Essay by Eric Worrall
Prime Minister Truss defeated an attempt to ban fracking – barely. But the long winded consultation process tacked on by her rebellious MPs will likely prevent any genuine progress for the foreseeable future.
Fracking and sackings: Government wins shale gas vote amidst chaotic scenes in Westminster
Cecilia Keating and James Murray
19 October 2022
…
The government has narrowly defeated a Labour motion to force a vote on banning fracking in the UK, after making major consessions to rebel MPs’ demands for a more rigorous consenting process for new projects and announcing a “100 per cent hard” three-line whip.
…
The rebellion gained momentum late this afternoon when former energy minister Chris Skidmore, a staunch defender of the UK’s climate ambitions who has been tasked by the Prime Minister with delivering a review of the UK’s Net Zero Strategy, confirmed on Twitter he would not vote to enable fracking and was prepared to lose the whip if necessary.
“As the former Energy Minister who signed net zero into law, for the sake of our environment and climate, I cannot personally vote tonight to support fracking and undermine the pledges I made at the 2019 General Election,” he said. “I am prepared to face the consequences of my decision.”
…
In a last ditch bid to shrink the size of the rebellion, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg this afternoon proposed an amendment that would require a public consultation on how communities would be able to approve or reject fracking projects in their area through local referendums managed by local authorities.
…
Campaigners hailed the vote as a major victory that has effectively delivered a death knell to any hopes of reviving fracking projects in England in the near term. The practice’s long-standing unpopularity will mean projects put through a robust consenting process will struggle to secure public consent. And with a general election due by the end of 2023 at the latest and the Conservatives plumbing new depths in the polls, investors will be reluctant to back projects that would be immediately banned were Labour to win the next election.
…
Read more: https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4058475/fracking-sackings-government-wins-shale-gas-vote-amidst-chaotic-scenes-westminster
What a mess. British Prime Minister Liz Truss – barely – defeated a motion to permanently ban fracking, but the rebellion has exposed her insecure grip on leadership. The lengthy consultation process tacked on by rebels in her own party has effectively sabotaged Truss’ energy reform plans, by ensuring abundant opportunities for wreckers to ensure no fracking projects actually proceed.
British politician Nigel Farage predicted Liz Truss would fail to sort out Britain’s energy crisis, when I asked him at CPAC Australia a few weeks ago – he said there were too many vested interests who were arrayed against her. Maybe we’re now seeing those “vested interests” show their hand.
I don’t think this will end well for the “vested interests”, if that’s what they are – I don’t believe the Tory rebels and Labour greens have fully appreciated how desperate people could become. Well paid British MPs usually don’t have a problem sorting out their energy bills.
I remember a speech British politician Nigel Farage gave over a decade ago, in which he talked about what would happen if he failed to deliver Brexit. From memory he said “if I fall, the desperation to be free from Europe will still be there. The people who come after my fall won’t be as nice”.
Farage back then was talking about Brexit, but similar words could be applied to Liz Truss’ gallant failure to address today’s crushing energy crisis.
If mainstream parties don’t deliver a solution to Britain’s energy problems, ordinary people will not put up forever with freezing to death in their homes, or being bankrupted by their cost of living and energy bills.
You don’t have to look far back into history to see where such desperation could lead.
Pyrrhus of Epirus was a Greek King who won a military victory against the Romans, at the cost of the destruction of his own army. His folly is nowadays remembered as a Pyrrhic Victory.
Update (EW): h/t strativarius – Liz Truss has resigned as British Prime Minister.
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‘Pyrrhus of Epirus was a Greek King who won a military victory at the cost of the destruction of his own forces. His folly is nowadays remembered as a Pyrrhic Victory’.
Should we call our Russian terrorist Pyrrhus Putin of the Kremlin?
bad case of PDS….
How so?
Putin has destroyed his country in order to capture land that he probably won’t be able to keep. He may even lose some of the lands that he has previously captured.
I notice the new defence line is along the Feb 24th boundaries of Donetsk…
The PM should show leadership and give Chris Skidmore his P45.
Unfortunately she gave him a carte blanche as the lead in a study on how to do net zero.
