“What exactly am I missing, Nigel?”
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK at the Reform Wales manifesto launch on March 5(Image: Jon Rowley/Getty)
It’s never made any sense to me how those in the Brexit brigade can argue for independence for Britain and at the same time oppose the renewable energy movement.
If it really was about Britain ‘taking back control’ of our own affairs, and standing on our own two feet in the world, then surely you’d advocate for us generating our own energy, by whatever means that came?
Brexiteers should be celebrating the fact that more and more of our electricity comes from renewable developments like wind turbines and solar farms.
They should be campaigning for more geothermal technology as a way of heating our homes, businesses and public buildings, surely?
Actually no. In fact Reform UK vehemently oppose such technology and call it “politically and commercially unsafe”.
Their policy aims to scrap renewable subsidies, halt new solar farms and wind turbine projects, and instead revive fossil fuels (North Sea gas/oil) to lower energy bills.
Never mind that the North Sea gas and oil would end up in the global market, and be subject to the same uncertainty that we are already facing.
Even the Conservatives fought against renewable energy and the Net Zero agenda for years, instead telling their civil servants to ‘cut the green cr*p’ – a quote from David Cameron that really has not aged well.
The war in Iran, by the US and Israel, has brought all of this into sharp relief.
The fact that the majority of our homes are warmed by either gas or heating oil, and that most of our cars rely on petrol or diesel, has left us all hugely vulnerable to the vagaries of global events, and the whims of tyrants and despots.
Iran’s dominance of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the destruction of the world’s largest gas field – which was jointly owned and operated by our allies Qatar – had, until yesterday, drove up prices sharply.
While it would be callous to think of the cost of the Iran war in terms of the amount it will add to our bills, it has nonetheless exposed how clearly vulnerable we are to global events in the way we heat our homes.
Despite Donald Trump’s sudden reverse ferret, the price of the average household bill for gas alone is likely to go up by at least £300 per year due to the fact that production as well as supply has been severely disrupted.
So, with all of this in mind, surely now it is clear that Reform’s stance on our energy needs is the very opposite of Britain securing greater independence?
Not that Nigel Farage or any of his party are likely to admit that.
They might try and argue that we have a ready-made solution in the North Sea – despite the fact the reserves are in steep decline, production is 65% down on its peak in 1999, and more than 85% of the economically viable oil and gas has already been extracted.
To vilify Net Zero is to also dismiss the idea of using technology to secure our independence and therefore our standing in the world – which clearly is the way Britain has overcome geographical limitations to become a powerful nation in the past.
It is surely at the very core of the belief system of those who wanted Brexit to restore some pride in our own abilities to punch above our weight through our ingenuity and willingness to adopt new forms of technology.
So anything which does this to the effect of not only boosting energy independence but also saving families money in the long term should be celebrated. Except it isn’t.
What exactly am I missing?