Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t JoNova – People who lived through the blackouts and economic chaos of the 1970s must be experiencing a strong sense of deja-vu, with Boris Johnson starring as the spiritual successor of the weak, ineffectual Conservative leader Edward Heath.
UK industry could face shutdowns as wholesale gas price hits record high
Steel, chemicals and fertiliser industries warn of difficult winter unless government takes emergency action
Rob Davies and Joanna Partridge
Thu 7 Oct 2021 05.00 AEDTWholesale gas prices hit new all-time highs on Wednesday, prompting warnings that factories could be forced to shut down over winter or switch to more polluting fuels just as the UK hosts the Cop26 climate conference next month.
The crisis has already forced a wave of collapses among energy suppliers that has led to warnings of “desperate choices” for households likely to face higher bills as a result.
As power-hungry sectors such as steel, glass and chemicals fight their own battle with soaring gas and electricity costs, they warned of further shocks to both industry and consumers, including higher prices of goods and factories being forced to temporarily close.
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/06/uk-industry-could-face-shutdowns-as-wholesale-gas-price-hits-record-high
Why do I think Heath is comparable to Boris Johnson? Because just like Heath, Boris Johnson’s ineptitude could be about to plunge Britain into a new era of darkness, rolling power cuts and industrial stoppages.
When the lights DID go out: Meals by candlelight and lamp-lit shopping… how miners strikes and sky-high inflation saw 1970s Britain plunged into darkness with a three-day working week
- From 1972, Prime Minister Edward Heath was locked in political battle with National Union of Mineworkers
- A six-week strike that year led to mass blackouts around the country and thousands of lay-offs
- Heath then imposed a three-day week in 1973 as continued coal shortages threatened electricity supply
- TV companies including the BBC and ITV had to stop broadcasting at 10.30pm each night
- Ordinary Britons were ordered to limit heating to one room and to keep non-essential lights switched off
- Do YOU remember the crisis? Send recollections and pictures to harry.s.howard@mailonline.co.uk
By HARRY HOWARD, HISTORY CORRESPONDENT FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 21:21 AEDT, 21 September 2021 | UPDATED: 23:55 AEDT, 21 September 2021
As Britain grapples with soaring gas and electricity prices and an energy supply crisis, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has been forced to say there is ‘no question of the lights going out’.
But, when the country was gripped by strikes by coal workers in the 1970s, the lights really did go out.
From 1972, the then Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath became locked in political battle with the immensely powerful and militant National Union of Mineworkers.
Unlike today, most of Britain’s electricity came from coal, and so crisis struck when miners voted to strike over wages for six weeks between January and February 1972.
Miners picketed power stations in an effort to restrict coal supply, leading to mass blackouts around the country and businesses being forced to close.
Whilst that strike came to an end with the Government’s capitulation and a pay rise for miners, the following year saw further unrest when ministers capped public sector wages amid an inflation crisis – as the NUM demanded a further pay hike of 35 per cent.
Although another strike was initially avoided, miners did vote to ban overtime, leading to the halving of coal production and the imposition by Heath of a three-day week in December 1973, with the aim of conserving coal stocks and keeping all essential lights on.
Nearly all businesses had to limit their electricity use to three days a week and were banned from operating for long hours on those days.
…
The British government claims there is no question of the lights going out – but I’m not sure I believe them. In any case, the crazy price spikes on offer could achieve the same effect as an actual shutdown, by making power utterly unaffordable.
At least Heath had the excuse of not being the primary cause of his disaster. Heath’s weakness might have made his administration the plaything of militant unions, but he didn’t personally order power generators to be shut down.
Boris Johnson, by contrast, in my opinion is entirely responsible for Britain’s current energy market chaos. Boris could have shored up Britain’s energy security, and removed obstacles to shale, to eliminate dependence on Russian gas and French electricity, he could have re-opened coal mines or secured sufficient supplies to buffer Britain against supply shocks. All this could have happened right from the start of his administration.
