Green isn’t working: voters and the economy say ‘no’
And so, right for the weekend, Westminster denizens have now ‘analysed’ the by-election results and are coming up with a ‘recipe’ on how to do better next time. Strangely enough, both Labour and Tories have found the same culprit for their ‘loss’ – yes, Starmer expected to win Uxbrudge as well. After all, it’s what the papers predicted. This unifying reason is: Net Zero! It’s even stranger because the MSM have been full of climate fear porn these past days, with headlines and photos of the hot ‘killer’ summer in Mediterranean countries. Does ‘death by climate’ not count any longer?
Mind you, good old Auntie B is still working hard at not mentioning this surprising acknowledgement by covering it up in their headline for today’s print editions’ front pages: “Newspaper headlines: By-election fallout and Lionesses roaring to go” (link). Just in case you wonder: no, that second part isn’t about more lionesses roaming the suburbs of Berlin, it’s about wimmins footie. And so to the ever so profound analyses of yon by-election results. The DT reports:
“The Tories defied expectations to hold Boris Johnson’s former Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat amid a row over Sadiq Khan’s expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez). […] On Friday, the Labour leadership were forced to distance themselves from Ulez, a flagship policy of the capital’s Labour mayor, after admitting that the voter backlash appeared to hand the Conservatives victory in Uxbridge.” (paywalled link)
Who saw this coming! Who predicted that Starmer and his deputy, Ms Rayner, would blame their crony’s Ulez policy for robbing them of their expected Uxbridge win! Apparently, “Sir Keir said he would “reflect” on the message from voters.” (paywalled link). Politicians ‘reflecting’ on voters’ wishes? Now that would be novel! Mind you, ‘reflecting’ doesn’t mean ‘changing’, so I expect many weasel words in the forthcoming Labour election manifesto but o change. As for the Tories: will they listen to this:
“Lord Frost, the former Brexit secretary, said: “The lesson is surely that green policies are very unpopular when there’s a direct cost to people, as indeed all the polling says. This time, that hit Labour, but soon it could be us unless we rethink heat pumps and the 2030 electric car deadline.” (paywalled link)
Indeed so, but it’s going to be so hard to stand against the eco-loons in their own party! Meanwhile, the FT report, headlined “Tories urge Sunak to water down green pledges after by-election carnage”, observes:
“Sunak’s allies insisted the prime minister would not renege on green commitments and would continue to do “the right thing”, but that families were rightly concerned about the cost of living.” (link, paywalled)
Oh dear. While Starmer ‘reflects’ as some Tories are still keen to keep doing ‘the right green thing’, I don’t expect Net Zero policies to change at all. I do expect the next government, regardless of who captures No 10, to increase taxes in the name of Ecolunacy because ‘teh rich’ must protect the poor, hard-working people from the costs of that lunacy.
Perhaps they ought to take a very close look at the ever increasing devastation such green policies are wreaking in Germany where the Green Party, part of the governing coalition, sinking ever deeper in the polls while the despised ‘hard extreme far right’ AfD is rising and rising, despite the unanimous attitude of politicians and MSM to make even thinking of the AfD a crime, labelling any who do so as ‘nazis’.
There’s a very interesting development however which ought to make the Net-Zero-fanatics ponder their idiocy. We were promised that ‘wind’ will deliver all this fabulous ‘green electricity’, were we not! There was going to be another huge offshore ‘array’ in the North Sea. However, this ain’t gonna happen now. The sad – for Net Zeroists – thing is that economic reality has bitten hard. Under the headline “Costs topple huge Vattenfall wind farm project” The Times had to report (all emphases are mine)::
“Sweden’s state energy company has abandoned work on a multibillion-pound wind farm off the coast of Norfolk because of soaring costs in a blow to Britain’s clean energy ambitions. Vattenfall said it was stopping development of the 1.4 gigawatt Norfolk Boreas wind farm, which could have powered about 1.5 million homes, after supply chain problems and inflation increased its costs by up to 40 per cent.” (link, paywalled)
Who could have predicted last year, when this Swedish Company won the auction to build these birdshredders, that the obscene energy prices would have an effect on industries in their building supply chain! Worse: the German paper ‘Die Welt’ has taken a closer look – after all, Germany was planning to build these things as well – reporting that:
“Vattenfall […] has rather trivialized the cost problem – the prices for steel and special metals have not increased by 40, but rather by 80 percent. The internationally coveted special ships, with which the huge towers are rammed into the seabed, now charge 60 percent more than three years ago. Internationally, a price-driving competition has developed for the production capacities for turbines, rotor blades and towers.” (link, paywalled, in German)
‘Supply chain problems’ are being blamed because other companies in yon ‘chain’ are “withdrawing from binding agreements”, and on the ‘geopolitical situation’, the novel way of mentioning the war in the Ukraine:
“Anna Borg, Vattenfall’s chief executive, said: “Higher inflation and capital costs are affecting the entire energy sector but the geopolitical situation has made offshore wind and its supply chain particularly vulnerable.” (link, paywalled)
As financial and economic reality bites, as the windfarm projects disintegrate, our Net Zero acolytes in Whitehall had this to say: “An energy department spokesman said: “We are listening to companies’ concerns.” (link, paywalled). Isn’t that lovely and caring of them! The ‘reflecting’ Labour chief will feel right at home among the ‘listening’ Whitehall mandarins!
I am intrigued to see how this government and the ‘opposition’ will try to square the circle of losing votes when adhering to green crappery while economic reality is pulling the rug from under their feet, when wind farms cannot be built because of inflation. Raising taxes for green crap will not be popular, not in the shires and not amongst the working population.
