From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Doug Brodie
Labour are now trying to cause as much damage to this country as possible, before they are kicked out:
Sir Keir Starmer is preparing to tie Britain to the EU’s net zero plans in a move that would impose radically stricter clean energy targets on homes and businesses.
The Prime Minister and Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, are negotiating for Britain to rejoin the EU’s internal electricity market, which treats the 27 countries of the EU and Norway as a single borderless power grid.
The EU will only let Britain back into the system if Sir Keir agrees to the bloc’s ambitious targets for renewable energy, which would require the UK to decarbonise not just electricity but also heating and transport rapidly.
In practice, it would mean net zero targets would need to be doubled.
Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, accused the Prime Minister of “surrendering control of our energy system to bureaucrats in Brussels”.
She said: “UK ministers will be forced to reduce emissions regardless of what it will do to people’s energy bills or the competitiveness of our businesses.”
It comes as Labour seeks to forge closer ties with the EU, with MPs debating in recent weeks whether Britain should return to the customs union.
The plans would also aid Mr Miliband’s ambitions to decarbonise the power grid, allowing the UK to import foreign electricity when low wind or sunshine cuts output from wind and solar farms.
The EU’s demands emerged in a document placed without fanfare on the Cabinet Office website. The plan is both technically challenging and politically sensitive because it would make UK energy policy subject to EU jurisdiction.
It stated: “The Electricity Agreement should … set an indicative global target for the share of renewable energy in the gross final consumption of energy in the United Kingdom. To ensure a level playing field, the global target should be comparable to that of the European Union.”
The EU’s target is that 42.5pc of all its energy should come from renewables by 2030, with an aspiration to reach 45pc.
This is roughly double the UK’s current level of 22pc.
Mr Miliband has set a target to decarbonise Britain’s power generation by 95pc by 2030, but electricity accounts for only 20pc of UK total energy consumption, so this will never be enough to meet EU demands. Transport, heating and industrial energy account for 75pc of the UK’s total energy consumption.
At the moment, the UK gets about 75pc of its total energy from oil and gas, a level that has hardly changed in decades.
Energy experts said the EU target could only be achieved by accelerating the replacement of boilers with heat pumps, adding more biofuels to petrol and diesel, and encouraging even faster adoption of electric vehicles.
‘Billpayers should be very worried’
David Turver, an energy analyst, cast doubt over the feasibility of the target even with more ambitious action.
He said: “Whether it’s a 42.5pc or 45pc target by 2030, it doesn’t matter. It’s totally unachievable. Unless, of course, they totally crush overall energy consumption and the whole of Europe deindustrialises and goes back to 19th century levels of energy use.”
Ms Coutinho said: “Billpayers should be very worried about what the Labour Government is signing up to. The EU’s Renewable Energy Directive is like all the worst parts of the UK Climate Change Act – on steroids.”
Britain left the EU internal electricity market in 2021 as part of Brexit – but has since become increasingly dependent on its European neighbours to keep its lights on.
Power generated in France, Holland, Belgium, Norway and Denmark reaches the UK via seven interconnectors – subsea cables – with plans for several more.
On Tuesday, about 18pc of the UK’s electricity was being generated overseas, mostly in France, Norway and Denmark.
On some days recently more than half the electricity consumed in London and the south east is generated in France.
The UK’s exclusion from the EU market means its traders are banned from using the automated algorithms that optimise cross-border flows and have to buy and sell manually.
They also have to buy interconnector capacity and electricity in separate transactions. The “clunkiness” of such trading adds costs estimated at up to £370m a year.
Full story here.
The Tories and Reform need to make it absolutely clear that they will tear up this agreement on entering office. If the EU don’t like it, they know what they can do.
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WHY, Just tell us why! You can’t, because NET ZERO policies achieve nothing but poverty. Starmer and Miliband must be locked up.
Why? You gave the answer – poverty.
That’s their only voter base after destroying all the labor.
