Hardly a week passes by these days without some news about how Ed Miliband (a.k.a. Mad Ed) – the U.K.’s Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero since July 2024 – keeps upping the ante in the ‘fight against climate change’. As a politician, of course, the ante he keeps upping is not his personal cash but taxpayers’ funds.
On Monday, the same day that Stellantis, owner of Vauxhall’s 120-year old van-making factory in Luton, announced the plant’s closure, putting at risk over 1,100 jobs – which it said was brought on in the context of Britain’s Net Zero policies – Mr. Miliband said this in Parliament:
Despite all the difficulties, at COP29, one truth was overwhelmingly clear: the global transition away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy is happening, and it is unstoppable because clean energy is the route to energy security, unstoppable because it is the economic opportunity of our time, and unstoppable because people in Britain and around the world can see that the climate crisis is here, and that unless we act, things will only get worse.
In less than five months, this Government have [sic] shown that we will seize the opportunities of speeding up at home, and have demonstrated climate leadership abroad, in order to deliver energy independence, lower bills, good jobs, economic growth and the security of a stable climate. We are doing all we can to keep the British people safe, now and for generations to come.
Anyone with even a modicum of understanding of energy markets will be left wondering whether Mr. Miliband really believes in what he says. His detractors must wonder if he is really that illiterate about energy affairs. How does he square his claims of an “unstoppable energy transition towards clean energy” with what is really happening in energy markets in the U.K. and globally? What happens when his climate evangelism inevitably clashes with energy reality?
What the ‘Energy Transition’ Means for You and Me
Mr. Miliband’s boss, Keir Starmer, attended the annual UN climate summit in Baku (COP29) to sign Britain up to be at the “forefront of the battle against global warming” by promising to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81% by 2035 compared with 1990 levels. Note the spurious accuracy of 81%. Why not a rounded 80% for a target to be achieved a decade hence? Would that make it any less believable?
In an interview at the summit, Mr. Starmer claimed with a straight face that his Government has no plans to “start telling people how to live their lives. We are not going to start dictating to people what they do”. Perhaps the Prime Minister is unaware that his Government’s Net Zero policies need to do precisely that – dictating approved and unapproved behaviours by businesses and consumers with a system of taxes, subsidies, fines and regulations – to get the greenhouse gas emission cuts that he is espousing.
Subsequently, Bill Esterson, Labour Chair of the Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, seems to have let the cat out of the bag, saying “we will all have to change our lives” if we are to decarbonise the power grid by 2030 (en route to a full transition away from fossil fuels by 2050).
The U.K. target — ratcheted up from targets pursued by the previous, equally climate-obsessed Tory Government – is in line with the weighty recommendations of the ‘non-departmental public body’ the Climate Change Committee, which is described as “U.K.’s leading independent authority on climate change”. When one examines just what such emission targets actually mean for U.K. businesses and consumers, the list of what must happen is startling.
In a detailed document issued by U.K. FIRES, a research programme funded by the Government, official targets of “Net Zero by 2050” will require all airports except Heathrow, Belfast and Glasgow to close by 2030. No one will be flying at all by 2050. There will be no new gasoline or diesel cars by 2030 and by 2050 road use will be restricted to 60% of today’s level. Food, heating and energy will be restricted to 60% of today’s levels by 2050. Beef and lamb will not be on the British menu by 2050.
Restrictions on mobility and social activity will be achieved by ‘15-minute cities‘ where daily necessities and services, such as work, shopping, education, healthcare and leisure “can be easily reached by a 15-minute walk or bike ride from any point in the city”.
These consequences of Net Zero for the U.K. – and by extension the rest of the West if other countries are foolish enough to implement Net Zero targets – are thus not mere conjectures. They constitute the economic and physical-science realities of Miliband’s “unstoppable transition away from fossil fuels”.
