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The Tories Need to Renounce Their Climate Authoritarian Past

"There’s no point arguing about it, the decision has been made," said one senior Tory in 2020 about the party's commitment to Net Zero. It's this attitude that got us in this mess, says Ben Pile, and it needs to change.

8 min read

Ahead of Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Claire Coutinho’s talk at the Conservative Party Conference on Monday, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was quoted in the Telegraph. “I went too far, too fast on net zero,” proclaimed the headline, the one-time flagship Tory policy now decapitalised. Johnson got “carried away”, he now admits. Later in the morning, Coutinho took the Manchester stage with the title of her talk given as 'Energy is prosperity'. “In the last few decades, we lost sight of a simple truth,” she explains. “Energy is a Good Thing.”

There is much to celebrate in all this. Coutinho’s speech announced the party’s plans to axe the Carbon Tax, immediately taking £8 billion off the country’s bills. Subsidies for renewable energy plants that were completed before the 2014 switch form the Renewables Obligation to the Contracts for Difference will also be scrapped. According to the Office for National Statistics audit of Energy Taxes, ROCs cost the country £7.7 billion in 2024. She did not explain, however, how these contractual obligations will be exited gracefully, without legal wrangling and taxpayer costs. “Our energy system is not here to prop up the profits of multi-million pound wind developers at bill payers’ expense.”

Unfortunately, though, it is. And while there is much talk of the Conservatives now owning these problems, alongside a much deeper reflection on the necessary relationship between society and energy, the Conservatives have yet to explain how their former PM

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34 Comments
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Simon MacPhisto
Simon MacPhisto
11 months ago

What’s needed before the next election (which can’t come too soon) is for the actually conservative Conservatives ie the right wing / Brexiteer types such as Jenrick & Co to jump ship to Reform and bring their best policies with them. That would unite the right and very likely give us the best government we’ve had since the 1980’s rather than, god forbid, a Labour / Lib Dem / Green coalition.

Less government
Less government
11 months ago

A reminder of Mendacious Mays evil doings. Signing the Paris Accord, the global migration compact and the traitorous Withdrawal agreement. Pure evil.

HughW
HughW
11 months ago

As Carl Jung put it more than seventy years ago “Our blight is ideologies — they are the long-expected Antichrist!”

JXB
JXB
11 months ago

No point cutting a snake’s tail off, cut its head off.

Until there is a ciear admission from the the political elite that Manmade global warming/climate change is a long falsified hypothesis that has been kept afloat on a raft of lies and by censorship, then nothing else any of them say can be believed.

As for for the unsustainable, unreliable, wind/solar electricity suppliers, removing the mandate that they take precedence over fossil fuels, abolish constraint payments, will bankrupt them whether or not the CfD are still in place.

But I understand that in English Law a contract which is detrimental to one of the parties cannot be enforced. (Legal eagles can clarify.)

CfD is clearly deleterious to consumers and in my view tantamount to fraud.

Cotfordtags
Cotfordtags
11 months ago

So what has caused this conversion for the shadow minister, since she lost her job as the actual minister. Was she not a member of the CEN, so presumably taking Christopher Hohn’s (colleague and friend of her boss Rishi Sunak) money and therefore supporting his desire for net zero? Why is she suddenly a net zero sceptic, if not an actual climate change sceptic? Perhaps the neck and neck 28% vote share with Reform UK that makes every vote vital for her to cling on, unlike all of the other Surrey Tories who are already gone to Reform or LibDems if the polls are right.

JXB
JXB
11 months ago
Reply to  Cotfordtags

The road to Damascus is heavy with political traffic just now, with many shafts of blinding light from the heavens.

Gezza England
Gezza England
11 months ago
Reply to  Cotfordtags

The little bimbo was saved by it being a bit early to go full on Reform so a lot went over to Labour in the hope of ridding us of her. Had some of those chosen Reform she would be gone, back to what ever little hole she was in before her mate Sushi made her East Surrey MP.

sskinner
sskinner
11 months ago

Having been fully onboard with the climate scare stories that were doing the rounds in the 1980s and 90s, I gradually became more sceptical throughout the 90s and early 2000s especially following the IPCC report on aviation. What was a clincher was Al Gore and others asserting the ‘the debate is over’ while pretending to speak from a scientific position. At that point it was clear that the debate needed to be intensified, especially as almost all of those promoting ‘the science’ were pop singers, children, politicians and actors and especially actresses (e.g. ‘Hanoi’ Jane Fonda).

