Ditch Net Zero to Win the Red Wall
Abundant cheap energy is the key to unlocking growth, jobs and electoral success.
Introduction
The Government was elected on an anti-Establishment ticket to “Get Brexit Done”. Secondary objectives were to “level up” and to “foster and encourage the millions of British businesses, large and small, that create the wealth of the nation.” Net Zero was in the manifesto, but the detail of the policy was not explained until page 57 of a 64-page document. So far, levelling up has amounted to £4.8bn of public spending on things like “making streets safer” and “protecting health and well-being”. Nothing in the levelling up agenda is about improving the fundamental structure of the economy to deliver growth and jobs.
Net Zero Has Damaged Growth, Productivity and Investment
Over the past quarter century, high energy costs resulting from Net Zero policies have taken their toll on growth, productivity and investment. Highly productive sectors such as oil and gas extraction and energy intensive industries like fertilisers, chemicals and metals production have shrunk relative to the rest of the economy. Lower productivity sectors have grown significantly. This is the root cause of the supposedly unsolvable UK productivity problem.
Moreover, these energy intensive industries are capital intensive, so investment has suffered as these industries have declined. This economic decline and the resultant social decay were probably a big driver of the Brexit vote.
Net Zero is not compatible with Levelling Up so something has to give. Last year’s physics Nobel laureate has signed a declaration saying there is no climate emergency. Even Tony Blair has suggested it is futile to pursue punishing Net Zero policies as China continues to increase its emissions. To respond to the reasons behind Brexit, deliver on Levelling Up and fulfil the promise to the Red Wall we must ditch Net Zero.
The Net Zero agenda has been embedded in Government apparatus by the Climate Change Act. Each five-year plan for the carbon budget, forced on us by the politburo of the Climate Change Committee, is another sadistic turn of the screw that inflicts more pain on the poorest and most vulnerable. The sad irony being that UK Net Zero will not make much difference to global emissions and will not change the weather.
It is as if the governing class is possessed by a collective Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy as they torture the governed to seek attention for their virtue.
The simplest way of getting rid of Net Zero would be to repeal the Act altogether. The collective sigh of relief from the nation at large would easily drown out the howls of derision from the Westminster bubble. The short-, medium- and long-term positive impacts would be immense.
Benefits of Ditching Net Zero
First, such a move would give immediate electoral advantage by ending the ban on new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, ending the ban on gas and oil-fired boilers and scrapping ULEZ and other LTNs. After the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, this is an obvious move. Moreover, a recent YouGov poll showed that 60% of people (63% in the North) either oppose Net Zero policies outright or think that policies to reduce carbon emissions should only be introduced if they do not result in additional costs for ordinary people. Cutting the cost of carbon to zero and abandoning the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) would also see an immediate reduction in energy bills, boosting disposable income across the whole country and reducing inflation. The value of the ETS auctions last year was over £6bn, or more than £200 per household.
To cement a victory in the Red Wall over the medium term, the ban on fracking should also be lifted and the windfall tax on energy companies should be scrapped. Contrary to popular belief, there is a big difference in gas prices across the world. At the time of writing, UK and European gas prices are more than four times those in the US (Source: Trading Economics).
In a tight market, an increase in supply to partially replace Russian gas will reduce gas prices. With typical gas usage at 12,000kWh per household, getting gas prices down to US levels would mean a c.£290 saving per year for each family, before any other tax savings on VAT or electricity.
Producing more of our own gas would create well paid jobs, largely in the North. These would be real jobs, not the Potemkin jobs in renewable energy that are entirely dependent upon the subsidies that cause higher energy bills for the rest of us. Domestically produced fracked gas would also reduce imports, improve the trade deficit, generate tax revenue and enhance energy security. Locally produced gas also has a much smaller carbon footprint than imported LNG so is also good for the environment.
The tectonic plates of geo-politics are also shifting. China is moving to control the supply of critical minerals and BRICS countries may soon control 60% of global gas reserves. It therefore makes sense for the UK to pivot overall energy policy towards nuclear power including SMRs. A big proportion of the world’s Uranium resources are controlled by five-eyes allies Canada and Australia. A mostly nuclear electricity grid supplemented by gas would not be Net Zero, but it would have low emissions and would not be reliant upon as yet unproven, expensive technologies like BECCS, CCUS and hydrogen storage. It will also generate more well-paid jobs in the nuclear sector, enhance energy security, deliver a more reliable grid and give a boost to engineering companies like Rolls-Royce.
The long-term legacy in the Red Wall would be secured by delivering secure energy at low prices. This will stimulate investment in traditional, energy intensive industries and make it easier to feed and defend ourselves with domestically produced fertilisers, chemicals and metals. In addition, our competitive position in new industries like battery manufacturing, crypto-mining and AI will be enhanced, delivering the jobs of the future.
Ditching Net Zero is certainly radical and will no doubt lead to vociferous complaints from the usual suspects. But now is the time for Red Wall MPs to re-discover their anti-Establishment instincts. The scale of the backlash could be reduced by cutting Government funding to renewable energy propagandists and sacking the civil servants that seek to subvert the new policy. The people of the Red Wall are too important to allow the Westminster elite to get in the way.
Footnote: As I was researching and writing this article, several Red Wall MPs called for a referendum on Net Zero and Rishi Sunak ruled it out.
If you have enjoyed this article, please share it with your family friends and colleagues and sign up to receive more content.
Frack, frack and frack some more!
See the 35-minute video of journalist and author Marc Morano giving a barnstorming presentation of the unbelievably dystopian future our globalist overlords have in store for us via their Great Reset, if we allow them: https://principia-scientific.com/finally-the-ultimate-summary-of-the-great-reset-and-a-call-to-action/.
Net Zero is all part of this plan and there is no chance that Sunak will derail it. Such a decision is beyond his pay grade.
The malign ulterior motive of Net Zero is to impoverish, deindustrialise and ultimately depopulate the Western world, in line with the Club of Rome’s Malthusian dictum that “The real enemy, then, is humanity itself”.