Britain’s energy market is so dysfunctional that to even call it a market at all is something of a misnomer. It is so distorted by state intervention that there is very little left of it that could be described as ‘free’. Whereas Nigel Lawson envisioned an energy market beyond the remit of government, Ed Miliband […]
The North Sea has brought economic prosperity to Scotland for centuries, from providing bountiful herring that ushered in the ‘silver darlings’ era of Scottish fishing, to producing oil and gas that has powered Britain for decades. But today the communities that rely on the North Sea are in crisis. Oil and gas production is declining […]
Poverty was once the norm. A quarter of babies died in their first year of life. In 1980, around 40% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Today only 10% of people do. Much of this is thanks to fossil fuels. The burning of wood, then coal, gas and oil, enabled us to prosper. […]
British businesses have faced numerous challenges over the past few years, not least extortionate energy bills. According to the International Energy Agency, the UK has had the highest non-domestic energy prices of any member state, creating a significant barrier to growth and investment. What’s more, the government has imposed additional regulatory costs on businesses, such […]
Subsidies create distortions. They alter the natural balance of supply, demand and fair competition in the marketplace. The Government’s Net Zero target has resulted in millions of pounds of taxpayer money being spent on subsidising ‘green’ projects, and, unsurprisingly, the distortionary effects are enormous. In some cases, the subsidies are not simply distortionary, but they […]
Last week, the Government announced the results of Allocation Round 7 (AR7) – record-breaking subsidies for renewable energy stretching 20 years into the future. ‘Clean, homegrown, power is the right choice for this country to bring down bills for good’, chimed Ed Miliband, the Net Zero Secretary, claiming that AR7 prices were 40% cheaper than […]
Soaring energy bills for households and industry continue to keep inflation high and create a straitjacket for growth. Labour’s arbitrary and unnecessary 2030 Clean Power Target continues to undermine the urgent mission to cut bills. And this has been laid bare yet again today. Some might have hoped that the seventh allocation round (AR7) for […]
Is China an enemy state? This is a question ministers struggle to answer as Beijing breaks treaties, sanctions our MPs and puts Muslims in concentration camps. If any other country did this it would bring outrage. China gets away with it because they are also our fifth-largest trading partner, a major investor and one of […]
North Sea oil should be all over by now. Back in the 1970s, it was predicted to run dry by the year 2000. Instead, production maxed out at the turn of the millennium and it’s still going today. While the sector is now in decline, billions in value still remain. But ideology will kill the […]
Keir Starmer has formally accepted the recommendations of the new Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce (NRT), setting the stage for a ‘radical reset’ of Britain’s nuclear regulations and signalling the Government’s intent to fast-track a new era of reactors. In the last year, the UK has finally started to get serious about nuclear energy. Financing has been […]
When the Budget is announced on Wednesday, the Chancellor will have a golden opportunity to take radical action to reduce every UK household’s energy bills. If she accepts all the recommendations suggested in the Nuclear Regulatory Review, published today, British energy can become cheap again. The report, which calls for the most radical reforms of […]
Kemi Badenoch is right. Conservatives need to show that they stand with farmers. But if the party wants to show genuine support, it should follow its leader’s pro-growth instincts and treat farms as real businesses. All agricultural policy must flow from this one truth: food is a private good sold on a private market. Farmers […]
This year’s United Nations climate change summit – COP30 – has begun in Brazil. This COP is set against an uneasy backdrop. Last year was the hottest on record, as global temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees. Despite this, many nations attending COP30 have yet to submit their net zero plans, and the US is not attending […]
Last year, in Baku, Azerbaijan, the 29th UN’s Conference of the Parties on Climate Change excelled itself in providing the global stage for cant and hypocrisy. The petrostate’s government had declared the event as ‘The COP of Peace’ despite Azerbaijan military forces invading the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh the year before, displacing 100,000 ethnic Armenians […]
This article is the latest in a fortnightly series of policy proposals from John Penrose and the Centre for Small State Conservatives. You can read the previous instalments here: Only Thatcher-sized reforms will end Britain’s malaise Britain’s benefits system is unfair for all involved Labour’s change to Ofwat doesn’t hold water The fiscal farce that’s bankrupting […]
Until today’s decision by Kemi Badenoch to scrap or reform the Climate Change Act, Ed Miliband was arguably the most successful figure in British politics. Net Zero, rooted in the 2008 Act, sits like Brexit across all of political life. And unlike the Brexiteers, he got his opponents to buy into his cause, changing the […]
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