Spineless ministers have swallowed ludicrous claims over fracking – leaving us to pay the price with sky-high fuel bills
AS household energy bills continue to rise, too few people are asking: “Why?” This wasn’t inevitable. It is in part the result of successive British governments being timid and short-sighted in a way that has real-world consequences that hit all of us in the pocket. During the past decade this country had the opportunity to […]
AS household energy bills continue to rise, too few people are asking: “Why?”
This wasn’t inevitable.
It is in part the result of successive British governments being timid and short-sighted in a way that has real-world consequences that hit all of us in the pocket.
During the past decade this country had the opportunity to transform its energy position.
It was shown that the UK was sitting on vast reserves of shale gas.
This was a godsend. Over the previous decade — as North Sea production declined — this country went from being a net exporter of gas to a net importer.
So when it turned out we could have accessed our shale reserves with modern “fracking” techniques, any government should have leaped at the chance.
Not least because the areas of Lancashire and Yorkshire under which these reserves sit could have done with the massive economic boost that fracking would have brought.
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Seaside towns such as Blackpool that have been on the decline for generations could have suddenly sprung to life again with a rich new economy.
But something very sinister happened.
A massive campaign began against fracking.
In part this came from the Green lobby.
This lobby is so strange in its priorities.
It talks always about the need to preserve our environment yet thinks nothing of utterly ruining our landscape with huge, unsightly windfarms.
Go to areas of this country like the once-beautiful borderlands of Dumfries and Galloway and see it for yourself.
Areas of outstanding natural beauty have been utterly destroyed, the eyeline for ever changed by reams of vast metal monstrosities.
But the same people who want to destroy our landscape to save the environment were massively anti-fracking.
They insisted it was dangerous and they tried to scare away the public.
They were not the only ones.
A sinister campaign was also waged by foreign sources.
SINISTER CAMPAIGN
The propaganda outlets of the Russian government, for instance, constantly spread disinformation about shale.
The Kremlin’s official foreign television network, Russia Today, ran pieces making ludicrous claims such as “frackers are the moral equivalent of paedophiles” and that fracking gives kids cancer.
There have been plenty of fake Russian conspiracies in recent years.
But this, in the middle of the last decade, was a real one.
Moscow pumped tens of millions of pounds into anti-fracking propaganda in the West.
Although this country has never been reliant on Russian gas, much of Europe is.
An independent energy boom in this country would have changed everything.
For us and for our neighbours on the continent.
But the campaign against shale was deadly effective.
It attempted to change public opinion. And it did change political opinion.
Government ministers were told that there must be zero tremors from fracking.
The public were made to think that fracking would cause earthquakes if they went ahead, whereas a minimal amount of tremors are put up with from all sorts of heavy industry.
MASSIVE INVESTMENT
In the process the Government lost any courage they might have had.
Over the last decade Britain’s fracking dream slowly but steadily died.
While governments like the present one wittered on about carbon neutrality, they oversaw a situation where Britain was simply going to be more and more reliant on foreign sources of energy.
We deliberately gave up the opportunity to acquire a new, relatively cheap and, crucially, domestic source of energy.
If ministers had gone the other way and had the courage to do what was needed, our shale industry could now be booming.
It would already be bringing cheap energy and massive investment in some of the country’s most underprivileged areas.
Instead, even after all this time, our ministers witter on with the same cowardice, ignorance and excuses as they did ten years ago.
Energy Secretary Greg Hands recently said that he would need “compelling scientific evidence” that fracking is safe before approving it.
But that evidence already exists.
The only reason Hands and others seem to be scared is that they have been worried by claims of tremors, which are massively exaggerated.
What constitutes a “safe” level of tremors has been put impossibly low.
‘TRANSFORM UK ENERGY’
So low, indeed, that nothing — including regular coal mining — would be allowed if it were followed.
There are tremors caused by road haulage. Should we stop that as well?
Recent governments have displayed a total abandonment of their responsibility.
The job of government is not to put things off for another day.
It is to weigh up evidence and make decisions today in the long-term interests of the country.
That is exactly what recent governments have failed to do.
If Britain’s fracking business was under way then this country’s energy market — and the prices we pay — would already be transformed.
As it is, ministers continue to be put off by scare stories and sinister lobbyists.
The only thing that has actually been shaking and tremoring in recent years has been our spineless ministers.
It is high time their quaking stopped.
Short-arses
TURNS out the original Peaky Blinders were short-arses.
As The Sun revealed yesterday, some of the originals that inspired the TV series were no higher than 5ft 6in.
Exactly the same height as Vladimir Putin.
Perhaps violent thugs always seem larger than they are.
Change name? No sir
SOME batty charity has said that children shouldn’t use “Mr” and “Mrs” in the classroom. Or “Sir” or “Miss”.
The reason being that, according to Educate And Celebrate, this is somehow anti-LGBT.
And saying the gender-neutral term “teacher” is better.
One of the rules of life is that there is always some daft charity – usually taxpayer-supported – willing to come out with guff like this.
Children know their Sirs from their Misses.
No teacher who happens to be gay could possibly mind being referred to as the sex that they are.
All claims like this do is spread confusion and encourage division.
In any case, simply saying “teacher” has a brutal sound to it.
By contrast, terms like Sir and Miss have a courtesy.
A courtesy all too often lacking in schools.
Some years ago, I went to visit the excellent Michaela Community School in North London.
The school is practically a United Nations of students, largely the children of immigrants and all being superbly educated.
Not least by being brought up to be well-mannered.
I well remember sitting down at a table for lunch and introducing myself to the pupils at my table.
I realised guiltily that I was the only one not wearing a tie and felt distinctly underdressed.
“I’m a journalist and my name is Douglas Murray,” I said to them.
“But you can call me Douglas,” I added.
A small boy, who turned out to be from Eritrea, turned to me and said simply: “I think it would be more polite to call you Mr Murray.”
And so it was.
Role is a rail racket
HOW many jobs are tougher than that of the Prime Minister?
How many deserve to be better paid?
Well, one answer, apparently, is “Director of diversity and Inclusion” at Network Rail.
I wonder.
Every era has its rackets.
But in this era no greater racket exists than the whole Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE) racket.
It involves people presenting themselves and everyone else from any minority as always suffering.
They also portray everyone else – especially white males – as always being especially privileged.
The fact that you can be massively overpaid while making these ludicrous claims is just part of the fun of the job.
Network Rail’s DIE chief can be found on social media sharing articles about the Prime Minister’s “white privilege”.
Boris Johnson is paid almost £162,000 a year. Not small beans.
But Loraine Martins, of Network Rail, is paid a handsome £164,000 a year.
And Network Rail is part of the public sector.
So for complaining about “white privilege” Martins actually gets paid better than the man who holds the highest office in the land.
Nice work if you can get it.
Unjust Justin
CANADIAN PM Justin Trudeau seems to be going to war with his own people.
He recently insisted on vaccine mandates – even for truck drivers, who have the least social contact of almost anyone.
Some have not taken the mandate well and have driven to Ottawa to protest.
Now Justin has done everything to crush this democratic movement.
He has ordered bank accounts to be frozen and ordered police to steal their fuel and wood stores.
This week he enacted an emergency protocol intended only to be used in time of war.
He may yet send in the army.
Justin calls the truckers all sorts of names.
But it is him behaving like a dictator.