But in his arrogance, in my opinion BoJo did the opposite – he ignored warnings, and powered full steam ahead with his disastrous green energy plan, deliberately killing off investment in coal and other reliable forms of energy, and creating the conditions which led to Britain’s current calamitous shortages and energy market instability. Just when Britain was finally showing signs of pulling out of BoJo’s Covid lockdown recession.
In the 1970s legendary Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher challenged and defeated Heath as leader of the Conservatives, soared to victory, and instituted economic reforms which revived Britain’s moribund economy. But Thatcher was already a prominent member of Heath’s cabinet. Of course, no leader is perfect, even good leaders. Margaret Thatcher promoted global warming alarm to publicly justify her campaign to crush militant coal unions, and restore stability to Britain’s energy supplies.
Which British cabinet member today will step into Thatcher’s shoes and save Britain? Michael Gove? Alok Sharma? Maybe a member of the shadow cabinet? Keir Starmer or Ed Miliband?
Perhaps there is a new Thatcher in waiting, hiding their talent behind a convincing facade of mediocrity and incompetence. But if there is, I don’t know them.
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Now they mention the “C” word-cost, cost, cost!
“Everyone knew that the energy transition would not be cheap.”
What Governments Got Wrong About The Global Energy Transition (yahoo.com)
Well if it’s all too Green and controlled they should simply follow Elon’s lead-
Tesla moving headquarters to Texas from California (msn.com)
Sounds like it is time for Parliament to have a “No Confidence” vote on Boris and the Boris administration.
A resounding “No Confidence” could force Boris to make some changes.
Well, the US now has a President more incompetent than Jimmy Carter, so that 1970’s feeling of malaise is shared in both countries.
And the mess will get worse. If Boris fails he will be replaced by a far left, even more “green”, Labor. If British conservatives don’t do a 180 real fast you are doomed.
It’s a race to the bottom on policy tone deafness….
Federal agencies on plans to help Americans handle climate change (yahoo.com)
A question for Eric Worrall. Is it possible that what we are seeing with China’s alleged energy supply problems is that the CCP is preparing the country for an energy supply shock which might be one consequence of a soon-to-be made decision to invade and conquer Taiwan?
That thought occurred to me, but if this is the case, the conclusion of the exercise must surely be that China is not ready.
Thanks, Eric. I’m looking at that, too. Invading Taiwan does not seem like a good idea at this point.
Yes, they need to work out how to keep a wartime economy going without access to the global economy.
Afghanistan could be a big part of that plan. Afghanistan has things China needs but doesn’t have, like a world class supply of iron ore. But Afghan warlords do not recognise Afghanistan, they’re all independent. A deal inked by one warlord is rarely respected by the next group of bandits.
If China pushes forward, and they really have no other options at this point, Afghanistan could be in for a period of bloodshed and brutal repression which will make the locals wish they had the Soviets back. Xinjiang could have been a trial run for their Afghanistan plan.
Oh, “a period of bloodshed and brutal repression”…. Oh, my. what an understatement.
It’s really only a matter of time, y’know.
Seems poor timing with E10 rollout may have exacerbated the fuel shortages at the bowsers-
Was switch to green fuel behind the petrol crisis? Retailers blame E10 (msn.com)
Trust them they’re from the Gummint and they’re here to help change the climate.
Margaret Thatcher was probably the second greatest British Prime Minister (after Winston Churchill), but she made the mistake of promoting global-warming theory in its infancy as a means of defeating the coal-miners’ unions. This move may have helped secure her re-election during the 1980’s, but it allowed a movement against fossil-fuels (not only coal, but also petroleum and natural gas) to fester into a worldwide doomsday cult to deprive a growing population of the energy they need.
Boris Johnson rode the Brexit wave to become Prime Minister, and if he had played his cards right, he could have led the UK to economic dominance over the European Union, mired in its bureaucratic mismanagement by the European Commission. But he has squandered this huge opportunity by following the ignorant global warming fear-mongers down an impossible path of economic irresponsibility.
