Guido was scrolling on the internet and wanted to see how Miliband’s much-vaunted GB Energy is getting along after its founding hiring run flopped with almost zero interest from applicants. No luck – Labour has taken down the GB Energy website…

Now the public can’t admire the stock image logo any more – the link http://great-british-energy.org.uk/redirects to boring updates on the project over at the gov.uk website. Gone are testimonials from members of the public and a postcode search feature to see: “How will it help in my area?” Could Labour not think of any answers to that one now the election’s over?

Thankfully the old website is still available on the internet archive. Now Labour has given up on saying energy bills will fall by £300 GB Energy is increasingly looking like just another stunt…

YouGov has done some more polling into what Brits make of Just Stop Oil’s latest antics. The results aren’t surprising…

The Van Gogh soup throwing antics scored them sentences from two years to twenty months. Of all Britons, a whopping 73% agree with the sentences or think they should be longer. Only 18% say it’s too harsh. In general about 75% of Brits say JSO’s tactics, including blocking trains, stalling motorways, and throwing soup on art are “completely unacceptable.” 8% have a problem with holding a demonstration in a town square…

Hilariously those “climate conscious” Brits who say the government isn’t doing enough on climate change also support the souper sentences. 58% are in agreement with the judge, 24% think he was too lenient…

Eco-posho Phoebe Plummer called from HMP Bronzefield on the weekend where she “asks us not to feel sorry about her prison sentences.“ Doesn’t look like anyone is…

Labour’s invented another cushy gig for the climate crew – introducing the new “Special Representative for Nature”. Ruth Davis has landed the role, supposedly to “raise global ambition on nature recovery.”  She’ll be reporting to Environment Secretary Steve Reed, and passionate climate crusader David Lammy. Only last month Lammy claimed climate change is a bigger threat than Putin and Hamas…

Davis is no stranger to saving the planet from impending doom. The official government website conveniently neglects to mention the fact she was Political Director at Greenpeace from 2009 to 2015, during which time the group led some rather interesting campaigns. Their righteous battles targeted toy brand Lego for partnering with Shell, energy supplier Gazprom, Volkswagen for its emissions, and even Barbie for buying off Asia Paper and Pulp. Davis also bizarrely wrote in 2016 that those who voted Brexit didn’t realise they voted to “erode the beauty and richness of their countryside”. Now she’s been handed a megaphone to preach her climate gospel. More taxpayer cash splurged on the green agenda…

An interesting intervention from Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho in The Times this morning, slamming North Yorkshire power station Drax over its biomass technology. She criticised the firm, saying the case for its technology had ‘unravelled’, briefing that the Tories have ‘withdrawn’ their support (despite extensive previous Tory backing from multiple Prime Ministers). An intervention intended to impress plenty of sound net zero sceptic Tories like Dominic Lawson, who have made similar points before. There’s only one problem…

As Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Coutinho herself signed off plans to approve an expansion of the very technology, by the very same firm. A Development Consent Order, signed off by her, reads:

“The Secretary of State has considered the overall planning balance and, for the reasons set out in this letter, has concluded that the public benefits associated with the Proposed Development outweigh the harm identified, and that development consent should therefore be granted.”

She writes in her op-ed:

“As secretary of state, I faced enormous insistence from officials to pass legislation to enshrine these plans. However, after a development consent order was sent off in my name, I started pulling at threads and the case for Beccs simply unravelled.'”

‘Sent off in my name’ doing a lot of heavy lifting there. It ain’t easy being (anti) green…

TfL have seized more than 1,400 cars in the last 12 months from those who dare to defy Khan’s crippling £12.50-a-day ULEZ toll. Khan has been revving up the so-called success of the scheme, despite its first report admitting it’s impossible to gauge its true effectiveness—and even then, the numbers were nothing short of a car crash. Now the scheme is choking the poorest the hardest, with TfL exhaustively raking in over £25 million through relentless bailiff action…

Those unwilling—or unable—to pay the extortionate fines are being left in the dust, with their cars clamped, towed away, and sold off. In the last year alone, nearly 800 of those cars were sold, rolling in £710,000 cash for TfL. Still, unpaid ULEZ fines continue to fuel TfL debt. Neil Garratt, City Hall Conservatives Leader slammed the scheme:

“Last month I forced Khan to reveal that TfL now has £376 million in unpaid ULEZ fines – shockingly that’s 83% of TfL’s total bad debt. Today we find out that they’ve recouped just 6% of it. We constantly hear from Sadiq that TfL desperately needs more taxpayer money to make the numbers add up – perhaps if he wasn’t building up so much bad debt and building his budget on fantasy economics he wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Khan’s London continues to go up in smoke…

The Ministry of Defence is now advertising for a “Senior Policy Adviser” on “Climate Change and Environment.” To join the swelling ranks of the existing Climate Change team…

At the same time as the Ministry is cancelling plans to fund military equipment and considering cutting training for the Army, it’s found £43,080 per year (more than their “Nuclear Threat Reduction Manager” is paid) along with a £12,480 annual contribution to the Civil Service’s gold-plated pension scheme to pay for someone to “lead on assurance activities and the review of the effectiveness of climate change policy across Defence.” In exchange for “providing coherence across Defence on environmental matters” the new adviser is offered “flexible working options” and “a culture encouraging inclusion and diversity”…

In three and a half days the position has just passed 100 applicants – attracting significantly more interest than GB Energy’s founding recruitment round. The number of applicants to a Civil Service job is inversely proportional to the amount of work that’ll actually be done…