Ed Miliband used a wide-ranging party speech today at Labour Party Conference to rail against opponents of climate action. Nigel Farage and Reform UK bore the brunt of his attack for their hostility to clean energy. But the Energy Secretary continues to be completely oblivious to his own role in fuelling polarisation around climate change. […]
It was April 28, 2025, around midday, when Spain – and parts of Portugal – was disconnected from the modern world. In a moment, trains halted, metros were evacuated and the Bolsa de Madrid went dark. Telecom lines went silent; traffic lights stopped working; hospitals flicked on backup generators. The blackout, which lasted up to […]
We are losing our green and pleasant land. From rare temperate rainforests, to winding chalk streams, to precious peatlands, what makes our countryside English is slowly diminishing. Since Edmund Burke, a key plank of conservative philosophy has been the responsibility we have to steward and hand on what we have had the privilege to enjoy […]
Evidence of Britain’s deleterious energy policy continues to pile up. Earlier this week, Ineos Energy announced an end to all investment in Britain. This comes after the closure of the Grangemouth refinery, the UKs’s oldest, earlier this year by Petroineos, and a warning from the wider Ineos conglomerate – the world’s fourth-largest chemical company, which […]
Psychologists largely agree that we all live with an inner pessimist. Why? Because for most of human history, reacting to danger – real or perceived – was essential for survival. This has left us biologically wired to overreact to threats and underreact to good news, which helps explain why emotional, end-of-the-world-style stories tend to stick […]
As governments across the globe scramble to advance climate agendas, the climate policy debate is dominated by government targets and activist demands. Yet, the engine of real progress – the private sector – remains largely overlooked. While I possess some scepticism of the ‘Net Zero’ target, it is currently enshrined in UK law. Similarly, with […]
Last month, Friedrich Merz was sworn in at the head of a new government in Germany, promising a new era of lower taxes, higher growth and tougher migration policy. In many respects, this is standard fare for a centre-right leader cleaning up after left-wing drift. But buried in the 144-page coalition agreement was a quietly […]
This publication of this week’s Industrial Strategy, and the first of five associated ‘Sector Plans’, marks the latest step in delivering on the Government’s ambitions to boost economic growth. There is much in the papers published that seems sound, including the importance of unlocking investment in skills, R&D and infrastructure – all of which are […]
Energy is the great enabler. It comforts us by cooling our offices in summer and heating our homes in winter; it nourishes us by synthesising fertilisers and purifying water; it raises our infrastructure by forging steel and melting silicon into glass; it connects the world by mobilising cars, trains, and aeroplanes; it generates electricity, that […]
The Government’s new immigration white paper contains several welcome measures to tighten up visa rules and strengthen English language requirements. It is an attempt to respond to growing public concern about sky-high immigration levels, which polling finds to be the primary motivating factor for voters to back Reform UK. But despite the tough rhetoric, Keir […]
Another week, another blow to Ed Miliband. Yesterday the plug was pulled on a huge offshore windfarm, Hornsea 4, that could have powered more than two million homes. The owner Ørsted, the Danish state-owned company (and inspiration for Ed’s pet project GB Energy), announced it was ‘discontinuing the project in its current form’, incurring £400-500m […]
Kemi Badenoch’s Net Zero intervention last month made plenty of political sense. The Tories face a threat from Reform, and the Net Zero consensus was part of the reason why. With the anti-establishment wave showing no signs of receding, Badenoch needed to try and protect the party’s right flank – dropping the commitment to Net […]
Tony Blair always was an audacious character. Eric Anderson, his headmaster at Fettes, recalled a regular knock on his door. “Round it would come that grinning Blair face, which said, ‘Sir, I don’t think this rule or that rule is right, can we change it?'” When he was Labour leader, he went a long way […]
When you next fill up your car, the cashier will not ask you your net worth before deciding how much to charge you for a tank of petrol. Rich or poor, trucker or taxi driver, we all pay the same bill for the same product. The same is true when we buy groceries, run the […]
The climate crisis stems from our failure to reflect environmental costs in market prices, leading society to overproduce activities that harm the planet. Recognising that the environmental crisis stems from the absence of markets in environmental costs – not from markets themselves – is crucial to building a sustainable economy. The solution is not in […]
Four billion journeys are taken by local buses every year. That’s nearly twice as many by rail, London Underground and Glasgow Subway combined. They save parents ferrying teens around, keep the elderly connected and provide an affordable way for commuters to get to work. There are also significant visible benefits to our communities from buses […]
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