The energy case for Brexit

UKIP makes the case that the EU is wrecking the UK energy supply, making it expensive and unreliable. This a party political piece rather than something designed for the Brexit campaign per se.

There were certainly some commenters on my earlier EU thread who thought that British pols were green-minded enough to trash the energy system in this country without any help from Brussels, which in some ways is the case that UKIP are making here.

Guardian mob attacks: reports were accurate

The BBC has interviewed an eyewitness to the Guardian mob attack on Nigel Farage and has confirmed the accuracy of the original reports:

There was lots of noise and kerfuffle. It was harassment, there was no reasoning with them.

Enough to frighten the living daylights out of a ten-year old I would have thought.

Farage mob leader is Guardian writer

The news that UKIP leader Nigel Farage and his family were attacked in a pub this afternoon would be interesting enough at the best of times, but for BH readers there are many other angles that attract attention besides the thuggery.

If early reports are to be believed, the mob was organised by a guy called Dan Glass, a former leader of the Student Union at the University of Sussex, but who was also involved with the green group Plane Stupid. They too had a dubious relationship with the concept of law and order.

He is also a "Guardian Youth Climate Leader" and an occasional Guardian columnist. One can't help but wonder why so many writers at the Graun seem to be mixed up with violence and thuggery these days.

Update on Mar 22, 2015 by Bishop Hill

It turns out that Dan Glass was not the only Guardian columnist at the protest. Eva Jasiewicz, who has written for the Graun here, was there too.

Update on Mar 22, 2015 by Bishop Hill

Jeez, and another one! Pennie Quinton's Guardian corpus is here, her involvement in the mob here.

Happy Mr Farage

There will be much happiness in UKIP circles today, with the announcement that Messrs Cameron, Miliband and Clegg are to sign a joint declaration on climate change, a move which has been brokered by green NGOs.

The prime minister, deputy prime minister and leader of the opposition have all clashed over green issues, but the joint declaration states: “Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing the world today. It is not just a threat to the environment, but also to our national and global security, to poverty eradication and economic prosperity.”

“Acting on climate change is also an opportunity for the UK to grow a stronger economy, which is more efficient and more resilient to the risks ahead,” the joint statement says. “It is in our national interest to act and ensure others act with us.” A senior UK military commander has warned previously that climate change poses as grave a threat to the UK’s security and economic resilience as terrorism.

A better way of making their parties look as if they are completely out of touch and/or working to NGOs' agendas is hard to imagine. That said, one of the pledges they make is to do away with coal-fired electricity generation. This may actually mean that the underlying message is "frack baby, frack".

Your taxes at work

This appeared in Hansard recently:

Kerry McCarthy (Shadow Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs); Bristol East, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many staff in (a) his Department in the UK and (b) British embassies and high commissions overseas work on climate change-related diplomacy; and what projections he has made of the future staffing requirements for such work.

Click to read more ...

UKIP target Climate Change Act

UKIP seem to be perservering in their opposition to the UK's insane climate and energy policies, according to an article in Prospect magazine.

The party is also committed to the abolition of the Climate Change Act, which he estimates costs Britain £18bn a year. “We are looking to shrink the Department for Energy & Climate Change,” he says, adding that, “there are elements of BIS [Business, Innovation and Skills] that we are looking into.” The plans to shrink these departments will be independently reviewed, though “not by the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility], even though they are likely to tear it to pieces anyway.”

UKIP triumph

The news that UKIP have topped the polls for the European Parliament is clearly of great moment, and it's worth considering for a moment whether the party's energy and climate change policies have played any part in the victory. It's possible that the word is getting out about renewables and shale gas and that some voters are attracted to a party that is not caught up in the destructive green zeitgeist. But the much smaller advances made by the party in the local elections suggest that the effect is small.

There's still a long way to go.

Tax-funded recessionmongers

The Tyndall Centre's Radical Emissions Reduction conference has garnered quite a lot of attention in recent days, and I'm pleased to say that slides and audio of the presentations are now available.