Economist Jeff Currie of Goldman Sachs has a stat for Mr. Miliband. At the end of 2021:
Overall, fossil fuels represented 81% of overall energy consumption. Ten years [before that], they were at 82%. So though all of that investment is in renewables, you’re talking about $3.8 trillion, let me repeat that $3.8 trillion of investment in renewables moved fossil fuel consumption from 82% to 81% of the overall energy consumption. … The net of it is clearly we haven’t made any progress.
The results of Government policies since the U.K. Labour Government under Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2008 committed the country to a legally binding target of reducing carbon emissions by 80% from the 1990 level by 2050 are plain to see.
The U.K. now has higher electricity prices for its businesses than even Germany, the world’s epicentre of self-destructive green policies. In Miliband’s five months in office, the country’s last coal plant and its Port Talbot steel plant shut down, regulatory approvals for solar farms were rushed through in the teeth of objections in the local community, and the North Sea’s oil and gas field development has been sacrificed to an unchallenged climate lawsuit brought by Greenpeace.
Last week, Mr. Miliband introduced a “Warm Homes Plan” to fine gas boiler manufacturers if they do not sell a certain amount of heat pumps. The plan, dubbed the ‘boiler tax‘, requires manufacturers to sell at least 6% of their total sales as heat pumps or face a fine of £500 for each missed installation in the first year, rising to £3,000 in subsequent years. Many firms have already raised the price of their boilers by around £100 in a bid to offset the cost of possible fines.
As if this were not enough punishment on those wanting to keep warm in winter, Mr. Miliband is also relaxing the size and noise restrictions on heat pumps. This led the Telegraph to warn last week that the lifting of the noise restrictions will risk turning neighbourhoods into “war zones”.
What makes green ideologues tick?
In an article written over a year ago on luxury beliefs, I asked: “How did a leading economy like Great Britain come to have Governments (from both sides of the aisle) that promise their people penury and a future without the basic freedoms Westerners have taken for granted for over two centuries?”
Rob Henderson, who coined the term “luxury beliefs” defined them as “ideas and opinions that confer status on the rich at very little cost, while taking a toll on the lower class”. Conspicuous consumption of status goods and services by the super-rich – having Bentleys and butlers for instance – might be frowned upon by the likes of Ed Miliband. His moral worth is instead related to his luxury beliefs, of which the “fight against climate change” is the crowning achievement – at relatively little cost to himself personally but at great cost to the lower and middle classes.
Another aspect of the luxury beliefs espoused by Ed Miliband and Keir Starmer is the need to claim ‘climate leadership‘ in international forums. Asked if he was disappointed other world leaders had not attended COP29 – such as those from the top 13 GHG emitting countries including China, the U.S., India, Indonesia, the EU, and all but Georgia Meloni of the G7 countries – Sir Keir said the U.K. was at the summit to “show leadership”.
Evidently, it does not matter to Mr. Starmer that some of the world’s largest developing economies with GHG emissions that dwarf the U.K.’s, such as China (by 35 times) and India (by 11 times) are not on the hook to curtail emissions until aspirational targets kick in decades later (theoretically in 2060) under the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”. Furthermore, these countries are not required to contribute to the $300 billion a year in climate finance promised by the attendees at the just-concluded COP29 climate summit in Baku.
Nor does it seem to matter to Sir Keir or to his green commissar Mr. Miliband that President-elect Donald Trump, an avowed climate contrarian, has already made clear his intentions to exit the U.S. from the Paris Agreement under which the developed countries are expected to achieve Net Zero by 2050. Chris Wright, the nominee to be the next U.S. Secretary of Energy, has this to say about the U.K. in his book Bettering Human Lives:
The U.K., although no longer part of the EU, has continued aggressive climate policies that have driven up energy prices for its citizens and industry. The results are troubling. … The once-leading United Kingdom now has a per capita income lower than even the poorest state in the United States.
The impoverishment of Great Britain does not seem to concern Ed Miliband, one reason he has been labelled “Britain’s most dangerous man” on TalkTV.