“If you thought that science was certain – well, that is just an error on your part”
Richard Feynman

“Religion is a culture of faith; Science is a culture of doubt”
Richard Feynman

“Don’t pay attention to ‘authorities,’ think for yourself.”
Richard Feynman

JXB
JXB
11 months ago
Reply to  sskinner

Like you I initially accepted “the narrative” at face value. What woke me up around 2005/6 were the fantastical claims of changes to the climate “now”. In my consideration the Earth’s climate system is so full of energy and inertia, that sudden, short term changes would be impossible – like turning a fully laden supertanker going at full speed on a sixpence.

The claims by so-called experts could only be exaggerations or untrue, so I started to look more closely to see what else might not be true – and found plenty.

sskinner
sskinner
11 months ago

This graphic should be keeping our ‘representatives’ awake at night, but for some reason they are quite happy that we slowly and irrevocably lose our ability to produce power at will and also to make steel.

50-years-of-global-steal-proeduction
sskinner
sskinner
11 months ago

There are no low energy rich countries.

Economies-and-Energy
Jaguar
Jaguar
11 months ago

Before he lost his marbles, Tucker Carlson remarked that “we live in a blizzard of lies”. A while ago I read a book by a former BBC man, titled “The Fake News Factory”. The domination of climate scare ideology follows from the dependence of “normies” on legacy media, which is constantly feeding us lies and delusions. The effect is remarkably pervasisve; not long ago I found myself listening to some robustly right-wing young men who remarked that they were not really interested in Gaza – then they proceeded to repeat all the lies and smears about Israel.

sskinner
sskinner
11 months ago
Reply to  Jaguar

He seemed intelligent during the Wuhan Flu hysteria, and then there was his trip to Moscow.

EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
11 months ago

Ah yes. The swipe at Reform which has been right on this as so much else.

And it isn’t 15 years of error. The Climate Change Act 2008 was passed with only five MPs against. It did not appear from thin air but the agenda had been brewing for some time. No criticism from the Tories who sped everything Blair-Brown proposed.

Tyrbiter
Tyrbiter
11 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

It began with a meeting between Tony B.Liar and George Soros in April 1996 at which certain agreements were made to allow Soros the means to make lots of money out of ‘green’ initiatives.

A repeal of everything B.Liar did is a minimum requirement to begin to right these wrongs. We need to see the detail of what was agreed out in the sunlight so that we can appreciate the level of mendaciousness that was used to force this through, finally being put beyond the control of the electorate by mad red Ed Marxist Miliband. That this was allowed to be locked in place by Cameron, Clegg and said Miliband is one of the horrors of history. 3 people who did not know what they did.

Norfolk-Sceptic
Norfolk-Sceptic
11 months ago
Reply to  Tyrbiter

April 1996 is an interesting date, especially when reviewing the hockey stick graphs:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey_stick_graph_(global_temperature)

I remember the intense discussion of Mann, Bradley & Hughes 1998 (MBH98) on several websites, leading up to the 2008 Climate Change Act.

It started for me when a BBC weather forecast (IIRC, before the 6 pm news) around September 2001 was followed by a Climate Information Announcement. After some thought, I reckoned it was a warning, and after more thought, a threat. It didn’t seem to follow Scientific etiquette, and the evidence was the normal BBC fuzziness from a ‘journalist’, stirring the emotions.

I eventually found Steve McIntyre’s blog Climate audit, and Anthony Watts, where Scientific Discipline existed. And Steve still going strong:
https://climateaudit.org/2023/11/24/mbh98-new-light-on-the-real-data

Kathryn Porter was on the recent GWPF panel at the Tory conference, and she excelled. Unfortunately, there was one guy who wanted to reduce the effect of NET Zero, to lower fuel prices, but still hadn’t realised CO2 wasn’t the evil gas that’s been promoted.

Until that is corrected, the Conservatives are a lost cause.

EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
11 months ago

When marketing investment products it is necessary to tell buyers “past performance is not a guide to the future”. In the case of the Tories it is. They have promised one thing and done another so many times we cannot believe draw a conclusion.

Don’t trust them.

Gezza England
Gezza England
11 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

The trade descriptions act should apply to the Tories since they campaing as Conservatives but are actually socialists.

DiscoveredJoys
DiscoveredJoys
11 months ago

Hers was a vastly more dignified and calm response to Reform than those offered by a hysterical Ed MilibandEd Davey and Zack Polanski

Pre-election positioning perhaps?

