the only way then get on with it. I assume the U.K. would fall back on WTO rules and negotiate from there. It’s hard to believe that they would do worse than the free trade deal that Canada has with the E.U. and many other trade deals await investigation.
I learned a long time ago (labour negotiations) that you can’t negotiate effectively from a position of weakness. Brexit is a threat to the ongoing harmony ( if we can call it that) of Europe.
Leave or at least declare that you are going without a deal and you will instantly be in the drivers’s seat.
Oh they will do worse.
Hell hath no fEUry…like an EU scorned.
John Harmsworth
I believe Mother Theresa’s expression was “No deal is better than a bad deal”. So she proposed a deal and immediately her Brexit Secretary (David Davis) and Her Foreign Secretary (Boris Johnson) resigned.
At that point, most rational people would say to themselves “Hang on a minute”.
I learned a long time ago (labour negotiations) that you can’t negotiate effectively from a position of weakness
That is the real tragedy here. It isn’t the UK that is in a position of weakness. That is what is so insane about the whole thing. Exports from the EU to the UK are massively greater than UK to EU. The UK pays 20% of the EU budget. The UK financial markets support huge swathes of EU business. Much of the EU fish supplies comes from UK waters. We truly do not need the EU for trade given we have the Commonwealth and many other countries ready and willing to strike deals, deals that would not be hampered by the EU protectionism. FFS in any sensible world they should be paying and bribing us to salvage what they can and to keep trading with them.
“EU fires warning at Britain: End ‘unfair’ tax breaks or WE WILL SUE”
another reason to leave – Eu admitting we will be better off without their interference.
“Barnier: We must STOP UK having unfair advantage: May plan gives Brits ‘competitive edge'”
Barnier admitting the UK will be better off outside the EU- with competitive edge.
Why not follow the Swiss EU deal?
EU says ‘no’
EU says ‘whatever you want you aren’t getting it so its no deal or stay in and we have a fear campaign to make sure when you get the second referendum you will vote to stay in. Oh and we own your government and the opposition anyway, so put that in your urinal and pee on it.
Oh and as a result of all this trouble when you do decide to stay in you wont have a vote and the price will be double.
Because we don’t want it.
They don’t call her Rambler Crud for nothing.
I don’t mind the comparison at all. Logical, analytical people who don’t like being manipulated with false fears. There are people out there who feel compelled to say whatever nonsense they think will eleveate their standing in society. She appears to be a chronic liar!
Aren’t most politicians these days???
Modern TV-based (and now Internet-based) democracy actively selects for charismatic psychopaths. Politicians who can lie convincingly have a much higher chance of being elected.
Amber Rudd always was one of the establishment idiots. She was useless as energy and climate change minister.
Phillip
“Energy and Climate Change Minister”
Lets face it, with a department title like that, anyone taking charge of it can’t possibly be any good.
Well we had the ‘headless chicken’ Huhne…
the department no longer exists. Energy went to the department of business and climate change is, if it exists at all, part of DEFRA.
Hasn’t stopped them porting all the old junk tho
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/climate-change-explained
Minister of Silly Walks?
It’s an outrage.
“Last year the government spent LESS on the Ministry of Silly Walks than it did on national defence”
Rich Davis
“Minister of Silly Walks?”
I could think of another department, substituting Walks with one that rhymes with’Tanks’.
🙂
Hmm, can the lady hold that portfolio? Perhaps I am confused. You do tend to toss about so many British terms that I have trouble following the discussion. Perhaps you meant Silly Yanks, though.
Rich Davis
I think you were on the right lines with your first guess.
🙂
Could someone explain British dentistry to me? What is unique about its practice and insurance design? I just like to compare systems before Bernie or others declare some other national social system superior without full detailed explanation like Denmark’s tax rate utopia.
ResourceGuy
No one can explain British dentistry.
It is a way to subsidise dentiststs ensure they always have bad teeth to fix.
It’s more than a decade since I left there, but, at the time, Britain had a two-tier dentistry system, and I don’t believe it’s changed much:
1. Private. You pay the bills, and treatment is as good as anywhere in the world.
2. NHS. The government pays the bills out of your taxes, but pays significantly less than the market rate, so dentists prefer to go private, and those who do take NHS patients typically don’t offer the same kind of services you could get in a private dentist.
Still, at least it’s better than when I was a kid, when the only two NHS services on offer seemed to be filling teeth or pulling them.
… way more subtle than I was going to be…. 🙂
What has this got to do with A.Rudd ?
Melvyn Dackombe
She has teeth.
As does Austin Powers
Groovy baby
Though to be fair, rabbit incisors are a quirk of how your genes arranged your teeth, not a sign of bad dental care.
For myself, I ended up with elongated canines. I never needed fake fangs to dress up as a vampire for Halloween. Just had to pull back my bottom lip. 😮
drednicolson
Break out the Garlic folks!
🙂
How much wood
could a Ruddchuck chuck,
If a Ruddchuck
could chuck wood?
Well, she did a number on U.S. forests clear cutting them for wood pellets. That beats an army of wood chucks.
select your virtue signalling template
Construct your devastatingly illogical attack based on the prevailing idiot-view.
Rake in the shekels from your sponsors.
No wonder she’s smiling…