In addition, our energy system has become fragile. We were at one time energy independent, and we did not learn the lesson and the benefit of that. We are now heavily dependent upon imported gas, and gas is used not only for heating, but also for electricity generation.
But if you suggested increasing domestic supplies of gas – N Sea or fracking – you would also be wrong, right?
It is a fool’s errand expecting honesty, logic, or reflection from this giant sized tool.
In addition, our energy system has become fragile.
What did you expect for a system that is 9X cheaper?
Tim – you have it surrounded.
In addition, our energy system has become fragile. We were at one time energy independent, and we did not learn the lesson and the benefit of that. We are now heavily dependent upon imported gas, and gas is used not only for heating, but also for electricity generation. So when global energy prices rise as they are at present, the UK economy absorbs the shock very quickly. Electricity prices rise, business costs rise, food production costs rise, and households face the consequences. This is not inevitable. We could have gone much more heavily for renewable sources of supply. It is the result of policy choice that we are now in crisis.
Apparently had we invested even more in renewables we would not have an energy crisis. At least you can’t accuse him of not ‘doubling down’ . I wonder if people freezing to death will give him any pause?
As long as *he* is not freezing then its just the consequences of neoliberalism.
not so far
we are definitely ignoring the death toll that resulted from significantly higher energy costs over the last few years.
Wierd that deaths are so focussed on when the state wants you do to something to “stop people dying from X” but completely ignored when they want you accept Y.
“It is the result of policy choice that we are now in crisis.”
Well that bit is certainly true.
Why not invest in some brand new “Super Critical” coal plants? It’s not as if we are in short supply of the stuff…
No one is going to invest in UK.
Of course the system is fragile. This year storage has sometimes fallen to about two days of supply during tight market conditions. The more reliant we are on intermittent renewables the more storage we need as we no longer have the luxury of lots of gas on its way to us where it is effectively being stored in transit.
Commercial investments in gas storage infrastructure aren’t going to happen as political energy ideology means it probably won’t have a long enough service life to recover the cost. The sate should step in and invest to fill that gap left by the market however that same ideology means they won’t and instead blame the ensuing energy chaos on gas.
“Commercial investments in gas storage infrastructure aren’t going to happen as political energy ideology means it probably won’t have a long enough service life to recover the cost. “
We are constantly told that we can’t get out of the HS2 contracts because the penalties included in them mean we might as well keep spending. So whats to stop a Reform govt (say) signing contracts with private firms for long term gas storage (and other fossil fuel energy infrastructure) that means an incoming govt can’t cancel them without losing a fortune?
Nige has already revealed the answer to the problem of eye-watering contracts with penalty clauses: windfall taxes on the beneficiaries. These could, of course, be applied to HS2 but can certainly be applied to “renewables” investors.
Did those HS2 contracts have no contingency clause for missing time or budget targets? Or is it on time and budget? When is it gonna be done. When will a train run? Or would that be incidental to the real purpose of creating a pile of money to trouser?
Since a future Labour government would simply pass a law saying those contracts are retrospectively annulled and claim that “Farage was favouring his mates” (regardless of the truth) with all the propaganda outlets at the behest of the lefties, the wheeze, although good, would be ineffective..
long term ineffective, perhaps. But there could be several years of yanking their chains and taking all their money…..
Indeed, john77. Parliamentary sovereignty is absolute. But a law retrospectively annulling contracts would inevitably face legal challenges. Retrospective legislation is generally considered contrary to the rule of law, which requires laws to be clear and predictable.
Fun thought…If a post-Reform government were elected on a manifesto promising to reinstate the HRA and rejoin the ECHR, then retrospectively annulling contracts would be very controversial, because ISTM retrospective annulment of contracts is surely challengeable under the ECHR – particularly Article 1 of the First Protocol (protection of property).
PS IANAL
“Retrospective legislation is generally considered contrary to the rule of law, which requires laws to be clear and predictable.”
How come Labour can retrospectively turn assured shorthold tenancies into something else then? A tenant signs a AST, the government comes along and retrospectively turns it into a completely different contract.
If they can do that, why can’t Reform do that to the contracts that were signed between HMG and the HS2 builders?
But, O’Tool, when you closed all those coal thermal plants it was your intention to make the grid more fragile.
More renewables means much more gas to back up fragile green energy.
Yet Russia has increased production even though it doesnt have so many buyers. Policy choice stops us from having that plentiful supply
Within a gnats breath , all that UK (and no doubt others) currently finds itself contending with flows directly from policy decisions of the ideologues.
Appreciating somewhat up there with “war in Iran: housing market affected” I confess a source of frustration that as with the start of the Ukraine war, it provides a convenient bogeyman to blame for what are really government/bank policy failures.
“Won’t you spare a thought for us poor orphans?” – the Menendez brothers
Sitting on an island made of coal surrounded by seas of gas sort of thing.
As usual, the collective wisdom among the elites in Oz is the same.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/03/15/aussie-security-experts-demand-an-accelerated-renewable-transition/
Not a word about developing local sources of course. Like the Narrabri gas field that Santos have been trying to get up for years in the face of constant lawfare.