Sir Keir Starmer bowed to Ed Miliband’s demands to go faster on wind and solar power and commit to no new drilling in the North Sea as he unveiled a flagship “Energy Independence Bill” in the King’s Speech. The Mail has more.
The Prime Minister backed the Energy Secretary’s plans to ensure the country goes “further and faster to deliver clean energy”.
But there was no mention of whether the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea would be approved.
Instead, the bill restates the commitment to not issue new licences for exploration and keep the ban on fracking.
While the Labour manifesto commits the party to not issuing new North Sea oil and gas licences, this will be the first time that the pledge is written into law.
The move will infuriate those who have been arguing for Britain to use homegrown oil and gas rather than relying on expensive imports.
The UK’s exposure to global energy prices has meant it has been far more impacted than other countries through bills and inflation.
Despite this, Miliband has refused to make use of the North Sea supplies and instead focused on renewables.
The Energy Independence Bill also commits to “accelerate” the UK’s drive for energy security through wind and solar power and hydrogen.
It restates commitments to reform planning rules to make it easier to install renewable energy infrastructure.
Elsewhere, the bill restates the Budget commitments to move the cost of some green taxes off bills and on to general taxation.
This enables Labour to claim it’s reducing prices though in reality it is just moving the costs so bills look smaller.
Despite the move – and Labour’s pre-election pledge to reduce bills by £300 – energy bills are still £190 higher than when it came to power last year.
They are expected to rise far higher when the next price cap takes effect in July as they will factor in the costs of the Iran war.
Worth reading in full.
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As the Labour government is so determined to achieve “Net Zero” then why is it against the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz?
Alan Price, in his surprisingly prophetic 1978 song “England my England“, wrote:
“In an island built on coal and with oil beneath the sea, we’ve struggled to get by and we’ve joined the EEC…”
The lyrics involve ‘Lazy Eddie’ “If the sea was beer he’d probably sign the pledge”.
“England my England, my England, my my / We are your children, oh England don’t cry.”
I can only think milliband has some photographs of Starmer in a compromising situation, how else to explain Starmers complete lack of control over this very dangerous man.
I quite like the sound of an energy independence bill. Does this mean that we will use all our own resources such as coal, oil and gas, of which we have an abundance, instead of importing it from all around the world? I have said before that if we could capture all the hot air that emanates from the House of Commons we would be able to heat all the homes in the land.
Seems like Starmer staying on might be an arrangement that works for everyone.
Miliband continues to push his NetZero obsession and take the credit from those who agree with him, while holding Starmer out like a punching doll to take all the blows from those angered by the policy.
And the state bureaucracy is happy too because they agree with Miliband (or rather Miliband agrees with them, otherwise he’d be out of the picture).
Starmer is the perfect empty vessel for state bureaucracy to use as their democracy ruse.
Surely a future Reform government will have to get to the bottom of the Net Zero issue as well as Brexit. Evidence on oath. Compulsory attendance. Resurrect “Roysl Commissions” if needs be.
Find out who was on the take, who was sleeping with whom and which of them was openly promoting the destruction of our country.
They have already given “Renewables” companies, the power to compulsory purchase land for solar farms. You don’t live in a free country, just a Soviet state where the rules don’t apply to the chosen ones on top.
100 Billion pounds a year now to subsidize the “cheapest source of energy in the world”
That will be one of the few bills that will actually become law, especially as the majority of the other parties MPs would support it. Of course any Act made can in due course be revoked once we have a rational government.
Only after the Climate Change Act , HRA and Equalities Act (perhaps others) and departure from ECHR.
While any of them remain the left political judges can strike down laws made by Parliament.
Am I the only one, but did the King look like he wanted to be anywhere other than reading that speach. You just wanted him to look at Starmer and say “who the f*@# wrote this and do you actually believe the rubbish I am having to say?”
We’re already in a constitutional crisis, the King could have refused to read the speech, saying it was indeed rubbish.
He must be working for Putin or Xi.
Yes, an inside agent. It seems more and more obvious.
Or he’s just round the twist, a genuine fruit loop.
Nope, for the UK permanent government – the state bureaucracy.
Miliband is truly a High Priest of the Cult of Carbon Bad and the Climate Emergency! In the face of overwhelming real world observational evidence, he and his groupthinkers intend to go down with all guns (and windmills) blazing.
I don’t actually believe Miliband or any of these idiots really give a damn about climate change or the effect of carbon in the atmosphere. If they did they’d go and investigate the matter and realise it’s a load of bollocks.
They are ambitious politicians who know from whence power flows. The British state bureaucracy, i.e. the permanent government of this country, wants it this way and unscrupulous politicians, like Miliband, who make up the far less powerful elected government, know what they have to do to remain in their positions.
That’s why Starmer is quickly proclaiming his allegiance to permanent government orthodoxy. It’s his last ditch plea to them to let him keep his position.
Current getting 16.5% of demand from interconnectors – mainly France as usual. Their nuclear may be expensive, but it seems to cover their entire base load requirement on its own so they are free to sell on everything else – currently about 25% from France is being exported and some more going to pumped storage.
Practically all the export from France will be from the nuclear stations, but a chunk of their supply internally is likely to continue to come from hydroelectric in the Savoie region.
There is a coal plant at Le Havre as well.
They built their nuclear power plants before regulation turned building a new one into multidecade project, even before you get the first watt of energy out of it.
Independence means Dependence, Security means Insecurity, Clean Energy means Dirty Lies.
War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength!
For “further and faster to deliver clean energy” read “further and faster down the drain”.
More deranged Mad Red Ed Miliband nonsense.
He needs to be dealt with, permanently.
He is not deranged. He is achieving what he set out to do. Just like the last Tory governments. The idea they are confused or retarded is wrong. The left (in all colours) have run rings around the rest of us for over 30 years.
You are correct, but he is still deranged in the sense that what he is doing is against everyone’s interests and needs to be regarded as insane.
As permanent as possible, and ASAP.
They know they’re toast and will continue to wreak havoc until they’re ousted. They won’t call an early election and we have no way to force them.
This reminds me of the film ‘Pacific Heights’ where they’re trying to evict Michael Keaton. By the time they succeed the flat has been gutted.