The Government has finally bowed to common sense and given the green light to the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea. It’s the sensible move and a good start, although a decision on Rosebank is not yet forthcoming. Given the resistance both projects have faced, it’s worth setting out why Jackdaw’s approval is good […]
The lifeblood of the economy. The backbone of Britain. When it comes to small businesses, it’s easy to lapse into cliché. But that’s because they really, really matter. The overwhelming majority of businesses in Britain are small businesses. They employ more than 13 million people. And it’s almost impossible to exaggerate how tough things are […]
Britain was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution – where cheap, abundant coal fuelled the inventions that built the modern world. Those breakthroughs – railways, modern medicine and electricity – transformed humanity. But we often forget that it was energy, our ability to produce it and (crucially) to store it, that made all of this […]
Nobody ever built a wind farm with wind. An energy transition is always a project that uses its current energy source to build its replacement while keeping everyone fed and warm. Every turbine, panel, pylon and battery is made, moved, installed and replaced with the help of cheap oil. The question under the plan for […]
A century ago you had to be rich to get any kind of choice over your clothes. And if you weren’t in the upper echelons of society you could forget going on a foreign holiday. Today, mass production ensures there is an abundance of clothes to choose from at all budgets, and cheap flights have […]
The UK only has 13 days worth of natural gas storage capacity, and it’s about to be cut in half. Britain needs gas storage now, and it will need it as North Sea extraction declines. Otherwise, we’re badly exposed to another energy crisis. Centrica has seemingly given us an easy out by offering to regenerate […]
It’s not often that a Labour announcement reminds you of music. Reading Andy Burnham’s confirmation of his commitment to Net Zero in the Guardian last week, I couldn’t help but think of The Who’s 1971 epic rocker ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’. Within it are the lyrics: ‘And the world looks just the same, And history […]
If you think this summer has been sticky, count yourself lucky you were not in the Cabinet in August and September 1931, in the midst of possibly the worst economic crisis the country has ever faced. It is worth looking at what happened then, because high energy and Government borrowing costs mean a crisis of […]
The verdict is clear. The Right has woken up to the innate statism associated with a statutory Net Zero target. Reform UK reject it outright, and the Conservatives have pledged to scrap the 2050 deadline and the 2008 Climate Change Act by which net-zero targets are enforced. Both accept the approach is a millstone around […]
This week, Nimby Watch is in Axminster, because where else would you go to talk about the technologies of the future? Alright then, where are we off to this time? In this edition of Nimby Watch, we’re focusing in on Axminster, where – Oh, I love that we’re finally doing something different! I’m a huge […]
In 1943, a Post Office engineer called Tommy Flowers built a codebreaking machine out of 1,500 thermionic valves, partly out of his own pocket. Within a year Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic computer, was cracking Nazi High Command ciphers at Bletchley Park. Britain had invented the data centre, in a large shed, and chock-full […]
What do Richard Tice, Kevin Hollinrake and Peter Kyle all have in common? I wish I had a wittier answer to what sounds the set-up to a poor joke, but unfortunately I only have one answer – they all own an electric vehicle (EV). If three men, who have wildly diverging political views, lifestyles and […]
As an architect and developer, every day I must wade through the swamp of planning rules, building regulations, financial restrictions and NIMBYism peppering the landscape of the construction sector. One set of rules in particular though, and one sub-set of those rules, grinds my goat so intensely for its sheer wanton stupidity and backward-thinkingness, that […]
The Iran war has created the largest supply disruption in the history of the oil market, beating the shocks of the 1970s and the war in Ukraine. Whatever happens with Donald Trump and the Strait of Hormuz, the Middle East oil industry cannot afford to be this exposed again. The Gulf has the money and […]
On June 23 Britain’s grid came close to collapse. Despite energy minister Michael Shanks calling claims ‘scaremongering’, new whistleblower information shows the grid had indeed been pushed past safe operating limits. A leaked National Energy System Operator (NESO) document said that ‘system constraints were breached and system security was compromised’ – a damning indictment of […]
In his first days as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham announced a series of populist pledges that purport to address the cost of living, but fail to address the deep structural issues afflicting the British economy. Burnham will soon discover – like the four short-lived predecessors who held office before him – that the voters of […]
In his first full day as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham has announced that VAT on household energy bills will be removed from October. While no doubt well intentioned, this would be a mistake. First, it is risky for the public finances. VAT on energy bills brings in a significant amount of revenue. The Government has […]
Last Friday, the most capable AI model in the world went dark. Anthropic had released Fable 5 three days earlier; on June 12, a U.S. executive order cut off access for foreign nationals. With no clean way to wall Americans off from the rest of us inside a global system used by hundreds of millions […]
Looking For Growth has launched the Emergency Energy Bill – a ready-made piece of legislation that the Government should pass tomorrow. But it won’t. Labour won’t take the radical action necessary to get bills down unless we force them to. This Government, just like many of its predecessors over the last thirty years, has prioritised […]
Three C-17 Globemasters. Eight shipping containers. The first nuclear reactor in history to be moved by air. While it feels like the opening of one of those special-forces slop series on Amazon that I count as one of my guiltiest pleasures, this is the very real Operation Windlord. The operation, conducted by the US Air […]
At its peak, Britain was known as the workshop of the world. Sheffield produced high-quality steel, Manchester still had a strong textiles sector and the West Midlands was world-renowned for its cars. Glasgow, Sunderland and Newcastle were shipbuilding hubs, Stoke-on-Trent produced ceramics. Cities around Britain provided steady employment for skilled tradespeople, keeping communities together and […]
After nearly two decades of weak growth, stagnant wages and stubbornly high inequality – alongside one of the worst productivity records in the developed world since the financial crisis – Britain’s central problem is how to get the economy growing again. We don’t build enough homes. We don’t generate enough cheap energy. We don’t invest […]
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