Now a partial reverse-ferret is underway. As we struggle to scrape together adequate supplies of gas for the coming winter, as the price of energy rockets to unaffordable heights, suddenly energy security is at the top of the agenda.
Today Boris Johnson is using his final speech as UK prime minister to assert the primary importance of energy security. He says the nation needs energy in the future to be ‘cheap, clean, reliable and plentiful’. And he denounces the ‘myopia’ and the ‘short-termism’ that has led the UK to not complete a single new nuclear reactor in 27 years. Johnson’s parting pledge is to build eight new nuclear reactors, at a pace of one per year.
Of course, Johnson does not name the obsession with the climate as the chief culprit – nor does he call for a rethink on unreliable renewable energy or Net Zero targets. But it is a striking change in emphasis from a PM who just nine months ago, at COP26 in Glasgow, was channelling his inner Greta, denouncing the evils of the Industrial Revolution as he tried to corral other world leaders into dismantling their energy supplies.
Perhaps the sight of ice lining the insides of their windows this winter will be a wondrous mind-changing elixir to some of the watermelon luddites and their liturgy of climate pieties.
Some of them might even allow that, perhaps, the evil right-wing Nazi earth-haters might have had some sort of small point.
Well, probably not that.
Ferox,
That would be nice, but the plebs must learn to live with discomfort, having nothing and liking it, and the occasional famine. Our masters will still enjoy the comforts of central heat and air and possessions and food, as befits their status, but that is just the natural order of things.
Steven – Many of the plebs are ferocious adherents to the Green religion which will damn them to hell on earth.
Unbelievable, but true.
They are the ones who might find enlightenment in the cold dark of their small rooms this winter.
The master-class in general don’t actually believe that tripe; their posing is entirely mercenary. They would prefer fewer of the lower orders on their roads.
I’m very sorry this has happened to my friends in the UK and the EU.
We are probably a bit more resilient (or less crazy) here in the US, but maybe we’ll learn our lesson from you guys this winter.
-XC
Cynically ignoring his own words and actions ever since taking office and switching to the more popular position at a time when he is no longer obliged to “walk the walk” thereby laying the groundwork for a possible comeback as the man who wanted nuclear.
Boris in a nutshell.
As BoJo demonstrates repeatedly, talk is cheap. Showing off is easy. Sensible action is hard. Should’ve done more of the right things before losing his job.
Really? You have Joe Biden as President.
And we’re all so appreciative of a possible reprieve that we allow ourselves to be successfully ratcheted right past any idea of further questioning of the climate crap. We’ll now be happy without oil, because nuclear “is coming.”
We’ll put up with hardship and cold while they slowly put out some plans for small nuclear plants “someday” in the future, and we’ll be far more accepting as our cars and trucks and oil furnaces disappear.
They’re going to “save” us from the dire future they themselves brought on, and we’ll be so grateful we’ll stop denying and obstructing and disbelieving.
Sorry, I don’t believe them. They think we’re stupid, and so far they’ve been right.
John, Decnine, & Bobby B have a grasp of the situation into which De Pfeffel & the largely corrupt political class have manoeuvered the UK
Good one! But we also still have $4/gal gasoline, my electric bills haven’t moved much in two years, and Putin isn’t shutting us down. There’s still a great deal of Adam Smith’s ruin to go over here. I suspect y’all have somewhat less ruin left, Biden or no, and our quickest shot here at chasing away his ilk lies in watching Europe twist in the cold wind for a while. I think, with no glee, that XC’s point stands well.
Think this is an outlier? Here’s our USA EPA head two days ago agreeing that we need to go nuclear in order to continue fighting climate crap.
https://apnews.com/article/technology-japan-tokyo-fumio-kishida-dcae07616d7569c17f8b9043189e2125
This is how ratchets work.
Then you missed my point. Joe Biden probably forget what he said yesterday, he is not going to learn anything by watching Europe.
No, I think I took your point. But I don’t look to Biden for sentience or leadership or . . . anything. He’s a nullity. He’s a symptom, not a force. We don’t need to change leaders, we simply need a leader.
Boris Johnson should go into obscurity, although I suspect that, along with those grifters and twerps, Harry and Meghan, he will be a bit of a noise for a while. An occasionally amusing writer who actually said some good things, in power he behaved with the same leaden, pound-shop authortarian way as far too many of his predecessors. We have been told by various people of his “libertarian instincts”, but like the Loch Ness Monster or the City of Atlantis, these are myths of legend. He did, to be fair, finally resist the lockdown fanatics last winter, and he was pretty sound on Ukraine (in contrast to far too many Putin apologists that I can mention), but on the Green issue, he has been mostly awful. He even mocked the idea that being Green was difficult by referencing Kermit the Frog, for fuck’s sake.
And let’s not forget Johnson’s seeming criticism of the Industrial Revolution, judging by some of his remarks. All of us now typing away on Samizdata benefit from the enormous wealth and scientific and technological achievements of centuries past, including those of the Industrial Revolution. Someone such as Mr Johnson, who is from the UK upper middle class, with all the benefits that an expensive education can afford, mocks the process that took Mankind from a “nasty, brutish and short” life to one where most of us can expect to live into a comfortable old age.
I agree with Mr Johnson on nuclear power – I will leave it at that.
Johnson is not the first British ‘green’ who supports nuclear power. He was preceded by the late Professor Sir David John Cameron MacKay, scientific advisor to his namesake David Cameron.
Also, surprisingly, George Monbiot, who became favorable to nuclear after Fukushima. (“Much less disastrous than i expected!!!”)
There might have been others.
That Boris did not listen to them, just goes to show what a useless twit he is.
Thank you for the information Snorri.
There is also James Lovelock – the “Gaia Man” himself, who has always been pro nuclear power.