Britain Created its Own Energy Crisis
The US-Israel war in Iran has once again shaken energy markets and, if it is not brought under control in the next days and weeks, has the potential to become another global energy shock. With gas and oil prices spiking, weaknesses in arguments for and against the government’s green energy agenda have been exposed.
“Government is about choices,” claimed Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband, ahead of the war’s opening salvoes. The “choice” he claims to have made is the transfer of £150 from energy bills to general taxation. Labour’s election promise to “lower bills” has embarrassed the party, though Miliband and his plans remains in place. The accounting-trick policy may, short-term, bring “much needed cost of living support for families”, as Miliband claims. But it means more pressure on other taxpayers, as will the “historic investments in clean, homegrown power we control” that Miliband boasted about at the same time. But notice that the “control” and “choices” are limited to merely redistributing cost rather than reducing it. “Those on the Right want to outsource our energy security to fossil fuel markets we have no control over,” Miliband claims. So, do the chaotic price signals unleased by the war make his case?
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Doubling down on renewable’s is, yes, right for climate change, it’s, yes, right for jobs.”——-These are two of the feeble excuses used by a Political Class that put alignment with the Eco Socialist Agenda’s FIRST and the British people LAST. ———–The first excuse that it is right for climate change is particularly feeble when the UK is only responsible for 1% of global emissions of CO2, so what ever we do will have no effect on global climate at all. Then the second excuse is a disgraceful lie since oil gas and coal jobs have and are being obliterated in their hundreds of thousands, and the whole point of energy production is to produce ENERGY, not JOBS.
Most of my few, mainly normie friends and acquaintances I have from my childhood take pride in maintaining a “balanced” and “moderate” view in every matter and seem to believe that – no matter the merits or otherwise of any argument – that the truth is always to be found by taking this type of view. So, it has become practically impossible to point out to them matters such as lockdowns, Net Zero etc. are now based entirely on lies, corruption and incompetence, at every level. They say that one-time quiet, solitary, retiring Marcus has now become “extreme”. “Probably because he never had a telly,” they say. “Nothing to straighten out his weird ideas.”
To say they are still brainwashed, even the ones I thought were free-thinking, is an understatement.
Yes, thanks to Lockdowns, I developed a brand new circle of friends. It’s now even smaller, but by gum it’s better. And one lad from school I thought was a bully, merely appeared so by being made constantly angry by the absurdity of the system. These days I really get on with him.
The way things are going they may well be forced to face reality. But of course they will not be able to accept that their reasoning is wrong. But beware, it’s easy to forgive someone who is wrong simply because it proves they were right. Conversely to accept that someone was right means they will have to accept that they were wrong. Impossible for some people.
My understanding is that the 1 percent of emissions you’re speaking of here, is in fact 1/100th of the 3% that is mankind’s contribution to the world‘s CO2? So, it’s perhaps madder than you think…
The remaining 97% of emissions are, of course, Mother Nature’s own contribution and they are, apparently, harmless?
“Nothing to worry about…absolutely nothing to worry about, I tell you…nothing has changed…£150 off bills…inflation coming down…highest growth in Europe last year…employment up…the plan is working…’
Not Winston Churchill 2026
Note that the shift of the burden on to the tax payer, thus allowing the lie that bills are reducing once again gives Labours client base, the non worker, the benefits of parasiting off the working population who are once again made worse off by Labour
Good luck with that £150 off bills… heating oil has jumped from 59p, per litre, to £1.59.
We cannot make fertiliser or other essential items from renewable energy. Without our own petrochemicals we will always be subject to international developments.
To be fair the quantity of utter manure spewing out from milliband’s gob could fertilize the world 10 times over.
We can’t make fertiliser here anyway, they closed the last plant capable of its manufacture a while ago… along with those that make many other essential ingredients.
What could possibly go wrong? 🤷🏼
Look at Aberdeen, a once prosperous place built on oil, destroyed by Ed Milliband, where are the multi thousand jobs Ed to replace those you have destroyed, have you been to Aberdeen? have you asked the people there? Now as a Country we face petrol shortages, combined with high prices, not only will individuals be faced with difficulties in getting anywhere, but so will those who transport our food, our Pharmaceuticals,Ambulances, trains. How you going to resolve that Ed? is it because we didnt all switch to Electric? Hang on Ed how are those Electric pumps going to be working along with all the other basic human needs that are required without Electricity,the wind doesn’t blow all the time and looking out of my window todayall I see is cloud cover and gloom. So i guess Ed under your rules we just have to suck uo that there will be no heat, light food, hospitalisation on cold and damp days. Then our Industry you have destroyed, no chemicals made here no fertilisers, leaving us without the ability to grow plentiful food, no ability to build our own defence capability. But that’s not your fault is it? All you are doing… Read more »
Energy sources we control?
