In a complementary article to Charles Moore’s (see Energy: “Many of our problems will pass, but our energy crisis just gets worse”) we enclose Patrick O’Flynn’s take on Boris Johnson’s performance on the global stage last week and what it means for his political reputation with the electorate at home.
“This was the week when Boris Johnson found his own preferred superhero identity. And rather than settling for the unglamorous garb of Mr Levelling Up, as mandated by the British electorate, he chose instead the flashier livery of Net Zero Hero.
The Prime Minister’s “it’s easy to be green” speech at the United Nations has defined his number-one priority for the rest of his term in office. How could it be any different when the problem he has identified is how to save the world?
This prioritisation of the global stage above the domestic one is a dangerous moment for any British prime minister and it is not hard to spot the hazards ahead for Mr Johnson.
As today’s Telegraph report on Parliament being misled about the true costs of the rush to net zero carbon emissions shows, this ambition, more than any other of modern times, has the capacity to play havoc with basic living standards.
In short, might the whole idea of the UK attaining net-zero status by 2050 turn out to be an expensive fantasy that has hitherto been exempted from rigorous costing or sceptical scrutiny because it has been granted sacred-cow status by almost our entire political elite?
Keeping the lights on, filling stations in petrol and living standards rising may not set pulses racing among the political class but are the basic tests by which prime ministerial competence will be judged.”
The full article can be read here with a link to the original beneath it:
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