It’s a long way on the road to own nothing ;
and a longer one to love it.
Whatever these political whores do whilst in the whorehouse, will be reversed as soon as they are booted out onto the street. The people will ignore all the gov’t climate claptrap as they are doing with its poison jab advice. When push comes to shove, the public has the heavier weight, as long as they turn up in numbers. Make way for Reform who will probably fuck things up even more.
The people of Blighty feel as if they have no say in this present political system of ours. That doesn’t bode well for the future of Blighty. The peasants are revolting, which has probably been said more than once down at Labour HQ
The real issue is how the Left continues to get votes after so many disasters over so many years.
The short answer is. The misconception that only a political party can defeat another political party. The truth is. Political parties are the root of all evil and they can only be defeated by individuals.
“The real issue is how the Left continues to get votes after so many disasters over so many years.”
They are unable to learn from mistakes because they can’t admit to making any. Being the morally superior tribe is all they have to justify complete disconnects from reality.
Buying votes through government handouts is common practice.
Let’s forgive all student loan debt. Anyone with an outstanding SL debt would happily vote for that.
Your latest polls indicate that collectively, Labour, Conservative and Greens have close to 55% support. Elections have consequences!
Sorry to disappoint you, but it is always easier to destroy than to built,
therefore a reversal won’t do much.
Then keep in mind that it was your tiny island that created an empire where the sun never sets.
And this happened via wars, subjugation and any evil trick you can’t even imagine – even to empires the multiple size of UK.
And if they were able to do such a thing thousands of miles away on such a scale – how easy will it be to them to do this in their own yard?
And on top of that – they have imported the civil war into your country with million military aged men, who hate you.
And who do you think will get all those guns that were officially left behind in Afghanistan or disappeared in Ukraine?
It won’t be the native population.
“even to empires the multiple size of UK”
Like India of course- rather absurd, a tiny island off the coast of Europe owning India. Such hubris.
“…on top of that – they have imported the civil war into your country with million military aged men, who hate you.” You mean like the American government has done in our country? Britain is still 83% white and 76% British. Want to guess the percentage of white population in America? About 57% now and dropping. Conservative governor DeWine in Ohio says he loves having Haitians in Springfield because they are good workers. Sure, and all the H1B truckers mowing down motorists are high skill critical workers. Let’s sweep our own side of the street before we go trying to fix other countries. Trying to fix other countries got us where we are today.
Since Brexit, all of Britain’s Tory and Labour governments bar one have actively prevented its implementation. That one was Liz Truss’s, and her own party removed her in 17 days. Britain deserves better. Reform is their only hope. But how can they force an early election?
But how can they force an early election?
**********
…… which is what I have been thinking, even as an American. Your next parliamentary elections are not until 2029, correct? Britain badly needs to do something to force early snap elections.
I suppose the only thing that can be done is to hit the streets with placards, pitchforks and torches and demand early elections. Political pressure needs to be applied unless maybe King Charles can intervene and call early elections?
2029 is a long way off. A lot more damage can be done between now and then.
Yes that is right a lot of damage has been done to our
country the UK over the last decades while we watched with envy the things that were happening in the US. The parliament that we have in the UK is determined to keep the will of the British people suppressed.
Do they want to reenact part of French history ?
They seem determined to do so …..
Your government has been going this way ever since the whomever was after Winston Churchill. Margaret Thatcher held it back while she was in, but after her the people who want the UK wrecked accelerated their plans.
And if the native population gets a bit too uppity, then they will conscript those men to be killed in the Ukrainian meat grinder.
A Hellova bunch of damage can and no doubt will be done. Look what Biden and the Dems did to the U.S. In just four years…and that ignores what Obama did to start the madness.
Good points.
Just about everything Biden did was detrimental to the United States in one way or another. He did serious harm in his four years.
Obama also did serious harm. I’m not sure which one was worse, although I think Biden made a lot more bad economic decisions than Obama, but Obama and Biden are about equal on bad foreign policies decisions.
