The Economic Illiteracy of UK Energy Policy is a Sight to Behold
It seems that economic illiteracy is now a job requirement for leadership positions in the country’s energy policymaking. Few spectacles rival the ongoing comedy of errors that is the United Kingdom’s energy strategy under the stewardship of Michael Shanks, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy since July 2024, and his superior, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband. Mr Miliband has been derisively dubbed ‘Mad Ed‘ by those who see through the haze of eco-utopian rhetoric. Mad Ed’s economic and energy illiteracy has already been the subject of several articles in these pages (here and here).
Mr Shanks’s recent claim that there is “no material difference” between importing oil and gas and producing it domestically in the North Sea is not just a misstep; it is economic illiteracy, a statement so divorced from basic economic principles that it would make an Econ 101 student blush. This is not merely a gaffe but a symptom of a deeper malaise: a leadership that prioritises ideological posturing over the prosperity and security of the British people.
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One of the best comments about the Miliband creature is from Tony Brydon: “It’s important to understand who and what these people are. Take Miliband. By any conventional measure he’s not a moron. So, how to explain the fanatical pursuit of policies that aren’t just idiotic, but suicidal in national terms? We must look at these people’s psychological foundations. Miliband was the son of Ralph Miliband, a Communist, pro-Soviet academic. His childhood was spent listening to Daddy chat with other Communist ‘thinkers’ and various revolutionaries from around the world sitting at the Miliband kitchen table. All these people have an unshakeable belief in their intellectual and moral superiority. It’s not just that ‘Daddy’ hated Britain, the country is too small of a canvas for them. Their worth is so immeasurable that they must save humanity. Imagine, therefore, the psychological blow of watching the slow-motion car crash, then subsequent rapid collapse of the Soviet Union, and the world laughing at Communism. It must have been almost unbearable, psychologically. The Miliband sprogs throw themselves into ‘pragmatic’ politics with the Euro Commies of New Labour, but it must have been unsatisfying – it’s such a ‘waste’ of their ‘transcendental brilliance.’ Then along… Read more »
I have been aware of this eco socialist moron since his climate change act in 2008. But tragically he is not alone. Almost the entire Political Class are pandering to the UN?WEF Sustainable Development Agenda which basically states that our standard of living is “too high” and we consume to many resources. That is what climate change policies are designed to do….REDUCE LIVING STANDARDS. —–Because the World Government people say we have used more than our fair share of coal gas and oil an MUST STOP. —-The climate is just the seemingly plausible excuse, but upon any reasonable scrutiny, the so called science collapses. This is POLITICS , not SCIENCE.
In reality, that’s just a totally useless set of conjectures appealing to certain people’s prejudices. What someone believes about Milied’s reasons for doing something doesn’t matter in the slightest. What matter is what he’s doing because that’s what’s going to have consequences.
In addition to that, it lets Miliband off the hook by asserting that the problem is that he’s really lunatic acting in what he believes to be the best interest of the nation. I think it’s much more probable that he’s acting in his own self-interest and wouldn’t give the posterior of a small rodent for something as abstact as the nation. In other words, he and Shanks are simply lying about the effect of some policies someone paid them to implement. And that’s very likely someone who expects to benefit from the seemingly mad enterprise.
Agree for the most part. What I would suggest is that he is indeed being paid by outside agencies to implement this and other nonsense (his brother certainly is, step forward G. Soros/International Rescue), but that his Marxist convictions provide him with a convenient justification for his actions. I would further suggest that he knows as well as anyone that his ideas are impractical and doomed to failure – but he doesn’t give one of your ‘posteriors of a small rodent’ … he reckons he will be exempt from the fallout.
When you do something deliberately it cannot be called “incompetence” or “illiteracy”. —-Our energy policy based on the demands of the UN and its Sustainable Development and our NET ZERO absurdity that was waved through parliament with no discussion of cost benefit and no VOTE is deliberate policy to comply with this idea that we in the prosperous west consume too much and should make do with less of everything. Our consumption and the Capitalist System starts with ENERGY. By taking away cheap reliable energy (coal and gas) and replacing it with expensive unreliable energy you lower the standard of living you lower our standard of living and our Political Class are fully onboard with this eco socialism. —–They will never admit this and we hear the government speak of economic growth, but their policies and actions indicate the opposite. ——Deliberate policies because the UN says our lifestyles are “Unsustainable”
It seems to me that “socialists” and “communists” hate humanity – we are difficult to herd.
But most of my friends and family believe there is something wrong with the climate. Because they see it everyday on mainstream news. They blindly accept it. Such is the power of propaganda.
Yes
I was more thinking about the likes of Miliwat
Terrifying, isn’t it?
They don’t accept it blindly. They’ve been systematically brainwashed into accepting it by people who know what they’re doing in this respect.
Here are some of the prominent political and media people who have participated in the WEF Young Global Leaders programme:
Blair
Brown
Cameron
Osbourne
Clegg
Milibands
Sunak
Merkel
Macron
Merz
Sanchez
Von der Leyen
Rachael Reeves
David Lammy
Wes Streeting
Shabana Mahmoud
Liz Kendall
Andy Burnham
Sidiq Khan
Dame Carolyn McCall ITV
Ed Balls ITV
Tim Davie BBC
Alex Mahon channel 4
Oliver Duff Independent
Jon Slade FT CEO
Roula Khalaf FT Editor
Anna Bateson CEO Guardian
Katharine Viner Guardian Editor.
Melanie Dawes CE Ofcom.
It’s not exactly a secret that Schwab is grooming prospective politicians and media influencers at a scale and has been doing this for a long time.
Do they greet each other with a “funny” handshake?
A click of the heels and right arm held straight at 45 degrees perhaps.
The Davos Hitler Youth Programme has been very successful Worldwide with Horse Face in NZ, the Dutch dickhead Rutte, Adolf Trudeau etc.
” The cost to 2050 will comfortably exceed £3 trillion, a work force comparable in size to the NHS will be required for 30 years, including a doubling of the present number of elec trical engineers, and the bill of specialist materials is of a size that for the UK alone is comparable to the global an nual production of many key minerals. ”
Michael Kelly on Net Zero.
Delivering Net Zero: A report from a putative delivery agency
Importing oil while leaving our own in the ground clearly makes no sense. But the effect on GDP isn’t quite as stated. Imports have no effect on GDP. It only appears to be negative because of the way GDP is determined. Spending (some of which is on imports) minus the value of the imports leaves you with domestic production. But reduce imports and all other things being equal the spending reduces by the same amount.
What it will do is hammer our balance of trade as our exports slump and imports increase. Ask Sri Lanka how that worked out for them.
We need a bigger pool from which to recruit permanent secretaries. Maybe also a title change.
Confirmation hearings or periodic re-examinations in public would also help weed out incompetents, incompetence, slackness and politicisation among them.
“Miliband, for his part, must abandon his ideological crusade and adopt a modicum of economic sense”
Yeah good luck with that.
I try to understand Millibands motivation through the facts as ably laid out in this contribution and it doesnt shed any light. It’s not related to any normal rational thought or behaviour. Logic is useless in gaining understanding it’s more metaphysical than scientific. In other words iits what one expects of membership of a cult.
Some comfort can be gained through awareness of the Dunning Kruger effect. Awareness of this has brought me great comfort.
“domestic production adds to GDP, while imports subtract from it”. Imports don’t ADD to GDP but they don’t subtract. I find an error like this rather off-putting in an article about economic competence.
It’s terrifying how idiotic the
morons in power are.