As I understand it, that assignment to come up with a plan just sidelined Skidmore. There is no viable plan possible.
Skidmore now has mornings free to play golf and the afternoon free to spend drinking in the clubhouse.
When (if) asked, he can say, “I’m working on it. It’s a tough nut to crack.”
I have a son, an engineer, who is the same age as Chris Skidmore and he would demolish his climate alarmism. I would like to see evidence of Skidmore’s reasoning and logic for his position. Pity in the course of his history studies he seems to have learnt nothing about the history of scientific discovery and method. Sadly we do not get the good and principled leaders we need but the ones we deserve because of giving them uncritical support.
Michael,
the nonsense politicians come out with is despicable, but they say it with such authority much to the despair of the wise.
How did we vote these people into power?
The PM should show leadership and give herself her P45.
She just has!
Yup, she was toasted an hour later….
My projections have more accuracy than the IPCC’s!
Me 100% correct
IPCC 100% incorrect
.
Ouch.
My comment was voted down – was that you Liz? 🤣
The UK is fast becoming a Banana Constitutional Monarchy, having spent decades laughing at Banana Republics.
I have come to think that we will just stop oil before 2030 and suffer the consequences for decades, or my children and grandchildren will. This shambolic Tory Party has just accelerated the process in the last couple of years having started the process under Cameron
I think you will find that the move leftwards by the Tories started under the appalling John Major. As to the party being divided, it has been ever since the odious Heath took us into what is now the EU.
It could be said it was earlier than that. The Tory govts of the fifties and early sixties didn’t reverse the post-war nationalisation of coal, rail, electricity & steel; and I’m pretty sure the NHS would have been created whoever won the 1945 election. The treacherous Heath’s manifesto in 1970 was actually quite radical, I gather, but as PM he was a dud. So Thatcher might be seen as a temporary departure from a leftwards trajectory that began in 1945, with Major simply reverting back to it. Just a thought.
Why did nothing change with Brexit. For all intents and purposes they seem to have kept all the foolishness. They even went with hat in hand to ask if they could keep the privileges (whatever they might be).
The reason the present economic and everything-else disaster is going to last for years, particularly in Britain, is the establishment had poisoned minds against just the kind of no nonsense government that sees nothing too big to fail and the whole setup needs to fail. It’s going to fail anyway, but someone crisply leading them out of the mess is better than it falling apart on it’s own.
Parliament only narrowly missed out on stopping BREXIT. Most of the Tory, Liberal Democrats and Labour parliamentary parties are for returning to the EU. Democracy has been dead in the UK since Thatcher was ousted. Globalism = Corporate Socialism = Fascism is effectively what we have with a UniParty. It doesn’t matter who you vote for you get the government.
Basically this is why I said Britain is in for a protracted period of pain and suffering. A leader (think Trumpian type) who is is indispensable for ending the the foolishness has no problem ending the Paris Accord cancelling Net Zero, cancelling Green Subsidies, chopping income tax and carbon tax, and all the trappings that support the wrecking of the economy, agriculture, cheap energy, reliable affordable grid…
It is actually simple to do because without other peoples money this aardvark will die in a few days. The clean up, now that’s a bigee. And their will be the heads of Unicorn Institutes and redundant faculties and gov departments to lay off, etc, etc.
Well said Gary,
How much pain and suffering do people have to put up with untill they dump their idiot governments that are hell bent on destroying their countries .
The UK should tell the UN where to stuff the Paris accord the same as they told the EU where to go .
If any of the readers here think that socialism and one world government is the answer with the government controlling every thing tell us .
Restrictions on energy have a negative effect on all things that are necessary in the modern world which is food , clothing , housing .and heating in winter.
We haven’t had the likes of global outfits like IMF calling the domestic shots before
You might want to check Denis Healey’s memoirs.
That was begging, it was not intervention and the IMF did not issue an unwarranted statement
You might want to check your memory
The conditions for the loan may have been thrashed out in the offices on H Street rather than announced in the press beforehand, but Healey had to go to Washington and sign on the dotted line
That was begging, it was not intervention and the IMF did not issue an unwarranted statement
This is very different and that is the point.
