I have already commented on Reform's desire to return to the gold standard this weekend. Now I note another of their core beliefs has caught attention. Left Foot Forward has noted:
Reform UK mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, Andrea Jenkyns, admitted on Times Radio last night that she doesn't believe in climate change.
They added:
Asked by Times journalist Kait Borsey how Reform UK would pay for its £50 billion a year policies, including increasing the personal tax allowance to £20,000 and scrapping the two child limit on benefit payments.
Jenkyns responded that the party will “completely stop net zero”, stating that scrapping net zero subsidies would save “a massive amount” of money.
Borsey asked: “But then how do you tackle climate change? And do you believe climate change exists?”
The former Tory MP, who lost her seat at the 2024 election, said: “Do I believe climate change exists? No.”
I think that is useful. The facade of Farage is slipping. The reality is increasingly being seen.
Now, I don't deny that there are plenty of people in the UK who seem all too keen to deny that there is either climate change or that it is human-made. I meet too many who deny both to think otherwise. I also know that they usually face derision these days when saying so. The evidence that they are wrong is too overwhelming for it to be otherwise.
And now we have direct confirmation that Andrew Jenkins is in the deniable camp. That helps in one way. Knowing what your opponent really thinks always helps, especially when it proves their stupidity. It becomes all the easier to make clear how unwise voting for them might be.
But, and I stress it, that will still leave at least 25% of the UK who will be willing to do so. And that's why electoral reform is now essential; firstly, so that they are represented, because I think that's important, however absurd what they have to say might be, and secondly, so that the sane are represented, which under our current first-past-the-post system may not be the case.
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So we talk about ‘Net Zero’
Lets assume for a moment we will decide to drop the target
BUT we will still need to replace or improve our capital stock of vehicles. power stations, National Grid etc so a lot of the cost isnt going to go away
Secondly and this was something my late Uncle RAF Retd quite agreed with, we are no longer a net exporter of energy and even if we exploit whatever we have left in the North Sea and elsewhere it will run out sooner or later so clearly if we can become more efficient in our use of energy AND use the resources we have – renewables we become less dependent on the kindness of what are becoming increasingly ‘unreliable’ strangers.
Thats a strategic lesson WW2 taught us but we rapidly ‘unlearnt’
https://northeastbylines.co.uk/news/environment/reform-led-county-durham-council-scraps-climate-declaration/
How much fossil fuels are produced in Greater Lincolnshire each year? Next to nil I am sure.
Why would Andrea Jenkyns (not Andrew Jenkins!) wish to import oil from the Middle East and gas from Russia rather than generating our own power using the renewable resources easily available – the sun, the wind, the rivers, and the sea? Geopolitics and security of supply and environmental impact aside, the economics makes it a no brainier.
Andrea Jenkyns does not “believe” in climate changes. Does she believe in gravity? In quantum mechanics? Does she have any idea of the hard science that she is denying? (This denialism is unfortunately precisely the same playbook used by vested interests to deny the harms caused by lead in petrol, and the harms caused by tobacco.)
She lives in her own little fantasy world, Andrew. That is all we can say.
Opposite, isn’t it?
https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/keeping-our-area-clean-and-safe/renewables/
Correct.
What is this ‘believe’ bollocks all about anyway? Why make it so personal, make it an issue of ‘belief’ rather than something to be considered seriously with a suitable response? Why not even meet the concern half way even – a healthy compromise?
On Friday I used my rarely used small car to go to a site meeting and I did not know a new mosque had been made out of an ex-pub on the street the new development I was visiting was on. So the street was rammed with Muslims going to Friday prayers. It was great to see this huge old pub turned into a mosque – the best it had looked for years – but the traffic was just unbelievable – and mostly made of large SUVs I kid you not. Parking at the mosque was minimal and street parking was the order of the day.
Someone had sold those SUVs – and I mean we are talking really huge ones – and was making a mint, but the street scene was chaotic, with people beeping their horns at each other and air quality was foul. I don’t mind anyone being able to afford stuff, but the stuff they are sold just makes us sick and harms the environment.
I sat there watching it all thinking about how many times this scene was being repeated up and down the country and it hit me that we have such a long way to go to come to terms with the truth about modern living.
Numpties like Jenkins just don’t get it.
I think Andrea Jenkins may have a problem with language. Climate change and the evidence for it is all around us. Flooding, wildfires, sea levels, icebergs and many other ‘natural phenomena’ are very visible and give unequivocal evidence of climate change. As do the scientific measurements taken that show increases in temperature averages, changes in rainfall etc. Climate change is happening and only an idiot would deny it.
Whether the observable changes are caused by human activity is less (but only a little less) certain. I believe that the human action cause belief is unarguable, but I accept that some people still do not accept it.
Perhaps Andrea Jenkyns needs to learn to speak English properly? As, I believe, Reform is demanding of immigrants to this country.
To deny climate change is absurd! There is irrefutable evidence that the planet is warming. One might rationally debate how much it is warming, which is a difficult scientific measurement. Or one might debate how much is anthropomorphic warning. But to deny the fact of warming is deeply irrational.
Furthermore to believe that using renewable energy costs money is, at best, ill considered and naive. The cost of new solar, for example, even in the the northern latitudes of Europe, is cheaper than new fossil fuel energy. Soon, if not already, it will be cheaper to close existing fossil fuel powerplants and replace the with renewables. Sure, our renewable infrastructure is still incomplete, we need a better grid, energy storage, and smart decentralised supply (more solar on roofs). But this is all known technology, no “breakthroughs” are needed. Prices are reducing as we learn more and through the economies of scale.
