Net Zero Benefit Those of us
of a certain age will remember Anthony Wedgwood Benn how the eyes exuded his
fanaticism for socialism. This was the driving force that gave us British
Leyland and the death of the British motor industry. You can see that
fanaticism again in the eyes of Ed Miliband in his pursuit of net zero. Let us
remind ourselves of what this is: the output of carbon dioxide (CO2)
from all sources – domestic and industrial – must be balanced by reduction
processes such as carbon capture. As the latter is, at present and likely in
the foreseeable future, negligible and expensive, it means we must, in
practice, reduce the total emissions to zero. The cost of
achieving this, which is highly unlikely to happen, will be immense and the
benefits, speculative. Cost has been calculated at £1.4 trillion leading up to
the net zero deadline of 2050 – let’s see what that looks like as a figure: £1,400,000,000,000.
Looks horrifying put like that and works out at £1700 per household per year. An
unexpected ally in this debate is the wretched Reeves who would have to break
more promises on tax rises as it would be imposed on taxpayers – domestic and businesses.
Since it relies on enormous capital investment, it must be collected at the
front-end, so we pay up front in the hope that benefits will accrue. And what are
these benefits? Mike
Thompson, chief economist of that self-serving quango, the Climate Change
Committee, says it’s a pretty good deal to avoid the effects of climate change.
Should UK net zero prove to be possible, the contribution to global CO2
emissions from the whole of the UK is a mere 1%. This would be swallowed many
times over by China’s emissions. So what’s the point? We
obviously won’t avoid the effects of climate change, which, themselves, are
dubious. So what’s the point? Who in the
UK political scene is opposing this waste? None of the various coloured
socialist parties: it was the blue socialists under Theresa May that wrote this
ridiculous deadline into law. Only Reform UK are committed to withdrawing from
this huge wasteful expenditure. One commitment I hope they won’t drop is the
establishment of a network of small modular reactors – a great idea. The lead
company in this program is Rolls Royce, in which I own a small shareholding –
oops, conflict of interest! Loony
Left Woke-up Call 1 . . . Health minister, Andrew Gwynne has been fired for inappropriate comments,
made on WhatsApp. His place has been taken by one Ashley Dalton, who, believes
that someone who thinks they are llama should be treated with dignity and
respect! Loony
Left Woke-up Call 2 . . . There are now 67000 civil servants supporting just 70000 active
servicemen. They’re still at it – 381 jobs currently being advertised. Must be
a warm fluffy feeling for the chap in the front line, with bullets flying
around him, that he has his own personal pen-pusher at his shoulder. Loony
Left Woke-up Call 3 . . . A whopping ½ million pounds spent on study of pregnant “men”. This is
nonsense – men cannot get pregnant full stop. What the study is looking at are women
who have adopted every possible external appearance of men, but have retained
their full reproductive organs. Please note
this blog represents the views of the author and in no way seeks to epitomise
official Rerform UK policy.
Robert De’Ath