UK is sliding into the mire at a decent pace – certainly close to banana republic rate:
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/current-account
Just a slight reduction in the rate of decent in Q2 2022 but still an impressive fall into the energy abyss.
Unlike the USA, the UK foreign debt matters because the liabilities are not necessarily denominated in GBP.
As a young, starting-out geologist I worked for Continental Oil Company (CONOCO), and was sent to management classes, which included adding a section “Critical Paths and Fatal Flaws” to reports. Let’s give it a try: For a company to invest in fracking projects in Britain the Critical Path is long and torturous, at best, and the tendency for cancellation constitutes a likely Fatal Flaw. Forget about it (take your investors money elsewhere).
Last April, Brandon & Co. claimed the reason for no new offshore
oil & gas leases was a math error, which six months later still
hasn’t been fixed. Riiiiiiiiight!
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/biden-admin-keeps-delaying-oil-gas-permitting-math-error
Woke central (Parliament) does it again
People are just spectators, this is not a democracy, it’s a mediaeval joke
As good a description as I have seen to date.
Globalist coup.
Magical thinking is the only kind of thinking the Tories seem to do nowadays. The one thing that surprises me is Truss being pro-fracking. Everything else she’s proposed has been entirely fantastical. I can only assume she’s in favour of it for mistaken reasons.
And while I’m here, where are my “sunny uplands” Boris?
Bunch of ‘tards.
One point in her favour, she tried to do the right thing. But I don’t know if anything can save Britain at this point, I predict a dissolution of the union within the next 10 years.
Eric, ditto the EU, unless there are major reforms which will massively reign in Brussels – which will not happen. I predicted the demise of the EU by the time my son reached 70 and now I am having to bring this date forward.
the only reason I voted for Brexit was to get out of EU stupidity. Boris has demonstrated an even more ludicrous moronicness.As far as I can see both Europe and the UK are doomed and have committed economic suicide. Do I detect the hand of WEFand our elite betters. Not that the US is far behind and China and Russia seem headed for the buffers pretty fast
Oh please. Reign-in Brussels, not “Reign in”. There is too much of that already.
urrrr.
Auto
I realized I should have typed “rein in” but unfortunately this website only allows a brief moment to make corrections. Brussels does believe in a right to reign over the EU even though they cannot explain who has actually given them this right or how ordinary citizens can hold them accountable.
There is a possibility (remote but almost growing by the day) that in the event of a General Election the SNP could be the official opposition to the labour party.
I have yet to think about how that would work with the SNP’s desire for independence.
Nor is it a fanciful idea. Something similar happened in Canada some years back.
Except there are a maximum of 59 seats available to the SNP, which means that Labour and Lib Dems would have to get 475 seats between them to relegate the Tories behind the SNP, in which case it’s likely that the Lib Dems would become the opposition. Sorry Hotscot, simply won’t happen.
Richard, I suspect that you are right but calculations made by Electoral Calculus, based on recent opinion polls, had Labour winning 507 seats if a General Election was fought just now. So 475 between Labour and the Lib Dems would be perfectly achievable.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/homepage.html
Were the SNP to become the Official Opposition a most interesting situation would arise. The leader of the SNP Parliamentary group would become the Leader of His Majesty’s Official Opposition. So he would stand opposite the Prime Minister at PM’s Question Time. However, the Shadow Education Secretary would not stand opposite the Education Secretary at Education QT because the SNP declines to have anything to do with purely English matters. Indeed, we might have a situation where, during PM’s Question Time the Leader of the Opposition remains mute because the matter being discussed is purely English.
You are vowel blind. Fancy using an”A” when a “U”wouild be more correct!
And the UK FREEZES without electricity and energy…
Well done, Tories..
Time to realise how WRONG and LEFTIST you have become.
Reform Party it is then. Although I do find Richard Tice slightly lacking in charisma. I suspect Nigel Farage leading the party again might be considered too risky, as much as I want him to.
But Reform wants to nationalise the energy industry – another bunch of socialists.