Radical Democrats are delusional and don’t have a clue, which makes them very dangerous to the rest of us when they have political power. Don’t vote for them if you value your freedoms.
The madness started with LBJ’s “Great Society.”
A worthy consideration ..the rot runs deep in the Democratic party…had to start somewhere and actually, I think, before the Civil War.
King Charles is a “Green Zealot”. He loves the current political situation.
An early election would be a disaster for Reform UK. They need more time to plan for government.
But how can they force an early election?
There isn’t a written constitution in Britain, there is simply a set of laws as passed by Westminster and accumulated informal practice. For example, the UK moved from giving the PM of the day the power to call a general election, to a fixed term parliament, and back, all simply by a majority vote in Parliament.
There are only two formal mechanisms by which an early General Election could take place. One would be a decision by Starmer (or his successor) to hold one. A second would be if the Government were to lose a confidence vote in the Commons.
The legal fiction under which the UK operates is that the PM is some figure invited by the Crown to form a government. The fiction goes back to 1688, when it was reality. Now, in the age of Party discipline, the Crown will invite the leader of a political party which can command a majority in the Commons. Should he/she lose that ability, as shown by loss of a major measure on a matter which is deemed a confidence measure then the convention, well, rather more than that, the universal practice since 1688, is that the PM then goes to the Crown, resigns as being unable to command a working majority, and a General Election is called.
Starmer is not going to the country unless there is some dramatic change in the Government’s fortunes and ratings. The Labour Party has a huge majority and is not going to lose a vote on a confidence measure.
So is there any other informal way an early election could happen. Yes, it is possible. A real financial crisis requiring IMF intervention on draconian austerity terms. A crisis, such as a nationwide month long blackout in mid-winter. Circumstances in which legally the government can carry on, but in which under the unwritten constitution it becomes clear to the political class that they cannot afford to try.
How likely is that? I would put it over 50% that before 2029 one or both of the above will happen. Wind and solar are going to fail one of these winters, and a recession coupled with increased spending is going to get the bond markets into panic. They will simply refuse to buy government debt. Either or both of these quite probable events could trigger the kind of crisis that leads to a general recognition that an election is needed.
Though notice that the last time this happened Labour was in power and did not immediately call an election. So they may even then put it off until the legally required date of summer 2029. That move would of course only increase the scale of their rejection when finally the election happens. They could also declare a national emergency and cancel the 2029 elections. They are already cancelling loads of local government elections, mainly to stop the Reform landslide they fear more than anything. So postponement of national elections, well, there is form.
And if, as seems possible, the result, when elections are finally held, is a landslide for Reform, one can only say may God help Britain. Because only divine assistance will get them out of the resulting mess.
Do not place any faith in the Tories doing anything about this. They were the ones who violated the democratic will of the people to scupper Brexit. They spent 14 years in power and did nothing but continue the Blair project of decline and authoritarianism.
This is the face of the far left.
Nigel Farage may not be the saviour of the nation; he has a huge mountain to climb. Thatcher only had to repair the mechanisms of prosperity; Nigel has to repair the philosophy. It will be a long project of more than two terms of office, and for better or worse, we must align ourselves with America, as Europeans have always hated Britain.
Trump loves Britain.
Trump puts Britain at the front of the line (queue).
Britain loves Trump not Starmer.
WTH was with Labour destroying so much of industry in the UK, y’know, where the labourers jobs were? So stupid that a political party claiming to represent the workers has done so much to harm them.
It is cold and boring here in Lincoln UK , they say it is 5c but they also say it feels like -5c. I went outside and they are right. The weather forecasters keep promising exiting weather just ahead but when that time comes we always end up on the periphery somehow, so I have given up looking at weather forecasts and take it as it comes. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.
Lots more cold coming from the east, Holland, Belgium, Germany, all around 0°C
See …
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/orthographic=-13.55,56.00,464/loc=-5.063,53.594
Click on “earth” lower left for menus & info.
