Guest essay by Eric Worrall
If you read Willis’ excellent essay on energy poverty, you might think countries like Britain would be keen to address this terrible burden on the poor. Think again; the reality is British and European politicians just don’t seem to care.
Tax raid on your lifestyle! Boris Johnson is considering a new carbon tax that could see the price of mince rise 40% to more than £5, four pints of milk by 21% to £1.32 and push up cost of gas heating
- Downing Street asks all departments for plans for a carbon-pricing scheme
- One of the policies mooted is a carbon tax on high-impact food such as beef
- Could add up to £1.80 on a steak, £1.50 on lamb chops and 20p on milk
- Farmers believe there is a ‘heavy bias against meat’ in climate change debate
By MARTIN ROBINSON, CHIEF REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE
Tax raid on your lifestyle! Boris Johnson is considering a new carbon tax that could see the price of mince rise 40% to more than £5, four pints of milk by 21% to £1.32 and push up cost of gas heating
- Downing Street asks all departments for plans for a carbon-pricing scheme
- One of the policies mooted is a carbon tax on high-impact food such as beef
- Could add up to £1.80 on a steak, £1.50 on lamb chops and 20p on milk
- Farmers believe there is a ‘heavy bias against meat’ in climate change debate
By MARTIN ROBINSON, CHIEF REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 20:23 AEDT, 4 February 2021 | UPDATED: 02:57 AEDT, 5 February 2021
Families are facing a tax on their lifestyles as Boris Johnson ponders new carbon taxes and charges for Britain that would see higher prices on meat and cheese at the supermarket and on gas for their hobs and boilers at home.
The Prime Minister has ordered Whitehall departments to look at how much greenhouse gas emissions produced by different sectors of the economy cost society.
At present, only airlines and power generators are charged for their emissions, but ministers want to extend the ‘polluter pays’ principle to all sectors. This could lead to a hike in prices for goods such as beef, lamb and cheese, or more heavily polluting forms of heating such as gas.
No costs have been mooted by Whitehall, but recent studies by a team at Oxford University have calculated that surcharges of 40 per cent on beef, 25 per cent on oils, 20 per cent on milk, 15 per cent on lamb and 10 per cent on chicken would reduce emissions and reduce consumption in the way the PM wants.
…
Four pints of milk would go from £1.09 to £1.32, four lamb chops up to £7.50 from £6, six chicken breasts up 50p per pack to £5.50 while a whole chicken would increase in price by 28p to £3.78; Eggs would rise 5p to 94p and sugar would increase by a penny to 66p.
…
The Irish potato famine, the mass starvation of Irish people in the mid 1800s, was caused as much by the cruel indifference of arrogant British politicians as by crop failure.
British politicians could have intervened and saved lives, and to be fair then prime minister Robert Peel attempted to intervene, but the interventionists were defeated by conceited politicians who refused to compromise their warped vision of free market ideals, even in the face of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe. By the time politicians realised what they had done, it was too late.
Could something similar happen again? Fuel poverty is already a serious problem in Britain. According to the government’s own figures, as of 2018 10.7% of households make difficult daily decisions in winter about whether to heat their homes or put food on the table.
In human terms, this means millions of ordinary Britons are living on the edge, risking hypothermia, starvation, and serious long term health complications in their annual struggle to survive Britain’s cold winters. Occasionally some of them starve to death. A third of people admitted to hospital in Britain are malnourished or judged to be at risk of malnutrition.
Boris Johnson’s plan to force up the price of affordable energy rich foods like meat, milk, eggs and cheese, and to drive up the price of home heating, could push a lot of those poor people over the brink, and trigger an even worse hunger crisis.
In my opinion this cruel sacrifice of ordinary people’s welfare on the altar of carbon virtue signalling is an unconscionable betrayal of the millions of Britons who supported Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in the last general election, because they believed Johnson’s assurances that the Conservatives would make their lives better.
Update (EW): BAPEN Publishes Results of Biggest Malnutrition Survey Ever Undertaken (Scotland), last updated October 2020, shows malnutrition in patients admitted in English hospitals running at 30%.
Sounds like a short squeeze pending on edible insect stocks.
Boris needs to remember France’s YELLOW VEST protests. Get ready for President Marie Le Pen. If Biden does this in the USA, we will wear yellow vests.
Interesting that there is no mention of the warming impact of hothouse or imported vegetables. Nor, is there any thought given to alternative uses of the welsh Hills or similar grazing lands.
I wonder how long until an alternative political party wakes up to the votes that will be freely available?
Children just aren’t going to know what meat is
Johnson must go.
It’s not credible that the UK’s climate policy is dictated by his unelected girlfriend.