They propose nationalising it only to overcome the energy crisis.
No worse that Liz Truss chucking £200bn at the problem.
No, it’s been in their manifesto for a couple of elections now. It is not there because of the energy crisis. North Shropshire by election last year it was on their mailshots.
Actually if you actually take a look at their manifesto they don’t want to nationalise the energy companies – they want the government to step in, declare force majeure and control pricing and production of North Sea and fracked wells. Presumably they also have the opinion that energy companies may hold back and price gouge if given a chance.
It’ll be interesting to see the reactions of these MP’s when the power cuts begin over the winter and they have constituents baying for their heads on a platter.
Major German businesses have already declared bankruptcy and more will follow rather quickly.
Boris Johnson persuaded Zelensky not to accept Putin’s offer of peace negotiations back in March, in Istanbul. Many MP’s in parliament want the moron reinstated.
They’ll claim they gave people a chance, and blame the objectors in the consultations for the delays.
Seriously they’ve thought that part through. The bit they’ve missed is what happens next, when people come for them with torches and pitchforks. In their arrogance they are 100% confident they will remain in charge.
Even the legendary loyalty of the British forces will be tested, when they home go on leave, only to find granny frozen solid in her unheated hovel.
Agree with that although some senior Tory party members are recognising this could be the end of the Conservative party.
The torches and pitchforks are already out in Germany. I believe there’s some unrest in Italy over energy regardless of the new PM.
The French are also out in the streets with Macron doing his usual, threatening violence against them, but he doesn’t seem to have the support of the Generals to call out the army if it goes badly.
Hungary seems the only EU country with a sensible and determined leader. Orban isn’t putting up with all this nonsense.
Turkey will soon be calling the shots across Europe (as opposed to the EU) as they have maintained relationships with Russia and will be the continent’s gas hub when Ukraine is finally concluded, probably in the spring judging by informed commentators.
The consensus of opinion seems to be that if peace talks were offered now, Putin would turn them down as the Russian people are now baying for blood and want Ukraine in its entirety to be occupied.
It’s shocking how badly the US (NATO) and the EU have handled this situation. One of Putin’s stated objectives was to expose the globalist elite and their agenda, and it seems it’s working.
Putin is a dyed in the wool Nationalist and Christian. If Russia does occupy Ukraine we can expect Putin to be the best ally the common man across Europe has in the fight against the globalist’s. Doubtless the principle reason he’s been demonised across the continent and America.
I think Putin is just another globalist – where he thinks Russia will be the leader. I agree that he is a Nationalist but, his penchant for assasination and otherwise silencing his opposition is hardly Christian.
The theory that the enemy of my enemy is my friend will meet the same end as the infamous leader that stated that postulate – assasination.
We worked with the Soviet Union in order to defeat Hitler. However that did not make Stalin one of the good guys.
There’s a difference between utilizing an enemy’s actions and considering them friendly. We did have military leaders that thought we should continue eastward to take them out also. Unfortunately, the U.S. didn’t follow through for “political” reasons.
The leftists would have you believe socialism and communism is just fine and dandy when it is not recognizing the inherent threat that those governments present.
I don’t get how he can be a globalist and a nationalist at the same time.
As for his “penchant for assasination [sic]’, do you imagine for a moment that the west would be broadcasting what Russians they have assassinated on Russian soil?
Not that Salisbury was suspicious at all. A fatal drug known only to the Russians (allegedly) spread on doorhandles to kill a known, but unprotected Russian traitor. Personally, I would have set up some witless and desperate druggy with a gun to shoot him. Or how about sneaking into his house and spiking his breakfast cereal with arsenic?
Meanwhile the devoted Catholic, Joe Biden, is supplying Ukraine with billions of dollars of weaponry to continue a futile war which Putin has already offered to settle peacefully.
I’m no Putin fan but Trump was supposedly colluding with him to win the 2016 election, and it was all a Democrat set up.
Well! Knock me down, yet another crime Putin was accused of. Funny none of this violence happened under Trump.
He can be a globalist and a nationalist at the same time if Russia is the world ruler.