Move the cursor to the point of interest and left-click to display results.
The U.K. has many inter connectors with continental Europe and the net flow is strongly inwards to the U.K. Will Brussels insist that EU member countries cease supplying us unless we sign up for their ludicrous self destructive net zero targets?
The French threatened to cut off electricity supply to the Channel Isles over fishing rights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Jersey_dispute
From the Cabinet Office website:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/694922851a2e540ccd8a5454/20251222_Outcome_of_exploratory_discussion_FINAL.docx.pdf
Paragraph 11: The agreement should provide for the participation of the relevant United Kingdom regulatory authority in the Union agency ACER, without a right to vote, in line with the requirements of the Union acquis…
Paragraph 12: The Electricity Agreement should provide for an appropriate financial contribution from the United Kingdom to support the relevant costs associated with the European Union’s work in this area.
Taxation without representation didn’t work too well in 1773. Maybe we should don Ed Milliband masks and dump a shipment of solar panels in the English channel.
God bless America and it’s noble history of upsetting apple carts and tyranny…we need to do more here but you guys in the UK have your hands full of itty bitty tyrants, idiots, and traitors…We call them Democrats here. Best of luck…we all need it. There is a hard road ahead, and a very hard row to hoe for both of us.
“we need to do more here but you guys in the UK have your hands full of itty bitty tyrants, idiots, and traitors…We call them Democrats here.”
I love it!
Democrats are the worst! They are bad news. They are liars. They are power-hungry. They have no morals. They have no sense. Their only expertise is in taking things away from other people. When they get elected, things get worse.
A bunch of people, dressed as Indians, duping solar panels in the English channel is a vision I immensely enjoy and shall retain.
The UK elites never wanted Brexit. When the people voted for it anyway they tried to stall its implementation. Now they are trying to undo it piecemeal. Good luck with that.
“Now they are trying to undo it piecemeal.”
That’s what it looks like.
From the article: “Labour are now trying to cause as much damage to this country as possible, before they are kicked out”
That sounds like a U.S. Democrat tactic: Biden and the Democrats trash the American economy, and drive prices through the roof, and then the Democrats blame the high prices on Trump.
Labour will trash the UK economy and blame it all on Farage.
Labour is almost there when it comes to trashing the UK economy, as the UK economy only grew by 0.1 percent. Two quarters of negative growth signals an economic recession.
Labour’s climate and economic policies are completely deranged. The idiots are in charge in the UK.
“… Biden and the Democrats trash the American economy, and drive prices through the roof, and then the Democrats blame the high prices on Trump.”
Problem is, that works. While it gave Trump an advantage in the last election, once he took over the only thing the voters now look at is the increase in consumer prices and the decrease in buying power as left by Biden and the Democrats. While Trump may do a great job in reducing inflation, it is practically impossible to reduce prices for most consumer items without causing deflation. Thus, even after drastically reducing inflation, Trump may easily lose the next election because consumer prices haven’t dropped. Thus, the Democrats may easily regain control in the next election.
Joe Crawford: “Thus, even after drastically reducing inflation, Trump may easily lose the next election because consumer prices haven’t dropped. Thus, the Democrats may easily regain control in the next election.”
The way things are going, the Democrats will most certainly regain control of the House and possibly the Senate in the 2026 mid-terms. Plus some number of state houses and governorships as well.
Several factors are at work here.
Elections are numbers games in which the candidates who win have been successful in motivating their constituencies to come out to the polls in large numbers. Election fraud plays a supporting role when elections are close, but it is not likely to be the major deciding factor in the 2026 mid-terms.
This time around, the Democrats have latched onto a messaging strategy, the affordability issue, which resonates strongly with their core voter base. What happened this year in New York, in New Jersey, and in Virginia demonstrates they will not need election fraud to generate the numbers they need to win.
The Establishment Republicans who control most of the state party organizations — a.k.a. the GOPe — are bitterly opposed to Trump’s economic, trade, energy, and social policies. These people are fully content to keep the Republican Party as the controlled opposition to the Democrats.