Whilst tucking into his 2lb 32 days dry-aged Aberdeen Angus Cote de Boeuf with his billionaire friends, Bojo the clown mumbled, “Let them eat grass”.
The problem is that like socialism, AGW has become a religion and is thus impervious to any consequences. Just as socialism leads to dictatorship and economic ruin so will the doctrine of AGW. The only hope is that the public will reject these policies but unfortunately in the UK there is no real difference between tory, labour, lib dems or even the greens regarding this ridiculous net zero by 2050 objective. Perhaps banning new ice powered vehicles by 2030 will be the trigger to replace them all!
This idea got scrapped. Basically, his girlfriend, Carrie, is an eco warrior, who also works for an animal conservation group.
She is obviously controlling him, he never used to be an eco nazi, but if he and the Tory party continue with this crap they will lose the next election.
The media could stop this in a second if they had a mind to. You could imagine the questions “Prime minister, why is it all right for you to eat that steak when millions of vulnerable people can’t afford to even eat properly because of your green taxes?” No, but they’re on board with it.
Where’s my passport to Pimlico?
There was a famine in India, mainly Punjab I think, during WW2 which was made worse by British policy.
The Westminster Government has a long and inglorious history of abusing the people it governs. The Highland Clearances were overseen by a complicit government. The Welsh language speaking population were treated as second class citizens.
I’m afraid that Boris Johnson is no libertarian, quite the reverse in fact
Boris. seems a decent sort of chap getting quite a lot right but on climate and green issues – a total twat.
The price of UK electricity and gas will rise anyway from March, it was announced this week: and that was nothing at all to do with renewables or a carbon tax.
Can we hang Boris, yet?
Has anybody read the Paris Agreement? It’s meanibgless!
It’s main “message” is “limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.”
Anybody knows what is the world average temperature during the pre-industrial
period?
Not one wotd about CO2! Only one mention about greenhouse gas.But it does mention “equality fo women”!
This link provides the full agreement.
https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement
Politicians are so f…ing dim, Co² is now casually called a pollutant, a cow is a polluter, and you too if you dare to heat your home.
Clown world.
More immaculate timing from wuwt
This came in yesterday – and it saddened me greatly.
Quote-Link:” How sustainable is our meat? Depends on the metrics”
From the UK Weekly Farm Magazine ‘Bible’ which did not help me in my depression not one bit and then, to completely kick me right where it hurts, was written by:
“Professor Michael Lee: deputy vice-chancellor at Harper Adams University.”
Harper Adams being a Farming School meet University
That it now calls itself University is bad enough, they did used to be ‘Colleges’
Is it even possible to have A University that teaches only one subject?
Because it talks about cows and I like cows.
Cows are gorgeous. Bit like horses in fact, as I’m now learning
Simply, the Farming School has sold out to Climate Change Paranoia
Thus: We Are Fooked. Completely.
e.g Quote:
“The sustainability of different meats is complex, with trade-offs. For example, chicken results in less carbon pollution than beef per kilogram of product, but is less nutrient dense”
Just Get “Carbon Pollution”
Then he raves about nutrient density – The current buzzword
In other parts he talks about ‘processing‘, while being clueless what it actually is.
If Covid and its epic and ongoing rampage through the UK populace doesn’t tell these clowns, zombies, muppets anything, nothing will.
Nuffink
People died from Covid because of Low Nutrient Density Food. This is THE ‘Time Of The Full Stomachs‘
And even in commentators here, we observe the obsession with meat meat meat
Meat = flesh of the animal is ‘not good. for us Human Critters
It is very high protein and protein is chock full of things that break down in hideous chemical toxins – Hydrogen Sulphide, Ammonia, Urea not least.
WHY WE EAT MEAT is to use as a carrier for what we are supposed to be eating:
Fat. Saturated Fat
In turn, that is carrier for, not least, the vital disease fighting nutrients Vitamin B and Vitamin D
And on soils that are increasingly eroded & derelict, exactly caused by growing arable crops, we rely on the grazing animals to find us sufficient..
And a good few more in really microscopic amounts
It is EXACTLY like plants and their Liebeig Limiters (LLs)
We too have LLs and when even just ONE of them falls into short supply, we wither, become ill and ‘Pass Away’
Some examples:
Shortage of B12 = Alzheimers
Shortage of Magnesium. Mg is a truly heroic neuro-transmitter – ask ANY livestock farmer about ‘Grass Staggers’ = identical to Mad Cow Disease = identical to any Dementia. And quite quite fatal inside 48 hours
(Now so we see/understand ‘Care Home Deaths’?)
Shortage of Iron and B Vitamin(esp B9 Folate) gets you Autism and Aspergers
Simple iron deficiency is crippling enough, mentally and physically
Iodine controls just about everything ## (You will love that we you get there)
Shortage of fat gets you ‘surplus of sugar’ get you almost everything else
Especially Magical Thinking, see this ** for a near perfect example.
