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.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
After following the GB news yesterday, read this piece and went back to find that she’s already resigned. “I’m a fighter, not a quitter” turned out to be false, too.
Not so much a Pyrrhic victory then, this move now seems a little more like drowning her rescue swimmer.
Aaaand…
She has now resigned.
“What a mess.” Well, yeah. Events have now overtaken this article.
Many Conservatives have failed to understand why they were elected with Boris. It wasn’t just to get Brexit done. They won’t always be able to rely on the opposition being so openly crazy that the middle ground won’t vote for the Labour Party.
Back on topic, the Conservatives have largely, and cowardly, bought into the global warming twaddle as much as anyone else. A few also decided to just line their pockets.
When both sides let the small minority of greenalists to dictate the menu than we may never get past the ‘fracking is evil’ mantra.
The Tories were elected on two policies:
A) Get Brexit Done.
B) Levelling Up (investing in the poorer parts of the country).
Brexit was too hard. They failed to get Brexit done. They failed to negotiate a new trading relationship with the EU (or the USA). They failed to sort out Northern Ireland borders. And then they had to go back to the EU, on their knees, begging to be allowed to renegotiate what they had already signed. The Tories still have no idea how to get Brexit done so they are pretending no-one cares about it anymore. But they do.
Levelling Up has been abandoned. Truss produced a Budget that the Daily Mail described as a “True Tory Budget”, But she forgot that Tory economics requires a huge injection of cash from ’80s North Sea Oil or the country goes bankrupt. With the economy tanking they had to reverse all the spending plans. That means no investment for the poorer parts of the country.
So, what is left of their manifesto? What is left of their mandate? Nothing. Which is why they are 25% behind in the polls.
The Tories last remaining policy is to cling to power for as long as possible to extract as much personal wealth as they can.
A parasite on the nation state; The Conservative Party.
It’s getting that way. Unfortunately if Labour gets in then things will get far worse far faster, although they are slightly better at lying and deceit than most Tories so might get more of a breathing space while they hide the bodies. I just have a very, very bad feeling about all this.
Me too, regarding your last sentence. But sometimes it’s wonderful how a period in opposition helps refocus the mind of politicians.
I admit I don’t like the prospects either way but the cause for optimism is that reality often quickly constrains governments elected on the most outrageous promises. Your opponents can usually be counted on to betray their own supporters just as quickly as the people you voted for yourself.
Evidence of what Labour did in opposition would seem to refute any idea of ‘refocussing’; all they seemed to do is copy and paste the worst of the Tories, but with more extremism and hate. If they had only got some clarity, some sense of purpose in opposition, then I might be all for them but they just come across as the worse option (even now, which is saying a lot).
Lemmings.
Britain narrowly averted a fracking ban.
Thus, narrowly avoided a declaration of de-industrialization.
The Tories are politically free falling, but the opposition Labor Party wants de-industrialization.
Expensive energy spells de-industrialization, which goes on to equal lower standards of living for the average Britain.
And, the Democratic Party, here, in America wants the same thing.
It would just be sad, but Democrats want to screw America.
Traitorous.
Liz Truss has resigned as British Prime Minister… as a direct result of this fracking ban vote.
Turns out to vote down the ban the government twisted Conservative arms… and it turned out that was too much.
Chaos is Britain… Chaos is the Biden Administration.
Inexpensive & plentiful energy is the key to stable governments.
Is there a lesson, here, for Democrats after they get washed out at the mid-terms.
They need a near death experience.
The problem is that the Labour party voted to ban fracking and luckily lost that vote.
However, they are likely to win the next general election – a party that wants to ban fracking!!!
What company would want to invest millions in UK fracking when the next government wants to ban it?
None.
And now she has resigned. Boris Johnson has put forward his name to replace her.
Things are moving fast in the UK, with Liz Truss now having resigned. The really bad news is that anyone standing for the leadership must have the support of 100 Tory MPs. In other words, the Tory parliamentary cabal is still operating like Xi Jinping wrt Hong Kong’s “democratic” elections: the cabal chooses the candidate first, then the party can vote. If the Tory party collectively had any nous, it would throw the leadership election open to all candidates and let the party members decide. Kemi Badenoch might have some sort of chance of rescuing the situation, the cabal’s choice, I suspect, will not.
Dementia Joe’s comment:
Two words:
“Prime Minister Starmer”
That worked well last time, didn’t it?
Broadly the same system that Labour uses and they have yet to elect a female leader but have elected Corbyn and Starmer – says a lot about Labour right there. It’s not a good system for either party; it’s open to manipulation and abuse but it’s what we’ve got, just deal with it.
Her MP’s are proof positive that the worldwide outbreak of stupid is a much larger problem than Covid-19.
I don’t understand a thing about British politics but how do these knuckleheads think people are going to heat their homes and businesses, power their production facilities, deliver goods and services and all the rest. People are so damn stupid!
The obvious conclusion is that there is no leadership from any party or faction.
One day Liz Truss will be remembered for trying to stand up for common sense on energy.
she did it to convince the party members who selected her: they nearly all live in parts of the UK not likely to be affected by fracking. No principle or concern for UK energy was involved!
Oh bear of little brain, are you really that stupid? Every part of the UK will be affected by fracking if it was allowed to go ahead – the concern was to try to keep the damn lights and heating on in a crazy world where we are sitting on abundant natural resources that could power the UK for decades and we can’t touch any of it.
The message to take from the fracking fracas is this: Tory MPs were prepared to vote against, even if that meant they ‘lost the whip’
(Withdrawing the whip means that an MP is effectively expelled from their party, but hangs on to their seat. They must sit as an independent until their party decides to restore the whip. Serious punishment).
Any tory govt facing an election/requiring support in Parliament is going to take note of that.
Fracking won’t get started, with the govt (still) in trouble and an election looming.
WTF Griff?
You can’t even get election timing right in your UK.
There is no mandate for an election for 2 years, or do you also understand zilch about the UK electoral system, like you understand F-all about French Nuclear power, and a host of other things you claim to be an expert on?????
“British politician Nigel Farage predicted Liz Truss would fail”.
Nigel is no longer a politician and has openly said that he will not return to politics as such.
(Although with the catastrophic mess the Tories are in right now, he might be persuaded to change his mind?) He is however very influential on the UK “People’s Channel” GBNews which carries a fair percentage of presenters questioning the climate con. (1900hrs GMT each weekday on or You Tube).
“And with a general election due by the end of 2023 at the latest.”
Since when was the law changed to make the maximum life of a Parliament four years rather than five?