The Guardian, which heartily endorsed all the policies that led to high energy prices while denying the reality that they make freezing weather a disaster, complains that “Nine million homes will face higher energy bills from Wednesday as Britain braces for freezing temperatures and snow warnings for the new year period.” Snow? The stuff we were told in 2007 children wouldn’t recognize? And what of the miracle of reliable, cheap alternative energy to run the massive air conditioning units that will replace probably-banned furnaces as the UK boils? It seems someone has blundered… and a lot of other people are going to pay a high price for their ignorant arrogance.
Who saw that one coming? Well, as Margaret Thatcher warned that same nation, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” And, we add, the problem with the sort of economists who scoffed at Thatcher is that, as Henry Hazlitt warned all of us back when Thatcher was still studying chemistry at Oxford, “Today is already the tomorrow which the bad economist yesterday urged us to ignore.”
Thus it is that in Britain today that tomorrow has arrived:
“The average energy bill for households across England, Scotland and Wales will rise by 1.2% from New Year’s Day to £1,738 a year for a typical household after the energy regulator raised its cap on gas and electricity charges.”
The authorities just can’t afford to pretend any longer that energy isn’t getting more expensive due to the green transition, especially given the collapse of a great many other less climate-related fatuities in their budgeting process. And what about the weather, since if it’s cold it can’t be climate, a word that does not appear anywhere in the story? Not looking good:
“Britain enters the new year with a series of weather warnings across the country for heavy rain, wind and snow. By the weekend, temperatures across many areas of the country are expected to fall below zero, which fuel poverty campaigners fear will take a toll on the more than 8 million customers living in cold, damp homes.”
We didn’t use to have a profession, or whatever it is, called “fuel poverty campaigner”. But if we do now have it, the obvious conclusion other than Rudyard Kipling’s that giving something a long name doesn’t make it better, is that we need reliable conventional energy to survive the cold weather that still comes regularly in the winter, despite the same fools who said we didn’t need the former declaring that the latter wouldn’t happen any more.
The UK is a horror story wherever one looks. Social policy, energy policy, justice, crime.....all gaslit to a degree unconscionable a decade ago. But as you say, as the fabric of our country unravels in front of the world, the best that can be said for the process is that we are the canary. Take heed, Rest of the World. And don't follow us down the toilet.
1738 lbs sterling doesn’t actually sound all that bad, about US$180/month. Californians would love to have that low a bill and in Colorado that is about the same I pay so what are the Brits complaining about?
The UK and some other western countries are doing a great job of showing the two thirds of the world where people generally just want a better life and are not obsessed with alleged climate change what not to do in relation to energy policy and actions.
KiloMike - the denizens of the UK are complaining because, although the prices might be comparable, it takes the UK denizens far far longer to earn the equivalent after-tax income. The UK's GDP per capita is 60% that of the USA, and their taxes are much higher, so it is very likely that the denizens of the UK have to work twice as hard to afford the same home-heating bill.