Establishment Republican GOPe politicians have a long history of betraying the voters who put them into office. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are prominent examples of such GOPe Republicans with their systematic destruction of the Tea Party movement between 2010 and 2014. But there are thousands of other such people embedded in all levels of GOP politics.
As opposed to the GOPe Republicans who control the state organizations, the great majority of the Republican Party voter base supports Trump’s MAGA agenda. However, these voters will not turn out to the polls in the numbers which are needed if they believe their participation will have no positive outcome.
The last problem for the Republicans in the 2026 mid-terms is that Trump’s own people have done next to nothing to communicate, explain, and promote their MAGA economic and trade policies to the voters who might be inclined to come out for the 2026 mid-terms to see that those policies continue.
What happens in January 2027 if this is the outcome of the 2026 mid-terms? The first thing that happens is that Donald Trump is impeached and a trial is held in the Senate, but without a Senate conviction. The next thing that happens is a two-year bitter struggle to keep the MAGA agenda alive in the face of stiff Congressional opposition.
Independents now make up the largest voting block. Democrats moving hard left in blue cities is not going to play well in 2026. Trump has consistently defied the polls. My bet is that as the economy continues to improve he will be seen by a majority as the lesser of two evils. I pray I’m right about that..
gyan1: “Democrats moving hard left in blue cities is not going to play well in 2026.”
Independent voters remain divided. Loyal Democrats will still vote for Democrats regardless of what their candidates say or do in moving to the far left.
A big problem for the 2026 mid-terms is that Donald Trump himself will not be on the ballot to bring in potential MAGA voters from the ranks of the Independents, and to encourage the rank-and-file of the Republican Party to come out in defiance of the desires of the state Republican Party organizations.
What was seen in New Jersey, in Virginia, and in other places where Democrats made a strong resurgence — places where GOPe Establishment politicians have tight control of state Republican organizations — was that the Republican messaging and the Republican ground games were little different from the failed campaigns of the early and late 1990’s.
The strong Democrat wins this fall reflected their successful affordability messaging, their very effective ground games wherein they spent much time and effort making personal contact with the voters, plus the benefit of GOPe Establishment politicians consciously distancing themselves from Donald Trump and from his MAGA voter base.
The end result was that campaigns which might have been won by Republicans albeit tightly were instead lost even before they began.
“My bet is that as the economy continues to improve he will be seen by a majority as the lesser of two evils.”
Voters and the Economy will love it when gasoline prices go below $2 per gallon.
I paid $2.30 per gallon last week.
If you have some extra money, you should invest in the Stock Market right now, because the U.S. economy is going to take off.
Tom, what we have seen after a year of Trump’s trade and economic policies is that these policies are in fact doing the job that’s expected of them. It took awhile for these policies to start working their magic, but those policies have in fact started to produce the desired results.
If those Trump policies remain in place, the delivery of successful results will continue and even accelerate. But this fact won’t necessarily determine the outcome of the 2026 mid-terms.
The problem here is two-fold.
First, just as happened in 2018, the GOPe Republican Establishment is bitterly opposed to Trump’s economic and trade policies and will not support MAGA candidates in the upcoming elections. Moreover, the GOPe in the state party organizations and their GOPe allies in Congress are working even now to hand the Congress to the Democrats.
Second, what is known as the Uniparty, which is an informal alliance of RINO Republicans and Democrats in state and national politics, controls the public messaging and the public discourse concerning how well Trump’s policies are working to bring manufacturing and well-paying jobs back to America’s shores. If one believes the Uniparty narrative, the US is on the precipice of a major economic recession, combined with a major resurgence of inflation.
Unless this situation changes, and soon, we will be witnessing a Democrat blowout victory in the 2026 mid-terms and the forced return of the disastrous energy policies of the past two decades.
“Problem is, that works.”
