Ed Davey has revealed the LibDems have no proposals for dealing with an oil price spike. Speaking on the Today Programme after raging against the King’s state visit to the US set for next month, the LibDem leader was asked: “What do you think government can and should do to protect consumers and to protect businesses?” What came next was several minutes of meaningless slop…
“The government needs to come forward with a plan… you’re right, Nick, it’s very difficult…
And people, when they come to pay, will say, well, who caused this? And it will be Donald Trump and, frankly, those British politicians, like the Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch and reformist Nigel Farage, who’ve cheered on Donald Trump… Well, it’s not easy. And I basically said in the first half of my answer, Nick, that it’s really difficult…
You’ve got to work internationally. This is an international market… And we have some protection because we’ve invested in renewables… That is definitely the long term solution. In the short term, it is quite difficult…We’ll have to think really hard to work out particularly how we help our businesses and families who will be struggling with these higher bills.”
No recognition that British energy policy has specifically destroyed the country’s ability to respond to a short-term energy shock, one example being the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The UK’s electricity generation has fallen by a quarter since 2004 and restrictions on the ability to extract North Sea oil is a grave strategic mistake…
Ed Davey’s answer: “It’s difficult.” The deepest thinking of which he is capable…
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood introduced her speech on migration reforms at the IPPR:
“There’s no denying we meet at a difficult time for my party.”