So very sad. Think of her kids.
Alzheimer’s Dementia is apparent in folks with ‘simple’ undiagnosed pre-diabetes
And if Boris hasn’t got that, just look at him, then I’m The King Of England
## UK was/is one of the few places on The Planet not to make Iodised Salt mandatory.
And seemingly didn’t have any great problems with Iodine.
The reason IS gorgeous….
…. because of the Iodine based sanitiser/disinfectant almost all UK dairy farmers use on their cow’s udders before and after milking.
Check out ‘Iodophor’
And Boris wants to stop milk drinking and fat consumption.
facepalm
(Wonders if Mrs Thatcher’s removal of milk from schools ^^ has anything to do with our Epidemic of Good Health
^^ Every primary school kid, regardless of any circumstance, used to have/get one-third of a pint of full-fat milk for the morning break.
Just before they went outside to play. In the fresh air and (occasional UK) sunshine)
** Quote” “I knew she was really bad but I’d never seen anybody like that before, it was shocking, for someone that healthy to be barely able to walk to a car is quite shocking.”
Now then, this really a beautiful example ow why we are wasted….
Promise you won’t say a word. Not a peep. promise. OK?
Click the link and scroll down to the Christening photo
Covid: Mum-of-five Karen Hobbs dies, aged 40
just. don’t. say. it.
Boris wants to make it all worse
AND
there is no push-back
from
The Very People who SHOULD KNOW DIFFERENT and BETTER
There Is Not A Fate, Any Fate, that is Too Horrible for that Clown Boris – and he really is one of those Scary Clowns that did the rounds recently
Scary and Dumb?
And if you did successfully make ‘Dry Jan 2020’, when you next can, visit a busy pub/club or bar. Of an evening time is best.
You will see Zombie Scary Clowns in droves
I could rave on but, when Rona Variant #97 gets here which she will, at least try to be One Million Zillion miles away.
(Hell might be pleasant in comparison. Do wrap up warm tho. Its not how you think it is)
Willis, while I agree that pushing up prices of food is cruel and particularly hard on the poor, you’re conflating “malnourished” with “undernourished”.
Very few of the poor in the UK are “undernourished”; ie, they’re getting enough calories. In fact, given that obesity is a major health problem amongst the poor, they’re actually getting too many calories.
The malnourishment is a result of poor food choices: too many ready-meals and highly-processed foods, not enough fruit & vege.
Carbon taxes drive up the cost of everything. Only the terminally stupid could possibly believe otherwise.
Expect another version of the 18th and 19th century Corn Law Riots, which were in response to wealthy Brit farmers and landowners getting laws passed that blocked the import of grain. People were dependent on grain for a basic food source. This applied to all grains.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Corn-Law-British-history
“Corn” refers to grains of all kinds, not what we call corn. The Brit word for ear corn is/was maize.
So now Boris, in his lack of wisdom, is going to have another population group going hungry because he can’t see past his girlfriend. What a marone.
As “free range” is better than factory farmed you might say “wild” is even better. When the UK is covered in trillions of trees we’ll all be less obese from running about hunting boar, deer and the like.
Watching from Texas, I had such high hopes for Boris Johnson, but he has turned out to be worse than his predecessors.
The Irish Potato Famine was justified at the time on Malthusian grounds, that there were too many of “those people” anyway.
The prospective tax on animal products is far worse than people realize.
I urge everyone to read Dr. Binkman’s (PhD, cellular molecular biologist) latest book “Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease—and How to Fight It “. The cause of all the “Modern Western Epidemics” is hyperinsulemia. If not the direct cause, it accelerates them.
By putting animal products mostly out of reach of those least able to afford their tax by worshiping the fake science of the vegans and Left, they’re condemning their population to increased sickness due to being forced to eat the cheapest, highest processed foods full of cheap (to make) “vegetable” oils.
The result will be an even “sicker” population with continuing increased obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancers, blindness just to name a few. This means their ineffective NHS will be truly overwhelmed with sky rocketing costs, death panels, etc. And the gov response: increase the carbon taxes to meet the “emergency”. Which ultimately translates into a severely damaged population with very weak immune systems, creating the perfect killing ground for a host of pathogens to sweep through.
Darwin wins, again. Humans will disappear due to their own political agendas.
To these people, the poor are necessary casualties in the great carbon war
Too many people anyway in their view, needs to be a cull but they are rightfully scared of speaking openly
Discouraging natural gas? They’re getting embarrassed by the US at the CO2 reduction game and we aren’t even trying. Maybe withdraw from the Paris Agreement and develop some gas production. Or enjoy your meal worms and energy poverty..