So a policy of “abandoning net zero” is both absurd, will cost not save money, and weaken our energy independence and national security.
Sadly, I worry, that Reform are on a roll and may win power. Their absurd policies, such as a return to the gold standard, would be very damaging, and are not offset by a few sensible policies (albeit probably adopted for misconceived reasons) such as not paying interest on central bank reserves.
Much to agree with
Lincolnshire, 1mtr sea level rise – 10% of the county gone. 2mtr rise 20% of the county gone. Sea levels are rising & the rise is accelerating.
Jenkyns is syiyng she does “not believe in climate change” (that would be the climate disaster) probably based on the hope that it won’t be too bad in her lifetime.
Thus one can characterise Deform and Fart-rage as operating a ponzi scheme: in which risk & action to mitigate risk is transferred to the young/those not yet born (at which point it will all be far too late).
Bit like some Germans/Nazis partying in Berlin in April 1945 – they can see the disaster looming but ………
Apologies – for posting twice.
Flood hazard. Large part of Lincoln city at risk of floods
https://www.floodmap.net/CurrentFloodForecast/
Jenkn’s reaction: fingers crossed won’t happen on my watch so I don’t need to do anything. If it does? Finger pointing, act of god, nothing we could have done etc.
The good people of Lincoln have all the data on this at their finger tips. It says a great deal about them that they have not bothered to access it & instead voted Deform.
Thanks, Mike.
The oppression of the neo-liberals was, over 125 years ago, matched in the United States by the insistence on the gold standard.
The doctrine was oppressive as it deflated the economy. William Jennings Bryant said “you shall not press down on the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold.”
Humanity today risks crucifixion by the denial of climate change.
Interestingly ( to me at least) it is a hundred years this month since the Scopes trial in Tennessee where a teacher who taught evolution was taken to court. He actually engineered it to make a point.
Bryant was the lawyer for the prosecution ( against evolution) and died days later. But each day after the trial he would have a drink with Clarence Darrow who was the defending attorney.
A better man than Farage.
The clearest “fingerprint” of our involvement in climate change is the fact that the increase in temperatures at lower levels of the atmosphere is accompanied by a decrease in temperature at the upper levels, which is caused by the blanket effect of the CO₂ layer we have added.
Climate change deniers like to point to increases in solar output and the natural variability of climate over long periods as being the root cause of global warming but both of those effects do not cause cooling in the troposphere and so are not consistent with current observations.
More on this and other “human fingerprints” of climate change here:https://skepticalscience.com/its-not-us.htm
And it is also worth noting that the government officially believes in anthropocentric climate change:
“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land.”
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/climate-change-explained
While I agree 100% with what you are saying, “And it is also worth noting that the government officially believes in anthropocentric climate change:” is a complete non-sequitur. I would tend, automatically, to disbelieve anything this government officially believes in.
Oh, come on. That makes no sense at all. You can make up your own mind, and this comment denies that.
It will not be very long before Andrea Jenkyns gets her feet wet, unless, of course, she has prudently checked the flood risk areas for Lincolnshire and lives somewhere outside of the substantial area of Lincolnshire which could be under water by 2030. I would suggest that if she really does not believe that our climate is changing she could buy herself a very cheap property along the Lincolnshire coast and sit there like King Canute commanding the waves to retreat on the grounds that Climate Change is a hoax. It is astonishing that a one of the areas in the UK with the greatest flood risk has elected a member of Reform as Mayor. Apres Andrea le deluge as they don’t say in Scunthorpe.
When she stood to be the mayor she lived in Yorkshire, having been MP for Morley and Outwood, and still living there. There was a complaint, but she said she had a house in Lincolnshire which she rented out and would move there if she got the job. Haven’t seen if she has yet, but anywhere near the M62 will be a problem.
Party line seems to be ‘Yes, but’ countered with importance of domestic industry/manufacturing and reasonable energy prices….Source Farage on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
So, will she reject money from the government for climate change mitigation? As I have said before, politics is now merely a means to access the elite and their wealth. There is money on offer to discredit climate action, and reform are happy to take it. Unfortunately, if they do take power in 2029, they will be presiding over a country in the first stages of severe climate change, possibly collapse. I would like to see how they manage that. Probably something like the film, Children of Men I imagine.
The media always asks the wrong question. The better question is “do you understand the science behind climate change predictions?” That forces them to admit their ignorance, rather than allowing them to profess their belief in fantasy.
Andrea Jenkyns is so typical of the intellectual pigmies that occupy positions of influence in our society. Reducing everything to money they “know the cost of everything and the value of nothing “. They play to the base fears and insecurities that have been inculcated into the electorate since Thatcher decided that ‘divide and conquer’ was the way forward. “We can’t afford welfare recipients, immigrants, an inefficient NHS, inefficient schools, inefficient utilities, inefficient public services, et al because if ‘tax payers(my) money’ is being squandered there then there is less for me….and I need it.”
The fact that since 2008 the Bank of England has been holding hundreds of billions of £s of ‘debt’ for the benefit of commercial banks has been accepted and normalised, probably mainly through ignorance. As I am aware nobody is clamouring for this ‘debt’ to be repaid….everything is good. With a little bit of education perhaps people would start demanding that the Bank of England also hold a few hundred £billion for the good of society at large. To completely reform and restructure all that needs addressing, guided by the plethora of creative thinking available (this blog not the least of which). Leave a few more zeros on the B of E balance sheet for years on end to, what appears to be, as thus far, nobodies detriment( CBRA interest aside) but to much more beneficial use than a few financiers and the asset values of the 1%.
Thanks