Labour “Saves” Grangemouth Oil Refinery From its Own Net Zero Policies
It was a bad week for the Government, with an announcement this week that “the UK unemployment rate rose to 5.1% in the three months to October”, according to the BBC. Beneath the dehumanising percentages, more than 1.8 million adults are jobless going into Christmas, about 10,000 more than were out of work during the peak of the economic chaos caused by lockdowns. Luckily for the Government, however, it had an ace up its sleeve that it hoped would mitigate the bad news. The hitherto ill-fated Grangemouth refinery had been rescued, alongside “500 jobs”, in a deal between Ineos and the Government. Phew!
I hate to pour cold water on the Government’s claim to have ‘protected 500 jobs’, but the question surely needs to be asked: why were they in need of protection in the first place? The answer just as surely speaks to the utter incoherence at the centre of the Government’s green agenda.
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“But governments are obsessed by big plants and news media are preoccupied with big stories.”
Indeed – and talking to people of most political persuasions and also the fairly apolitical, I find that “ordinary people” are also obsessed with the idea that governments ought to be doing big things – I guess because we have got used to that being the case, and we pay so much tax that we expect “big things” in return. I’ve no idea how we are going to get out of this mess.
I’m not sure we are…
Only after a catastrophic collapse like the fall of Rome.
Yes, don’t they love a bit of ribbon cutting. Unveiling a plaque with their name on it.
Strange that Ratcliffe would make a statement like that. It stinks of politics. It is almost as if the government have come to an arrangement they will “save” the plant by chucking even more of the peoples money at it if Ratcliffe will only heap praise on the decision.
He made that statement because he had to if they wanted the money – simple as that. A government lackey likely wrote it.
Of course the economics haven’t changed, so we will be back to the same position in a year or so…
No, no! By then we won’t need the products Grangemouth produces ‘cos we’ll buy them cheaper from China!
Until we have no capability of our own… then China can start to charge what they like or withhold supply for ‘reasons’…
A lot of people still haven’t understood that yet.
That picture: No wonder they
nearlywent bust – look how much they’ve spent on Christmas lights!They haven’t saved the ExxonMobil Fife Ethylene Plant however, which is due to close with the loss of 400 jobs from an already decaying area of Fife (post-coal). Reading various articles and forums (fora?) about this, it seems that everything under the sun is being blamed except the elephant in the room – the cost of energy, and to a lesser extent, the tax/overregulation situation in this country.
We are simply not competitive thanks to the policies of successive governments and will soon become a state that exists purely to service itself.
Forums works, acc to a Prof of Latin I know
In a little town called Buckhaven Fife, not far from me they did this Hydrogen experiment recently in a housing scheme where people were offered free this that and the next thing if they agreed to have their gas central heating removed to be replaced with Hydrogen. Many signed up to this, but one person I spoke to did NOT. He looked into it for himself and concluded that the cost of this new heating system would be extortionate and he declined the offer. —A very wise man.
My Grandad worked 50 years in the Michael Pit just along the road and now we have nothing but turbines, and silly taxpayer funded energy parks, and very dodgy attempts to put the most volatile element (Hydrogen) into houses and —-THE HIGHEST ELECTRICTY PRICES IN THE WORLD
Rolls Royce are mulling over where to manufacture a new engine for the narrow body jet market given that they have plants in various countries. Two Tier and his dumb Chancellor have made this a core part of their ‘industrial strategy’ but the US and surprisingly Germany are being considered. A declared interest as a shareholder I think the company should go where it is cheapest to maximise profit and that is the US. There will be demand from both the US and France for these engines so maybe both sides of the Atlantic.