Essay by Eric Worrall
UK Prime Minister Liz Truss apparently wants us to believe she is Margaret Thatcher reborn. But her history of political switchbacks on important issues leaves a lot of uncertainty.
Boris Johnson’s ‘green legacy’ has major flaws – it’s up to the next prime minister to rescue net zero
ANALYSIS
Boris Johnson likes to portray himself as a champion of climate action, but he leaves his successor with a net zero mountain to climb
September 5, 2022 11:14 am(Updated 3:22 pm)
It is perhaps fitting that in one of his final speeches as Prime Minister, Boris Johnson took the opportunity to trumpet his government’s record on climate action.
He said his government had made “big decisions” to secure a “clean, green future” for the UK.
Mr Johnson has always liked to talk big on climate change. He inherited an ambitious target of delivering net zero emissions by 2050 from his predecessor Theresa May – but he grabbed the challenge and ran with it.
…
Both candidates have promised to uphold the 2050 net zero goal, but have said little about the radical action needed to get there.
Instead the favourite for the job, Liz Truss, has hit the campaign trail touting policies experts say will increase emissions, not cut them. She has vowed to halt the spread of solar farms around the country, lift the moratorium on fracking, and boost exploration efforts for more oil and gas in the North Sea.
…
Read more: https://inews.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-green-legacy-major-flaws-next-prime-minister-rescue-net-zero-1827289
A point in Truss’ favour, Nigel Farage was impressed by Liz Truss’ victory speech, enough to suggest people give her a chance. Farage is a friend and supporter of President Trump, he was a surprise guest at one of President Trump’s campaign speeches during Trump’s first run for presidency. Farage’s focus in his response to the Truss win was uncontrolled illegal immigration, but Farage once appointed Lord Monckton as climate spokesman for UKIP, which will give you an idea of his views on climate policy.
My biggest concern with Truss is she seems to be a political chameleon. Truss went from staunch anti-Brexit campaigner to now saying she supports Brexit. She claims to support Net Zero, but also claims to want to restrict new renewable installations and encourage more fossil fuel production. Some people have described her speech delivery as awkward, but she impressed Trump’s friend Nigel Farage with her victory speech.
Given Truss’ history of apparent political flexibility, frankly I have no idea what she will do, now she is Prime Minister. We can only hope Truss makes an effort to keep her promise to ease restrictions on domestic fossil fuel production, and at least defers her promise of continued support for Britain’s ruinously expensive Net Zero policies.
Correction (EW): Staunch anti-brexit campaigner to pro-brexit.
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Liz Truss’ voting recored on environmental issues.
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24941/elizabeth_truss/south_west_norfolk/divisions?policy=1030
It’s a race to the bottom now. I think the UK can win it though.
German manufacturers orders down -13.6% in July and released today.
Isn’t she also a current sitting member of WEF?
I don’t know. The photo they have looks at least ten years old.
A lot of people attended WEF meetings to find out what it was about.
Many saw it for what it is, and walked away. Many others are fine with the WEF future.
The WEF exerts no control, isn’t a cabal or conspiracy, directs no policy
Yeah right… and the tooth fairy does exist.
And Soros does not fund the campaigns of slanted district attorneys.
You really are not paying the slightest notice of reality, are you griff. !
Locked in your padded basement viewing the world through the eyes of on-line Gruniad. !
I’m not every day driven to fury because I imagine there’s some conspiracy behind it all. difficult to keep up though: is the WEF a marxist/leftist conspiracy, or do WEF and marxist/leftist conspiracies work side by side or against each other?
Alok Sharma has been reappointed as president of COP26 by Truss. whatever that means…
It means that when in doubt, predict that current trends will continue.
Keeps him off the street.
It means that Alok Sharma remains responsible for anything he signed us up for at the Copfest and if she needs him to publicly fall on his sword then he’ll take it down with him.
I thought Le Chatelier applied to chemical equilibria. There is no reason to expect it applies to everything. In particular if there is positive amplification of a change, it won’t apply. It only applies when there is negative feedback. Granted you think the feedback is indeed negative but it is not mainstream. The mainstream position is that feedback is positive.
