Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Nicholas Soames, grandson of legendary British WW2 leader Winston Churchill, has attacked President Trump’s climate policies with a claim that Churchill would have opposed President Trump’s climate policies. Soames also claims that cutting carbon emissions “helps your economy grow faster”.

Dear President Trump: Churchill would have been a climate leader

By Sir Nicholas Soames
Updated 1558 GMT (2358 HKT) January 15, 2018

There could be no starker illustration of the profound differences that exist between Washington and London — despite alignment on many other issues — than comments this week by our two leaders on climate change and the environment.

For President Trump, the Paris Agreement is a bad deal that will close US businesses — perhaps even has closed some already.

Scott Pruitt, President Trump’s man at the Environmental Protection Agency, added the detail — promising to repeal regulations protecting US watercourses from pollution and reduce power plant emissions.

The best-performing nation on growth is also, notably, the best at cutting emissions.

And it is… the UK. In that period, the average Briton has grown 45% wealthier, while reducing his/her carbon footprint by 33%. The USA has not done badly, coming mid-table on both measures. But the overall conclusion is obvious: there is no conflict between making your people richer and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, from the evidence, one could well draw the opposite conclusion — a consistent goal and a systematic plan for cutting carbon emissions helps your economy grow faster.

The key figure in starting all this was another Conservative figure for whom I hope the President would have some regard: Margaret Thatcher. And it has brought no threat to energy security, or to jobs.

The evidence, therefore, is entirely against the world view of Donald Trump and entirely consistent with that of Theresa May.

My grandfather, Sir Winston Churchill, knew a thing or two about courage. President Trump is, I gather, a fan, having a bust of him in the Oval Office. Without Churchill’s determination, the Nazis would have won the war in Europe. But this is equally true of his respect for evidence. You cannot defeat an enemy of markedly superior forces unless you have better information and make better decisions.

Were he our Prime Minister today, it is pretty clear he would have said the same things on climate change as Theresa May has this week. Because, simply, she is right, and she is acting in the interests of her people.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/15/opinions/churchill-would-have-been-a-climate-leader-opinion/index.html

Back in the real world, poverty in Britain is getting worse – in part thanks to high energy prices.

Poverty hits more children and pensioners, says charity

4 December 2017

Thousands of people are struggling to make ends meet in the UK every day, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has said.

An additional 700,000 UK children and pensioners have fallen into relative poverty – households with less than 60% the median income – over the past four years.

The charity said it was the first time in 20 years that poverty in these groups had seen sustained rises.

Ministers say their support is helping pensioners and families out of poverty.

…

The charity says ending the benefits freeze is the single biggest change the government could do to help the 14m people – 4m children and 1.9m pensioners – now living in poverty.

New threats to the poorest households include rising housing costs, higher food and energy bills, debts and not being able to contribute to a pension, said the foundation.

The latest figures represent a “real warning sign that our hard-fought progress is in peril,” Mr Robb added.

…

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42218682

The full JRF Report is available here

I once met and spoke with Nicholas Soames. My impression wasn’t good. He is no Winston Churchill.

President Trump won people’s trust because he promised to address their concerns, because he understood people’s concerns. Trump promised to remove the roadblocks to American prosperity, to ease the cost of living burdens and security concerns of ordinary Americans.

Contrast this with Nicholas Soames, and his arrogant claim that life in Britain is better than the USA, that expensive green energy policies enhance prosperity.

For some people, likely the kind of people Soames normally hangs out with, life undoubtably is good. Owners of vast, desolate, windswept hereditary estates have done very well out of Britain’s green energy revolution. But for hundreds of thousands of Soames’ fellow Britons, even people with full time jobs, life is a brutal struggle to feed their children and heat their homes.

Britain’s hideously expensive green energy policies are hurting poor people. In my opinion, to claim that expensive green energy helps alleviate poverty verges on delusional.