Green Party Manifesto To Return Britain To The Middle Ages

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
http://ift.tt/16C5B6P

By Paul Homewood

h/t Joe Public

Election time!

From the hints we’ve seen, all parties’ manifestos are pretty depressing when it comes to climate change, with the honourable exception of UKIP.

But I doubt whether any will be as depressingly moronic as the Green Party’s.

1) Ending the monopoly of the big six.

What monopoly?

At the last count, according to OFGEM, there were over 140 suppliers of electricity.

With price comparison sites, such as Uswitch, the UK’s energy market is probably the most competitive in the world.

2) We will stand alongside those countries across the world fighting for climate justice….

Well, we know all about that, don’t we!

3) Meeting our domestic and international obligations.

Has nobody told the dopes at Green Party HQ that the UK has just signed up to the Paris Agreement and is the only country in the world to legislate for suicidal decarbonisation targets?

Heaven help us all if these aren’t enough.

4) Keep fossil fuels in the ground:

Hard to know where to start with this drivel.

a) Last year, fossil fuels supplied 82% of the UK’s energy consumption, according to DECC.

In addition, nuclear, which they also want to drop, added an extra 8%.

How do they intend to replace these?

b) £6bn subsidies?

As has been well established, there are no such subsidies. On the contrary, prior to the collapse in oil prices, taxes on North Sea oil brought in billions every year. According to the BBC, , the Treasury raised £11bn four years ago.

Even now, the OBR is forecasting tax receipts of £7bn in the next five years.

c) Divest public funds.

If this was followed through on any large scale, it would force a drop in the share price of oil companies, and thus lose money for public funds.

d) A just transition for communities dependent on fossil fuel jobs.

Try telling that to North Sea oil workers in Aberdeen, oil refinery workers up and down the country, or owners of petrol stations.

5) End the effective ban on onshore wind.

What ban? The Government has simply withdrawn subsidies.

The manifesto gives the game away when it calls for “new support for onshore wind and solar”, in other words more subsidies.

So much for the households and businesses they claim to care about.

As for the significant investment in offshore wind and electric vehicles, read another huge bill for taxpayers.

6) Create a new Green Investment Centre

Ditto.

More billions of borrowing that will eventually have to be paid back by future taxpayers

7) Nuclear Power

There is zero evidence that a flexible grid can offer any energy security whatsoever. The only reckless gamble would be to scrap nuclear power and fossil fuels.

Given that nuclear power provides 77% of French electricity, the Green Party’s enthusiasm for interconnection to Europe seems a tad hypocritical to say the least!

8) Progressive energy tariffs

They want to charge small consumers less per unit.

Perhaps they might like to tell which of us will, by necessity be forced to pay more?

9) A national programme of insulation

Insulating the nine million homes, which they call for, would cost £9bn, even at a conservative grand each.

Interestingly they claim that this will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. If we then assume the mid point of 500,000, and a salary of £30000, the annual cost would be £15bn. Materials of course would be on top.

It all sounds like Diane Abbott economics to me!

10) Democratise energy ownership

I assume this means giving windmills the vote!

In 1992, the Sun famously asked the last person to leave Britain to turn out the lights, if Neil Kinnock won the election.