I’m sure the CIA has done some of the same kind of assasinations as the Russians have. I’m not saying the U.S. is without sin. They probably are just better at keeping it quiet while Putin is more about bragging about elimination of opponents for intimidation purposes.
Joe Biden is not a practicing Catholic, it is his cover to say he has religious morals. If he was a real Catholic, he would not be for abortion. It is just another political fascade.
I’m not a fan of Putin or Zelensky. I think they are both bad guys. Unfortunately the people of the region are stuck in the middle. Maybe Putin is more of a bad guy but I’m not sure of that.
“’I’m no Putin fan”
I can’t believe you just said that.
I present the facts, I don’t take sides. If you don’t like the facts then you clearly take sides.
You present the facts as you see them, but it appears to me that you are a Putin fan, since you are always making excuses for his actions, and always attack the West as being the instigators of the conflict.
You don’t have your facts straight. You claim the UK talked Urkaine out of sitting down for peace talks with Putin and you base this “fact” on one questionable source.
So yes, you are making excuses for Putin. Why, I don’t know, but that’s what you are doing.
So when you say you are not a fan of Putin, I have to laugh.
Your posts speak for themselves.
The US wouldn’t advertise it, but the Russians would be.
If Ukraine agrees to give Putin everything he wants, Putin will stop killing Ukrainians. What a deal, we should all hope for someone giving us a deal like that.
Why would Russia advertise it?
They are getting killed anyway. Why not try? They didn’t kill Ukrainians after Crimea and the Ukrainians were killing Russians for the last 8 years.
A fatal nerve toxin known only to the Russians that, coincidentally, had samples available to test against in several labs around the world (including Porton Down) and the same substance that the Americans had, some years before, dismantled and decontaminated a production facility of in Mongolia? You mean that drug? Nah mate, only the Russians could possibly have access to any of that stuff.
“Meanwhile the devoted Catholic, Joe Biden”
I’m not sure what a ‘devoted Catholic’ is but it can be argued that Joe Biden has excluded himself from communion with the Catholic Church on the basis of his promotion of abortion. He is also a staunch promoter of all sorts of fancy rainbow politics, all at total variance with the teaching of the Catholic Church. As Cardinal Newman put it:
“And so again, when a man has become a Catholic, were he to set about following a doubt which has occurred to him, he has already disbelieved. I have not to warn him against losing his faith, he is not merely in danger of losing it, he has lost it; from the nature of the case he has already lost it; he fell from grace at the moment when he deliberately entertained and pursued his doubt. No one can determine to doubt what he is already sure of; but if he is not sure that the Church is from God, he does not believe it. It is not I who forbid him to doubt; he has taken the matter into his own hands when he determined on asking for leave; he has begun, not ended, in unbelief; his very wish, his purpose, is his sin. I do not make it so, it is such from the very state of the case.” (Discourse 11)
If Putin is such an ally of the “common man”, why does the common man suffer so much in Russia.
Putin is as much an elitist as the guys you hate, the only difference right now is that his geopolitical goals involve taking over everything, and the guys you hate want to keep their playgrounds for themselves.
As for the common people wanting Putin to take over the entire Ukraine, would that be the same common people who are running for the border rather than risk being drafted?
“As for the common people wanting Putin to take over the entire Ukraine, would that be the same common people who are running for the border rather than risk being drafted?”
Yes, I think he has badly misinterpreted what the situation in Russia really is. It almost sounds like he is reading Putin propaganda and putting it out to us as being the truth.
There are literally no “good guys” anymore. A pox on ALL their houses! Putin, Zelensky, Fond’a’Lyin, Boris Part 2, and of course, Dementia Joe Brandon.
100%!!!!!
I assume from that comment you believe everything our governments told you about covid was true?
And I guess Joe Biden is right when he brands white Americans as domestic terrorists.
When he tells you the US isn’t in recession that’s also true.
“I assume from that comment you believe everything our governments told you about covid was true?”
Why would you assume that? Why would you assume I believe anything Joe Biden says? Because I don’t beleive the West is in a conspiracy to oust Putin? If I don’t believe that, then I must believe all the liars involved?
