“The UK’s need for a secure source of energy is far more important than satisfying EU or Green obligations.” (James Lovelock, September 17)

“British climate and energy policy is incoherent and needs an overhaul, dumping carbon targets and building more coal and nuclear power stations to stop the lights going out.” (Professor Ian Fells, as reported by Jeremy Lovell, September 17)

“The People’s Flag Must Not Be Green!”

The Green movement has become dangerous for the survival of our society. It is surely time to stop pandering to its often ridiculous whims and fancies. We have been far too kind to its utopianism. Politicians of all parties have become enfeebled by indulging its fanaticism and unrealistic proposals, especially on food and energy. This has led to inertia, and to a serious failure to act when action is urgently required, a situation often exacerbated by the ludicrous obligations laid on us through a bureaucratic and unaccountable EU.

But we have to act, and we are going to have to challenge the EU. We need no more reports. We do not have the time. We require new coal-powered plants, new nuclear power stations, additional LNG storage facilities, and the Seven Barrage.

“And when do we want them? We want them now!”

Green Gobbledygook

Green gobbledygook over so-called ‘renewables’ has helped to undermine UK energy policy to such a degree that we are facing an energy gap of between 30% to 40%, a threat Global Warming Politics has highlighted over and over again [e.g., ‘The Energy Elephant Trumpets At Last’, August 4]. Today, thank goodness, this threat has been spelt out once more in a new report, and with ‘Janet-and-John’ simplicity: ‘Power cuts warning must be taken seriously’ (The Daily Telegraph, September 17):

“Between now and 2020, 23 gigawatts of generating capacity will be lost as old coal and nuclear stations are de-commissioned. Yet Labour Ministers spent a decade twiddling their thumbs over energy policy.

Only last year, when our dangerous dependence on energy from either potentially hostile (Russia) or unstable (Middle East) sources finally registered, did the Government belatedly accept that there has to be a new generation of nuclear reactors to meet the shortfall. Since then, there has been precious little evidence of any sense of urgency in getting that programme under way.

Today’s report shows how dangerously negligent this lackadaisical approach has been. It also confirms that wind power, on which the Government has expended the better part £1 billion a year in subsidies, is little more than environmental window dressing. Its unreliability - wind is not a constant - means it cannot replace a single watt of permanent generating capacity.”

Just so.

No More Green Fantasies

When we add to this Green unreality over energy a self-indulgent opposition to conventional agriculture and to GM crops, tropes which are now threatening the poor and the disadvantaged the world over; total confusion over biofuels; frequent support for protectionism against trade; the desire to heap increased costs and retrogressive taxes on everyone, but especially on the poor; the wish to force people into lifestyles that few can afford or want; and the championing of breaking the law when protesting, we can see that the moral charge sheet against the Greens is long and extending by the day.

The idea that the Greens hold any moral high ground is sentimental rubbish. Many of their so-called ethical investments will cripple us, while impoverishing the poor even further.

It really is time for both of our leading political parties [I have no hope whatsoever for the dire Liberal Democrats, whose ‘leader’, Nick Clegg, didn’t even know the level of the State Pension when asked] to return to economic reality in an increasingly unforgiving world.

We can no longer afford to play at Green fantasies. We must grow up.