On Monday, I sent an email to David Smith at the Sunday Times. David Smith, the paper’s Economics Editor (since 1989), Chief Leader-Writer, Assistant Editor and Policy Adviser, writes a key economic article in the business section most weeks.
The title of my email to David Smith was: “How can the UK economy grow when Net Zero is giving us world’s highest energy prices?”
And the text was:
Both Labour and Conservatives have promised to lower the U.K.’s debt levels as a percent of GDP by promoting economic growth. But at the same time, both parties are pushing up energy prices by reducing the use of cheap reliable fossil fuels and increasing the amount generated by unreliable, intermittent and expensive wind and solar.
Perhaps it would be useful for your readers if you could explain how a country aiming to be the world’s leading clean energy superpower with some of the world’s most expensive energy can have a competitive growing economy?
All the best
David Craig
As David Smith often focuses his articles on how the U.K. can achieve economic growth, I referred him to two articles I wrote for the Daily Sceptic:
- ‘Britain is leading the world in committing economic suicide‘ – in which I showed that Britain had cut its CO2 emissions by closing down and exporting much of its manufacturing thus destroying jobs and making us all poorer;
- ‘Starmer’s “GB Energy” fantasy‘ – in which I expose as complete nonsense the Government’s and Labour’s claims that intermittent and unreliable wind and solar energy are cheaper than reliable fossil fuel energy.
I sent the email because I thought that the most important economic issue facing the U.K. at the moment was probably how rising energy prices, due mainly to the Net Zero-inspired move from cheap, reliable fossil fuels to unreliable and expensive supposed ‘renewables’, was making British industry uncompetitive and therefore would hinder economic growth.
I was surprised when David Smith came back within an hour with his reply. His reply was succinct: “No.”
I have noticed that the Times and Sunday Times have both joined the Greta-worshipping, climate-catastrophist cult. For example, on April 4th 2024 the Times featured an article by Baron Browne of Madingley, Chief Executive of the energy company BP between 1995 and 2007, titled: ‘Fighting climate change is a long-term investment and the outlook is sunny.’
I have had a little experience of business having worked in over 60 commercial companies in industries ranging from oil rig construction to steel mills to supermarkets to stocking manufacturing in 15 countries. But I’m not an economist. So I was rather looking forward to David Smith explaining how any future British Government could reconcile the, in my humble opinion, irreconcilable concepts of becoming a clean energy superpower with some of the world’s highest electricity prices with the ambition of generating competitive economic growth.
So you can imagine my shock and disappointment at Mr. Smith’s response. I’ll leave it up to you to decide why Mr. Smith decided not to take up this challenge.
David Craig is the author of There is No Climate Crisis, available as an e-book or paperback from Amazon.
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Funded by B&M Gates & best friends with Chelsea Clinton.
Sridhar is the living embodiment of an establishment puppet.
I asked you this already, but regardless – have you played the Dane yet?
As a youth I used to weep in butcher’s shops.
The COVID science was always an interdisciplinary effort: Whoever had some well-sounding academic or at least medical title and was willing to have the right oponions in public could – no matter what his field of expertise, if any, actually was – become part of The Very Wise Sages®
‘Science’? No $cientism. Follow the money.
Real science has been dead since maths and models usurped physical reality (mid 19th century).
Einstein is a famous example (there are few things as stupid as relativity).
This non-Scot whatever she/zhe is has no idea about the immune system.
No one can prove to me that flying viruses exist.
Bacteria can’t exist outside a host.
“Devi Sridhar’s Knowledge of the Epidemiology of Respiratory Viruses Could be Written on the Back of a Postage Stamp”Wasn’t it blindingly obvious?
I always remember the great Ian Brown’s Twitter post in response to comments on his Twitter feed, which contained some “vaccine sceptical” views from smart-alecs along the lines of “Stick to singing mate, you don’t know anything about medicine”. His answer “OK, but you’re taking medical advice from a computer salesman” (Billy, in case you were wondering).
It must be harder for the authors to stomach than for the rest of us – their profession has disgraced itself despite their best efforts to do the right thing. A lifetime of work betrayed by the wicked, the stupird, the selfish and the lazy.
“A lifetime of work” is the issue here – all that study, all those exams, the belief that they were doing the right thing because the process drove them in that direction. To suggest or to ask them now to double check they did the right thing, they thought they knew the right thing, “the science” and were they in the wrong after all? It doesn’t bear thinking about. What a loss of face and of status. Better to double down and see no evil, hear no evil…
”If other countries can do it, there is no reason why we can’t, too.”
As Sir Desmond Swayne put it in a question in the Commons: “Herd stupidity”.
Quite, I still want to check out his voting record on all matters relating to CV NPIs etc ….
I think he voted against most/all of it – when they had votes. Lots of stuff was passed without a vote early on.
Credit where it is due. Clearly the estimed Doctors Heneghan and Jeffries have had enough of pussy-footing politeness and have opened an “who dares wins assault” and frankly I don’t blame them.
The time has come to get rid of the whole lot of them and this waste of space oxygen thief Sridhar deserves to be amongst the first.
A horrible blot on humanity.
When four days ago, I pointed out that Sridhar’s expertise lay in the field of anthropology and that perhaps an epidemiology/medicine/virology qualification might be better suited to her post as chair of Global Public Health (aka ‘the pandemic professor), three folk gave down votes. Prof’ Heneghan would seem to agree with my comment. Thank heaven I took his and Mike Yeadon’s advice and remain unstabbed.
As for the Olympically dim Richard Burgon, it doesn’t surprise me that he pinned his colours to Sridhar’s mast and is likely to be a front bencher in Starmer’s upcoming clown show. Sheesh!
All lockdowns do is kick the can down the road. Simply explainable with two packs of cards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4kWbYlopN4
I’m a subscriber to TTE. Neil (perhaps the Neil who comments here – hope he doesn’t mind me quoting him) said this:
“First time I saw Devi on TV and heard she is a professor in the dept of public health at Edinburgh I had to find her background and was comforted to read she’s an anthropologist who wrote a book with the young Clinton. I thought that explained why her knowledge of virology and medicine differed from my 50 year old knowledge.
She was reported to be one of crankies favourites.
This last week has been a great relief to realise my understanding is ok!”