Dr. Tilak K. Doshi is an economist, a member of the CO2 Coalition and a former contributor to Forbes. Follow him on Substack and X.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
It is extraordinary, but we are in interesting times. But what about ‘research funding’ (not just ‘finding’)? If large numbers of us really were dealing with infections with hardly any noticeable symptoms (which is normal), it suggests that our immune systems are doing.a good job and don’t need certain products from their trade.
For sure. And totally agree with Toby on this too. The huge inconvenience for Big Pharma and TPTB generally is that the vast majority of the population has a perfectly functional immune system. The problem being that the vast amount of people seem to have forgotten what an immune system actually is. This is a big fat nothing burger for most. The more vulnerable members of society can do what they’ve always done to get by prior to 2020. Staying in crisis mode indefinitely is just not sane or feasible.
Dr David Cartland
https://rumble.com/v1fvion-dr-david-cartland.html
The Delingpod: A James Delingpole Podcast
Vaccine injured Dr Cartland witnessed two vaccine deaths in one afternoon in his surgery. He also knows doctors who won’t jab their own children but are happy to jab others.
DON’T FOLLOW
THEIR ORDERS
DON’T SWALLOW
THEIR LIES
Yellow Boards By The Road BUILD BACK FREEDOM
Friday 19th August 11am to 12pm
Yellow Boards
A3095 Foresters Way &
B3430 Nile Mile Ride
Bracknell RG40 3DR
**
Stand in the Park Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am – make friends & keep sane
Wokingham
Howard Palmer Gardens Sturges Rd RG40 2HD
**
Bracknell
South Hill Park, Rear Lawn, RG12 7PA
Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Why am I not surprised? I had ‘delta’ UnWaxed and it felt like a mild flu. Mind, I am in my 30’s fit and active. Take Zinc, Vit D and B12.
One thing I can’t understand is the continuing madness that countries like Spain, France and Germany want to impose on the unwaxed like myself. Still having to test etc. I do hope it’s not because they want me to submit to Blair’s digital ID tosh for the rest of my days.
If you ask me, avoid the wax, pay for stuff in cash, and get off social media and into the pub!
If you guys want to hear our latest podcast, then check it out and subscribe below:
Ep. 51 BANNED FROM TWITTER (Find out why)
We’ve been banned from Twitter for a week…find out why! Plus we talk Canada and Justin Trudeau, your first ‘Listener Rant’, Climate change madness, University PHD’s gone mad, Scotland’s gone crazy, The return of the Big Breakfast and MUCH MORE!
https://therealnormalpodcast.buzzsprout.com/1268768/11142910-ep-51-banned-from-twitter-find-out-why
And don’t forget Quercetin, Resveratrol, Fisetin, and Niacin too
Magnesium, vitamin K, vitamin C, selenium…
A slip of the keyboard and someone put “unvaxed” instead of “unwaxed”? Don’t worry, it’s not like that here…
And then there’s those who believe viruses don’t exist at all…An interesting vid from Dr Sam Bailey dedicated to the career of Dr Stefan Lanka, who still has his €100,000 because nobody could prove to him the existence of the measles virus.
Although this stuff is all very compelling, these sorts of videos never seem to offer up an explanation as to what is causing people to get ill if its not a virus. For instance, if not measles etc, what were many kids coming down with in my school back in the ’80s, with our itchy spots covering our bodies and being stuck home with crap TV and a bottle of Lucozade? If not flu then what is causing people to get ill and present with various flu-like symptoms?
So unless somebody can give me an alternative explanation ( and I’m not prepared to believe stress is the cause for people presenting with a myriad of symptoms ) then I think I’ll remain on team virus, despite the fact I have huge respect for Dr Bailey and other doctors/scientists who believe the opposite. If highly intelligent and experienced doctors cannot agree if viruses exist then how is a layperson like me meant to choose a side? All very confusing as surely this should be an example of settled science by now. See what you think;
https://odysee.com/@drsambailey:c/Stefan-Lanka-Virus-Its-Time-To-Go:1
There’s no such thing as “settled science” – which I expect you know. I think you are using the term ironically? Science is never settled: it is constantly questioning, searching and finding new answers. But the answers are never settled, they are there to be questioned in their turn. The only “settled science” is in the worlds of the MSM, Big Pharma and the WEF.