I wonder when the Net Zero fanatics in Whitehall and the Westminster MSM will recognise that even they won’t be able to afford their cushy lives should ‘more green taxes’ hit them. I wonder when ‘economists’ in the MSM, when the Treasury mandarins realise that Net Zero policies will drive even more SME into bankruptcy, crumbling the tax income and leading to more tax outgoings to pay for more jobless.
That’s all I have for today. We live indeed in interesting times, and the future has become even more ‘interesting’. Have a good weekend.
When it comes to Net Zero, CO2 and Climate change there are loads of vids/blogs/reports that can be relied upon to show the nonsense. (Eg England’s hottest temp records was a 6 second burst on the specific location half way down the runway at RAF Coningsby just when three Tornado Jets were taking off is such a report! )
Occasionally a brief post of a few seconds brings it all into clear focus. This is such a post!
https://www.facebook.com/reel/3476344089243855/?s=single_unit&__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVUA3RgdBss5iS8VbhH1McPKTzElCCl4kshUf2ECRQ636cA-jtWcpj9KfwAv_dft7c9RiokZnmh7V9RljQIY1-ZOL7et7oBnCWJ0lTbN8g3AJ8J5JfS8hP9Etgtg05o6rUn_kP8cnkLxQfa1VugxNpZn3IBHfMagWl7kc5VjCgQNJ22nVqPHyLYVFLxEqONVWs&__tn__=H-R
You could tell by the look on Steve Tuckwell’s face whilst Rishi Sunak delivered a speech on why the Conservatives won the by election in Uxbridge, that he didn’t believe a single word that was coming out of the mouth of his party leader. Sunak using the same meaningless platitudes on how he was going to continue to work for the people of Britain with that crap policy and this crap policy, I almost thought he would interject in and say ‘ why don’t you just shut the **** up’. The body language of Tuckwell spoke volumes whilst Sunak was rambling on about basically nothing in particular. The short answer is that Sunak has delivered diddly squat since being elevated into the position of prime minister, and needs to sit down and buck his ideas up and radically change his ridiculous policies and ditch the green agenda that he has been pursuing up to now, and take the bull by the horns of the migration crisis and do what he should have done a year ago and that is take this country out of the ECHR and start deporting the illegal boat migrants immediately back to their home countries immediately. Even now having got the Migration Act successfully onto the statute book and made law, he is still dragging his feet and concentrating his governments efforts on appealing against the Supreme Courts decision on Rwanda, rather than acting decisively for the benefit of citizens in this country and start deportation s back to home countries or France insofar as new migrants are concerned. And of course the other major problem of sorting out the stupid trade deal rules in Northern Ireland insofar as our exit from the European Union is concerned. Whatever way you want to look at it Sunak is weak as ditch water and afraid of his own shadow, and we need to be rid of from Downing Street as soon as possible. This country cannot wait until the next general election to be rid of him, and the Conservatives need to find somebody else PDQ who has some political conviction and backbone, and can go some way to clawing back some respect for their party. The bleak alternative is to be out of power for a very long time and perhaps never again, whilst lumbering the country with Starmer, another weak fool without a backbone.
Lord Frost should know better than anyone that the ‘neo-socialists, green fanatics and pro-woke’ tories will take no lessons from election results. Why does he bother? The tory ship is holed in the water with the first class stealing the life boats.
Sunak will go into the next election still promising to stop the boats. Will economic reality stop the eco-lunacy? No chance. Net-zero was never about sensible economic policy. Eco-battery plant? Yes please!…take a blank cheque..thanks very much mister energy secretary.
I could say more but I need my bank account.
CH- one of your better ones. No mention of ai, idiot, stupid or clueless – all unneccessary givens. (a compliment to you Mate).
Maharaja Ritchie is a lot like Remainer May. Std party responses to any question just like a robot looking for trigger words.
Except for Non Swamp Dweller Truss all others just another bunch of worthless renaimers – same as Stammer et al.
Biscotte………..in truth both Sunak and Johnson are not dimwits at all and are intelligent people who should know or should have known better. The language I used like the words that you have highlighted and also clown which you haven’t highlighted were written out of sheer frustration that a person/party I had lent my vote to for the very first time had betrayed my trust and failed to deliver on their manifesto promises. As you may have noticed I have toned down my more expressive words and gone for more tactful ones. However, you have used titles like ‘Maharaja’ in reference to Sunak once too often and which is a bit insulting, and perhaps you too need to rethink your choice of words. What say you?
Thankfully the Green Crappery is starting to be exposed for what it is.
A bit late today as it has taken time to stop laughing. In Ireland, in answer to the question of why July is cold when everywhere else on the planet is burning (as Irish media like to report), Prof Luke O’Neill (distinguished Irish scientist) has explained that Ireland is experiencing “asymptomatic global warming”.
Now that is either brilliantly sarcastic or, if meant seriously, brilliantly stupid …
Thank you Viv for your as usual brilliant analysis. And it is extra as well. It being Saturday.
If you or anyone else has noticed my absence from commenting – I am simply overhwelmed at the level of propaganda, corruption and plain stupidity around me here in north derbyshire to comment on the rest of the U.K. or the world.
Pauline – I share your feeling of being overwhelmed by the sheer stupidity, corruption and relentless propaganda. It’s the same here in the Principality, only more so. Still, we’ll KBO as best we can: bearing witness is important.
I recommend going deaf, and dozing a bit.. Then stand sideways and think of introducing grit into the lackwit thought processes. A tiny novel thought can have extraordinarily disproportionate nudges. D’you think Colin will notice that. :- ” A Corbyn resurgent” UKIP.