Apologies, posted this in the wrong thread !
Or perhaps it will find its own meaning here.
If she does not denounce the catastrophe of net zero, government driven renewable energy mandates and the government driven energy shutdown of fracking technology it’s going to be the same old pattern of failure from energy management incompetence.
Given the decline in the currency, can’t somebody just buy up the place and do a deal with leaders that stipulates energy sanity for a change.
It’s the leaders raking in the corporate green subsidies through their investments that are part of the ongoing “crisis” theme from government. It will be a while before that clown car goes off the cliff along with all the mindless head-bobbing sycophants. The taxpayer dollars have been a real windfall for those wealthy enough to get into the green game… the bottom-feeders haven’t lost a step either. And we’re told it’s our duty to suffer the consequences without whinging.
Liz (in whom we Truss) has had an intrersting life.
Her parents were hard left .
She joined the Liberal party at college.
She worked in a merchant bank
She joined the tories, where she co authored a book extolling the free market and libertarianism
She voted against Brexit, but once is was a fact she went on as one of the very few cabinet ministers determined to make it work, replacing all the EU trade deals with individual UK ones and pushing for better deals with Australia India and the USA.
She could have held back there, if she was a closet EUrophile She didn’t.
Now the Tory party and parliament in general is full of lazy career politicians who loved having the EU make all the decisons while they waffled and theor civil servents turned EU directives into Law.
So far nearly all of them seem to be out of a job. LIz has got to be tough, because they want to destroy her before she even walks through the door of No 10.
Remember that as with Trump, what she says, and what she does, may not be the same thing. She needs the votes of a lot of dead wood to get bills passed. That dead wood needs to be soothed and made to feel comfortable.
I’m with Nigel, I am giving her a chance.
Is she establishment, a pragmatic conservative or a libertarian?
We will see.
I expect one day she is establishment, the next conservative, the next libertarian.
Ho hum. “Jacob Rees Mogg, has been handed the role of Business Secretary which puts him in charge of resolving the energy crisis.”
Well one thing the Moggster ain’t is a Marxist. Dyed in the wool Catholic with a horde of kids. And he has enough money of his own to be reasonably bribe proof.
The Guardian is already calling him a ‘climate denier’.
If the Guardian is against him, I am for him.
I suggest popcorn. He is a very measured very bright man.
Sadly the only engineer in the cabinet – Kemi Badenoch – has gone to international trade, so you guys may be seeing her in the USA.
Bright little lady. One to watch out for.
One Graham Stuart, has been appointed minister for climate at the business department and will attend cabinet… Lord Deben said on UK radio 4 he has historically backed govt net zero approach.
Deben has a history of being economical with the truth
While on their way to see the Queen in Scotland, I noticed that PM Truss and BoJo actually flew up there in separate aircraft.
And this is a country that has (had?) a net-zero agenda under Johnson? Look and what they do and not what they say.
I suspect the possibility of both the incumbent, and new, PM both being killed at the same time, in one air accident, was felt to be more of a risk than the (supposed) effects of 1 extra return flight on climate change.
Yes. Security.
I hadn’t thought of it being done for security reasons. Makes sense.
We’ll see. The Conservative Party in Canada in 2019 elected the candidate, Erin O’Toole, who campaigned as “True Blue” and promised to be a genuine conservative. Unfortunately, as soon as the media criticized him in the following election campaign, he folded and agreed with everything Trudeau was proposing on the climate and “gun control”.
“Conservative” is a pose. Just shout “Racist!” and they fold.
If you think that’s bad, shout ‘anti-semite!’ and the Labour MP’s hide under their desks.
If she is a new Margaret Thatcher, we’ll see her at the UN warning everyone about the dangers of Global Warming, just as the original did.
Don’t really care what positions she took when young. National politics is about forging a coalition to accomplish the greater mission and some things need to be traded off to make a good compromise. Let’s give her a chance unlike what the left did to trump