You’re not that gullible, though, are you. You know the West is out to get Putin even if it starts a nuclear war? Right?
Conspiracy theories are only that unless evidence is provided. I’ve seen no evidence. I’ve seen a lot of unsubstantiated claims about the Ukraine war. But just like in human-caused climate change, I don’t accept unsubstantiated claims as being proof of anything. And that’s all you have.
How do you think they live in Russia?
An acquaintance of mine has lived there for 30 years, he tells me he has more freedom there than I have in the UK e.g. 14% flat rate income tax and free basic healthcare. He lives in Ufa, the centre of jet engine production in Russia with 5 universities. He’s an oil and gas journalist, freely travels the country and travels overseas at will.
His luxury three bedroom apartment overlooks the Hilton and Holiday Inn hotels and cost him £75,000.
That’s how people live in Russia, so those are some facts for you.
Where did Putin say his goal was to take over Ukraine? He will, but he’s offered peace talks and Boris Johnson persuaded Zelensky to turn them down. Who in their right mind turns down peace talks? Putin is left with no choice.
It’s a bit like covid and ‘vaccines’. Nothing western governments or the media told us about it was true.
As I said, eastern Ukraine was under attack by Zelensky for 8 years, but evidently that’s allowed because ‘Putin bad’. A bit like Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Just when do people stop falling for our government’s lies?
“Where did Putin say his goal was to take over Ukraine? He will, but he’s offered peace talks and Boris Johnson persuaded Zelensky to turn them down. Who in their right mind turns down peace talks? Putin is left with no choice.”
You keep making this claim but there is no evidence substantiating this claim. I asked you previously to provide evidence for this claim but I never heard back from you. Why is that?
Btw, Hotscot, I’m not trying to pick on you. I agree with almost everything you post concerning human-caused climate change, but I think you are entirely off-base on this Ukrainian issue.
Best we have a cold winter now because otherwise things will only get worse as we dig deeper into the green mass of manure
Boris Johnson didn”t persuade Volodymyr Zelensky to do anything. Unlike Boris and all the other great supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies of the Western ruling class, Zelensky has a clear and unwavering will to do what’s right for his people, with self-determination and freedom being his highest value. When offered safe passage out of Ukraine after Putin attacked, Zelensky told the West he didn’t need a flight, he needed weapons, risking his life to lead what appeared to be a futile effort by the Ukrainian mouse to defeat the Russian bear.
The armchair pundits of all political stripes have been dismissive of Zelensky and Ukraine and efforts to help them repel the utterly evil Putin for various reasons ranging from the corruption of prior Ukrainian leaders (reasoning that Ukraine and Zelensky must be hopelessly corrupt too, against all evidence to the contrary) to the wish to quickly end the humanitarian tragedy even if it means capitulating to this generation’s evil tyrant (as Neville Chamberlain and other deluded leaders did with Adolf Hitler) to the understandably self-interested desire to stop the massive economic suffering of idiot states whose leaders sold their souls to the devil so they could proclaim their virtue in the effort to “combat” climate change and appear to be “doing something” by buying their fossil fuel from Putin rather than extracting it themselves. Despite the very serious risk of an escalation of the war and the saber-rattling threat of nuclear devastation by Putin and Medvedev, squishy European and American leaders have maintained their materiel support for beleaugured Ukraine, though their reluctance has maddeningly delayed deliveries of desperately needed weapons.
The Ukrainian people have demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt over the last decade or so as they kicked out one corrupt leader after another, electing an improbable leader in an entertainer with no political experience promising to cleanse corruption, and over the last several months, making the ultimate sacrifice against an outside tyranny, that they are serious about freedom and have pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for their independence.
Yes he did. It’s a matter of official record.
But it’s fine for Zelensky to attack eastern Ukraine for 8 years?
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) recorded 7 days of continuous artillery shelling by Zelensky into the Donbas BEFORE Russia crossed the border to help with a limited force of 160,000 troops, against 400,000 Ukrainian troops. Does it make sense to “Invade” a country with less than half the defending force?
I don’t like what Putin’s doing, but nor do I like what Zelensky has been doing for 8 years. All I can do is establish facts. No one is innocent here, including western powers.