I should have used these guys; “”, shouldn’t I?
I think the both the virus theory and the terrain theory can work hand in hand. I do think that a lot of the things that are attributed to viruses could be due to lifestyle factors instead, but I do still think contagious viruses do exist.
Two anecdotes…. I had a big night out with friends a few months back and had a little bit too much fun. Needless to say I did a number on my sinuses. Over the course of the next week my sinuses got really dry and painful and then ended up getting really really mucousy and congested. I had no other symptoms so I suspect that my sinuses just had to heal and get back to normal. I highly doubt there was a virus involved because my partner who always gets sick was perfectly fine. She also came out that night but didn’t have as much *fun* as I had.
A month or so ago my partner went away for the weekend for a work trip to go skiing while I stayed home. When she came back she was feeling mildly unwell. A few days later I developed a mild headache (unusual for me) and some tender skin. A week after that I was forced to do a covid PCR test because my work is still trying to mandate vaccines. Low and behold, I tested positive! The most likely explanation is that my partner caught covid and passed it to me.
I think taking lessons from both camps is the best path to good health.
The existence of some wild ideas are problematic to our cause, perhaps, but there is plenty of relatively modern history about the original discovery of viruses, and indeed how the nomenclature came about. E.g. https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/blog/revealing-the-first-coronavirus/ , and many more if anyone wants to look it up. Note that the site mentioned above is quite old – there is no obvious date on it, but it’s probably some time towards the end of 2020.
The word “symbiosis” springs to mind. In a different field, bacteriology, we live happily with E Coli. Surprisingly many people have difficulty grasping that the total weight of bacteria in their gut is about 200 gm, say 200 teaspoons. It’s not only Mostly Harmless, but Almost Essential, in part because if it wasn’t there some far more dubious characters would squat there. Bacteria Lives Matter!
Having thoroughly researched the topic [OK skim-read Wiki], I am jolted into thinking this comment might not just be an analogy. It seems that “commensal” viruses (in addition to commensal bacteria like E. Coli) do exist, or are acknowledged as such. Perhaps this whole attitude, pushed by Pharma, that we are constant war with nasty bugs (be they bacteria or viruses) which need to be overcome, or at least managed, by medication is deeply flawed; instead we might cultivate the alternative heretical attitude that just possibly the existence of viruses in the gut and in the respiratory tract are entirely normal or even beneficial. With that attitude in mind, it is a small step to the attitude that Omicron is an “ally”, in that it harmless occupies a niche that would otherwise be harmfully occupied by earlier variants. One might even say (as Gates sort of did, IIRC) that the most effective “vaccine” against Covid is Omicron! I do tend to the view that a few million years of evolution of immune systems are a good match for six months of hasty research, development, marketing and weaponisation of a novel pharmaceutical product.
Apparently, even the common rhinovirus can boot the Covid virus out of our cells when attempting a co-infection. Yet another way that antisocial distancing and lockdowns made the pandemic worse.
Even the BBC reported that!
As did the Daily Fail, I think.
Indeed
You have to wonder if the results would be similar if they extensively tested every cold and flu varient that pops up during flu season.
They blame the asymptomatic-infected for Omicron’s huge infection rate, but there always was a high proportion of asymptomatic infections with Covid.
Furthermore, it has never been properly explored whether asymptomatic infections are even contagious — although there’s been plenty of hysteria about this (the whole idea around lockdowns was based on the premise of asymptomatic infections being contagious).
Indeed. And as the Swiss Doctor notes, even IF asymptomatic transmission somehow was the dominant mode of transmission, lockdowns would still be a bad and futile idea regardless, and masks still wouldn’t work. In fact, all NPIs would be even more futile.
