The British Labour Party, led by Sir Keir Starmer and poised to take the helm of the British government thanks to over a decade of Tory incompetence and buffoonery, is being embarrassed today by the release of a recording that should surprise no one.

Long the dupes of the climate cult, Labour has been promising all sorts of upheavals, disruptions, and doom for citizens of the United Kingdom as a consequence of both climate change and their eventual climb to power. For example, gone would be the legendary drills and rigs of the North Sea oil and gas industry...along with all those roughneck jobs and good living wages.

Election spells end of North Sea as Labour policies doom oil industry

Starmer victory would prompt operators to give up on British waters, warn analysts

The looming early election threatens the end of the North Sea oil industry, according to experts, with Labour’s threat to extend the Government’s windfall levy set to hasten the sector’s decline.

Analysts said a likely victory for Sir Keir Starmer would prompt operators to give up on British waters, meaning some of Britain’s biggest oil and gas reserves may never be recovered.

“If Labour deliver on their promises, the UK continental shelf is finished,” said Ashley Kelty, research director at Panmure Gordon, a leading investment bank.

The future of the North Sea oil industry was thrown into doubt in 2022 when the Government imposed a windfall levy on the profits from oil and gas production that took total tax to an eye-watering 75pc.

Labour has pledged to add another 3pc, along with banning new drilling and, perhaps most damaging of all, stripping offshore companies of the tax breaks they get when investing in new fields. The plans were confirmed by shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves at a meeting last week.

Starmer had already dialed back some of his public plans after the Sunak administration's panicked retreat from goals set years ago in the face of rising public pressure. He could see his ambitious schemes to Green up the islands weren't going to win many votes, so he softened the approach. Even Labour ministers were telling him to cool it on the North Sea, as there were a lot of British union jobs tied up in the fossil fuel industry. And surely Labour could be concerned about an "equitable and just" transition vice leaving the rig workers in the lurch.

A former Labour energy minister has warned the party it needs to be “flexible” about North Sea oil and gas to ensure a just transition for workers.

In a cross-party declaration signed by former Conservative, SNP and Liberal Democrat ministers, Brian Wilson argued for a “long-term and stable taxation plan” that does not drive away firms which want to invest in moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Surely?

Labour was taking hit after hit on their Green fever dreams...

Make no mistake, it has to happen.

As it stands, Keir Starmer will be in power in nine days. And while for now he may be swallowing Ed Miliband’s mad eco zealotry, even a big Labour majority will not overcome reality.

Private sales of battery cars are falling. Many disillusioned owners are selling up and reverting to petrol, diesel or hybrid. Absurd prices, feeble mileage ranges and lack of public chargers are all proving too much. Only company fleets are propping up the market.

Yet Labour is doubling-down on the Tories’ demand that manufacturers ensure 22 per cent of new cars sold are zero-emission this year, rising to 80 per cent by 2030. They will face punitive fines if they fail.

...and Britons have already been paying the NetZero piper.

...Britain has been going down this path since 2008, when Parliament wrote an 80 percent decarbonization target into law, which it raised to 100 percent, or net zero, in 2019. This luxury net-zero policy, which only the rich can afford, has been devastating for both businesses and ordinary Britons just trying to heat their homes and get to work.

...In 2020, even before the recent surge in energy costs, everyday Britons were paying about 75 percent more for electricity than Americans, the result of a double whammy—cap-and-trade policies on the one hand and renewable subsidies on the other. And then came the Ukraine shock. During the 2022 energy crisis, electricity rates for British businesses were more than double the average paid by U.S. businesses.

In Britain, the impact of cap-and-trade on the cost of fuel to generate electricity is massive. In 2022, government-imposed carbon costs averaged $128 per megawatt hour (MWh) for coal-generated electricity and $51 per MWh for natural gas. Those costs are on top of actual fuel costs, which averaged $150 per MWh for electricity generated from coal and $160 per MWh for natural gas. These mean that it cost $278 to generate 1 MWh of electricity from coal and $211 from natural gas.

...So in the U.S., the fuel cost per MWh of electricity generated from coal was $27 per MWh (versus $278 in Britain) and $61 per MWh for natural gas (versus $211 in Britain).

Britons also have to pay the cost of subsidizing politically favored wind and solar. Analysis of the renewable portfolios of Britain’s Big Six energy companies shows that the average price for wind- and solar-generated electricity between 2009 and 2020 was well over £100 per MWh, whereas the price for reliable electricity from gas- and coal-fired power stations fell from £60 per MWh in 2013 to less than £50 per MWh in 2020.

How much more did they have to give up before the planet was saved?

£28 billion per year was the original figure, but supposedly that had been winnowed down significantly. Or so the Labour bosses asserted in public. 

In private, it was a very different story and where all the current red faces are coming in.

Reaching Labour’s target for decarbonising the economy will cost “hundreds of billions” of pounds, a shadow minister has disclosed in a recording obtained by The Telegraph.

Darren Jones, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said the £28 billion per year originally allocated to Labour’s green investment plan was a “tiny” amount.

He said the fact that Sir Keir Starmer had downgraded his investment plans from £28 billion to £4.7 billion “made it sound as if we basically junked the whole thing but we definitely haven’t”.

Mr Jones told a public meeting in Bristol that private capital would have to be used to upgrade infrastructure, but “public subsidy” would still be needed alongside that.

His comments are set to reignite the row over Labour’s spending plans.

And it's all on tape.

🔴 EXCLUSIVE: Labour’s net zero plans could cost ‘hundreds of billions’, leaked audio reveals

Darren Jones caught saying spending plans appear to go beyond public declarations@gordonrayner discusses his exclusive on the @DailyTPodcast

Read more 👇https://t.co/K5fMOWjIWi pic.twitter.com/iJOuZ6xvSS

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 26, 2024

So the Green dreamers lied again, did they?

Alert the media.

Actually, I'm shocked the British media's covering it, they're so all in on the Science™ fraud and grift.

There’s no ‘could’ about it. Having researched hard on this with the aid of brilliant Sceptics on X, #NetZero is due to cost untold. Now we’re about to get a Labour Govt I hopefully won’t be accused of right wing/ #Brexit bias. #Labour are going to be destroyed on this policy! https://t.co/Bke6Zwqpz9

— UxbEconomist 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇮🇱 (@UxbEconomist07) June 26, 2024

Hopefully, this epic lie by massage and omission becomes incredibly uncomfortable for Starmer and company. 

The amount of kit built in this country for renewables is far too low and after 15yrs of subsidies its disgusting how nothing has been done to grow our base. Labour don't even acknowledge this so their promise of UK green jobs is an illusion

— Nicholas Lewis (@NicholasLe81575) June 22, 2024

And, hopefully, the one-third of Britons who claimed they were still undecided take a good hard look at, as one X user said, a noose or a gun as far as Labour or Tories, then vote Reform to take the starch out of Starmer's ascension.

Perhaps even slow the country's decline.

I can be an optimist sometimes.