That’s true. The Leftwing Propaganda Network is very effective at misleading people into believing things that are not true. They are the most dangerous organization on Earth to our personal freedoms, as a Democracy/Republic cannot govern itself properly if all the voters get are lies and distortions of reality. This causes them to elect the wrong people to power. About 75 million people voted for a moron like Kamala Harris in the last presidential election. A lot of confusion has been sown among those people by the Radical Leftwing Media.
If the truth were known, the Radical Democrats wouldn’t have a chance of being elected..
Tom, this latest Victor Davis Hanson article describes the presidential election cycle of 1992 in which the Clinton campaign successfully used a completely false narrative to claim that the United States was still in a recession:
https://victorhanson.com/pseudo-recessions/
Bush 41 might have won in 1992 except for the 3rd party run by Ross Perot; and because of the exceptionally poor messaging by the Bush campaign in getting out the word on his true accomplishments.
The Clinton campaign, with strong support from the MSM, was very successful in pushing their false narrative about the US economy. In addition, Ross Perot gathered in some good portion of the Independents and the rank-and-file Republicans, voters who understood they had been betrayed by Bush and his allied RINO Republicans in the Congress.
We won’t see a 3rd party on the ballot in the mid-terms. But what we do see happening today is a powerfully-delivered false narrative about the current state of the US economy, combined with a distinct lack of effective messaging concerning Trump’s actual accomplishments during his first year in office, most importantly his economic accomplishments.
Unless this situation is reversed, and soon, we will see the Democrats take control of the Congress in January 2027 plus many of the state governments now in the hands of the Republicans.
Trump could have called it a “Biden hangover.”
People want instant gratification.
There is no economic light switch.
I’m not sure what the best take-away is from this. Certainly “You can’t fix stupid” is one of them.
It is beyond my comprehension to understand how some wish to go against both common sense and real science, to do so much damage to their country, to their civilization. But it’s clear that that’s what’s happening here.
If the people let these loons get away with this, with all the damage that’s already been done to Europe and once-Great Britain, I can only shake my head in disbelief – and redouble my efforts to ensure it doesn’t happen here in the colonies lol…
“Labour are now trying to cause as much damage to this country as possible, before they are kicked out”
Sounds like a certain bunch of Germans circa mid 1945.
Couldn’t be more clear government is not the answer, wind, solar and storage are not the answer fossil fuel and nuclear are the answer. Fire up all fossil fuel and nuclear generators, build new fossil fuel and nuclear generators, remove all Net Zero mandates and tell the EU to take a hike.
British voters had better get rid of the Labour party as soon as possible; otherwise, they’ll find themselves and much of the country bankrupt due to its asinine climate policies
This article is ignorant of UK politics.
Point 1) The BBC, SKY and virtually all UK media are 100% convinced that urgent climate action is required to save the planet. See 24-Gate to find out why (yes, that is Greenpeace of China that set the agenda).
Point 2) Any green scepticism is political hemlock. Because of the media.
Point 3) The EU is pragmatically backing out of climate commitments – see the EV rules, for instance.
Point 4) Obstacles to trading with our largest economic neighbour are the biggest drag on the UK’s economy. Green initiatives are second.
That’s true!
Increased energy costs are less harmful than the increased regulatory complexity required to run an entirely separate system to the that of our largest trading partner but we now need that to trade with them.
Point 5) We can avoid Point 2 and Point 4 by piggybacking on Point 3.
Joining with the EU is backing out of green restraints. The UK has always been at a the forefront of the Green panic – not the EU.
Margaret Thatcher was a UK politician, not an EU cheerleader. The AGW scam is a UK child.
It’s not the EU that is pushing this, it’s us.
And this is a way to avoid the media flaying us for changing course.
PV and WTG systems are not “clean.”
Granted their conversion of energy does not emit much air pollution (WTGs do, a bit), that does not qualify the systems as “clean.”
There was a push for industry to assess their supply chains for “carbon emissions.”
I submit these monstrosities be required to do the same.