Imagine if this was how life was before 2019. Have we been deluding ourselves that being alive is the most dangerous state for any of us to be in?
It’s must be nearly 2 years now since I introduced the concept of anchoring into the discussion (about the time Bojo got ill, or shortly after, from memory). These people will never move on from the idea that lots of people died and thus all future actions must stop any more deaths being added to that number.
I swear I had Omicron for a couple of days back in late January and early February this year. First it felt like a cold, then briefly like a mild flu, then back to a cold again, then it was gone. That was exactly two years after the first time I think I had the original strain, and my only symptom then was losing my sense of smell and taste for a day out of the blue.
COVID-19 has always been that weird disease which is extremely dangerous to everyone except those who have it. After all, if this had been otherwise, the recommended medical approach couldn’t possibly have been self-isolation aka house arrest as this would have killed loads and loads of people.
Naively, one would believe that people react to My neighbour got it and it was harmless to him with Ok, this means it’s going to be harmless for me, too. But that’s not how people’s minds work, at least not those of a sizable subset of people. This is because of something I hereby christen (Should I be mohammedizing it in the name of diversity?) the lottery phenomenon: The lottery works by collecting a relatively small amount of money from a real lot of people and distributing a subset of the resulting huge sum to a statistically non-existant set of winners determined based on a random number from a large set. People play the lottery because they believe that they had a chance to win because someone always wins. But for each individual, the chance to be among the set of winners is close enough to zero to be regared as zero for all practical purposes. All which needs to be done to keep this entirely unrealistic belief alive is to ensure that people know that someone won (and occasionally, who won).
This worked exactly in the same way with COVID. The powers who laugh about us took great pains to ensure that everyone knew someone had always recently died of it, occasionally reporting in more detail about particularly sensational deaths. Hence, the same people who believe they had a real chance to win the lottery despite the actually don’t also believed there was a real risk that they might die of COVID despite this wasn’t the case, either.
I was Susan Michie, I would now write a book about behavrioural insights based on this observation, get rich, famous and into all kinds of government roles I’m not qualified for and end up knighted and/or working for the UN. Da ich das aber nicht bin, hoffe ich wenigstens, ihr mal ein bißchen in die Suppe gespuckt zu haben.
[As I’m not her, I hope that I at least managed to throw up into her soup — German idiom for upset her cosy, little routines somewhat]
In other words, (yawn)
I am happy to say that I still don’t know, and have no particular desire to know, whether I have had any form of the nasty Winter bug (allegedly novel) “covid”. (at least Winter bug before they mucked up people’s immune systems).
So..I caught something and didn’t know I’d got it..meanwhile I gave it to you, even though I didn’t know I’d given it to you, because I didn’t know I’d got it… and you didn’t know I’d given it to you because you didn’t know you’d got it..then you passed it on, even though you couldn’t know, because you didn’t know you’d got it…from me, who didn’t know I’d got it……..ad infinitum…LOL!!!
Makes you wonder just how many other awful diseases we’re spreading every day that nobody even knows about, because they haven’t been discovered yet, doesn’t it?
I have no problem with “scientists” dreaming up hypotheses. Essential for science to advance. I’m fairly relaxed about our Beloved Leaders (arts grads almost to a man / woman / whatever.) suggesting that this new hypothesis should be investigated. Think Margaret Thatcher and Glowbull Warming.
But when gormless politicians seize on a hypothesis and annoint it as The Settled Science, refuse to debate or discuss with scientists with alternative hypotheses, pump billions of taxpayer’s money into “their” chosen “science”, then things are dangerously wrong.
Covid vaccines and Ruinable Energy are two monster examples.
It is long overdue that those who perpetrate and promote these scams, who refuse to debate, who fill their boots with brown envelopes, are held to account. Most severely.
This item seems to have missed the obvious benefit that the more people who have contracted Covid without bad effects, the more people who have gained natural immunity. As this immunity increases so the Covid problem reduces. Some scientists don’t want tp point this out because it damages the interests of their paymasters i.e. the big pharma industry