While Miliband can then feel good that the UK’s ‘carbon’ emissions are coming down, also falling away are the tens of thousands of jobs associated with them and the prosperity of whole communities.
Meanwhile, the world is not saved as Britain’s chemical and steel plants, cement works and any manufacturing that involves high energy costs, simply reappear on the other side of our planet.
Investment in such industries is moving with them and the economic growth Reeves craves evaporating.
The UK economy badly needs growth, but no matter how hard Reeves tries to achieve it, she is being thwarted not just by the predictable effects of her own policies, but also by Miliband playing the role of the Government’s very own “high priest of net zero”.
Sir Keir Starmer and Miliband gave a general election promise to cut household energy costs by £300 a year, but just as Reeves’s Budget is smothering the prospects of growth, so Miliband’s policies are making our energy dearer than it need be for homes and factories.
Even when Reeves is pushing for new airport expansions, against internal opposition from Miliband, we can tell the Government is completely out of touch with economic reality.
Of course, there are local and environmental opponents, but when the UK plc needs desperately to grow the economy, should we not expect every Cabinet minister to put their shoulder to the wheel?
Following a spate of reports about Cabinet division over Heathrow Airport’s wish for a third runway, the ministers are trying to present a united front.
Miliband has said a third runway is not a resigning issue, and environment secretary Steve Reed has found a way to claim the additional runway will reduce emissions by allowing aircraft to land quicker instead of circling above London.
If Reeves can square off Miliband and others in Starmer’s Cabinet, she still has to face the wrath of Sadiq Khan – with London’s Mayor serving notice that he will not hesitate to take legal action against the Government if it agrees to Heathrow’s third runway and a doubling of capacity at Gatwick and Luton airports.
The greater tragedy is that for all the higher energy costs we face – at home and at work – the fact is that Miliband’s supercharged rush to ‘net zero’ is not solving ‘climate change’.
If man’s ‘carbon’ emissions cause the earth to warm and the seas to rise, then Miliband’s policies do not alter that equation. All that is happening is our industrial production (and the jobs and investment) are being exported to China, India and other countries where energy is allowed to be much cheaper and is usually dirtier.
In its place, Miliband is helping to import hardship and poverty that adds to the problems created by Reeves.
It would be funny if it was not so tragic. A comical example of pushback against ‘net zero’ came when the head of the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), Sam Woods, wrote to Kier Starmer calling on the priority the Bank has to give ‘climate change’ regulations to be downgraded if not removed altogether.
The Bank has to “give regard” to ‘climate change’, putting it on an equal footing with promoting economic growth. The priority was introduced by Mark Carney, but later removed by Jeremy Hunt, only for Reeves to reintroduce it in October.
When Reeves appealed to regulators for ideas to tear down “the regulatory barriers that hold back growth”, Sam Woods used the opportunity to call on the Bank’s concern for ‘net zero’ to be demoted (again).
What the Bank of England thinks is good for its operations to help grow the economy should surely be good for the rest of government to adopt – but Whitehall groupthink is a very powerful force.
Never mind, while Britain’s industry shivers from Miliband’s ‘net zero’ shutdown, he can feel warmed by his self-righteousness. Greta Thunberg must be proud of him.
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
It is a sorry state of affairs when another Labour minister competes with Rachel Reeves to be the greatest threat to our personal finances – but that is exactly what is happening in plain sight, thanks to Ed Miliband’s devout adherence to net zero policies
The hapless Chancellor is the architect of a highly likely “Reeves Recession” through her high spending, taxing and borrowing policies – but it is the religious zealotry of the secretary for Energy and Net Zero that is pricing businesses out of existence and racking up household energy bills.
Grangemouth no more, Port Talbot no more, Britain’s industrial output no more? Individual plants across energy-consuming industries are closing.
Someone should write a song about it. Hotpoint has shut down in Bristol; Vauxhall is closing in Luton. Some 500 real, bread-on-the-table jobs have gone at Airbus, and even JCB has announced 230 redundancies. More is to come.
Unfortunately for British industries enduring the world’s highest energy costs, Miliband is allowing no concessions to his tablets of stone that say we must be willing for all our ‘carbon’ energy-based industries to either abandon Britain for foreign shores or stay and face being priced out of business altogether.