I see the Ukraine hub propaganda department has now arrived in force. Such bias is extremely unflattering, don’t you think?
Let’s hope that, as we speak, Dua Lipa is in the studio recording a modern cover of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly”.
‘The people who come after my fall won’t be as nice.’
Hayek’s ‘The Road to Serfdom’ comes to mind here.
Who said we need more women in politics?
New Zealand farmers protest world’s first livestock ‘burp tax’ (msn.com)
“If mainstream parties don’t deliver a solution to Britain’s energy problems”
Er, hello…. Parliament isn’t going to change tack. We’re being fast tracked not to the alleged anthropocene, but to the neo-neo-lithic.
One thing I discovered that has never been mentioned in the public square is the emissions allowances under the net zero targets. It means, for example in construction, that 200,000 homes or less may be built in a year when we clearly need a lot more. So housing shortages are well and truly baked in (geddit!)
I don’t believe fracking will start. Hunt is really in charge now and he is a green globalist.
Every time I think things could not get worse in UK politics, I am proved wrong. Economics and climate and immigration and energy are not the real problems – they merely reveal the symptoms of a decaying society. The problem is a serious dearth of good, competent and inspiring leaders who will get the job done.
They had it all, but no, they pissed it all away like cheap lager.
All they had to do was be conservative for christs sake and they could’nt even do that.
Disgraceful.
I hope the whole lot of them crash and burn.
Give me a Giorgia Meloni any day.
How much do you like being hen-pecked?
Sa tu Petrucchio?
You want to freeze in the dark instead? Your choice, not mine.
There’s no immediate danger of that in Southern England
Italian women are something else
I wouldn’t know, I don’t live in the privileged Southern England, I live in one of the areas that’s likely to have it’s energy diverted to keep the lights on in Southern England.
Nonsense. We didn’t have a privilege during the three day week and we don’t have one now
Really? How much has been spent on infrastructure and services in Southern England vs the rest of the UK? The spending over the last 40-50 years has always favoured the South and nothing has changed so far, despite half-hearted calls to ‘level up’.
I think “vested interests” is misleading and far too narrow. Alarmism is a deeply entrenched social movement. No government can simply walk in and turn it around. Much pain and confusion lies ahead. Labour will fail too.
When we talk about a decaying society, we are making an implicit assumption that our societal values have changed in some ways that are causing changes detrimental to our common wellbeing. Alex Epstein in his recent book “Fossil Future” makes the case that our moral values have changed. Our primary moral goal was once that almost all things that improved the living standards of humanity was good; it has been replaced with an anti-human moral goal that anything humans do to the environment is destroying the delicate balance of nature, not matter how much it improves the lives of people and is therefore bad. He clearly shows how these different moral positions impact how view deep earth fuels or atomic energy or hydroelectric power as good or bad. A must read.
Truss has resigned.
Oh well.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/10/20/liz-truss-resigns-at-just-45-days-the-shortest-lived-uk-prime-minister-ever/
AND, new PM to be selected in one week (i.e. you partymember serfs will take what we give you and be grateful!).
I wonder if this will be the pattern for a while? “We will keep forcing them out until you lot make the right choice.” I think someone’s very upset that the Tory ‘faithful’ didn’t pick dishy Rishi!
here it is…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63332037
This sad state of affairs is spreading like wild fire across western “democracies”. The US has the opportunity to at least slow the progress down in less than 3 weeks now, but I am not convinced that republicans have the necessary backbone to do what is necessary, and too many actually buy into the globalclimatewarmingchange narrative in any event. It is sickening that it will likely take a mass casualty event like what may very well happen this winter in the UK, Germany, and the EU in general to get people sufficiently motivated to fight back for real. None of the politicians in any western government will suffer the consequences of the energy policies they are foisting on us peasants, so pitchforks, torches, tar and feathers may be necessary.
“Prime Minister Truss defeated an attempt to ban fracking – barely. But the long winded consultation process tacked on by her rebellious MPs will likely prevent any genuine progress for the foreseeable future.”
