Slow economic growth with inflation – stagflation – could result from the surging price of oil. Markets are mesmerised by the thought that as we go into winter in the Northern hemisphere oil is heading towards $100-a-barrel. The chart above shows Brent crude is in the mid-nineties as the Saudis are determined to push prices higher. The US is now insulated by domestic fracked shale oil supplies and the dollar has become a petro-currency as a result. Campaigners today again won permission for yet another hearing to challenge and delay the go-ahead to build the Sizewell C Nuclear Power Station. Thanks to anti-frackers, anti-nuclear campaigners, and Net Zero zombies, Britain’s energy insecurity has increased. 

Oil prices will add to the political miseries facing Sunak as he decides whether to go for a May election before things get worse, or play it long in the hope that things get better. He’s caught between an unfracked rock and a hard place…