If you ever for a moment doubted that we are ruled by lunatics, let this dispel such notions:
The BoE said last week Britain’s economy could shrink by 14% this year – the most since the early 1700s – due to the government’s coronavirus shutdown, before growing by 15% in 2021. But the central bank warned there were risks of an even worse performance.
Haldane said in the longer term, Britain needed to put its net-zero carbon target and boosting growth in underperforming regions – as pledged by Prime Minister Boris Johnson before the coronavirus crisis – into its growth strategies.
Net zero is the most insane anti-economic notion conceived in the last few decades, a literal rejection of modern energy intensive technological society. The idea that the economic fallout caused by the Wuhan coronavirus lockdowns can be alleviated by making energy more expensive and travel less accessible is like, well, drinking bleach or fish tank cleaner to ward off said virus: the behaviour of genuine authentic unalloyed idiots.
The only way to put net zero carbon targets into growth strategies is to utterly repudiate net zero policies in favour of actual economic growth.
I would also tend towards questioning the timing. The economy shrinks by 14% in a few months, and the BoE wants to discuss…..global warming ?
Seriously ? Or rather, not seriously. We are not being governed by serious people.
AFAIK one of the quickest methods to restore some living standards and growth back to the economy is to cancel the CCA in its entirety.
Meanwhile in China:
“China approved nearly 10 gigawatts of new coal-fired power generation projects in the first quarter, roughly equal to the amount approved for all of last year, amid a broader scramble to jump-start an economy hobbled by the COVID-19 epidemic”
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/china-fires-up-coal-power-plant-to-jump-start-economy/
Not lunatics, but monsters. What makes them monsters is not that they want the innocent to suffer but that they have monstrous ideas about what counts as guilt.
It would make sense to build nuclear power plants. It would even make a sort of half-witted sense to build nuclear power plants “To reduce carbon emissions!” However our enlightened and independent thinkers[1] are still following their Soviet marching orders to oppose all things nuclear, so as to prevent President Reagan from stationing missiles in Europe.
[1]Of course they are enlightened and independent thinkers. Just ask them.
I think that the climate crisis crazies are panicking. The virus and the resultant lockdown has distracted attention from their hobby horse, the lockdown has given people an idea about what their green new deal will be like, and there is a good chance that people will have more important things to worry about now.
And the new advice on travelling to work? Drive your car, don’t use public transport! YCMIU
John Redwood covers the implications of this, and manages to keep a straight face throughout, although the laughter is obvious.
I think the whole Green bandwagon has been upset, and is now in decline. Take a while to go.
All that is needed is for the 80% subsidy to be dropped to 50%, or 20%, or 0%, and people will realise that if you don’t make stuff, then there is no stuff. (Musk gets a public statement right!)
The free trial of “our zero-carbon future” will have convinced everyone of its misery and madness.
The ecoloons are getting ever more desperate and shrill.
Tim the Coder (May 12, 2020 at 9:19 am), I certainly noticed that Boris said “car” before then adding “or, if you can, better still by walking or bicycle” (quote from memory). Given that car, not public transport, means some roads will be crowded at rush hour, encouraging those who can to walk makes sense. If the bikes are on bicycle-tracks or the roads are wide enough, encouraging them also makes sense – not so sure about bikes if too many at once mean they are actually competing with cars for finite road width. I feel sure many noted that the word ‘car’ came first.
The brutal reality that a car makes a great social distancing mechanism is a problem for the greens, one of several the virus raises. I expect we’ll hear little enough about any of them from the MSM.
‘The BoE said last week Britain’s economy could shrink by 14% this year – the most since the early 1700s…’
‘Could’… that word again.
I spy Computer Model.
John B,
It turns out that, compared with today, the computer models of the early 1700s were far more accurate.
NTDW The Acts of Union.
The good news is you’re doing better than Net Zero!
That’s also the bad news.
We are getting a test case for what the Deep Greens have in mind for us. And I think this is something that climate thinkers (a term I prefer to AGW sceptics) should make repeatedly. There have been months of shutdown, and the pain and the misery this is imposing is there for all to see. To achieve the drastic cuts in carbon-driven energy the Greens want will require our current extreme situation to become the norm.
The general public has been remarkably stoical about all this in the past few weeks, but I can sense the mood is fracturing. Boris Johnson ought to surely realise that further pandering to this crap is unacceptable.
Blojo is too stupid –ancient Greek speaking or not.
Bottler Johnson is the new label spreading. Good–esp as I suspect Johnson himself won’t like that at all.