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Has anyone noticed that Fox News is reporting that PM Truss is stepping after less than 2 months in office? She didn’t last long, did she?
https://www.foxnews.com/world/uk-prime-minister-liz-truss-resigns-less-than-2-months-office
The result is academic and always was going to be unless the price of energy dropped significantly as a result. The Conservatives were unlikely to win a majority before the Truss Debacle and after it they’ll do very well to avoid a total wipeout
She’s just resigned, so don’t count on it.
Liz Truss resigned after 28 days in office.
Looks like the majority did not favor here energy policy
The same amount of time Brian Clough lasted at Leeds United – 44 days
Make that 45 days, not 28 days
Either amount was a new record for the UK
She is the only PM to serve two monarchs since Winston Churchill in 1952.
(You can spin anything)
“Looks like the majority did not favor her energy policy”
So that’s the reason she is out. The reason was kind of hard to determine from the news reports I’ve seen.
So Liz Truss being in favor of fracking was enough to lose her political support in Britain. Well, Britain is in real trouble then. If the political class can’t see the benefit of fracking now, then they are deaf, dumb and blind to reality, and they are the ones leading the nation off the cliff.
Idiocracy in action.
I feel sorry for the people of Britain who are going to have to suffer because of their delusional leaders.
More windmills and solar will not fix this problem. But you can’t tell UK politicians that.
But she hired a minister that wanted Netzero and was against fracking, didn’t she. What did she expect?
I definitely have a lot to learn about the political situation in Britain.
What seems to be apparent is that too many of the leadership, including conservatives, believe CO2 is a demon gas that needs to be controlled and therefore, Britain’s energy problems will not be alleviated soon because they will reject the only solutions they have which is to increase coal, and natural gas production, in the shortterm.
Meanwhile, the People suffer from their leaders’ delusions.
Better call an election and get the mess handed to Labour before the stuff really hits the fan. The UK is done for. Best to hit bottom quickly and maybe have a chance of rising from the ashes.
er… no.
energy policy didn’t figure at all in the catastrophe
(except in confusion over the fracking vote – was it required for MPs to support the govt or not?)
The Tories put a 3-line whip in place so yes, it was actually required for MP’s to support the govt or be suspended from the party. Rather academic now as Truss decided to walk instead. I do hope she takes the PM bonus in a great ‘F you’ to Starmer.
After watching more news reports, I see that fracking was not the only issue that caused Liz Truss problems. Apparently her actions upset the financial markets greatly, although I’m still not clear on how this could happen in just a few short weeks. In the U.S. we couldn’t even implement a policy in a few short weeks, much less have the implemented policy bring down the government a few weeks later.
It does seem like fracking has been put on the backburner though, which means Britain is not going to climb out of their power supply mess anytime soon. The Demonization of CO2 has driven many people in positions of power crazy.
The IMF and international market forces have made things perfectly plain that THEY own the UK economy and if the UK govt step out of line then they’ll suddenly get all pissy with the borrowing rates and send inflation into overdrive. The unions tried to bring down the Thatcher govt so Thatcher broke the unions. This time the international globalists have succeeded in bringing down the govt – the UK may remember this in years to come.
I was going to post “the PM is toast” but she already resigned.
Reformers are unwelcome.
Truss has just resigned.
Her fracking policy was as incoherent as her economic policy. For fracking but for Net Zero; for increased spend and for tax cutting, an inflationary fiscal policy as a solution for inflation. Truss turned out to be just another unqualified affirmative action failure.
Headlines this morning that Truss just resigned.
At some point there will be a revelation in political circles in the developed countries and a simple question:
How is it possible that energy prices are going up when “renewable” energy is free? The answer is incomprehensible for most politicians. Australia’s new climate change and energy minister has stated that the sun is always shining somewhere in response to questions about intermittency of wind and solar power on The Australian grid!
It is interesting to see China no longer subsidising “renewables”. I believe their decision makers have a good grasp of the manufacturing process and why coal is the primary input to a manufacturing powerhouse – in excess of 4.3bn tonnes consumed in 2021. This is EIGHT times what the USA consumed.