Smudger
Smudger
11 months ago
Reply to  DiscoveredJoys

Yes, more dignified than her resignation speech outside No 10 where she broke down in tears feeling sorry for herself. I never want to see a British Prime Minister do that again.

https://youtu.be/U5hB8mDsQHw?si=c2ytI5lHdO5k6IiS

shred
shred
11 months ago

Kemi and Claire have been educated about reality by Kathryn Porter and perhaps have noticed that British industry is closing down while households are unable to pay for the leccy. It’s unfortunate that Nigel and Mo didn’t consult Kathrn and David Turver or some of the Net Zero Watch team, as they are now being accused of not taking contracts into account. Maybe taxation is a way of stopping the loot. They need to talk to experts ASAP.

JXB
JXB
11 months ago
Reply to  shred

Those CfD only apply when electricity is sold to the wholesale market.

Given the intermittent nature of wind and solar, they can only sell if the conditions are right AND gas is required to leave tte grid to make way.

I don’t think that is a provision of CfD, therefore since gas and remaining nuke can supply most of the grid, if it were not a requirement they power back to make way for wind/solar, then little wind/solar would be sold.

Norfolk-Sceptic
Norfolk-Sceptic
11 months ago
Reply to  shred

They need to talk to experts ASAP”

Many have said that, in order to unravel the constitutional changes made by Blair and Brown, any reforming 🙂 party will need to have a robust and detailed manifesto ready for the next general election in order to counteract civil servant resistance and House of Lords blocking. This will require experts, and is true for every facet of government, not just Energy, and the Climate Change Committee.

But is any party serious about this, especially when so many are hoping this government won’t last the full five years?

Gezza England
Gezza England
11 months ago

As it stands Reform do not need much of a manifesto as Labour are losing the election themselves. What they do need is the actual plans in place to enact the change we need when they take over which is something in 14 years Labour failed to do.

Mrs.Croc
Mrs.Croc
11 months ago

Do we have to have Theresa Mays picture first thing in the morning?!

Smudger
Smudger
11 months ago
Reply to  Mrs.Croc

Yes, she epitomises the treachery of the Party.

stewart
stewart
11 months ago

Nobody will believe them.

That’s the fundamental problem with the Conservative Party.

They have stabbed their voters in the back so many times on all the key issues that only the most hardened, near-braindead, hardcore supporters will give them another chance.

They’ve completely blown it. It’s over.

MajorMajor
MajorMajor
11 months ago
Reply to  stewart

Exactly.
The Tories have cheated on us.
And I don’t mean it in the sense of some naughty flirting with a fashionable idea or even a drunken one-night-stand with another, much regretted the morning after sense. No. This was full blown, persistent cheating, visiting prostitutes, picking up unmentionable diseases in the process, whilst at the same time preaching about moral values.

RTSC
RTSC
11 months ago

They never got political consent. The Uni-Party closed ranks and imposed the policy on the nation, with no prior discussion let alone a mandate, when Cameron, Clegg and Miliband signed The Pledge …. as reported in the DS yesterday.

Fortunately, sufficient ordinary people have resisted the Climate Change propaganda and the collapse of British Industry is forcing some back-peddling. Unfortunately, it’s probably too late to save/restore our industrial base.

I have zero confidence that if the Not-a-Conservative-Party was re-elected, the Party Grandees (safely immune from democratic accountability in the House of Frauds) would permit anything but a slowing down in the process of implementing the Net Zero Insanity.

https://dailysceptic.org/2025/10/05/net-zero-crumbling-slowly-at-first-then-suddenly/

mickie
mickie
11 months ago

One wonders if the Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has a business card wide enough to include the job title?

Purpleone
Purpleone
11 months ago
Reply to  mickie

He’ll have a chequebook big enough to contain the title I’m sure…

MajorMajor
MajorMajor
11 months ago

The Tories don’t need to renounce anything.
They just need to disappear, quietly, admitting that they have failed us so catastrophically, so irredeemably, that they might as well exit the scene.

The only consistent theme I ever managed to notice about the Tories was that they were deeply ashamed of anybody with conservative ideas and totally enthusiastic about every single woke cause.

mickie
mickie
11 months ago
Reply to  MajorMajor

I see the worst offender, Fat Al, still refuses to disappear.

Arum
Arum
11 months ago

As noted towards the end of the article, the headline also works fine if you remove the word ‘Climate’

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