Bottler Johnson does have a certain ring to it 😆
Not only does Bottler Johnson have a nice ring to it, it’s entirely apt. When tackling the Covid-19 situation (I hesitate to use the word ‘crisis’, it only became a crisis after the government’s monstrous overreaction) Johnson was required to be the adult in the room. Faced with the hysterical squealing from the media, and the (media engendered) hysterical squealing from the proles, all he had to do was his best Michael Winner impression “Calm down dear, calm down”, and explain that Great Cthulhu wasn’t coming to eat us all up. That until we knew more about the Kung Flu we should exercise a little common sense (increased hand washing, and being careful not to sneeze or cough on people, etc); that though the mortality figures in, for example Italy, looked bad the bog standard flu regularly accounts for 20K – 50K ‘excess’ winter deaths in the UK; that the Hong Kong Flu of 68/69 caused 80K fatalities but the country didn’t panic on that occasion. That there was no compelling reason to place the entire country under house arrest, and trash the economy. He could’ve pointed out Neil Ferguson’s appalling track record in forecasting the outcomes of previous ‘crises’, and asked “why should we believe him now?”.
He could’ve done all of that. Yes, he’d have be assaulted by even more squealing from the usual quarters, but a little intestinal and testicular fortitude was all that was required to face it down. But no, he bottled it. So, henceforth, Bottler Johnson he will be.
Stand Mr Turnbull–I’ll vote for you.
Ed Turnbull: “that the Hong Kong Flu of 68/69 caused 80K fatalities but the country didn’t panic on that occasion.”
I’ve said it once already, Boomers. The most solipsistic generation in history.
I wouldn’t normally call on Jeremy Paxman’s endorsement. But if the shoe fits…
There is something deeply wrong with British political CULTURE.
In some other countries there is debate about principles – here the Collectivist principles are the basis of an insane “consensus”, and the only debate is over details.
I was reminded of the above listening to today’s “Prime Ministers Questions” – with the exception of one question (from Peter Bone, M.P. fr Wellingborough – a town a few miles from me) all the questions, regardless of the party the MP was a member of, were from the Progressive left point of view.
And, yes, there were questions about C02 emissions – and it did not matter if the questioner was a Socialist, a Green, or a “Conservative” the point of view expressed was always THE SAME.
Prime Minister Edward Heath was famously intolerant of “Reactionary” political opinions – insisting that ministers expressed “Progressive” opinions on everything from wage-and-price controls, to Mao’s China.
As Prime Minister Mr Heath had access to information that clearly showed that Mao was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese people – but this did not matter to Mr Heath, all that mattered was that Mao was “Progressive”, therefore he must be good. On the correct side of “history”.
The mad exchanges in the House of Commons (and so on) with everyone expressing Collectivist opinions led Terry Arthur to write the book “95% Is Crap” – but in an important respect things are WORSE today.
Mr Heath, for all his faults, did not really care what ordinary people thought and said – that some local Conservative did not like Mao, or thought wage and price controls were a bad idea, did not really bother him.
But today, if someone expresses “non Progressive” opinions (on “the environment” or anything else) they are driven out by the party bureaucracy – “Central Office”.
Also local Councillors (even if independents) are held to policies declaring a “Climate Emergency” and demanding that Frankfurt School of Marxism “Diversity and Inclusion” policies be followed (even though the people who elected them do NOT want that).
The United Kingdom is NOT yet a totalitarian country – but it is not an exaggeration to say that we are heading in that direction.
We are moving to position were no dissent over PRINCIPLES is allowed.
Almost needless to say – Big Business with its endless pro “lockdown” adverts on television (“stay at home heroes” – do they not know that the term was originally ironic?) and “Diversity” campaigns, act as the Handmaidens of Tyranny.
No large Corporation would dare OPPOSE “Net Zero” in public – on the contrary they fall over themselves to give money to the most extreme leftist groups. Even though Big Business must know that these groups want to nationalise the companies and send the shareholders to Death Camps.
The motto of most of Big Business might as well be “Kill us! Kill us! Kill us!” both here – and in the United States.
I believe they call their Suicide Death Cult policy – “Social Responsibility”.
There is something deeply wrong with British political CULTURE.
Well one of the lynchpins of this cancer is the BBC.
Defund immediately.
Y’all do know that the fish tank cleaner lady was covering up the murder of her husband, not trying to protect his health.
Who cares? The example was to indicate a topical inappropriate response to what is ostensibly the problem.