Dear Subscribers,
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Transport Minister Louise Haigh put £1 billion worth of investment at risk just before the government’s investment summit with comments about P&O Ferries’ employment practices. Reports emerged that the investment by P&O’s parent company had been put on hold after critical comments about use of ‘fire and rehire’ practices. Jonathan Reynolds, a business minister, now says the reports were wrong and that the investment will go ahead. Even so, it is an inauspicious start to a summit that is supposed to kick-start the government’s growth agenda.
Oops!
Negotiators from the UK and Switzerland have met for the first time in an attempt to upgrade and enhance the existing free trade agreement between the two countries. The current agreement was carried over from the UK’s membership of the EU, and does not include any provisions on digital trade or data flows.
A senior aide of the Prime Minister held top-level meetings on AI policy despite having a personal financial interest in various AI firms. Such a clear conflict of interest should outrage the conscience of new cabinet ministers, who fought the election on promises to ‘clean up’ politics.
Poland has announced that it is suspending the right of people to claim asylum after crossing the border from Belarus, in response to Russian attempts to destabilise the country by encouraging migrants through Russian-aligned territory to Poland. There are two lessons to learn: first, mass migration can be a destabilising force; second, it is possible to change the law such that a country is no longer bound to accept as many people as can make it over the border.
Tusk shuts the border
In the last two weeks, betting odds have moved in favour of Trump winning the US presidential election. Polls have shown a slight shift towards Trump in some key swing states, but they are still well within the margin of error. Pennsylvania, seen as a must-win for both candidates, is practically neck and neck with less than a month to do before polls open.
Media
Tom McTague on the Tory counter-revolution
Andrew Roberts on cancelling Winston Churchill
Blog
The battle after Brexit: an abuse of power by Jonathan Rutherford
Alan Halsall was persecuted by the Electoral Commission for his part in the Leave campaign. His story reveals the rotten state of British democracy.
Those who could not accept the outcome of the vote to leave the EU abused their positions within the state apparatus to try to overturn the result. In addition, alongside the attempt of the People’s Vote to overturn the referendum result, there were those who appeared to seek nothing more than political vengeance. These efforts revealed England’s class rule. People know this about British democracy. Almost half of those eligible to vote in the 2024 general election didn’t bother to turn up at the polls. Populism is flourishing. People do not trust the political classes, and they have lost faith in the institutions of our democracy. To understand why this is so, read Halsall’s small book.
Key Points
In the desperate sprint to reach Net Zero by 2030, Ed Miliband and the Labour government risk leaving Britain cold, poor, and weak. The risk comes with no measurable benefit. The Prime Minister must reign in the eco-ideologues in his party if he wants to avoid an angry reckoning at the next election.
Anything that Britain does will make only a negligible difference to global climate trends. Emissions of greenhouse gases in the UK are dwarfed by emissions from China, India, and the US among others. Even if you think that Britain ought to do its bit or set a standard by reaching Net Zero, it makes no sense to impose deadlines on doing so. It makes no difference to the planet if Britain reaches Net Zero by 2040 or 2050 instead of 2030.
It makes a big difference to British people, however. Net Zero by 2030 means shutting down the only reliable sources of energy we have (coal, nuclear, natural gas, other fossil fuels) in favour of the wind which doesn’t always blow and the sun which doesn’t always shine. Energy storage in sufficient quantities is still beyond the frontiers of modern engineering, so complete reliance on unreliable renewables will mean periodic blackouts.
This at a moment in history when electricity is more important than ever. Not only does much of Britain’s key infrastructure (for example, its financial infrastructure) run on electricity, the most important technological developments are being made in a field which needs a large and stable supply of electricity – artificial intelligence. It is ironic that the government is doing its best to replace domestic gas boilers with electricity-based heat pumps while at the same time destabilising Britain’s supply of electricity. No rational country would sacrifice its key infrastructure and participation in the most important technological development of the age for the sake of dubious and marginal environmental benefits.
It is almost as though the Net Zero fanatics who have found themselves in charge of Britain’s energy policy want to sabotage the future prosperity and security of the country. The voices of reason inside government must assert themselves or they will find themselves contending with a cold, angry electorate at the next election.