I think milliband you do not control either the wind or the sun, so you’re talking shite.
He does control the price of intermittent electricity, though – have you seen the strike prices of his CFDs?
A truly superb article.
Thanks Ben.
Just think, if politicians had done literally nothing to the UK energy policy of 30 years ago, there would be no problem.
Cheaper bills, abundant oil and of course, we’d have begun to frack.
Energy independent.
You can apply that same logic to most problems we have – however ‘do nothing’ is not going to get politicians jobs in high places post their political career…
It is lunacy to ignore our own oil and gas reserves in the north sea and import them from other nations, including Norway which IS exploiting the reserves our moronic Establishment is refusing to use.
Today at 09.30, our energy is coming from:
Gas: 38%
Inter-connectors: 26%
Nuclear: 11%
Wind: 8%
Solar: 3%
The Eco lunatics are destroying this country.
Battery Storage: 0%
Nor is energy the only crisis our successive governments have created.
That they have done it deliberately makes it all far far worse.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/03/08/britain-two-days-gas-middle-east-flow-runs-dry/
I have just read in another article that we have about 3 days of gas reserves, including LPG.
And those in the markets know this, so we are being charged extortionate rates to buy on the open market.
Can any DS reader/commentator with more knowledge than me confirm or deny this?
“But it seems to me that the argument for reindustrialising for war might make a case for Net Zero – depriving idiot politicians of agency might be no bad thing.” I don’t understand this sentence at all. It stands out in what is otherwise a superb analysis of the lies politicians are telling us about “agency”. “We need a proper rejoinder to Monbiot’s injunction (as embraced by the Miliband brothers) that we act ‘against ourselves’.” Aren’t there plenty of those rejoinders around already? Let’s rehearse the arguments for acting “against ourselves”: a) It’s short-term pain for long-term gain. With “indigenous”, green sources of energy, the UK will be in a better position when oil runs out. (OK, a worse position than now, but, the argument goes, a better one than we would be if we relied wholly on fossil fuels). The obvious rejoinder here is that there’s little if any sign of the oil running out yet. So what’s the timescale? 100 years? 50 years? And what about the effects up to that date? Are they worth it? b) It’ll actually help “the climate”. This one is easily disposed of. When the BRICS nations are happily chucking the coal, oil… Read more »
Milliband is the Secretary of State for Energy Security, when is he going to take responsibility for that brief?
The trick of moving energy costs imposed by government ideology to general taxation is one that Germany has been doing for some time – the only reason they are not challenging us as World leaders – but as Net Zero is driving Germany’s economy down the shitter, their tax income is falling rapidly at the same time as energy subsidies are rising.
Anyone who thinks that is a good idea to replace a power generator consistently working at about ~90% productivity with systems that work unreliably and intermittently and achieving less than ~18% productivity, depending on massive public subsidies, must be either in error or malign. The poor productivity of Weather-Dependent “Renewables” means that power installations would have to be about 5-6 times larger in scale. They thus cost more than conventional gas, coal and even nuclear generators. Fossil fuel power generation does produce Carbon Dioxide CO2, but CO2’s warming effectiveness diminishes with increased concentration. While CO2 does make some contribution to Global temperature, its further effect is now radically limited. Gas-firing results in about half the CO2 emissions of Coal and about a quarter of imported biomass. The UK only produces ~0.8% of Global CO2 emissions. But CO2 is essential Plant Food, its rise in atmospheric concentration has already resulted in massive increases in plant and crop productivity worldwide. So, never forget Sun Tsu’s first art of war: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” That is exactly what is happening as Western governments pursue self-harming Green Energy policies. There is no better way to damage Western societies than by having their governments… Read more »
People also need to remember as the government, activists and media harp on about getting rid of fossil fuels and replacing them with renewable’s is that renewable’s only provide ELECTRICTY, which is only one fifth of energy needs. But because of the intermittency of wind and sun you need one watt of backup ticking over (normally gas) for every watt produced by renewable’s, which is a bit like having to own 2 cars or two televisions because one of them only works some of the time. Clearly two of something will cost more than one.