If JSO’s house style prevents us engaging with the meaningful questions of how we best combat change without a decline in living standards, then their main contribution to the debate is lowering the quality.
The elephant in the room is that, unless something significant changes, it is unlikely that the Prime Minister will be able to see through any these plans.
The effect of the train strikes on attendance, the trauma of recent years, and the change in the nature of the Tory Conference itself leave the question hanging.
Voters clearly want it – and the recent past suggests he’s a more credible agent of it than Sir Keir.
The goalposts cannot be moved. We have a moral, legal, and economic duty to cut our emissions by 68 per cent of 1990 levels by 2030 and reach Net Zero by 2050.
The Chairman of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group adds that “we haven’t even got the renewable sources to cover the 20 per cent of energy we use, but we’re talking about replacing the 80 per cent with renewables.”
I believe firmly that it is in our environmental, economic, moral, and – yes – political interests as Conservatives to make sure we lead on this issue rather than talk it down. We shouldn’t be coy about putting forward this positive vision.
The announcements made today are a positive continuation of our existing environmental policy, and a fine example of the Prime Minister’s pragmatic, and somewhat unsentimental approach to the major issues of the day.
If the Government is serious about planning reforms and changes to the way we hook stuff up to the grid, it’s just possible today’s speech could end up accelerating the rollout of electric cars, and the deployment of new clean energy.
In one sense, the timing of Sunak’s change of gear is good, in the sense that it’s never wrong to make the right argument. In another, it’s terrible, because he’s doing so very late in the day.
The joint One Nation Caucus and Tory Reform Group conference last weekend, following the recent National Conservative Conference, are pointers to the shape of a possible future.
Net Zero can be a tide that raises all boats. Creating an energy efficiency program fit for the future can create tens of thousands of jobs, cut billions off the NHS bill for treating those in cold homes, and power up our economy.
Pro-environment policies – and Treasury funding to make them a reality – were a consistent hallmark of his tenure as Chancellor,