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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