The Tories are traditionally known as promoters of economic freedom, capitalism, and prosperity, and the Brexit movement was supposed to give the UK sovereignty to determine its own economic destiny independent from the stifling EU bureaucracy. But by pushing the UK into “net-zero carbon”, BoJo will alienate the energy-producing sector, including the coal miners, and push them back into the arms of the Labour Party, who will then push socialism when they take back power.
Boris Johnson’s policies of trying to ration fossil-fuel consumption is not only economically stupid, it is politically stupid–effectively giving back the power to the Labour Party that Thatcher had taken from them. If the Tories in Parliament were smart, they would hold a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson, and replace him with another Prime Minister more favorable to fossil fuels.
What’s happening in the UK is history repeating itself, 20 years later. During the late 1990’s, Al Gore put out his “Earth in the Balance” book about the global-warming scare, and his 2000 campaign talked about putting coal miners out of business. That didn’t go over well in West Virginia, whose economy is almost entirely dependent on coal mining. West Virginia was traditionally a Democrat-leaning state up until then, but turned against Gore in 2000, and has become more and more Republican ever since. While most of the attention during the 2000 election was on the extremely close election in Florida, if Gore had won West Virginia, he would have been elected President even while losing Florida.
West Virginia continues to play an outsize role in American politics today. In 2020, Republican Senator Shelley Capito was re-elected in WV with 69% of the vote, and Democrat Senator Joe Manchin is up for re-election in 2022. Manchin does not want to betray his coal-friendly voters by supporting Biden’s huge socialist “reconciliation” plan, which includes lots of anti-fossil-fuel policies, so he is one of only two Democrat Senators blocking the total transformation of America into a socialist nation.
Boris Johnson could learn a crucial lesson from Senator Joe Manchin. Fighting Old King Coal is political suicide.
The UK’s “best in the world” recipe for energy stupidity:
1. Make an enemy out of the main source of energy on which society and human life depends – fossil fuels. Declare an idiotic war on energy itself.
2. Make an enemy of the country which is the largest regional supplier of fossil energy – Russia – and incite your population into racist hostility against Russian people. The scratch your head in genuine bafflement when that same racial-enemy country shows reduced enthusiasm in supplying fossil energy to Europe.
3. Make the fossil fuel industry and its workforce public enemies and choke off investment and exploration of fossil fuel sources. Allow all natural gas stored stocks to drain to empty, repeating to yourself as you do so, “what could possibly go wrong?”
4. Allow yourself to be persuaded by the nonsensical notion that intermittent demand anti-correlated low intensity “energy” sources such as wind power and solar, can replace on-demand load-following fossil fuel. Sterilise your population of understanding of what terms like “intermittent”, “baseload” and “load-following” mean. Punish understanding, reward ignorance.
5. Wrinkle your forehead affectatiously in bafflement when gas prices rise sharply higher and energy poverty and people freezing to death becomes a widespread and inescapable reality.
6. Prepare tens of thousands of Darwin prizes to send to the homes of the many impending victims who will freeze to death in the coming winter which – contrary to computer model predictions – will be cold. Especially when you have in your home no heating. Or even warming.
Heath is solely responsible for the UK joining the Common Market back in 1973, effective Jan 1st 1974. No vote, no mandate, he just did it. Typical Tory ruling class type. More coal mines were closed in the 60’s under Wilson than under Thatcher in later years but she still gets blamed. Thatcher Thatcher the milk snatcher! I recall what it was like in the UK back in the 70’s with food and energy shortages. Wasn’t fun.
When Wilson held a referendum on EEC/Common Market membership in 1975, 67% of voters supported staying in. Almost all regions of the UK voted in favour only Shetland and the Western Isles voted against.
Like closing the gate after the hors has bolted. Pointless.