When watching these, it's important to remember that these lunatics are paid for out of your taxes. Such a thing is barely comprehensible in times of plenty, but when the public finances are in the appalling state they are, when people everywhere are struggling to pay their bills, when we are in danger of the lights going out, it seems almost criminal for the government to be paying for a bunch of unreconstructed teen revolutionaries to fly from all corners of the globe to talk about how to make things worse.

And I'm not being sarcastic here. These people want permanent recession.

What is David Willetts thinking of when he lets this situation continue? Does he think this is an acceptable use of taxpayers' money? Does he want the Conservative vote to migrate en masse to UKIP?

How important is climate policy to the rise of UKIP?

The Exeter energy blog looks at the rise of UKIP and wonders to what extent its success can be put down to its position on climate.

With yesterday’s county council election results now showing a big UKIP vote, today seems an appropriate time to note that the rise in UKIP support correlates pretty well with an increase in scepticism expressed in polls.

I have no doubt that climate and, in particular, energy policy is a factor, but I would have thought it was a bit esoteric for most voters. The feeling that the inhabitants of the Westminster village are just taking it in turns to do the same ineffective things has more to do with it IMHO.

Bitter for some - Josh 219

Hooray, at long last! A politician with a really great cartoonable face. I'm sure I can hear the appreciative sharpening of pencils across the UK. I will certainly be trying to do him justice ;-)

Well done, Nigel, and all the best with the politics too.

Cartoons by Josh

UKIP Scotland's climate spokesman

Congratulations to BH regular Mike Haseler, who has been appointed UKIP's climate change spokesman for Scotland. The press release is as follows:

Mike Haseler known to many through his pseudo-name "Scottish Sceptic" and through his work on the Scottish Climate & Energy Forum has been selected by the UK Independence Party in Scotland to be their spokesman on Energy and Climate.

Click to read more ...

Tummy tickling

The Telegraph claims to have a splash on Conservative ministers' attitudes to windfarms - in particular those of planning minister Nick Boles and DECC's John Hayes.

The Daily Telegraph has been told that Mr Boles warned Mr Hayes in the letter that people “bitterly resented” having onshore wind farm developments imposed on them by planners after an inquiry.

It is also the first evidence of a Tory ministerial alliance against Liberal Democrat attempts to introduce more onshore wind turbines.

The intervention will be a major boost for communities which are fighting the construction of turbines near their homes.

The Conservatives, as we know, can do little or nothing about energy policy in the UK, since the coalition agreement awards this to the LibDems. This announcement therefore reeks of the blue half of the government reacting to the continuing rise of UKIP in the polls by trying to tickle the tummies of some disgruntled rural voters with a view to slowing the exodus of their voters to Farage's team.

More soft totalitarianism

A couple of other interesting snippets relating to illegitimate attempts by left-wingers to stifle supporters of UKIP.

Firstly, as the news of the Rotherham fostering scandal broke, came this tweet by a UKIP candidate:

Barnardo's would not allow me to be a volunteer befriender of young people leaving care when I told them I was standing for UKIP.

Of course, private organisations should be able to associate with anyone they like, but the problem is that Barnardo's are heavily funded by the government. If I recall correctly the vast majority of their funding comes directly from the state. This being the case, I think someone in the Education Department needs to have a word in Dr Barnardo's ear.

Then there is the decision of the University of Derby students union to ban all UKIP candidates. I'm less clear about the position of a university union vis-a-vis state funding, but it's still a shocking state of affairs.

Not right, not right at all - Josh 189

See story below

Cartoons by Josh

Update on Nov 24, 2012 by Josh

As Woodentop says, Guido has a good write up here with a link to the Today programme interview with Rotherham Council's Joyce Thacker here. Also a longer Sky News clip here 

Soft totalitarianism

The news this morning that a couple in Rotherham had their foster children removed from them because they were UKIP members almost defies belief.

It seems to me to be symptomatic of a much wider problem with soft totalitarianism. There are now an enormous number of views the holding of which will lead to immediate retribution from left-leaning bureaucrats, not the least of which is global warming scepticism.

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